Christiana Sogno @ Fordham

The Center for Medieval Studies at Fordham University
Spring 2010 Lecture Series

How Did Symmachus Become the ‘Last Great Pagan’?

A Lecture by
Dr. Christiana Sogno
Fordham University

Wednesday, January 27th, 12:00 p.m.
O’Hare Collections, 4th Floor, Walsh Library, Rose Hill Campus

The lecture is free and open to the public. A Reception will follow the talk.

In the Fall of 384 CE, Q. Aurelius Symmachus wrote an impassioned speech in the form of a letter in order to defend the traditional religion of Rome, thus engaging in the so-called “Battle of the Altar” with the fierce bishop of Milan, Ambrose. Even though Symmachus lost the battle, that impassioned relatio eventually became his most famous and celebrated piece of writing, and there can be little doubt that it greatly contributed to Symmachus’ “modern” reputation as one of the last great “pagans.” But how deserved is this reputation? Not entirely deserved, one might argue, given the fact that a careful and recent analysis of his letters shows that a great many correspondents of Symmachus were in fact Christians. Leaving aside the (vexed) problem of Symmachus’ commitment to the “pagan cause,” this paper will focus on the issue of Symmachus’ reputation: Was Symmachus always regarded as the “last great pagan”? If not, when and how did he become one? Such questions are not mere curiosities, but might be helpful for understanding how scholarly prejudices are born, and how they influence the research and study of history.


For more information, contact:
Center for Medieval Studies
Fordham University
(718) 817-4655
medievals@fordham.edu

Latinities in England

The Anglo-Saxon Studies Colloquium

presents


Latinities in England, 894-1135

A workshop in two parts

David Townsend

(University of Toronto)


Friday, January 22



* * * * * *



Morning Session (11 a.m.—12:30 p.m.)

Asser and Æthelweard





Afternoon Session (2 p.m.—3:30 p.m.)

Goscelin and William of Malmesbury





* * * * * *



New York University

13-19 University Place, Room 229





Co-sponsored by the Department of English, New York University





Please note: the event is open to pre-registered participants only; for pre-registration and recommended reading, please contact Gerald Song (geraldsong@mac.com)



To join our e-mail list, please send a message to:
ASSC@columbia.edu

For further updates and future talks, please check our website: http://www.columbia.edu/cu/assc

Peter Landau @ Columbia

The Dept. of Religion & the Rare Book and Manuscript Library present a lecture by Prof. Peter Landau, University of Munich:

Identifying the Archpoeta: Canon Law and Latin Poetry in Twelfth-Century Cologne

Wednesday, January 27, 2010 at 5:00 pm
Room 523 Butler Library, Columbia University
Reception to follow

Fordham Spring Lectures

Center for Medieval Studies

Spring 2010 Lecture Series

Wednesday, January 27, 1:00 p.m.

O’Hare Collections, 4th Floor, Walsh Library

How Did Symmachus Become the Last Great Pagan?

Christiana Sogno, Fordham University

Wednesday, February 24, 5:00 p.m.

Faculty Lounge, 12th Floor, Leon Lowenstein Building, Lincoln Center

Boccacio’s Family Romance

Pier Massimo Forni, Johns Hopkins University

Wednesday, March 10, 12:00 p.m.

O’Hare Collections, 4th Floor, Walsh Library

A Prince Goes Shopping. Art and Luxuries, the Duke and His City (Bruges in the Burgundian Era c. 1380-c.1500)

Peter Stabel, University of Antwerp

March 27-28, Leon Lowenstein Building, Lincoln Center

30th Annual Conference of the Center for Medieval Studies:

New Directions in Medieval Scandinavian Studies

Friday, April 9, 5:15 p.m.

University Commons, Duane Library

Parochial Communities in Late Medieval England: a Matter of Perspective

All are invited. A Reception or Lunch Buffet follows each talk

For more information, contact

Center for Medieval Studies, Fordham University

(718) 817-4655; medievals@fordham.edu

Beheading and the Impossible

Non potest hoc corpus decollari: Beheading and the Impossible
Nicola Masciandaro

The human being arrives at the threshold: there he must throw himself headlong into that which has no foundation and has no head.—Georges Bataille

We are the limbs of that head. This body cannot be decapitated.—Augustine

When thou seest in the pathway a severed head . . . Ask of it, ask of it the secrets of the heart.—Rumi

Beheading and sanctity are fundamentally related within the Christian experience and understanding of holy martyrdom. As suggested already in John’s apocalyptic vision of the “souls of them that were beheaded [animas decollatorum] for testimony [testimonium, marturion] of Jesus” (Rev 20:4), saintly decapitation is inseparable from dying as God’s witness—a conjunction formalized in the at-best-brief survivability of beheading, its being the unmistakable terminus ad quem of martyric passion. This relation is implicated, crucially and paradoxically, in the ultimate impossibility of beheading in light of the capital hierarchy regularized by Paul: “But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God” (1 Cor 11:3). In short, saintly decapitation dramatizes spiritual unbeheadability. Focusing on elements of the impossible within the tradition of hagiographical beheadings inaugurated by John the Baptist’s execution, this lecture analyzes and enjoys the phenomenal and poetic logic of beheading as a window that opens at once onto the originary meaning of Christian decapitation and into the essential impossibility of the head itself.

Friday, December 4, 2009, 7:30 PM
CUNY Graduate Center (365 Fifth Ave. @ 34th St.), Room 4406.
Reception, with wine and cheese, follows.

Sponsored by The Medieval Club of New York