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IMC 2022: Sessions

Session 1343: Visions of Authority, II: Latin Sermons - Laying the Foundation for Long-Lasting Authority

Wednesday 6 July 2022, 16.30-18.00

Sponsor:Radboud Institute for Culture & History (RICH), Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen
Organiser:Riccardo Macchioro, Fondazione Ezio Franceschini (FEF) - Società Internazionale per lo Studio del Medioevo Latino (SISMEL), Firenze
Moderator/Chair:Riccardo Macchioro, Fondazione Ezio Franceschini (FEF) - Società Internazionale per lo Studio del Medioevo Latino (SISMEL), Firenze
Paper 1343-aShaping Authority through Processes of Education in the Sermons of Peter Chrysologus
(Language: English)
Lina Hantel, Theologische Fakultät, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen
Index terms: Ecclesiastical History, Language and Literature - Latin, Sermons and Preaching, Theology
Paper 1343-bCaesarius of Arles: The Authority of the Patres at the Border between Tradition and Innovation
(Language: English)
Nicolas Anders, Theologische Fakultät, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen
Index terms: Ecclesiastical History, Language and Literature - Latin, Sermons and Preaching, Theology
Paper 1343-cThree Portraits of a Non-Existant Friar: Authority and Authorship in Printed Sermons
(Language: English)
Pietro Delcorno, School of Languages, Cultures & Societies, University of Leeds / School of Literature, Language & Media, University of the Witwatersrand
Index terms: Ecclesiastical History, Language and Literature - Latin, Printing History, Sermons and Preaching
Abstract

The 'Visions of Authority' series investigates how medieval scribes and compilers manipulate the authority of their material. The focus is on genres connected to religious history, which are traditionally imbued with significant authority, but simultaneously exhibit strong instability and malleability in their transmission. This tension makes them interesting cases to study how authority is established, which practices can strengthen it, and how it influences the impact of a text. The vastness of the late antique and medieval sermons' corpora, their transmission through extensive manuscript collections of texts, their employment as educational tools, and their endless re-use in various historical milieux make for extremely frequent shifts in textual configurations, author attributions, and liturgical functions. In this session, we explore the processes and the cultural powers that shaped the authority of sermons and authors, and its perception in the medieval era. To this goal, we investigate the writing strategies that granted authority to sermons, the use of late antique textual material to compose medieval homilies, the codicological contexts of their circulation, and the impact of the work of renowned late medieval preachers.