Author: JvW

Grig on Popular Culture

Lucy Grig has put out Popular Culture and the End of Antiquity in Southern Gaul, c. 400–550, Cambridge: CUP.

Go to catalogue

ToC
1 Introduction: Popular Culture and the Study of (Late) Ancient History 1
2 Urban Contexts for Popular Culture in an Age of Transformation 36
3 Popular Culture, Society and Economy: The Countryside in Transition in Late Antiquity 73
4 Christianizing Popular Culture: The View ‘from the Pulpit’ 110
5 An Alternative View: Lived Religion As Popular Culture 144
6 The Kalends of January: The Persistence of Popular Culture 173
7 Conclusions: Popular Culture and the End of Antiquity? 219

Starostin on Late Antique Chronology

Dmitry Starostin writes on ‘Astronomical Cycles and Late Antique Chronology’ in arXiv:2403.03682 [physics.hist-ph], 6 March 2024, 24 pp.

Access via arXiv

Heightened eschatological sensitivity is in evidence among the historians writing in the 5th century caused by the irregularities of the lunisolar calendar and its particular realization, the Easter calendar. Crucial years include 410, 467 and 476. Sidonius on p. 13.

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.’