Natasha Constantinidou

Han Lamers

This volume, edited by Natasha Constantinidou and Han Lamers, investigates modes of receiving and responding to Greeks, Greece, and Greek in early modern Europe (15th-17th centuries). The book's 17 detailed studies illuminate the reception of Greek culture (the classical, Byzantine, and even post-Byzantine traditions), the Greek language (ancient, vernacular, and 'humanist'), as well as the people claiming, or being assigned, Greek identities during this period in different geographical and cultural contexts. 0Discussing subjects as diverse as, for example, Greek studies and the Reformation, artistic interchange between Greek East and Latin West, networks of communication in the Greek diaspora, and the ramifications of Greek antiquarianism, the book aims at encouraging a more concerted debate about the role of Hellenism in early modern Europe that goes beyond disciplinary boundaries, and opening ways towards a more over-arching understanding of this multifaceted cultural phenomenon. 0.

15th-17th Centuries

Receptions of Hellenism in Early Modern Europe

Bettina Reitz-Joosse

The year is 1932. In Rome, the Fascist leader Benito Mussolini unveils a giant obelisk of white marble, bearing the Latin inscription MVSSOLINI DVX. Invisible to the cheering crowds, a metal box lies immured in the obelisk's base. It contains a few gold coins and, written on a piece of parchment, a Latin text: the Codex fori Mussolini. What does this text say? Why was it buried there? And why was it written in Latin? The Codex, composed by the classical scholar Aurelio Giuseppe Amatucci (1867-1960), presents a carefully constructed account of the rise of Italian Fascism and its leader, Benito Mussolini. Though written in the language of Roman antiquity, the Codex was supposed to reach audiences in the distant future. Placed under the obelisk with future excavation and rediscovery in mind, the Latin text was an attempt at directing the future reception of Italian Fascism. This book renders the Codex accessible to scholars and students of different disciplines, offering a thorough and wide-ranging introduction, a clear translation, and a commentary elucidating the text's rhetorical strategies, historical background, and specifics of phrasing and reference. As the first detailed study of a Fascist Latin text, it also throws new light on the important role of the Latin language in Italian Fascist culture.

A Latin Text of Italian Fascism

The Codex Fori Mussolini

Valerio Sanzotta

First collected volume dealing with the use of Latin under Fascism This book deals with the use of Latin as a literary and epigraphic language under Italian Fascism (1922–1943). The myth of Rome lay at the heart of Italian Fascist ideology, and the ancient language of Rome, too, played an important role in the regime’s cultural politics. This collection deepens our understanding of ‘Fascist Latinity’, presents a range of previously little-known material, and opens up a number of new avenues of research. The chapters explore the pivotal role of Latin in constructing a link between ancient Rome and Fascist Italy; the different social and cultural contexts in which Latin texts functioned in the ventennio fascista; and the way in which ‘Fascist Latinity’ relied on, and manipulated, the ‘myth of Rome’ of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Italy. Contributors: William Barton (Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Neo-Latin Studies), Xavier van Binnebeke (KU Leuven), Paolo Fedeli (Università degli Studi di Bari Aldo Moro), Han Lamers (University of Oslo), Johanna Luggin (Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Neo-Latin Studies), Antonino Nastasi (Rome), Bettina Reitz-Joosse (University of Groningen), Dirk Sacré (KU Leuven), Valerio Sanzotta (Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Neo-Latin Studies), Wolfgang Strobl (Toblach).

Studies in the Latin Literature and Epigraphy of Italian Fascism

Greece Reinvented is the first book-length discussion of the transformation of Byzantine Hellenism in Renaissance Italy, exploring why and how the Byzantine intelligentsia, displaced to Italy, adopted distinctively Greek personas to replace traditional Byzantine claims to a Roman identity.

Han Lamers

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