Abstract
This programmatic research focuses on the transmission of classical Latin literature through Neo-Latin commentaries in the early modern period. In the early modern period - ca. 1480-1700 - the whole of classical Latin literature became available in new editions, accompanied by textual commentaries. For the new transmission of knowledge, the Neo-Latin commentary was of pivotal importance. Spot checks have led to the hypothesis that Neo-Latin commentaries offer an extremely complex exegesis that systematically unlocks the classical texts for diverse disciplines and practices of knowledge, such as medicine, geography, zoology, agriculture, hunting, horsemanship and so on. In this respect, the Neo-Latin commentary differs fundamentally from the modern practice in classical philology. The early modern commentators transformed the classical texts into multifunctional archives of knowledge which were considered the basis of almost all areas of scholarship and science. This programmatic research analyses the various strategies of commenting which were used to achieve this goal, and relates them to discourses of the knowledge areas at which the commentaries were directed. Because of the heterogeneity and the quantity of the sources, NWO's programmatic research offers an ideal form to make this research possible. This programme consists of two well defined projects (1 dissertation, 1 monograph), as well as a synthesis to be written by the programme director. Project 1 and 2 study the commentaries on two very different sorts of texts: Roman metrical poetry (epos, lyric poetry, comedy) (The Neo-Latin Commentary: Roman Poetry as Literary Model and Archive of Knowledge) and classical Latin scientific prose, such as treatises on natural history, agriculture and so on (Roman Scientific and Encyclopaedic Literature - Foundation and Authorisation of Early Modern Knowledge). The programme director will write a synthetic, systematic monograph in which he will deepen and explore the results of the more detailed research projects within a broader framework of early modern intellectual life: the reception of classical antiquity, the history of science, the history of education and the history of reading. In this way the project will offer a thorough, comprehensive, and innovative examination of the important field of the Neo-Latin commentary, which is a serious desideratum at this moment.