One of the most visible and ‘spectacular’ methods of using and teaching Latin in early modern secondary schools was the performance of theatre in the classical language itself. This was certainly true for the Southern Low Countries, where, following the secession of the Northern provinces, a dense network of colleges run by religious orders emerged and heavily promoted the production of school plays in Latin, both for educational and religious purposes.
Though the survival of large numbers of programs and brochures goes a long way to showcase the breadth of this popular theatrical tradition, it remains difficult to grasp the full extent of these performances without access to the actual scripts. For the plays themselves were hardly ever printed, typically circulating in manuscript form only, which has resulted in a substantial loss of material over time. Yet not all is lost.
This lecture explores the ongoing attempt to map and reconstruct this largely overlooked body of handwritten playtexts from the Southern Low Countries and to gain a deeper understanding of the ways in which these dramas materialised in Latin on the early modern stage.
Biography Nicholas De Sutter
Nicholas De Sutter is a postdoctoral research fellow at the department of Latin Literature of KU Leuven. He studied Latin-English Literature and Law at KU Leuven, where, in 2023, he successfully defended his doctoral dissertation dedicated to Neo-Latin poetry in the 19th and early-20th century as an FWO PhD fellow under the supervision of professors Toon Van Houdt and Dirk Sacré. His main research interests include Neo-Latin poetry (16th-20th centuries) and Neo-Latin drama in the early modern Low Countries, which is the topic of his ongoing postdoctoral research project (KU Leuven Research Council – FWO).
Practical
- Wednesday 16 October 2024 at 6.30 pm
- Nottebohm Room of the Hendrik Conscience Heritage Library, entrance: Hendrik Conscienceplein 4, 2000 Antwerp
- English lecture
- Free entry
- Reservation recommended.
Miraeus Lectures
Since 2009, the Flemish Book History Working Group, in cooperation with the Association of Antwerp Bibliophiles, has been organising book history lectures that place book history in the Netherlands in an international perspective. The lectures, in English, French or Dutch, take place on Wednesday evenings in the Nottebohm Room of the Hendrik Conscience Heritage Library, and are free of charge.
