KU Leuven invites applications for one of two PhD positions working on the interdisciplinary team, contributing to the FWO project "From Hellas to Haarlem: New Ancient Greek literature on the cultural scene of the early modern Low Countries (ca. 1484–1700)". The successful applicant will be embedded in the Research Group of Greek Studies, but will collaborate with other departments, e.g. through the LECTIO institute, especially with the Latin Literature department.

Project
While it is well-known that Latin served as a major literary language in the early modern period (ca. 1400–1700), it is much less known that authors from that era also produced a rich literature in the language of ancient Greece. There is as yet no systematic study of this intriguing phenomenon, which flourished across the European continent from Italy to Scandinavia, and especially in the cultural and linguistic melting pot that the Low Countries were. New Ancient Greek (NAG) literature was a product of the Renaissance intellectual trend known as humanism, which reached the Low Countries at the end of the 15th century. Thanks to pioneers such as Agricola and Erasmus, NAG writing developed into a cultural phenomenon that became deeply anchored in elite society.

This project will for the first time (1) collect the NAG literary corpus in an open access database, (2) investigate the socio-cultural embedding of NAG authors and texts in early modern society, and (3) analyze the varied media through which they reached their audience, and what impressions they left on them. As such, we will produce a more complete picture of early modern NAG literature than is currently available, zooming in on the texts themselves, their authors, and their audience. The project will result in 2 PhD theses, 1 edited volume, 12 papers, and a database that will contribute to literary studies, cultural history, visual studies, and classical reception studies, by means of a digital humanities approach.

This PhD position will focus on creating the corpus, investigating the socio-cultural embedding of NAG literature in the early modern Low Countries, and discerning influences from classical and Byzantine literature.