Latin Biblical Poetry in Antiquity and the Middle Ages (4th-13th century) between Intertextuality and Grammatical Reception

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Stefan Freund
• Subject Area: Greek and Latin Philology
• Term: since 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 469366940

PoBLAM is an acronym for “Poésie Biblique Latine de l’ Antiquité au Moyen-Âge (IVe-XIIIe s.) entre intertextualité et réception grammaticale“ – Latin Biblical Poetry in Antiquity and the Middle Ages (4th-13th century) between Intertextuality and Grammatical Reception. PoBLAM results from the cooperation of a French and a German group of researchers. In 2019, on the one hand, this group founded GIRPAM (Groupe International de Recherches sur la Poésie de l’Antiquité tardive et du Moyen-Âge, coordinated by Michele Cutino, Strasbourg, and Bruno Bureau, Lyon, some members come from Wuppertal, too) as an alliance of (junior and senior) researchers interested in Christian (mainly Latin, but also Greek) poetry of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages. On the other hand, the group organized two international conferences on ancient and (early) medieval Christian Poetry, one in Strasbourg (2018), entitled “Poetry, Bible and Theology from Late Antiquity to the Middle Ages”, and one in Wuppertal (2019), entitled “Das Alte Testament in der Dichtung der Antike. Paraphrase, Exegese, Intertextualität und Figurenzeichnung”, financed by DFG.The project PoBLAM is intended to continue and to deepen these research efforts. The pivot of the project is the interaction of theology and exegesis as well as the origin and development of an explicitly Christian poetry from classical pagan formal literary traditions on the other hand. This interaction does not only cause poetic and poetological innovations (as, for example, the origin of the biblical epic as literary genre), but also bears wide-ranging consequences in what concerns socio-cultural issues, education, and literature. Furthermore, this process finds material expression in manuscripts (we find, e.g., collections of examples for grammar lessons and classroom-orientated glosses added to Christian poetic texts) reflecting the reality of medieval classrooms. Altogether, the reception of Christian poetry brings about a fundamental change of what literature is supposed to be between Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages. This change, however, leaves its indelible marks in later European culture.The linguistic and cultural setting of PoBLAM is first and foremost late antique and medieval Latin Christian poetry. In some issues, however, Greek poetry will be taken into account, too, in order to allow a comparative analysis of the situation in the Greek and the Latin world.PoBLAM has three main research interests: a) meta-intertextual structures in biblical poetry from Late Antiquity to the Middle Ages, b) the impact of biblical poetry and Christian poetry in general on social life, culture, and forming of identity within Europe during the transition from Late Antiquity to the Middle Ages, c) forms of reception of biblical poetry from Late Antiquity to the Middle Ages.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: Austria, France, Italy, United Kingdom, USA
• Partner Organisation: Agence Nationale de la Recherche / The French National Research Agency
• Cooperation Partners: Professor Dr. Michele Cutino; Professorin Dr. Maria Jennifer Falcone; Dr. Donato De Gianni; Dr. Helen Kaufmann; Professor Dr. Roberto Palla; Professor Carl P. Springer, Ph.D.; Professorin Dr. Maria Veronese; Dr. Victoria Zimmerl-Panagl
• Co-Investigators: Professor Dr. Thomas Gärtner; Alina Hund; Katharina Oft; Dr. Katharina Pohl; Professor Dr. Christoph Schubert