2018 Vergilian Society Study Tours
Renaissance and Baroque Art in Rome and Naples
Dates: June 16 – 28, 2018
Director: Andrew Casper, Miami University casperar@miamioh.edu
This tour will explore major achievements and developments in Renaissance and Baroque Art (1300-1700) in Rome and Naples. Focusing on these two cities will allow tour participants to study both major (and possibly familiar) works and monuments in Rome as well as some lesser known (but no less significant) sites in Naples. This will allow for an especially rich examination of key artistic developments in painting, sculpture, and architecture that fall within and outside of the conventional canon, but all of which constitute some of the most celebrated, innovative, and influential artistic achievements in the Western world. Despite their differing political histories the chosen cities of Rome and Naples share mutual commonalities and influences in their respective artistic cultures that will ensure some cohesion to the various sites and monuments that we will visit.
The itinerary will be sure balance visits to locations such as chapels and churches where individual works are in situ, and can thus be considered in their original physical context, as well as to museums and galleries that will allow for a more comparative analyses among numerous works of art gathered in one place. We will also sample the cultural, culinary, and leisure offerings in Italy that for centuries have been and continue to be celebrated by residents and visitors alike. $2895, single supplement $400
Greece & Rome in Washington, DC: Classical Influences on Our Founding Fathers
Director: Elise Friedland, George Washington University efried@gwu.edu
June 17 – 22, 2018
Our nation’s capital is revered for its urban design, public architecture, and civic sculpture—all of which are inspired by ancient Greece and Rome. Washington, DC presents an urban landscape that echoes—to some degree and in a way that no other American city does—the streets and public squares of the ancient world, where ancient Greeks and Romans once conducted business, politics, and religion.
18th and 19th century Americans lived in a classical world, and there is a large body of scholarship on classica Americana, how Greek and Roman culture influenced and was adopted and adapted by the Founding Fathers of the United States in nearly every area: government, law, higher education, art, and architecture. This five-day study tour will survey Greek and Roman influence on the Founding Fathers and early America from the late 1700s through the early twentieth century, focused on the art and architecture of DC. A study tour textbook will provide an intellectual history of early America that will serve as the backdrop for the major focus of the tour, the buildings, sculptures, and other works of art in DC that adopt and adapt Greek or Roman monuments as well as the ancient monuments on which they were based. Tour participants will become familiar with the ancient and early American symbols that permeate DC and gain a new appreciation for the role of the ancient world in our nation’s cultural, social, political, and educational history. Major sites will include the Capitol Building including Statue of Freedom, Pedimental sculpture, Apotheosis of George Washington in Rotunda dome, and Brumidi Corridors; Greek Revival buildings (Treasury Building, Old Patent Office, Old City Post Office, Frieze on Old Pension Building, now National Building Museum); National Archives, National Gallery of Art, Jefferson Monument, and many others. $1050
Ancient France: Gallic, Greek, and Roman
Director: Raymond Capra, Montclair State University , raymondcapra@gmail.com
June 26 – July 8, 2018
This tour of Southern France will explore the interaction of three cultures: Gallic, Greek, and Roman, through a study in the archaeology and history of France beginning with the civilization of the iron age Gauls and the establishment of Greek cities at the end of the seventh century BC through the advent of Republican Roman colonization and the campaigns of Caesar to the end of Roman Hegemony. The archaeological sites, accompanying museums, and the grand Catholic cathedrals of the region we shall visit are located on the ancient trade routes that developed into the Roman road system in Gaul, most notably the Via Domitia.
This excursion will allow the participant to see many lovely cities in the south of France, as we shall stay in one night in Toulouse, three in Arles, one in Narbonne, one in Montpellier, two in Nîmes, and three in Aix-en-Provence. Other cities visited include Carcassonne, Marseille, Vaison-la-Romaine, Orange, Avignon, and Les Baux.
The south of France is one of Europe’s gems in terms of its culture and cuisine. This tour will provide an unforgettable experience of this region. $2995, single supplement $475
Comprehensible Input and the Latin Classroom: A Study Tour in Italy
Dates: July 10 – 21, 2018
Director: Keith Toda, Parkview High School, Lilburn, GA keith_toda@gwinnett.k12.ga.us
This 12-day tour is designed to teach Comprehensible Input pedagogy to Latin teachers and to demonstrate how Comprehensible Input methodology can be applied to the teaching of Roman authors. The tour will include travel to sites relevant to Roman authors and textbook readings. Workshop sessions will alternate with visits to sites and museums such as the Colosseum, Capitoline Museums, Vatican City, Pompeii, and Capri. Workshop topics include an overview of Comprehensible Input theory, demonstration of Comprehensible Input techniques/strategies, such as Total Physical Response (TPR), Teaching Proficiency through Reading and Storytelling (TPRS), circling, dictations, Movie Talk, embedded readings, Personalized Questions and Answers (PQAs), and numerous activities related to pre-reading, reading, and post- reading activities. Other topics will include Sequencing and Scaffolding of a Comprehensible Input Lesson, Grammar in a Comprehensible Input classroom, and Teaching Upper Level Authors/the AP Syllabus with Comprehensible Input . The program features 3 days in Rome and the remainder in Campania at the Harry Wilks Study Center at the Villa Vergiliana. $2895, single supplement $400
City of God, Barbarian Kingdoms: Italy in Late Antiquity
Dates: July 11 – 22, 2018
Directors: Thomas Landvatter and Beth Platte, Reed College
We may think of the “Fall of the Roman Empire” as a disastrous time, when barbarians swept through the once-great Roman Empire and ushered in a dark age. And indeed, the city of Rome suffered greatly during the period of Late Antiquity, from 200-800 CE. In this tour, we will explore this history of Late Antique Italy through its urban centers and geography of power. We will begin in Rome with the magnificent displays of imperial power of the Severan Dynasty and the tetrarchy, including Rome’s Constantinian churches. We’ll explore the impact of Christianity through visits to the Vatican; the Celian, a posh neighborhood that became a center of elite Christian display; and a day trip to the Benedictine monastery of Monte Cassino, founded in the 6th century. From Rome, we will travel to the Byzantine outpost of Ravenna, stopping in Spoleto, the 6th century capital of a Lombardic Duchy, and the Temple of Clitumnus, the site of an early church. In Ravenna, we will visit the 6th century mausoleum of Theoderic and other Ostrogothic and Byzantine monuments. The highlights of Ravenna will be the 6th-century churches of San Vitale and Sant’Apollinare and the 5th-century Mausoleum of Galla Placidia, with some of the most beautiful Byzantine mosaics in the world. $2995, single supplement $475
See detailed itineraries, tour descriptions, application, and scholarship information on the Vergilian Society website at http://www.vergiliansociety.