Latin's End and First Brief Research Trip

Latin ended on Friday, with much rejoicing. It was hard work, and I am proud of myself for sticking to it. I now know enough Latin to identify what particular sentances I need to fully decipher, and I plan on practicing on some Petrarch soon. However, first I am taking this week to plan my first research trip to Venice and the Veneto, to see things that are background for the dissertation (Mantegnas, Titians, Carpaccios) as well as visit print rooms and hopefully some old friends. It will be a working trip, but I will celebrate my birthday in one of my favorite cities--La Serenissima. I'll take tons of notes, but I don't think I'll bring the computer--just my eyes, a notebook, a camera, and a healthy appetite. I hope it won't be too hot. Back in mid-September for some library research before the next trip.

Latin turns to Poetry

Hard to tell if I will ever need to know how poetic meter works in Latin, but that is what we are learning now, including Ovid, Vergil, and some racy poems by Catallus. Last quiz tomorrow. Two more exams, with the final on August 10. I'm planning a pizza party to celebrate, since the class has dwindled from 27 to 11 students. I feel like a survivor! Indeed, I've really learned a ton and it has been hard, hard work.

I am planning my first research trip, to Venice and other cities in Italy. Then I'll do research here and plan a trip to London. My goal is to get as much traveling this fall as I can, and stay in New Haven in the spring.

Latin becomes Prosaic

It is now the second term of Intensive summer Latin. Despite the excellent teacher being replaced by some lesser instructors, and my not feeling so great (and skipping class strategically) the Latin is beginning to sink in. We've moved from grammar to simple prose and play reading, which is not only more enjoyable but more applicable to how I'll actually use Latin. I am not about to begin translating my favorite novels into Latin, but I look forward to stumbling through Petrarch's Africa for practice. It describes a real Triumph, of Scipio Africanus, as his Trionfi does not. Nevertheless, Renaissance artists ignored it as much as they relished illustrating i Trionfi.

Intensive Latin

To be a Renaissance scholar of any sort, one needs to have a grasp of the Latin that the Humanists so loved. I have thus put my dissertation research on the back burner (stirring the pot every couple of days by checking out a new book, but not thinking much about it), and sold the soul of my summer to intensive Latin. The teacher is excellent, and though after the first week I thought I had truly met my match, the second week things have begun to sink in. I am slowly recovering from the phobia of grammar I've had since I was nine, and can now look the pluperfect subjunctive and past perfect participles in the eye.

Title and major works

"The Printed Triumph in the Renaissance" is my working title. I need to have several ways of answering, "so, what is your dissertation about?" Right now, the two sentance version of my thesis, for colleagues, is: The new technology of the long horizontal multi-block prints become associated with triumphal processional imagery in the early 16th century; this media and subject matter were intertwined and spread across Europe. My study, focusing on the way artists adapted or parodied the multi-block triumph, will illuminate Renaissance attitutes towards antiquity and the exotic.

The main works which will structure my dissertation are:
Titian's Triumph of Christ
Jacopo de'Barbari's Triumph of Men over Satyrs
Erhard Schon's Triumph of Fools
Burgkmair's Exotic Peoples
Pieter Coecke van Aelst's Manners and Customs of the Turk

How do you make italics on blogger?

ABD

As of last week, I am all but dissertation--that is, all I have to do to graduate with a Ph.D is to basically write a draft of a book. In order to achieve this goal, I thought of marking my progress semi-publicly through a blog. If my posts are short, that means I am spending most of my time on research or actual writing. I hope that ideas aired here will help prime the pump, chart my progress, and invite encouraging words from friends and family. A dissertation can only be completed with lots of support--it is a process that will take at least two years and probably more. Wish me luck, fortitude, consistency, and inspiration!