PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Storchová, Lucie
TI  - Matthaeus Collinus and his Specimen studii ac laborum (1557). Excerpt and Moralistic Reading of Ancient Texts in the Literary Field of the Prague University
DP  - 2014 Mar 11
TA  - Historica Olomucensia
PG  - 315--333
IP  - 88
IS  - 18039561
AB  - The paper diversely discusses how humanistic scholars, who worked in the literary field of the Prague University in the second half of the 16th and at the beginning of the 17th century, treated Ancient texts. In the opening part, the author briefly introduces some of these methods typical for Czech university Humanism, e. g. so-called excerpt reading, combinatorial writing and editorial practise for school requirements. Then, she focuses on how Matthaeus Collinus worked with Ancient texts in his uniquely preserved manuscript Specimen studii ac laborum (1557) that is outstanding except for excerpt reading also because of the ethical explanation in a spirit of simplified melanchthonism. In a preface to the explanation of Iliad, he already mentions some of mutually connected interpretative ways influenced by simplified melanchthonism, which he shows in a relation to both epic poems. The first one is presented from the point of view of the divine providence and punishment (locum communis theologicum) and the second one is related to individual passions and their overcoming by the ethical work on oneself. Furthermore, the paper provides another interpretation - according to social order, its working and institutions. Collinus' university reading demonstrates that rather than a category of "Ancient traditions" itself, it is useful to aim to concrete and specifically situated reinterpretations of Ancient pre-texts for the research of Latin Humanism.