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| Semester | fall semester 2022 |
| Course frequency | Once only |
| Lecturers | Paolo Sachet (paolo.sachet@unibas.ch, Assessor) |
| Content | From the earliest Christian writers after the Apostles to John Damascene (c. 676-749), the Greek Church Fathers have exerted a powerful influence on the development of the European civilisation, especially at the thresholds of the modern era. But why was that the case? How did authors who wrote in Greek and lived centuries ago mostly in today’s Turkey, Syria and Egypt survive the wear of time and became popular once again? How did their messages relate to those of the classical authors? How did their transmission and reception work? This course offers accessible insights into the early modern Nachleben of the Greek Fathers. Students will be encouraged to rethink the conventional knowledge of Humanism, Renaissance and Reformation, explore a vast array of manuscript and printed books and appreciate the pivotal role played in the story by humanists and Reformers in Italy and Switzerland, from Rome to Basel. Unlike the Latin Fathers, the Greek Fathers’ output was progressively forgotten in Western Europe following the disruption of the Latin Roman Empire. On the one hand, the necessary linguistic skills for copying and engaging with the Greek original texts became ever rarer; on the other, the number of texts translated into Latin at an early stage was risible and often characterized by misinterpretation and interpolation. In the fifteenth century, Hellenic studies flourished again, notably in conjunction with the attempts to reunite the Catholic and the Orthodox Churches (Council of Basel and Ferrara-Florence) and the exodus of Byzantine scholars caused by the fall of Constantinople to the Turks in 1453. Greek expats and Italian humanists started gathering and collating manuscripts and preparing accurate editions of most Greek classical literature. In this context, patristic works were revaluated as both examples of polished style and guides to reconcile the ancient pagan tradition with the Christian thought. It was chiefly in the sixteenth century that the Greek Fathers’ writings became available to a large and diverse audience, with the recent printing technology boosting supply and demand for books and the mounting religious crisis stimulating new questions. A steady flow of earlier and new editions and translations were printed and spread in Europe in the wake of the Reformation and its immediate aftermath, while the study of patristic literature increasingly came to be seen as a scholarly domain in its own right, at the intersection of classics and theology. |
| Bibliography | I. Backus, Historical Method and Confessional Identity in the Era of the Reformation (1378-1615), Leiden and Boston, 2003. Die Patristik in der Frühen Neuzeit: die Relektüre der Kirchenväter in den Wissenschaften des 15. bis 18. Jahrhunderts, hrsg. von G. Frank, T. Leinkauf und M. Wriedt, Stuttgart and Bad Cannstaat, Frommann-Holzboog, 2006. Wiley Blackwell Companion to Patristics, ed. by K. Parry, Hoboken NJ, Wiley-Blackwell, 2015, esp. Parts III-IV. |
| Comments | Seminar findet in englischer Sprache statt. |
| Admission requirements | Für Masterstudierende sowie fortgeschrittene Bachelorstudierende der Geschichte mit abgeschlossener Grundstufe (Nachweise: drei Proseminare, drei Proseminararbeiten). Bei Überbelegung werden Studierende der Geschichte bevorzugt zugelassen. |
| Language of instruction | English |
| Use of digital media | No specific media used |
| Interval | Weekday | Time | Room |
|---|---|---|---|
| wöchentlich | Wednesday | 14.15-16.00 | Departement Geschichte, Seminarraum 1 |
| Modules |
Modul: Areas: Westeuropa (Master's degree program: European History in Global Perspective) Modul: Aufbau Mittelalter (Bachelor's degree subject: History) Modul: Epochen der europäischen Geschichte: Mittelalter (Master's degree program: European History in Global Perspective) Modul: Mittelalter / Frühe Neuzeit (Master's degree subject: History) |
| Assessment format | continuous assessment |
| Assessment details | Aktive Teilnahme. |
| Assessment registration/deregistration | Reg.: course registration; dereg.: not required |
| Repeat examination | no repeat examination |
| Scale | Pass / Fail |
| Repeated registration | no repetition |
| Responsible faculty | Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, studadmin-philhist@unibas.ch |
| Offered by | Departement Geschichte |