2025–6: No Reading Group

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2024–5: Pedagogy

The 2024-2025 Janus Project reading group will run from Michaelmas Week 5 (13 November) through Hilary week 8 (12 March). According to the year’s theme — “Pedagogy: The language of moral didactic between Greco-Roman and East Asian Classics” — we will look at selections from the ‘greatest hits’ of Latin didactic texts from and about East Asia (see list below). Meetings will take place in the Classics Faculty (Ioannou Centre, 66 St. Giles).

There will be a remote option to join on Teams (email cynthia.liu@classics.ox.ac.uk for a link).

The format of the reading group is welcoming and participatory: after a brief contextualising introduction, we read and translate together each week’s selection, discussing any questions or points of interest. No prior familiarity of the texts is required, though some knowledge of Latin will be useful. If you would like to take part in selecting the excerpts from and leading the discussion on any of the texts below, please contact cynthia.liu@classics.ox.ac.uk.

Text selections to come from:

François Noël’s Sinensis Imperii Libri Classici Sex

Theophilus Bayer’s Museum Sinicum 

Michael Boym’s Flora Sinensis

Tuberville Needham’s De Inscriptione quadam Aegyptica Taurini inventa et characteribus Aegyptiis olim et sinis communibus exarata  

Philippe Couplet ed. Confucius Sinarum Philosophus

Johann Adam Schall von Bell’s Historica Relatio

Athanasius Kircher’s China Illustrata

Ferdinand Verbiest’s Astronomia Europaea

Matteo Ricci’s De Christiana Expeditione

Martino Martini’s De Bello Tartarico

Andreas Cleyer’s Specimen Medicinae Sinicae, sive Opuscula Medica ad Mentem Sinensium 

Isaac Vossius’ ‘De artibus et de scientiis sinarum’ in Variarum Observationum Liber

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2024: Angelo Zottoli’s Cursus Litteraturae Sinicae

Our inaugural reading group will tackle Angelo Zottoli’s Cursus Litteraturae Sinicae. Meetings will happen weekly at Oriel College, beginning Wednesday Week 2 of Hilary Term at 3pm. There will be a remote option to join on Teams (email cynthia.liu@classics.ox.ac.uk for a link).

The format of the reading group is welcoming and participatory: after a brief contextualising introduction, we read and translate together each week’s selection, discussing any questions or points of interest. No prior familiarity of the texts is required, though some knowledge of Latin will be useful. If you would like to take part in selecting the excerpts from and leading the discussion on any of the texts below, please contact cynthia.liu@classics.ox.ac.uk.