The Centre Interuniversitaire d’Étude de la République des Lettres will
hold a three-day Conference entitled

‘IMAGES OF JULIUS CAESAR IN EARLY MODERN EUROPE’

4th-6th October 2007,
at the Université Laval, Quebec.

Surprisingly little attention has been accorded to the fortunes of Cesar
in Europe during the early modern period. As far as French studies are
concerned, although Cardinal Grente’s famous Dictionnaire des lettres
françaises devotes a few pages to the images of Caesar in medieval
literature, nothing is said about the representation of the Emperor during
the 16th, 17th and 18th-centuries. Nevertheless, like Augustus or
Alexander, Caesar remains a key reference for the intellectual history and
political thought of early modern Europe. Yet, there is a gradual shift
around the 1600s: to take but two French examples, if a laudatory Devise
du grand Henry IV où il est comparé à César, et les guerres de la Ligue
avec celle de César et de Pompée was published in Utrecht in 1598, we find
in 1652 a Parisian Mazarinade pejoratively entitled Les curieuses
recherches faites sur la vie de Jules César, pour montrer les conformités
de Mazarin avec les vices de ce Romain. These two texts show that
political representations associated with Caesar have greatly mutated: a
symbol of clemency in the Renaissance, the Emperor tends to be considered
a usurper after the end of the sixteenth century. The fortune of his
self-promoting Commentarii is also indicative of this negative evolution.
With not less than 134 editions of this book between 1450 and 1599,
Caesar, according to Peter Burke, stands as the most famous and the most
published historian of the Antiquity throughout Europe in the sixteenth
century, whereas only 55 editions were issued in the seventeenth century.

Such a crucial evolution of Caesar’ image has never been studied and this
Conference aims to analyse the causes and consequences of such a decline
in popularity. Among questions raised are the following:

- Who is Caesar associated with
Which virtues are components of modern
images of Caesar: magnanimity, mercy, ambition, usurpation
Are there
similar phenomena in the different European countries

- What kind of political, ideological or intellectual aims may explain
these images

- How can shifts in representations be described
Is this an evenly-spread
phenomenon throughout Europe

- Can such an evolution be explained by the gradual introduction of
absolute monarchy
Is there a parallel shift at the end of the
eighteenth-century

- Is such an evolution linked to a better historiographical understanding
of the Ancient world

- Who are the new heroes replacing Caesar as a model king, and why

- What is the impact of this evolution on literature and the arts

We invite 250-word proposals in French or English. They should be sent,
with a brief vitae, before the 15th of November 2006, to:
michel.dewaelehst.ulaval.ca and bruno.triboutnuim.ie

Organisation:
Michel De Waele (Université Laval)
Bruno Tribout (Paris IV – Sorbonne / Université de Montréal)

Peer-review Committee:
Peter Burke (Emmanuel College, University of Cambridge)
Pierre Force (Columbia University)
Chantal Grell (Université de Versailles - St Quentin en Yvelines)

Michel De Waele
Département d'Histoire
Université Laval
Phone: (418) 656-2131, #4064
Email: michel.dewaelehst.ulaval.ca