LETTERS
AND LETTER-WRITING IN THE LATIN MIDDLE AGES
Organized
by Greg Hays, University of Virginia
[Panel as described in
Call for Papers]
In a letter to Curio, Cicero
defines the basic purpose of letter-writing: ut certiores faceremus absentis, si quid
esset, quod eos scire aut
nostra aut ipsorum interesset (Ad Fam. 2.4.1). From Cicero's
day to the age of e-mail, the basis of the 'epistolary situation' has
remained
simple and constant: a subject communicates in writing with an absent
other. Yet as Cicero rightly noted, the variations on this basic
form are
innumerable. Letters can be written in prose or verse; for the
recipient's eyes only or for a larger audience; with the intent of
later publication
or without. The addressee can be real or fictional, living or dead.
Letters can be collected and arranged, by the author or a later
editor. They can
be embedded in other works. They can undergo excerption, interpolation,
or misattribution. They can be fictionalized and forged. The
variety of
epistolary literature is nowhere better illustrated than in the Latin
Middle Ages. This panel invites abstracts on any aspect of
letters and letter-
writing from St. Jerome to Petrarch. Possible topics include: close
readings of individual epistolary texts; the medieval reception of
ancient letters
or letter collections (such as those of Ovid, Horace or Pliny);
individual subgenres (e.g. letters of recommendation or consolation);
epistolary
networks; editing and publication of letters; the theory and practice
of dictamen. More theoretical discussions are also welcome, e.g. of the
nature of epistolarity or the letter as a paradigm of literary
reception more generally.
Andy Cain, Cornell University
Jerome’s Early Letters: Pomp and
Paranoia?
Jennifer Ebbeler, University of
Texas at Austin
Traffic in Letters: Augustine and the
Letter Exchange
Philip Freeman, Washington
University in St. Louis
Language and Audience in the Epistola
ad milites Corotici
Nancy Stork, San Jose State
University
Julian of Toledo’s Prognosticon
Futuri Saeculi: Visigothic Consolatio,
Oral-formulaic
Guide to the Next World, or Medieval
FAQ?
Donna E. Hobbs, University of Texas
at Austin
Epistola est libellus: The Mirroring
of Pedagogical Precept
and Practice in the
Summa Dictaminis of Guido Faba
Respondent: Cristiana Sogno, Cornell University