Brill’s New Pauly Supplements II - Volume 12 : The Reception of Antiquity in the Age of Enlightenment
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Subject: Classical Studies
This volume explores engagement with Greco-Roman Antiquity across Europe and beyond in the 18th century. Approximately 100 experts, in some 140 articles from “Academy” to “Wallpaper”, show how Classical and rival antiquities were perceived and studied during the age of Enlightenment, revolution and scientific progress, and how they served the formulation and affirmation of new ideals. The survey covers the period between the outbreak of the Querelle des Anciens et des Modernes in France in 1687 and the reorganization of Europe at the Congress of Vienna in 1815.
Nation
(3,923 words)
A. IntroductionThe 18th century first rediscovered the nation as a concept, then a range of nations of the ancient world, all through the prism of a wide-ranging reception of Antiquity. Its topoi aided in the development of entire models of history and origin narratives that ultimately corroded the normative power of tradition. In the 19th century, when the nation became the ‘idea of the future’ [4531], it was tied in the long term to a shift of power towards the people—a shift that was highly controversial. Classicisms thus stood in competition with each other, both within and b…
Date:
2021-01-25