Erasmos ERC

09/04/2026

ERASMOS Project – Spring Update 🌱📚

We kicked off the year with a fantastic Scholar@School on code-switching in the Justus Lipsius Room, great discussions and strong student participation!

Since then, it’s been a busy and exciting few months for the ERASMOS team:

✨ In February, Alessandro Bonvini presented his research at the Renaissance Society of America conference in San Francisco, focusing on a fascinating poetic catalogue of Erasmus’s works (1519) by the later Trilingue professor Conradus Goclenius.

✨ In Paris, Raf Van Rooy gave a lecture at EHESS on translating Erasmus’s Praise of Folly into Dutch while respecting its bilingual nature in dialogue with the team producing a new Pléiade translation of Erasmus's oeuvre.

✨ On 27 March, Isabelle Maes shared new insights into Erasmus’s influence on Germain de Brie, especially in de Brie’s mixing of Greek and Latin in his correspondence, showing how he adapted his praxis to great models like Guillaume Budé and Erasmus.

📖 We’re also proud to share a new publication: Van Rooy, R. (2026). Byzantine Greek Language Norms in Renaissance Practice: Theodore Gaza and the Collegium Trilingue in Leuven, in Bentein & Cuomo (Eds.), Correctness in Comparison (pp. 271–283). Turnhout: Brepols.

📅 And coming up soon:
The exhibition “Hellas Was Here! New Ancient Greek Literature from the (Early) Modern Low Countries” opens on 13 April at KU Leuven Library (Ladeuze)!

Our team contributed to both the exhibition and its catalogue – part of a wider effort to trace the Greek written heritage of the early modern Low Countries.

Stay tuned – plura mox ἔρχεται!

16/12/2025

According to the Romans, autumnus was linked to the verb augere (‘to grow’), a season of ripening before winter sets in. And even if the etymology is uncertain, it feels like the perfect metaphor for our own autumn: a time full of research highlights, recognition, and promising outlooks.

On 28 October, fittingly on Erasmus’s birthday, Xander Feys gave his final lecture, “Erasmus and His Greek Books, Followed by an Epistolary Surprise.” His work, together with Isabelle Maes’s new findings on Erasmus’s father, will hopefully appear in print soon – stay tuned!

Soon after, Mariia Timoshchuk opened the online series “Young Researchers on New Ancient Greek and Neo-Latin Studies” (KU Leuven, Democritus University of Thrace & University of Ioannina) with a talk on Latin–Greek code-switching in Erasmus and Brandolini. The series continues on 20 January, with Alessandro Bonvini speaking on Erasmus’s self-fashioning as a Classical bilingual scholar in the Adagia.

On 4–5 December, our P.I. Raf Van Rooy joined the conference “Relics of Byzantium” at Freie Universität Berlin, presenting his paper on classical bilingualism and Greek humanists’ use of Latin.

We’re also thrilled to share that the Accademia dei Lincei awarded the first ‘Premio Internazionale «Anna Meschini Pontani»’ to Raf, for his work on Greek Humanism in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Εὖγε! Ad multos annos! Van harte proficiat, Raf!

Wishing you all happy holidays and a bright start to the new year —
Χαίρετε! Faustum annum novum!

24/10/2025

On 28 October 2025, 15h, dr. Xander Feys (KU Leuven), postdoc on the ERASMOS project, will present his new findings – with a focus on Erasmus’ Greek book collection — in a hybrid lecture at Leuven, which serves not only to mark the end of his time at our project but also to celebrate Erasmus’s birthday. The title of the lecture is: "Erasmus and his Greek Books, Followed by an Epistolary Surprise". Contact [email protected] if you want to attend (indicate whether you will participate in person or online). The lecture will take place in the Mgr. Romero-room at the Collegium Veteranorum. Those attending online will receive a streaming link in the days before the event. You can find the abstract of the lecture on https://www.dalet.be/erasmosplus

Please register by 27 October, 17h, by sending an e-mail to [email protected]. Those attending online will receive the link in the morning of 28 October.

Welcome to DaLeT, Database of the Leuven Trilingue. It is the first database devoted to an early modern trilingual institute, the Collegium Trilingue Lovaniense, or the Three-Language College in Leuven, where one could study the three so-called sacred languages Latin, Greek, and Hebrew for free.

15/10/2025

📜 ERASMOS Project – September & Early October Activities
The past weeks have marked an intense and fruitful period for the ERASMOS team, with members actively engaged in scholarly dissemination and international collaboration across Europe.

🔹 3–4 September | Kortenberg Abbey, Belgium
The month began with a summer school organized by KU Leuven’s Institute LECTIO, dedicated to Epistolography in the Pre-Modern and Early Modern World. Team members Manou Vermeire and Isabelle Maes participated in this enriching event, which offered two days of in-depth academic exchange on a theme central to our research.

