Malum de mortuis: four poetic invectives against Iustus Lipsius after his death

  • Harm-Jan van Dam (Speaker)

Activity: Lecture / PresentationAcademic

Description

Immediately upon Lipsius' death ‘the subterranean forge of the Cyclope’ issued two successive defamatory pamphlets. The first one contained one abusive, anonymous poem; in the second one three other libellous poems were added, their three authors well hidden under pseudonymous invisibility cloaks. The subject of their attacks, Lipsius’ un-Christian Stoicism and his un-Calvinist Catholicism, was hardly original, but the tone was acrimonious. In my lecture I examined the authors and their poetry.
Period2022
Event titleConference of the International Association for Neolatin Studies
Event typeConference
Conference number18
LocationLeuven, BelgiumShow on map