Dr. Andreas Abele

Neolatin Drama (esp. Jesuit school plays)

Late Latin Epistolography (esp. Symmachus)

Narratology and Latin Hagiography

'Reading Symmachus' Letter Collection by the Book. Literarästhetische, narratologische und historische Studien zur Briefsammlung des Symmachus'

The project follows a recent trend in reading ancient letter collections ‘by the book.’ This approach was introduced into Classics by the British scholars Mary Beard and Roy Gibson. It is based on the insight that ancient letter collections which are for the most part ordered non-chronologically, are not a contingent product of unorganized and untalented compilers and editors who are hardly interested in contemporary politics and history. Rather, they are the result of a series of intentional decisions which are not primarily aiming to simply document historical or (auto)biographical events and developments. According to Beard and Gibson, it is important to understand ancient letter collections as ‘literary collections’ or ‘books of literature’, i.e. to take their arrangements which came down to us, seriously and to explore implications and possible intentions resulting from them.

In the context of this overarching approach, the project puts the literary component of the correspondence of the late Roman aristocrat Q. Aurelius Symmachus (died presumably in 402) in the center of the analysis. It aims to work out principles and patterns of composition according to which his surviving letter collection is designed, as well as to identify implications emerging from its arrangement and to contextualize them in the contemporary, social, cultural and educational history of the late fourth century AD.

Jeremias Drexel SJ: Iulianus Apostata Tragoedia. Edition, Übersetzung, Kommentar. Berlin, Boston 2018: De Gruyter (Frühe Neuzeit 219) [in print; being publicated by the mid of August] Link

The neo-latin play Iulianus Apostata Tragoedia which was composed by the German Jesuit Jeremias Drexel (1581-1638) and premiered at the Jesuit college in Ingolstadt in 1608, treats in five acts the Christian youth of the Roman Emperor Julian, his firstly hidden, then open apostasy, his tyrannical reign, his cruel persecution of Christians and his sudden death on the Persian battlefield, where he is killed by two Christian martyrs, who acted on behalf of Jesus Christ.

In my PhD thesis I edited the text of the Iulianus which has been passed on only in the autograph of its author. Furthermore, I translated the text into German and added a philological and historical comment that also takes the contemporary theoretically available knowledge into account.

My detailed introduction reconstructs the genesis of the drama including and interweaving Drexel’s early vita. It also contains an analysis of the play’s formal and dramatic structure as well as reflections on some plagiarized passages in the Iulianus. A detailed interpretation of the drama as a whole shows that by means of his Julian Drexel takes part in a vital and highly topical debate among contemporary intellectuals, namely on the controversial issue to what extent Christian beliefs and Neostoicism exclude each other or can be combined. Therefore, Drexel’s Iulianus is linked very closely to the famous Cenodoxus which was composed by Jakob Bidermann, a Jesuit familiar to Drexel, only a few years before.

Jeremias Drexel SJ: Iulianus Apostata Tragoedia. Edition, Übersetzung und Kommentar. Berlin/Boston 2018: De Gruyter (Frühe Neuzeit, vol. 219) Link

Matthäus Rader SJ: Drama de Divo Cassiano ­- Drama über den Heiligen Cassian. Ediert, übersetzt und erläutert. Heidelberg 2021: Winter (Die Neulateinische Bibliothek, vol. 5) Link

The Semantisation of Space in Sulpicius Severus' Vita Sancti Martini, in: M. Fafinski/J. Riemenschneider (Edd.): The Past through Narratology. New Approaches to Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. Heidelberg (Das Mittelalter, vol. 18), p. 57–72.

‘The Good, the Bad, and the Lazy’: Matthäus Raders SJ Drama de Divo Cassiano (München 1594) und das Lehrerbild der Jesuiten, in: W. Polleichtner (Ed.): Nachdenken über Unterricht. Fallstudien zum Unterricht in Griechisch und Latein im Humanismus. Speyer 2020 (Didaskalika, vol. 4), pp. 65–94.

Narratology and Classical Epic, in: C. Reitz/S. Finkmann (Edd.): Structures of Epic Poetry, Vol. 1, Part 1. Berlin/Boston 2019: De Gruyter, pp. 99-113 [together with Robert Kirstein and Hans-Peter Nill].

Latein und/oder Deutsch? Zur Wahl der Sprache im geistlichen Spiel des Reformations- und konfessionellen Zeitalters, in: A. Gil/R. Kirstein (Edd.): Wissenstransfer und Translation. Zur Breite und Tiefe des Übersetzungsbegriffs. St. Ingbert 2015 (Hermeneutik und Kreativität, vol. 3), pp. 59—83.

Ut fidem dictis adhibeant. ‚Distanz‘ und ‚Fokalisation‘ in der ‚Mantelteilung‘ des Heiligen Martin (zu Sulp. Sev. Mart. 2–3), in: Mnemosyne 73/4 (2020), p. 633–658.

