Description du projet
Le bilinguisme comme phénomène de la Renaissance
Le bilinguisme classique, qui a gagné en popularité pendant la Renaissance et a été défendu par des auteurs tels qu’Érasme (1466-1536), a joué un rôle important dans la formation des identités culturelles de l’Europe. Ce phénomène s’est manifesté tout au long de la République des lettres, où le passage du latin au grec est devenu une pratique quotidienne, en particulier après que Manuel Chrysoloras a commencé à enseigner le grec à Florence en 1397. Le projet ERASMOS, financé par le CER, remet en question la croyance traditionnelle selon laquelle le bilinguisme latin-grec est avant tout un phénomène ancien. Il créera une carte thermique complète de l’humanisme européen en cataloguant dans une base de données les sources classiques bilingues depuis le XVe siècle. Des outils numériques seront développés pour analyser le multilinguisme littéraire et étudier le bilinguisme classique.
Objectif
ERASMOS hypothesizes that, in contrast to the tenet, the great age of Latin-Greek bilingualism, especially in its written form, is not to be situated in antiquity. Instead, classical bilingualism flourished in the Renaissance, a pivotal period in canonizing classics. After 1397, when M. Chrysoloras started teaching Greek in Florence, classical bilingualism developed into an authorial ideal championed by writers like Erasmus (d.1536). This ideal pervaded countless genres, far beyond classical standards. It turned into a common practice shaping Europe’s cultural identities across the Republic of Letters, where Latin-Greek code-switching occurred on a daily basis.
ERASMOS opens a new research avenue on Renaissance classical bilingualism in its own right, which offers broader opportunities. The project has 3 main aims. (1) It inventories classical bilingual sources from the long 15th century (1397–1536) in a database, in order to create a new detailed heatmap of European humanism. (2) It develops digital tools for the analysis of literary multilingualism, leading to a new form of digital humanities-assisted close-reading. Most notably, the novel “tongueprint” tool will allow us to automatically calculate the linguistic make-up of texts. This tongueprint aims to further integrate multilingualism into Neo-Latin studies by cross-fertilizing the field with historical sociolinguistics. (3) ERASMOS analyzes through DH-assisted close-reading the forms and functions of classical bilingualism, in comparison to its ancient pendant, thus testing the core project hypothesis.
ERASMOS, in sum, brings cultural-historical and digital-conceptual innovation. The tools developed will benefit humanities studies more broadly and will help us save a key part of European cultural history from oblivion. The project promises major advances in the study of Europe’s classical bilingualism, which connected the continent’s brightest minds in an age that fell prey to divisive ideological forces.
Champ scientifique
Mots‑clés
Programme(s)
- HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC) Main Programme
Thème(s)
Régime de financement
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC GrantsInstitution d’accueil
3000 Leuven
Belgique