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Editors’ Note

Florian Schaffenrath

Terminus, Volume 26, Issue 3-4 (72-73) 2024, 2024, pp. VII-VIII

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Jan Damascen Kaliński’s Epic Poem on the Battle of Vienna and the Ekphrasis in Books 5–8

Florian Schaffenrath

Terminus, Volume 27, Issue 1 (74), 2025, pp. 31-56

https://doi.org/10.4467/20843844TE.25.003.21687

As many other Neo‑Latin epic poems, Jan Damascen Kaliński’s Viennis (Warsaw 1717), which describes the second siege of Vienna by the Turks in 1683, contains a detailed ekphrasis. Here, however, it is not a work of fine art, such as a relief or a tapestry, but a book that attracts the attention of the epic’s hero, the Polish King John III Sobieski: at the end of Book 4, on his way to Vienna, Sobieski stops at Juliusburg Castle and is presented with a book by his host. For an entire night, the king is engaged in reading in the course of four books, finishing at the beginning of the ninth book and returning to his task. This paper deals with an interpretation of this ekphrasis as a whole, and in particular with the question of the significance of using a book rather than a work of art.

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Biography

Florian Schaffenrath studied classics at the universities of Heidelberg, Siena, and Innsbruck. He wrote his PhD thesis on Ubertino Carrara’s epic poem Columbus (Rome 1715). His Habilitation was about Cicero’s Philippics. From 2014–2024, he was director of the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Neo‑Latin Studies. Currently, he is associate professor for Classics at the University of Innsbruck. In Neo‑Latin studies, he is especially interested in epic poetry, history of regional Latin literature, and canon debates.

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University of Innsbruck

Austria

Florian Schaffenrath Email

University of Innsbruck (Austria)

Biography

Florian Schaffenrath