Neo-Latin studies have made considerable progress in recent decades, not least thanks to various initiatives at the University of Innsbruck. “With Karlheinz Töchterle, Professor of Classical Philology and later Rector, we have increasingly devoted ourselves to researching Neo-Latin literature at the University of Innsbruck, first in Tyrol and then far beyond,” explains Florian Schaffenrath, the speaker of the new special research area for Neo-Latin Studies. “The founding of the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Neo-Latin Studies in 2011 has significantly strengthened this focus and we have been able to establish an international reputation as a research center for Neo-Latin literature.” Research at the Department of Classical Philology and Neo-Latin Studies at the University of Innsbruck has highlighted the important role of Neo-Latin literature in the development of early modern Europe.
New insights into the early modern world
Modern Latin research continues to struggle with two problems: Firstly, the cultural and life-world anchoring of Latin literature produced in the early modern period has only been researched sporadically so far, so that the understanding of its diverse functions in this epoch remains blurred. Secondly, most Neo-Latin texts are still hardly accessible to early modern researchers who are not proficient in Latin, which is why they have largely ignored these texts to date. The new special research area at the University of Innsbruck aims to close these gaps. The researchers in Innsbruck and Freiburg will work together to shed light on the interaction of Neo-Latin literature with central aspects of the early modern world and, through a structured compilation of digital tools (database, text collection, AI for indexing Neo-Latin texts), will enable researchers in the early modern period to find and independently use Neo-Latin texts as sources for their research questions.
A total of 3.9 million euros will be available for the new research network over the next four years. Following a positive evaluation, the Austrian Science Fund FWF will extend the funding for a further four years. The FWF's Special Research Areas are intended to establish extraordinarily productive, closely networked research teams to work on long-term, complex research topics.