%0 Journal Article
%T Drama tragicum de Maria Augusta Othonis III Imperatoris conjuge: Identification and Edition of a Neo-Latin Tragedy Newly Attributed to Nicolaus Vernulaeus
%A De Sutter, Nicholas
%J Terminus
%V 2026
%R 10.4467/20843844TE.26.005.23203
%N Tom 28, zeszyt 1 (78)
%P 123-160
%K Nicolaus Vernulaeus, Leuven University, Neo-Latin drama, manuscript, Otto III
%@ 2082-0984
%D 2026
%U https://ejournals.eu/czasopismo/terminus/artykul/drama-tragicum-de-maria-augusta-othonis-iii-imperatoris-conjuge-identification-and-edition-of-a-neo-latin-tragedy-newly-attributed-to-nicolaus-vernulaeus
%X This article identifies and edits Drama tragicum de Maria Augusta Othonis III Imperatoris conjuge, an anonymous Neo-Latin tragedy preserved in Paris BnF lat. 8437. The drama, offering a mediaeval reworking of the Phaedra motif of illicit desire and false accusations of rape, is here attributed to Nicolaus Vernulaeus (1583–1649), the most prolific and successful playwright-professor of the early modern University of Leuven. Drawing on manuscript evidence and Vernulaeus’s own dramatic practice, the article reconstructs the play’s original context and argues for its place within his political and moral didactic theatre. By correcting a long-standing misidentification of the manuscript, this study not only expands Vernulaeus’s oeuvre—long known exclusively through his printed historical tragedies—but also contributes to a fuller understanding of Leuven academic drama and the institutional culture in which Vernulaeus operated.