Cicero in Basel. Reception Histories from a Humanist City

CALL FOR PAPERS:

With the generous support of the foundation Patrum Lumen Sustine (PLuS) the Department of Ancient Studies of the University of Basel and the Société Internationale des Amis de Cicéron (SIAC) are jointly organising the in­ternational conference Cicero in Basel. The conference aims at charting the presence of the statesman, orator, and philosopher M. Tullius Cicero in the cultural history of Basel, the city located in the border region between Switzer­land, Germany and France. While the study of Classical receptions tends to focus on particular cultural forms and discourses, the scope of the planned conference is programmatically open. Cicero in Basel explores a broad spectrum of engagements with Cicero through the ages: from the manuscript tradition of his works, to Hu­ma­nist editions and commentaries, up to the political debates and con­tro­versies of today. In this, Cicero in Basel will assess Cicero’s impact on the formation of a specific idea of Humanism in Basel as well as Basel’s role in Ci­cero’s Nachleben.
The aim of the conference is thus twofold: It seeks to contribute both to the study of Ciceronian reception and to fur­ther our understanding of the history and development of Basel and the regio Basiliensis. Indeed, we expect this cri­tical survey of Ciceronian reception histories from Basel to shed light on the emergence and development of the specific idea of Humanism that to this day plays a funda­mental role in the self-image and identity politics of the ‘Hu­manistenstadt Basel’.

Confirmed speakers include Alice Borgna, Leonhardt Burckhardt, Giovanni Giorgini, Henriette Harich-Schwarzbauer, Gesine Manuwald, Hans-Peter Marti, Michael D. Reeve, Federica Ros­setti, Benjamin Strau­mann, Petra Schierl, Bram van der Velden, Gregor Vogt-Spira, Ueli Zahnd.

In this Call for Papers we cordially invite early career researchers and PhD students to submit proposals for papers of ca. 25mins; contributions which focus on Ciceronian receptions in literature and the visual arts are par­ti­cularly welcome. Submissions, including an abstract c. 400 words and a brief CV, should be sent to cicero-latinistik@unibas.ch by 28 April 2019.The selection of contributions will be com­mu­ni­cated in the first week of June.

The conference will meet the cost for acco­mmo­dation and food for all speakers and will be able to con­tribute to their travel ex­penses. Con­ference languages are German, English, French, and Italian. Selected con­tri­butions will be proposed for publication in the series Cicero(Berlin/New York: de Gruyter, with full peer reviewand open access).

Organisation: Ermanno Malaspina (SIAC) and Cédric Scheidegger Laemmle (Univ. Basel)