Consolations in the Early Modern Age: Classical Themes and New Initiatives is a thematic title embracing two specific projects on the reception and development of ancient consolations. Combined the projects trace the ways in which ancient approaches were adopted, adapted and imitated (even forged), but also, and more importantly, used as a springboard for new ways of consoling which foreshadowed the modern age.
Image: “Achilles Lamenting the Death of Patroclus,”Gavin Hamilton,1760 – 1763. Courtesy of National Galleries Scotland.
The continuity of grief management since antiquity — i.e. theoretical and practical advice on how to cope with grief— is clearly illustrated by a distinct number of works inspired by the famous writings of Cicero, Seneca, and Boethius (fourth century CE). But the evidence is thin after Boethius, until Petrarch published a substantial "handbook" of consolatory advice for the bereaved. This project examines neglected evidence for the re-emerging interest in ancient consolation strategies from the fourteenth to the sixteenth centuries in order to retrace the classical tradition in "grief management" and its early modern reincarnations.
The recently rediscovered and published work on grief and consolation from 1465-66 written by Nicholas of Modrus is a perfect example. His work is a practical guide for the bereaved and the consoler. It forms another stepping stone in the story of how we can trace attitudes to grief between antiquity and today. Another famous case from antiquity, Cicero’s Consolation to himself, became the topic of a controversy in 1583 when a publication of the work was claimed as the original (which had only survived in a few fragments). This case illustrates the legendary status of this work, partly as a by-product of the admiration for Cicero's style and rhetorical skills. These case studies illustrate the lasting influence of classical models as well as the innovations and adaptations in the early modern era.
Publications:
BALTUSSEN, H. ‘A Curious Sidelight on the Reception of ps.-Cicero’s Consolatio (1583): Bodleian MS. Rawlinson D. 985’. Bibliothèque d’Humanisme et Renaissance. Forthcoming.
Baltussen, H. ‘Nicholas of Modruš’s De consolatione (1465–1466): A New Approach to Grief Management’. In Ordering Emotions in Europe, 1100-1800, edited by S. Broomhall, pp. 105–20. Leiden: Brill, 2015. Papers in Honour of Philippa Maddern, Ch. 6
Baltussen, H., ed. Greek and Roman Consolations. Eight Studies of a Tradition and its Afterlife. Swansea: Classical Press of Wales, 2013.
2012 essay in The Conversation 'Coping with Bereavement and Grief: Lessons from History’.
Forthcoming:
The Therapeutic Turn. Consolation Strategies from Antiphon to Galen (and Beyond).