🔹 11 September | Leiden, Netherlands
Isabelle Maes and Raf Van Rooy contributed to an expert meeting on Migration and Linguistic Capital in Early Modern Europe, convened by Alisa van de Haar. Raf presented on the co-creation of classical bilingual literature by Greek migrants and European humanists, while Isabelle discussed Greek scholar Andronikos Kallistos's engagement with Latin. Contributions from this meeting are expected to be published in a forthcoming special issue of the open-access journal Diasporas.

🔹 17–19 September | Budapest, Hungary
P.I. Raf Van Rooy participated in the conference Early Modern Humanist Canons in East-Central Europe, presenting a paper entitled “A Pan-European Phenomenon? Canonizing New Ancient Greek in the Early Modern Low Countries.”

🔹 18–19 September | London, United Kingdom
Simultaneously, Isabelle Maes attended the international conference Neo-Latin and Issues of Style: Places and Periods 1450–1750, where she delivered a paper on Latin–Greek code-switching in epigrammatic literature (1450–1536).

🔹 19 September | Innsbruck, Austria
Raf Van Rooy also presented the team’s ongoing research on classical bilingualism at the workshop Diaries of Scholarship. Comparative Perspectives on Diary-Writing in Early Modern and Modern Europe, hosted by Universität Innsbruck.

🔹 From 1 October | Innsbruck, Austria
Alessandro Bonvini has commenced a four-month Neo-Latin Fellowship at Universität Innsbruck. His research focuses on the reception of Gellius’ Noctes Atticae and Poliziano’s Miscellanea in Erasmus’ Adages, and how this engagement shaped Erasmus’ encounter with Greek.

🔜 Upcoming: 22–24 October | Nicosia, Cyprus
Looking ahead, Alessandro Bonvini and Raf Van Rooy, together with Dries Nijs (HellBel project), will participate in the concluding conference of the ERC-funded GrECI project, Hellenism in Early Modern Europe. We look forward to sharing updates from this promising event. Stay tuned!

24/07/2025

From 14 to 19 July, the ERASMOS+ team was delighted to attend the 19th International Congress of the International Association for Neo-Latin Studies in Aix-en-Provence 🇫🇷.

We are proud to have:
📜 Presented papers showcasing our latest research, from Classical bilingual women to Erasmus of Rotterdam’s Greek,
🖼️ Shared a poster highlighting the workflow of our unified open access corpus of Erasmus’ œuvre,
🗣️ Organised a three-session panel on Classical bilingualism, which sparked inspiring discussions among scholars.

It was a fantastic week of ideas, collaboration, and meaningful conversations with colleagues from around the world. 🌍

A heartfelt thank you to the organisers and everyone who attended our sessions and visited our poster! 🙏

23/06/2025

As summer approaches, the ERASMOS+ team has been keeping busy with conferences and academic events!

🗓️ Two weeks ago, our postdoc Flavio Massimiliano Cecchini took part in the 23rd International Colloquium on Latin Linguistics, held in Udine, Italy (9–13 June 2025). He presented a paper titled “Scriptura non facit glossan. Identifying Greek words in Latin texts”, focusing on word-level identification of Greek in Latin.

🗓️ From 12 to 14 June, ERASMOS+ members also participated in the XIII Penn-Leiden Colloquium on Ancient Values, dedicated this year to “The Value of Language(s)” and held in honor of Ineke Sluiter. Mariia Timoshchuk and Raf Van Rooy presented their joint paper “Graece aliquid addere litteris suave est: Latin-Greek code-switching through Roman and Renaissance eyes.”

👏 Congratulations to all our speakers for their excellent contributions and for representing ERASMOS+ so well!

24/12/2024

Afgelopen woensdag zetten we een punt achter onze 'citizen science challenge' met een korte terugblik, een vertoning van de Oudgriekse film 'Frogs' (met gloednieuwe Latijnse ondertitels!), een 'Cantus Latinus' en een glaasje Bourgondische wijn, Erasmus' favoriet. Onze topverbeteraars kregen ook boeken - wat anders? - als prijzen mee naar huis. Samen verbeterden zij zo'n 300 folio-bladzijden. Dat is een hele brok tekst!

Na een intens half jaar hebben we nu ongeveer 1/4 verbeterd (een duizendtal folio-bladzijden). Ons project loopt na deze kick-off-maanden gewoon door, tot eind 2027, dus wie Erasmus' teksten wil blijven nalezen met de brontekst ernaast of wie nog mee aan boord wil springen: alle hulp blijft welkom in dit herculeïsch werk, zoals Erasmus het zou noemen!

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Meer info nog steeds via:

https://www.dalet.be/erasmos