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IMC 2015: Sessions

Session 530: Hagiographic Renewal

Tuesday 7 July 2015, 09.00-10.30

Moderator/Chair:John S. Ott, Department of History, Portland State University, Oregon
Paper 530-aMetaphrased Hagiographical Literature in the 11th-Century Byzantium
(Language: English)
Marijana Vukovic, Institutt for filosofi, ide- og kunsthistorie og klassiske språk, Universitetet i Oslo
Index terms: Byzantine Studies, Hagiography, Manuscripts and Palaeography
Paper 530-bRe-Forming the Exemplum: Latin Tradition and the Long Silk Road
(Language: English)
Gabriel Ford, English Department, Davidson College, North Carolina
Index terms: Language and Literature - Comparative, Language and Literature - Middle English, Language and Literature - French or Occitan, Language and Literature - Latin
Paper 530-cHagiography in the Service of Counter-Reformation: De vita et gestis Divi Hyacinthi opusculum of Nicolaus Hussoviensis
(Language: English)
Anna Ledzińska, Institute of Polish Language, Polish Academy of Sciences, Kraków
Index terms: Hagiography, Language and Literature - Latin
Abstract

Paper -a:
The 11th-century Byzantium is generally considered a low period in original hagiographical production. Yet, quantitative calculations of the numbers of hagiographical manuscripts from this period demonstrate that the 11th century was the peak of their production. Large numbers of the manuscripts are hagiographical collections comprised of rewritten hagiographical texts compiled in calendars. Metaphrasis (rewriting) was a form of renewal in the literary production and the reformist exercise in content and style. This paper will demonstrate on the Martyrdom of Irenaeus of Sirmium (BHG 949e) from the manuscript Moscow Syn. 183 that metaphrasis served purposes other than stylistic improvement and purification, the two reasons mostly repeated in scholarship.

Paper -b:
Most scholars working on the medieval exemplum see a definitive change in the exemplary tradition around 1200 and attribute that change primarily to institutional developments in the Latin church or to literary developments in the Western Christian tradition. I will argue that at least part of the change derives from the influence of recently-arrived narratives in such collections as Disciplina clericalis, Sendebar (the Seven Sages), and Barlaam and Josaphat. The exempla in these collections feature much less divine manifestation of meaning in their plots. Conversely, they feature much more active interpretive roles for characters, narrators, and audiences.

Paper -c:
Consisting of 880 hexameters De vita et gestis divi Hyacinthi opusculum is a new kind of poem emerged as a reaction for Reformation. Even though written in 1525, it has many medieval features, because in the first part it draws its content and language from 14th-century Vita of St Jack. Nevertheless, hagiographical material is presented in a new literary form. What is more, the history of the Saint was used as a starting point of the Counter-Reformation polemic contained in the second part of the poem. Therefore the work of Nicholas of Hussow is worth attention, at least for two reasons. Firstly, it shows the way Polish-Latin poetry was transforming on the verge of Middle Ages and Renaissance. Secondly, it is an early and innovative (in form, content and vocabulary) response to Reformation movement in Poland.