Zakład Historii Starożytnej IH UW zaprasza na wykład dr. Thorstena Fögena (Durham University oraz Uniwersytet Humboldta w Berlinie) pt. L’architecte engagé: Education, Morality and Politics in Vitruvius’ De architectura. Wykład odbędzie się poniedziałek 5. września o godz. 16:00 w sali im. prof. Aleksandra Gieysztora w Instytucie Historycznym UW (s. 125, 2 piętro, wejście „A” budynku IH).
Streszczenie wykładu:
Thorsten Fögen (Humboldt-Universität Berlin & Durham University)
L’architecte engagé: Education, Morality and Politics in Vitruvius’ De architectura
Vitruvius’ De architectura is the only comprehensive treatise on architecture that is extant from antiquity. It is an important source for the reconstruction of Graeco-Roman theoretical thinking about forms of building, styles and aesthetics. At the same time, it contains a great deal of reflexions on the importance of architectural knowledge and the multi-faceted background that a good architect would have been expected to have. Vitruvius’ extensive educational programme for the future architect shows parallels not only to Cicero’s concept of the perfect rhetorician (orator perfectus), but also to Strabo as well as to some later authors such as Quintilian, Galen and Isidor of Seville.
It is the aim of this paper to analyse some of Vitruvius’ literary strategies, in particular with regard to the ways in which he strives to present himself not only as a true expert on technical matters who combines theoretical and practical skills, but also as a morally responsible writer. It will be shown that Vitruvius is eager to display his high personal moral standards and that he subscribes to several fundamental elements of Augustan ideology as well as the mos maiorum in general.