Submission deadline: 31/07/2026
Few classical poets could compete with Virgil in occupying a privileged position within Early Modern literary culture, not only within Europe but also in a broader global Renaissance context. Humanists, poets, educators, missionaries, and political thinkers across Europe and its overseas territories turned to his works as models of language, genre, authority, and cultural memory. Yet Early Modern engagements with Virgil were far from uniform. His poetry was continually adapted to address new intellectual, political, religious, and geographical realities.
This session seeks to explore the diverse ways in which Early Modern authors reimagined Virgil across a broad transnational landscape, with a particular focus on the transatlantic world. Bringing together studies of both European and colonial contexts, the panel aims to showcase how Virgilian texts, motifs, and poetic strategies circulated between the centres and peripheries of the Early Modern world (with a focus not only on European countries, but also on Central and South America), acquiring new meanings in the process. Contributions are invited to investigate how writers employed Virgil to construct political legitimacy, frame imperial and missionary enterprises, describe unfamiliar landscapes, negotiate local identities, and participate in evolving humanist traditions.
Rather than treating Virgilian imitation as a passive inheritance, the session emphasises the creative and often transformative uses of classical authority. By placing European and American materials in dialogue, it highlights the interconnected nature of Early Modern literary culture and demonstrates how Virgil served as a shared point of reference through which authors articulated both common ambitions and distinct local concerns. In this panel, we hope to find not a single Renaissance Virgil, but multiple Virgils shaped by different communities, languages, genres, and historical circumstances, thus contributing to ongoing discussions about classical reception, cultural exchange, and the global dimensions of Renaissance humanism.
The panel is organized by Leni Ribeiro Leite and Giacomo Comiati and is co-sponsored by HESPERIDES and the IANLS.
More information HERE.