Invective asymmetrization. Diatribe duels in Italian and German humanism

• Applicants: Dr. Marius Kraus; Professor Dr. Gerd Schwerhoff
• Subject Area: Medieval History
• Term: since 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 493786154

What “humanism” meant and who belonged to the group of “humanists” was clarified by contemporaries not least through the medium of invectivity. The project examines the aspect of elaborate invective language as a social distinguishing feature or symbolic capital, with the help of which certain individuals and groups succeeded in achieving asymmetrisation vis-à-vis opponents who, for example, were disparaged as “barbarians” or “scholastics” and thus pushed out of the circle of recognition. The project concept is based on a juxtaposition of the work of Francesco Petrarch as a pioneering ‘portal figure’ of early Italian humanism on the one hand and selected representatives of northern Alpine humanism in the context of the Reuchlin controversy at the beginning of the 16th century on the other. This constellation allows a differentiated analysis of different starting points, lines of development and transalpine diffusion processes of invective practice in the late Middle Ages and at the beginning of the early modern period.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Co-Investigators: Professor Dr. Bernhard Huss; Professor Dr. Christian Jaser