IMC 2024: Sessions

Session 706: University Speeches in Transition: 15th-Century Academic Speeches from Padua, Prague, and Krakow

Tuesday 2 July 2024, 14:15-15:45

Sponsor:	Czech Science Foundation 'Observance Reconsidered: Uses & Abuses of the Reform (Individuals, Institutions, Society)' / Masarykova univerzita, Brno
Organiser:	Petra Mutlová, Filozofická fakulta, Ústav klasických studií, Masarykova univerzita, Brno
Moderator/Chair:	Alice Choyke, Department of Medieval Studies, Central European University, Budapest/Wien
Paper 706-a	Praising Saints and Praising Eloquence at the University of Padua (Language: English) Anja Božič, Department of Medieval Studies, Central European University, Budapest/Wien Index terms: Language and Literature - Latin, Learning (The Classical Inheritance), Religious Life and Rhetoric
Paper 706-b	Recommendation Speeches at Medieval Prague University (Language: English) Petra Mutlová, Filozofická fakulta, Ústav klasických studií, Masarykova univerzita, Brno Index terms: Language and Literature - Latin, Learning (The Classical Inheritance), Manuscripts and Palaeography and Rhetoric
Paper 706-c	Kraków University Speeches between the Middle Ages and Humanism (Language: English) Anna Horeczy, Instytut Historii im. Tadeusza Manteuffla, Polska Akademia Nauk, Warszawa Index terms: Language and Literature - Latin, Learning (The Classical Inheritance), Manuscripts and Palaeography and Rhetoric
Abstract	Academic life at medieval universities represents a rich well of sources for understanding changes in literary life at the end of the Middle Ages. These changes could also be understood as a literary ‘crisis’, which led to the transformation of some of the literary formats typical of European university networks. Ceremonial speeches delivered at various festive occasions (such as at bachelor and master graduation ceremonies, inaugurations, feasts of saints etc.) are a typical example of such a changing format. This session will explore the ways in which this literary genre was redesigned during the transitional period between the late Middle Ages and the emergence of Humanism. It will also discuss how this transformation reflected changes in society. Individual papers will do so by focusing on three case studies, namely on academic speeches from the universities of Padua, Prague, and Cracow.