Author: JvW

Jeweled Materiality of Objects and Texts

Call for Papers. Deadline 30 April 2024

The Jeweled Materiality of Late Antique/Early Medieval Objects and Texts From Cloisonné to Stained Glass to Experimental Poetry (4th–9th Centuries)

International conference, November 11–12, 2024
Center for Early Medieval Studies, Masaryk University, Brno
Organizers: Alberto Virdis, Marie Okáčová

The interface among the material, visual, and literary cultures of the long late antiquity and beyond has become a topic of scholarly interest ever since the publication of the seminal 1989 book The Jeweled Style by Michael Roberts. The visual–verbal dialectics of this period of geopolitical and cultural transformation, as manifested in various instances of spoliation, patterns of fragmentation, and a preoccupation with (exquisite) detail in different cultural media, were subsequently studied especially by Jaś Elsner and Jesús Hernández Lobato. The topical relevance of Roberts’ original concept more than 30 years after its invention is clear from, among other scholarly endeavors, the recent edited volume A Late Antique Poetics? The Jeweled Style Revisited (2023), which offers numerous insightful contributions on the topic across different genres, regions, and temporal contexts.

Read on via ResearchGate

Reception of Apuleius in Fifth-Century Gaul

The University of Bari is hiring a post-doctoral researcher for the project ‘Tradition and reception of Apuleius’ works in fifth-century Gaul’, with particular attention to Sidonius.

Advertisement here. Applications before 23 March 2024.

‘During the research period, the postdoctoral fellow will be required to trace an articulate picture of the reception and transmission of Apuleius’ texts in fifth-century Gaul. In particular, the research will concern the mentions of Apuleius and his literary output throughout the corpus of Sidonius Apollinaris. Although there is a consensus that he was read and appreciated by Apollinaris and his learned friends (notably Claudianus Mamertus), it is only through an exegesis of Sidonius’ Carmina and Letters that it will be possible to shed light on the linguistic and stylistic reception of Apuleius in the works of Sidonius and his literary circle of friends.’

Luce Pietri Has Died

In memoriam prof. dr. Luce Pietri (1931-2024)

C’est avec une immense tristesse que l’Association pour l’Antiquité tardive a appris la disparition de Mme Luce Pietri, professeur émérite à l’Université de Paris IV-Sorbonne et membre d’honneur de notre association. Éminente spécialiste de l’Antiquité tardive et de l’histoire du christianisme, notamment de la Gaule, Luce Pietri a consacré sa thèse à la ville de Tours, publiée en 1983 à l’École française de Rome. Élève de Henri-Irénée Marrou, elle a participé aux projets initiés par ce dernier à la Sorbonne, comme le Recueil des Inscriptions Chrétiennes de la Gaule, pour lequel elle était chargée de la Belgique Seconde. Par ses connaissances des sources antiques, elle a joué un grand rôle dans la réussite du projet de la Topographie chrétienne des Cités de la Gaule, pour laquelle elle a rédigé de nombreuses notices. Épouse de Charles Pietri, ancien directeur de l’École française de Rome, elle a codirigé avec lui les premiers volumes de l’Histoire du Christianisme (1995-2000), puis la publication des volumes de l’Italie de la collection de la Prosopographie chrétienne du Bas-Empire (1990-2000), suivie en 2014 par ceux consacrés à la Gaule (avec Marc Heijmans). À la fin de sa vie, Luce Pietri est revenue à ses premiers amours, en publiant en 2016 une édition de la Vie des Pères de Grégoire de Tours, puis en 2023, des Miracles de saint Martin.

Marc Heijmans
Source: Academia

Cadili on the Consular Robe

Luca Cadili, ‘In tunica Iouis: Sidoine Apollinaire et les antiquités romaines’, RET 12 (2022-2023) 39-50.

Access via RET contents

Abstract: In the panegyrics in honor of Avitus, Majorian, and Anthemius (carm. 7, 5, and 2), Sidonius Apollinaris gives detailed accounts of the consular robe the three emperors donned on different official occasions, proving a strong acquaintance with the ceremonies and the rituals of power involved in the imperial court protocol of his time. Such a familiarity has enabled him to retrace even the remotest history of this topic, as can be inferred from his reworking of a passage from Juvenal, which provides us with a most vivid and thorough description of the Roman triumphator’s garments and the celebration of his victory, as occurring in the Republican and early Imperial Age. By doing so, in a very original way, Sidonius shows that the military cloak the late antique consuls used to wear to make known their social status, the trabea or palmata, had indeed a very revered ancestor, having stemmed from the tunica palmata, the palm decked-robe in which, since the oldest times, victorious generals were shrouded on the very day their triumph was solemnized by their fellow citizens.

Clay on Wilderness and Civilization

John-Henry Clay, ‘Claiming the Wilderness in Late Roman Gaul’, JECS 30 (2022) 403-32.

Abstract. To the educated classical mind, the cosmos was built on a dichotomy between order and chaos that permeated the physical and natural world. Wilderness was a manifestation of chaos, while human civilization reflected the principles of order. Due to a tradition of classical education, this dichotomy helped structure the response of educated Gallo-Romans to the Christian desert tradition as its ideals spread to the west. Despite the appeal of monastic asceticism, its association with the desert provoked suspicion among those trained to regard wilderness as the antithesis of civilization and culture. It is, however, possible to detect an evolution in attitudes over the last century of Roman rule in Gaul, as successive generations responded to social and political transformations and developed new ways of relating to the natural world. Includes discussion of Paulinus of Nola, Sulpicius Severus, Rutilius Namatianus, John Cassian, Eucherius, Sidonius Apollinaris, and other authors.