CSI 2007

The 2007 Summer Institute sponsored by the Classical Association of New England unfolded for the twenty-fifth consecutive year on the campus of Dartmouth College from 9-14 July. Once again, the learning and camaraderie shared by its eighty participants was both mirabile dictu and mirabile visu. Under the very able directorship of College of the Holy Cross Professor Ellen Perry, assisted by the indispensable Ken Wheeling and Erin Bennett, the institute provided six days and nights of lectures, performances, mini-courses, study sessions and ancient language reading groups to new and repeat attendees from every New England state and places far beyond the six-state region. The extraordinary opportunities for professional development during the week reminded every participant of just how relevant the institute’s title this year really is: “BEYOND ANTIQUITY: The Legacy of the Classical World.” That legacy is both individually and collectively yours and mine, and at CSI one can feel the very essence of what it means to be the beneficiary of antiquity’s many lessons about the evolution of the human condition.

The opening Matthew Wiencke Memorial Lecture delivered by one of CSI’s founders, Professor Edward Bradley, Dartmouth College, Emeritus, was a brilliant look at the “Face of Reconciliation” as we can see it throughout history, beginning with the Homeric model found in the Iliad. From the outset, then, Bradley’s talk left all of those in attendance with profound things to ponder throughout the institute’s six days. The lectures provided insight into myriad effects of antiquity in the language, art, architecture literature and history of Western cultures over the past two millennia.  In subsequent morning lectures, Roger Ulrich of Dartmouth College looked at the terrible loss to the City of New York when the original classically motivated Pennsylvania Railroad Station was demolished in 1967. Blaise Nagy, College of the Holy Cross, told many in the audience things they never knew about the “Good Grecian, Thomas Hobbes”. Phyllis Katz, Dartmouth College, in her lecture named for the late Gloria Shaw Duclos, another CSI founder, investigated the remarkable “Visions from Heaven and Hell” in the DIVINE COMEDY. T. Barton Thurber, Hood Art Museum, spoke about what the view of ancient Rome may have been for those living in the eighteenth century. Ned Lebow, Dartmouth College, a CSI favorite detailed Homer’s “Ideal Type Honor Society” and Peter Cosgrove of Dartmouth College looked at “Edward Gibbon and his Sources.”  Mary (Heidi) Wilson, Independent Scholar gave a fascinating talk on “Apollonius of Rhodes: Epic for Realists.”  The closing lecture on Saturday was the inaugural Phyllis B. Katz Lecture given by David Lupher from the University of Puget Sound, and it was a thoughtful overview of the place of Latin in the Western World through the centuries. He informed the audience (there were many from the public in this year’s audiences) that the word Latin in Latin America really has not much to do with causa nostra. The lecture series, then, and its subsequent discussion periods provided a variety of enriching and informative topics, which were certainly in keeping with the 2007 CSI theme.

Everyone at CSI spent two and a half hours daily in the classroom. One could select two mini-courses from an excellent menu of offerings among which were Intensive Greek, Classical Forms, Women in Classical Thought, Ovid and the Renaissance, Biblical Studies, the “Reception” of Vergil, British Poets, Ovid in Latin and Homer in English. The discussions at breakfast, lunch and dinner often centered on the learning gleaned from these wonderful courses taught by some of the region’s best scholars. Time was also set aside for those who wished to partake of a one day Symposium on Augustus Saint-Gaudens at the Hood Museum of Art. (One of this Dartmouth treasure’s typical signs of hospitality was a special arrangement of some of the museum’s classical collection for CSI registrants and the invitation to an evening of live chamber music.)

Without question, a CSI 2007 highlight took place on Friday evening after the banquet, when its members witnessed a true master of epic poetry reading, Jack Mitchell from the College of the Holy Cross. Mitchell read metrically a condensed version of the “Plains of Abraham”, and served as a brilliant reminder to us all of the indebtedness we North Americans have to our cultural roots from classical antiquity.

There are always so many good things to say about this incredible summer gathering in the Upper Connecticut River Valley of New Hampshire. During that wonderful week, many around the country may have been gleefully awaiting the release of the new Harry Potter entry, or the announcement about which American Springfield (Vermont the winner) would host the release of the “Simpsons Movie”.  Eighty spirited souls at CSI, however, were experiencing the sights and sounds of things ancient, medieval, Renaissance and modern in an enlightening, engaging and encouraging atmosphere true to the institute’s long tradition. Among them were the very young, and the not so young. Among them were high school and college students, Dartmouth alums, teachers, professors and even a former Latin teacher who now owns her own real estate agency. Once at CSI, it seems to matter not who one is or from what place he or she hails. What seems to matter is that one becomes a welcome guest at the CSI life-long learning banquet with so much knowledge to acquire in six short days and nights. One enjoys a hearty meal for a truly decent price!

The anticipated dates for the twenty-sixth CANE Summer Institute at Dartmouth College are 14-19 July 2008.  For a modest additional cost, air-conditioned housing during the institute is now available. John Higgins will be the next CSI director, so expect that the program (focusing on revolution) will be as tempting and superb as ever. You will never regret being among those who enlist as participants in this delightful and uplifting intellectual and social elixir as it begins its second quarter century. Reaping its rewards for many months and years thereafter, you may also become one of its newest and most ardent supporters!