The work of ancient poets, philosophers, scientists, and historians inspired and nourished the ideals of truth, reason, equality, sociability, and freedom that flourished throughout Europe in the eighteenth century. This Symposium looks at the ancient texts themselves, the men and women who encouraged their recovery, circulation, and use in the eighteenth century, and the enormous impact they had on the intellectual life of the age.
The Symposium reflects the interdisciplinary scholarship of the sponsoring group, the Columbia University Seminar on Eighteenth-century European Culture. Speakers from throughout the world include historians and philosophers, literary scholars and political theorists, classical bibliographers and rare books specialists, an astrophysicist, and a musicologist. Some examine the eighteenth-century scholars, patrons, and collectors, as well as the printers, publishers, and booksellers whose industry and acumen produced the flood of editions, translations, and commentary that spread from St. Petersburg to Edinburgh. Others consider the critical importance of the ancients to the theory of politics, the practice of science, and the writing of history, poetry, and opera in the eighteenth century. All demonstrate that, in the eighteenth century, vast numbers of educated people continued to seek models in the ancient past, even as newly-published, well-edited, and closely-studied texts often revealed fewer and fewer congruities and more and more differences between ancient and modern times.
To encourage conversation and interaction among presenters and members of the audience, the Symposium is organized principally around a series of roundtable discussions, and includes breakfasts and lunches as part of the program. Evenings are free to allow time to see New York City.
The Symposium site is the Kellogg Conference Center on the Morningside Heights campus of Columbia University. Walkers and joggers have easy access to Riverside Park and the promenade that stretches for several miles along the Hudson River. Buses, subways, and taxis are at hand to take visitors around town: to Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Times Square. Please follow the Web links on the Symposium home page for information that will help you plan your visit to Columbia and New York City.
Program |
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Thursday • September 18
| 12:30 | Registration, Coffee |
| 2:00 - 2:30 | Welcoming Remarks: Arthur H. Cash, Chair, University Seminar on Eighteenth-century European Culture Robert L. Belknap, Director, University Seminars |
| 2:30 - 3:15 | Opening Address: Joseph M. Levine (Syracuse), The Battle of the Books, Then and Now |
| 3:30 - 5:30 | Roundtable: Greek and Latin Epic, Poetry, and Drama |
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Fabienne Moore (Oregon), 1711: The Advent of Homer in French Prose: An Anatomy of Madame Dacier's Ground-Breaking Translation Steven Shankman (Oregon), Neoclassicism, Pseudoclassicism and Decorum: Pope's Homer and Pope's Horace Wendy Heller (Princeton), Eighteenth-century Opera and the Reinvention of Classical Drama David F. Venturo (College of New Jersey), Dryden’s Virgil Howard Weinbrot (Wisconsin), Lucian Defanged: French Dialogues of the Dead, with Sideglances at Swift and Fielding |
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| 6:00 - 7:00 | Reception |
Friday • September 19
| 8:00 - 8:45 | Continental Breakfast, Registration |
| 9:00 - 9:45 | Opening Address:
Pierre Force (Columbia), Epicurean vs. Stoic Schemes from Bernard Mandeville to Adam Smith |
| 10:00 - 12:00 | Roundtable: Publishing and Promoting Ancient Authors and Texts |
| Karen Green (Columbia), Publishing the Ancients Eugene Beshenkovsky (Columbia, ret.), Classics in the Russian Enlightenment Marilyn Gaull (New York University), Publishing and the Perils of Division W. Gerald Heverly (New York University), The Editions of the Societas Bipontina Robert Scott (Columbia), Digital Publication of 18th-century Literature: The View from 2003 |
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| 12:15 - 1:15 | Lunch |
| 1:30 - 3:30 | Roundtable: Classical Greek Philosophy, Politics, and History |
| Elizabeth M. Powers (New York City), Wit, Joviality, and Triviality: The Halle Circle and the German Reception of Anacreon Ian MacGregor-Morris (Exeter), “Praising tyrants and spelling oddly”: Ancient Historians and Ancient History in the Enlightenment Eleanor Irwin (Toronto), Sarah Fielding's 1762 Translation of Xenophon's "Memoirs of Socrates with the Defence of Socrates before his Judges" Martha K. Zebrowski (Columbia), Mind and Liberty: Aspects of Plato in 18th-century Britain Johan van der Zande (California/Berkeley), Christian Garve’s German Translation of Aristotle’s Politics (1798) |
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| 4:00 - 6:00 | Roundtable: Roman and Hellenistic Philosophy, Politics, and History |
| Kevin Berland (Penn State/Shenango), “The Ocean of all Humane and Divine Learning”: Socrates and the Hellenistic Wisdom Tradition Blanford Parker (College of Staten Island & Graduate Center/CUNY), Elizabeth Carter and the 18th-century Understanding of Hellenistic Philosophy John Christian Laursen (California/Riverside), Castillon's Translation of Blount's Philostratus: Christian Erudition against Princely Unbelief Jacob S. Soll (Rutgers/Camden), Tacitism, Erudition and the Origins of Enlightenment Political Culture Kristine Haugen (Warburg Institute), Reading Biblical Prophecies, Interpreting Hebrew Dreams: Theological Orientalism and the Afterlife of Achmet |
Saturday • September 20
| 8:00 - 8:45 | Continental Breakfast |
| 9:00 - 9:45 | Opening Address:
Joseph Patterson (Columbia), Pythagoras, Aristotle, and the “Scientific Method” |
| 10:00 - 12:00 | Roundtable: Classical, Hellenistic, and Late Antique Science |
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Richard Carrier (Columbia), Between Physicus and Scientist: Transitional Ideas of the Natural Philosopher in the 18th Century William R. Everdell (St. Ann's School), Ancient Atomism in 18th-century Science: Discontinuity, Calculus and Impiety Dimitri Nikulin (New School University), Newton and the Pythagoreans: Number and the Structure of Continuum Abraham Anderson (St. John's College/Santa Fe), Bayle's 'Zeno of Elea' and the Skeptical Tradition Maria Pia Donato (Università di Roma La Sapienza), Hippocrates in 18th-century Scientific Culture |
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| 12:15 - 2:00 | Roundtable and Lunch |
| During lunch, speakers and audience will have an opportunity for general and open-ended conversation about the ideas and themes of the Symposium. | |
| Discussion Leaders: | |
| Jack Lynch (Rutgers/Newark) Blanford Parker (College of Staten Island & Graduate Center/CUNY) |
