Texts and Contexts: The Horatian Tradition
Texts and Contexts is an annual seminar sponsored by the Center for Epigraphical and Palaeographical Studies and devoted to Medieval and Renaissance books (manuscript and print) and the texts they transmit. The seminar also hosts the Virginia Brown Memorial Lecture, established in memory of the late Virginia Brown, who taught palaeography at the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies for over 40 years. This year’s seminar will take place on Friday, October 17th in the Ohio Union and will focus on the Medieval and Renaissance reception of the Roman poet Horace. Richard J. Tarrant (Harvard University) will deliver the Virginia Brown Memorial Lecture.
October 17, 2025 - Student-Alumni Council Room, Ohio Union, 1739 N. High Street
9:30 am – 10:00 am: Coffee, tea, and other refreshments
10:00 am – 10:05 am: Opening remarks by Frank Coulson and William Little (Center for Epigraphical and Palaeographical Studies, The Ohio State University)
10:05 am – 11:00 am: SESSION I
Moderator: Michael Meckler (Center for Epigraphical and Palaeographical Studies)
Lisa Ciccone (Universität Zürich)
In the Workshop of the Catalogus Translationum et Commentariorum: The Commentaries on Horace's Ars Poetica
Domenico Losappio (Università di Genova)
From Horace to Geoffrey of Vinsauf: Is the Poetria Nova a New Ars Poetica?
11:00 am – 11:30 am: Break
11:30 am – 12:30 pm: SESSION II
Moderator: Harriet Fertik (The Ohio State University)
Maurice Jensen (Universität Zürich)
Linguistic Features as Didactic Tools in Commentaries on the Ars Poetica from the 11th and 12th Centuries
Ambra Marzocchi (Brown University)
Bernardino de Llanos' Poeticarum Institutionum Liber (Mexico City, 1605) and the Use of Horace to Teach Latin Poetics in Early Modern Jesuit Colleges
12:30 pm – 2:30 pm: Lunch
2:30 pm – 3:30 pm: SESSION III
Moderator: Harald Anderson (George Washington University School of Business)
Giacomo Comiati (Università di Padova)
A Horatian Triptych: The Metrical, Lyrical, and Ethical Dimensions of Horace's Reception in Renaissance Italy
William Little (The Ohio State University)
Some Humanist Encounters with the Epodes
3:30 pm – 4:00 pm: Break
4:00 pm – 5:00 pm: Virginia Brown Memorial Lecture
Introduction: Alan J. Ross (The Ohio State University)
Richard J. Tarrant (Harvard University)
Editing Horace: Challenges and Opportunities