Charles IV

An Emperor in Europe (1316-2016)
  • Schedule
Modified version of mural with Charles IV from mural in the Royal Castle Karlstein
Modified version of mural with Charles IV from mural in the Royal Castle Karlstein

Thursday, October 13-Friday, October 14, 2016

This year marks the 700th anniversary of the birth of Charles IV (1316-1378), the Holy Roman Emperor and King of Bohemia, the author of the Golden Bull, the "second Constantine," the "Last Emperor," the proponent of a Church Union, the founder of the first university in Central and Eastern Europe, a correspondent of Petrarch, and a patron of all humanist scholars and artists. In what we would now call a "pan-European" effort, he strove to create a dominant dynasty that would shift the political center of gravity to Prague, Europe's geographic center, and aspired to unite East and West under one Christian faith. Charles turned Prague from a provincial capital of the Bohemian kingdom into the cosmopolitan administrative, cultural, educational and religious hub of the entire empire—a "new Rome."

Charles's ideas and aspirations are as relevant to those concerned with contemporary Europe as they are to those studying medieval European civilization. The era of his reign, described as the Golden Age of Czech history, offers many parallels with contemporary affairs. Few European monarchs had as great an influence on the culture of their own and future generations as Charles, whom the Czech people consider to be "the father of the nation."

This symposium brings together an international and interdisciplinary panel of scholars, who will examine a number of aspects of Charles's reign and ponder their implications for past and present. Among the themes that will be evoked are dynastical and ecclesiastical politics, the formation of national identities, the use of art and architecture as a political tool, and the development of new literary and religious modes, to name just a few. 

This symposium is hosted and co-sponsored by Penn Libraries' Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies (SIMS). Generous support has been provided by the Centre for Medieval Literature (University of York & University of Southern Denmark) and the Penn School of Arts and Sciences. Other co-sponsors include the Penn Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, the Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures, the Department of History, French and Francophone Studies, the Department of English, Italian Studies, and Comparative Literature. 

Class of 1978 Orrery Pavilion
Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts
Van Pelt-Dietrich Library, sixth floor
3420 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA
Gallery hours: Monday-Friday, 9am-5pm
Saturday and Sunday, by prior arrangement (215.898.7088 or kislak@pobox.upenn.edu)
Free and open to the public (please show photo ID at entrance).

This symposium is hosted and co-sponsored by Penn Libraries' Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies (SIMS). Generous support has been provided by the Centre for Medieval Literature (University of York & University of Southern Denmark) and the Penn School of Arts and Sciences. Other co-sponsors include the Penn Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, the Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures, the Department of History, French and Francophone Studies, the Department of English, Italian Studies, and Comparative Literature. 

  • Thursday, October 13, 2016

    5:00-5:15 pm: Opening

    5:15-6:30 pm: Session 1
    Chair: William Noel, Schoenberg Institute for Manuscripts Studies (SIMS), University of Pennsylvania
    Eva Schlotheuber, University of Düsseldorf
    The Preaching and Praying King: Charles IV and His Role Models
    Milada Studničková, Institute of Art History, Academy of Science of the Czech Republic, Prague
    Faces of Power, Wisdom and Grace: Contemporary Portraits of Charles IV and the Medieval Bohemian Visual Tradition of the Good Ruler

    6:30-7:00 pm: Opening Reception

  • Friday, October 14, 2016

    9:30-10:45 am: Session 2 
    Chair: Nicholas Herman, SIMS, University of Pennsylvania
    David Mengel, Xavier University
    The Emperor and his City
    Zoë Opačić, University of London, Birkbeck
    Prague's New Town and Religious Plurality under Charles IV

    10:45-11 am: Coffee break

    11 am-12:15 pm: Session 3
    Chair: Lynn Ransom, SIMS, University of Pennsylvania
    Julia Verkholantsev, University of Pennsylvania
    Charles IV as Historiographer
    Kevin Brownlee, University of Pennsylvania
    Machaut and Petrarch Interact with Charles IV: French Narrative and Italian Epistolarity

    12:15-1:45 pm: Lunch (on your own)

    1:45-3:00 pm: Session 4
    Chair: Emily Steiner, English, University of Pennsylvania
    Peter Rückert, National Archives of Baden-Württemberg, Stuttgart
    Charles IV and the Golden Bull: Political Ranking in Cultural Dimensions
    Michael Van Dussen, McGill University
    Richard II and Imperial Politics

    3:00-3:15 pm: Coffee break

    3:15-4:30 pm: Session 5
    Chair: Mary Channen Caldwell, Musicology, University of Pennsylvania
    Petra Mutlová, Masaryk University, Brno
    Spiritual Life after Charles IV: Augustinian Canons in Roudnice and Petrus Clarificator
    Kateřina Horníčková, FWF SFB 42 Visions of Community, Vienna; University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice
    Presence, Memoria, and Authenticity in the Painting of the Era of Charles IV and his Sons

    4:30-4:45 pm: Coffee break

    4:45-6:00 pm: Session 6
    Chair: Ada Kuskowski, History, University of Pennsylvania
    Balázs Nagy, Eötvös Loránd University and Central European University, Budapest
    Convergences and Divergences: The Changing Face of Central Europe in the Mid-Fourteenth Century
    David Wallace, University of Pennsylvania
    Charles IV, Prague, and Europe

    6:00-7:00 pm: Closing Reception

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