‘Let him thus be a Hippolytus’ (Perist. 11.87) : horror and rhetoric in Prudentius’ Peristephanon 11

The characterization of Hippolytus, the main protagonist of Prudentius’ Peristephanon 11, draws heavily on earlier literary traditions, most importantly Seneca’s Phaedra. Nevertheless, the Hippolytus-imagery is carefully adapted in order to develop a rhetoric of bodily fragmentation and reunion. This discourse makes the minds of the readers receptive for a proper veneration of the saint’s relics

Between Reading and Viewing: Mapping and Experiencing Rome and Other Spaces

This article focuses on a Carolingian manuscript now kept in the Stiftsbibliothek Einsiedeln (Codex 326 (1076)), containing a collection of mostly Rome-centred writings, among others, a series of walking routes through the city (the Itinerarium Einsidlense). The theoretical concepts of ‘affordances’ and ‘ergodic’ reading are employed to explore the meanings and functions of the Itinerarium in its original context of use (i.e., the Carolingian monastery). After an analysis of the particular form of the written text on the parchment folio, the article contextualises the form and affordance of the Itinerarium by comparing the text with two other Carolingian artworks from roughly the same time and geographical context: the Plan of St. Gall and a diagram of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre from an illustrated manuscript of Adomnán’s De locis sanctis. These sources resemble the Itinerarium through their ergodic approach to writing and reading, as well as their visual and meditational affordances. Subsequently, the Itinerarium is read in the wider context of the Einsiedeln collection, to explore how the ‘ergodic’ dimensions of the manuscript adds to the understanding of the meaning and function of the Itinerarium. Thus, the article highlights the importance to pay attention to the physical form of Latin script and the place of texts in the larger manuscript, in order to understand the meanings and functions of texts in particular contexts

Gillian Clark, Monica : An Ordinary Saint. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2015

Staat Klazina. Gillian Clark, Monica : An Ordinary Saint. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2015. In: L'antiquité classique, Tome 85, 2016. pp. 361-363

Rome als heilige stad: Processieroutes in het Einsiedeln Itinerarium

Het artikel biedt een analyse van het Einsiedeln Itinerarium: een Karolingische verzameling van wandelroutes door Rome. Het bekritiseert de traditionele opvatting dat het Itinerarium was bedoeld als een soort 'reisgids' voor pelgrims in Rome. Het Itinearium moet worden begrepen in de context waarin het tot stand kwam en meest waarschijnlijk werd gelezen: één van de abdijen in het oostelijk-Frankische rijk (misschien Reichenau). Het Itinerarium gaf de monnik een overzicht te bieden van processieroutes door Rome op belangrijke feestdagen in de Romeinse liturgische kalender en kon dienen als inspiratiebron voor de vorming van nieuwe liturgische vormen in de Karolingische-monastieke context