Conrad Celtis’ visions of Rome: relocation, contestation and imitation of the Italian Renaissance in German Humanism

Abstract

In this paper I will distinguish three alternative approaches by means of which Conrad Celtis connects the German Renaissance to the Italian Renaissance. They can be summarised as relocation, contestation, and imitation. I call these three alternative approaches “visions of Rome” because each adaptation can be understood as an alternative claim to the ancient Roman legacy. Moreover, I will argue that each of the three can be understood as an attempt not just to reflect or represent a migration of the Renaissance north, but actually to legitimise this movement. To understand how this works, the article does not merely consider the literary, cultural and political manifestations of the Italian Renaissance movement to see how they are appropriated by Celtis in isolated cases; it focuses on the starting point of this enterprise on a more fundamental level. The Italian Renaissance humanists aimed to restore the greatness of ancient Rome, and they legitimised their enterprise by claiming entitlement to that illustrious past on the basis of continuity of place and the ancient scheme of renovatio. By contrast, Celtis argued variously both that the greatness of ancient Rome – via the translatio imperii and translatio studii – actually belonged in Germany, and that Germany revived her own ancient greatness with the same Italian methods. In addition, to make room for this alternative Renaissance, Celtis countered the claims of Rome to her own past, either by disseminating negative stereotypes of Rome and Italy or by suggesting that Rome’s role was now played out.