Re-imagining the epic at Villa Falconieri
From 20鈥�22 June Professor Gwynne joined historians, classicists, and historians of education at the Accademia Vivarium Novum鈥檚 conference听Educazione e cultura nella prima et脿 moderna, held in the sixteenth-century Villa Falconieri overlooking the Alban Hills. His paper, 鈥�Refashioning the Heroic: Jesuit theories of epic,鈥� traced how Jesuit poets re-tooled Virgilian narrative to promote missionary ideals, beginning with Francesco Benci鈥檚听Quinque Martyres听(1591) and culminating in Famiano Strada鈥檚 classroom commentary of 1617. By recovering these pedagogical texts, Gwynne shows that the Society of Jesus forged a new kind of epic aimed not at empire-building but at spiritual conquest - portable, pious, and designed for 鈥減ocket-size鈥� inspiration.听
Conference proceedings will be published later this year.
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A landmark English edition of Gambara鈥檚 Caprarola
Hot on the heels of the conference, Brill has announced听鈥淟orenzo Gambara鈥檚 Caprarola and On Poetic Composition: Text, Translation and Commentary鈥�听(Jesuit Studies series ), co-authored and translated by Professor Gwynne and Patrick M. Owens (Colgate University).听
Scheduled for release in July 2025, the 390-page volume offers the first English translation of Gambara鈥檚 extensively revised 1581 description of the Farnese palace at Caprarola, paired with a newly attributed treatise 鈥� attributed to the Jesuit polymath Antonio Possevino - urging poets to abandon pagan themes for Christian subjects. The book situates both texts within the Counter-Reformation鈥檚 broader effort to align classical eloquence with Catholic devotion.
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Both the Frascati paper and the Brill volume illuminate how early modern Jesuits appropriated classical genres to serve new religious and cultural agendas.听鈥淲hether in Rome, Frascati, or Caprarola, Jesuit writers consistently re-cast antiquity鈥檚 heroes as spiritual exemplars,鈥�听Professor Gwynne observes.听鈥淯nderstanding that strategy helps us see Renaissance literature - and its educational settings - through a much wider global lens.鈥�
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Scholarship that feeds the classroom
Professor Gwynne鈥檚 research feeds directly into AUR鈥檚 Liberal Arts curriculum, offering students first-hand exposure to primary sources, philological method, and the global circulation of ideas. President Scott Sprenger noted,听鈥淧aul鈥檚 work exemplifies AUR鈥檚 commitment to inquiry-driven teaching: our students learn how classical learning was re-deployed from Goa to Caprarola, and why that story still matters.鈥