Over the past decades, ‘classical republicanism’ has become an indispensable term of analysis in scholarship on the history of early modern political thought. The importance of the classical world to republican theorists from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment, from Machiavelli to Madison, has been firmly established. Yet all too often the role of the ancient world in early modern republican thought is described in rather abstract and general terms. Much work therefore remains to be done on the specific ways in which particular classical models were used in early modern republican contexts.
This conference intends to study the role of concrete and specific ancient republican models in the political thought of early modern republics. It will focus on the ways in which ancient republics such as the Hebrew Commonwealth, Athens, Sparta, Carthage and Rome helped shape the republican political imagination in the Italian city-state republics, the Swiss Eidgenossenschaft, the Republic of the United Provinces, the English Republic under Cromwell, and the revolutionary republics of the late eighteenth century, including the USA. Bringing together scholars from different backgrounds, the conference aims to cross disciplinary boundaries and integrate the approaches of historians, art historians and literary historians. Central themes for discussion will include:
• Constitutional models
• Reading the classics
• Representations of the ancients
• Republican empire and expansion
• Republican decline and fall
We invite proposals for 30-minute papers. Please e-mail abstracts of max. 500 words to history@knir.it by 1 July 2013.
Acceptance of proposals will be confirmed by 1 August 2013. Finalized papers (max. 10.000 words) are due two weeks after the conference on 1 December 2013 and will be submitted for peer-reviewed publication in Papers of the Royal Netherlands Institute in Rome.
For further information, please contact the conveners:
Prof. Wyger Velema (University of Amsterdam) w.r.e.velema@uva.nl
Dr. Arthur Weststeijn (Royal Netherlands Institute in Rome) a.weststeijn@knir.it
See also the website of the Royal Netherlands Institute in Rome: www.knir.it