G.M. Müller (Ed.): Zwischen Alltagskommunikation und literarischer Identitätsausbildung. Studien zur lateinischen Epistolographie in Spätantike und Frühmittelalter. Stuttgart: Steiner 2018 (Roma Aeterna, vol. 7), in: Anzeiger für die Altertumswissenschaft 71/72 (2018/9), pp. 72-78. https://diglib.uibk.ac.at/AAHG/periodical/pageview/4805294

J. Luggin (Ed.): Thomas Hobbes: De mirabilibus Pecci carmen. Einleitung, Text, Übersetzung und Kommentar. Hildesheim: Olms 2016 (Noctes Neo-latinae, Neo-Latin Texts and Studies, vol. 27), in: Editionen in der Kritik 10 (2018), pp. 195—203.

Ch. Pérez González: Bilingualität auf der Jesuitenbühne. Latein und Volkssprachen im spanischen Schultheater des 16. und 17. Jahrhunderts. Münster: Rhema 2014 (Symbolische Kommunikation und gesellschaftliche Wertesysteme, vol. 45), in: Zeitschrift für romanische Philologie 2016; 132/2, pp. 616—621.

H. Linke: Mittelalter-Renaissance auf der Bühne. Wiederaufleben des mittelalterlichen Dramas und Theaters in der Neuzeit. Wiesbaden: Reichert 2013 (Imagines Medii Aevi. Interdisziplinäre Beiträge zur Mittelalterforschung, vol. 32), in: Wolfenbütteler Renaissance-Mitteilungen 34/2 (2012/13), pp. 231—234.

U. Köpf/S. Lorenz/D. R. Bauer (Edd.): Die Universität Tübingen zwischen Reformation und Dreißigjährigem Krieg. Festgabe für Dieter Mertens zum 70. Geburtstag. Ostfildern: Jan Thorbecke 2010 (Tübinger Bausteine zur Landesgeschichte, vol. 14), in: Wolfenbütteler Renaissance-Mitteilungen 34/1 (2012/13), pp. 99—102.

'Elaboratam soloci filo accipe cantilenam.' The 'Preface' of Symmachus' Letter Collection
Basel, 30. September - 2. October 2021: Lector, quas patieris hic salebras! The Stumbling Texts (and Stumbling Readers) of Late Latin Poetry.

The Jeweled Style and Neoplatonism
Erlangen, 25. - 26. June 2021: The Jeweled Style Revisited.

'The Jeweled Letter Collection'. Symmachus’ Letter Collection and the Poetics of Late Antiquity
Tübingen, 30. January - 1. February 2020: Without Order or Narrative. Reading Latin Text Collectioins from Late Roman Republic to the Early Middle Ages (Workshop 1)

‘Ita eos et, cum voluit, stare conpulit et, cum libuit, abire permisit.’ The Semantisation of Space in Sulpicius Severus’ Vita Sancti Martini
Innsbruck, 15.-17. November 2019: Narratology for Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages

Reading ‘the Dullest Epistles in the Latin Language’ by the Book. A Narratological Approach to the Letters of Symmachus
St. Andrews, 23.-24. May 2019: The First Millenium AD, St Andrews/Tübingen Workshop

Fidem narrare. Narrative Discourse Modes in Sulpicius Severus' Account of St Martin Sharing his Cloak with the Beggar
Tübingen, 5. October 2018: Interdisziplinärer Workshop 'Ut fidem dictis adhibeant'

'The Dullest Epistles in the Latin Language'? A Narratological Approach to the Letters of Symmachus
Tübingen, 6. July 2018: Internationale Konferenz 'Epistula narrans'

Vanishing Bodies. The Deaths of Plotinus and St Anthony of Egypt
Durham/GB, 16. May 2018: Neoplatonist Theology Workshop

Ludus in Ludo. Matthäus Raders SJ Drama über den Heiligen Cassianus und das Theaterwesen der Jesuiten
Kaufbeuren, 22. March 2018: Anregungstag für Lehrkräfte der Alten Sprachen in Schwaben

Wie erzählt man 'Glauben'? Der Heilige Martin vor Kaiser Julian (zu Sulp. Sev. Mart. 4)
Straßburg/FR, 12. January 2018: 39. Metageitnia

A Crusader as the Father of Europe? Godfrey of Bouillon on Munich's Jesuit Stage (1596)
Innsbruck/AUT, 30. November 2017: Internationale Tagung 'Early Modern Discourses on Europe'

Schöne Kaiser, hässliche Kaiser. Die physis der Kaiser bei Sueton und ihr Fortwirken
Tübingen, 7. July 2017: Workshop 'Gute Kaiser, schlechte Kaiser. Suetons Kaiserviten'

Klio und der Farbtopf oder Tacitus der 'Epiker' (zu Tac. ann. 1,1,1-11)
Bern/CH, 16. January 2016: 38. Metageitnia

Deutscher Altphilologenverband Link

European Narratology Network (ENN) Link

Förderverein des Philologisches Seminars der Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen

Görres-Gesellschaft Link

International Society for Late Antique Literature Studies (ISLALS) Link

Late Latin Poetry Network Link

Mommsen-Gesellschaft (Vollmitglied) Link

Society for Neo-Latin Studies (SNLS) Link

Tübingen Forum Spätantike (Zentrum für interdisziplinäre Spätantike-Forschungen, Tübingen) Link

Tübingen Working Group 'Narrative Dynamics in Latin Literature' Link

Historia. Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte