Dr. C.H. (Christoph) Pieper

Position:
  • Lecturer
  • Researcher
Expertise:
  • Classical languages and culture


Telephone number: +31 (0)71 527 2673
E-Mail: c.pieper@hum.leidenuniv.nl
Faculty / Department: Faculteit der Geesteswetenschappen, Institute for Cultural Disciplines, Latijnse T&C
Office Address: Johan Huizingagebouw
Doelensteeg 16
2311 VL Leiden
Room number 1.08a
Telephone number: +31 (0)71 527 2668
E-Mail: c.pieper@hum.leidenuniv.nl
Faculty / Department: Faculteit der Geesteswetenschappen, Institute for Cultural Disciplines, Latijnse T&C
Office Address: Johan Huizingagebouw
Doelensteeg 16
2311 VL Leiden
Room number 1.08a

Fields of interest

- Latin rhetoric of the republic and its reception in imperial and later times
- Latin poetry of the Italian Renaissance
- Cultural embedding of literary texts
- Classical tradition/Reception of antiquity in early modern times
- Genre: discussion and expectation in Latin literature

Research

From 2010-2013, the following research project is funded by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO):

Shaping Roman virtue
Early Roman oratory and the fashioning of aristocratic identity in the Empire  
Even in our time, the model for rhetorical theory and practice remains classical antiquity, notably the Roman orator Cicero. But what about the orators that came before Cicero? Our knowledge of pre-Ciceronian oratory, of which we possess only a few, strongly fragmented original texts, is largely based on Cicero’s Brutus. In this work, however, Cicero constructs an ‘ideal orator’ which implies that his view on the earlier period is all but objective. Factual literary history of early Roman oratory is therefore impossible to achieve. Rather, my project aims to analyse pre-Ciceronian rhetoric in the context of the later shaping of Roman and especially aristocratic values.
    Traditionally, oratory was a key competence of the Roman upper classes. They used it to ensure the stability of the political and social system on which their power was based. With the end of the republic, space for oratory in political debate was much reduced, since major decisions were now taken by the emperor. In response, the Roman nobility had to reshape its social identity and negotiate its position. One argumentative strategy in this process was the fashioning of an idealized image of republican eloquence and the ancient orators. By the insertion of their concept of ‘republican oratory’ as cultural capital within a socio-cultural canon, they shaped themselves as the true carriers of republican values. Thus discourse about republican oratory became itself an instrument for stabilizing contemporary identities.
    My project will map this process of negotiation from the end of the 1st century BC to the 2nd century AD. I will contrast the cultural fashioning of republican orators with the fragmentary remains of their texts in order to establish points of contact and disagreement. The hypothesis is that our understanding of these fragments cannot be separated from the imperial process of shaping ideal oratory.

Curriculum Vitae

Christoph Pieper (*1974 in Ibbenbüren, Germany) studied Latin, German and Italian language and literature at the Universities of Bonn and Florence. PhD on the Florentine poet Cristoforo Landino and his elegiac collection 'Xandra' (Bonn University 2007). In these years scientific assistent at the chair for medieval and Neo-Latin at Bonn University (Prof. Marc Laureys), editorial assistent of 'Neulateinisches Jahrbuch' and of 'Medioevo Latino'. Since october 2006 lecturer of Latin language and literature at Leiden University.

Teaching activities

My teaching activities of the last years included regular courses on Latin grammar and syntax (BA1), Latin love poetry (BA1), Latin historiography (BA1), the history of the Latin language (BA2), and research seminars on different literary subjects from antiquity and the Renaissance (BA3 and MA, e.g. Cicero, Petronius, Macrobius’ Saturnalia, Thomas More’s Utopia, Florentine literature in the 15th century). I have contributed to courses for all students of the Faculty of Humanities on the history of rhetoric and on the reception of classical texts in vernacular literature. Furthermore, I have been the director of a student’s theatre group at our department since 2007.

Publications

- Christoph Pieper: Elegos redolere Vergiliosque sapere. Cristoforo Landinos 'Xandra' zwischen Liebe und Gesellschaft. Hildesheim : Olms 2008 (Noctes Neolatinae 8), XX + 356 p.

Several articles on Phaedrus, Ovid, and the Italian Quattrocento. Several reviews for Anzeiger für die Altertumswissenschaft, Neulateinisches Jahrbuch, Neo-Latin News and Mediaevalia et Humanistica.

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Last Modified: 15-02-2011