This study presents a reconstruction of the performance of the melancholic character in Golden Age theater. It argues that critics have overlooked the way this character type was acted on the original stage. Using Lope’s El Príncipe melancólico [The Melancholic Prince] as a case-study to speculate on the actor’s paralinguistic gestures and movem…[Read more]

The CNTC’s 2017 production of La dama duende presented the transition between the two main characters’ rooms in the third jornada using two illuminated windows at the rear wall of the stage. The comparison between this rendition and other modern productions reveals two problems in adaptation: the fidelity with the original and the und…[Read more]

This paleographic comparison serves to support my argument in the following publication:

Van Rooy, Raf. Accepted. “Ippolita Maria Sforza, student and patroness of Greek in Milan (ca. 1465).” Renaissance Quarterly.

GB Folengo Commentry on Psalm 51, translated into English with brief annotations

Cyprian’s Epistle 63 represents the earliest extant account of the proper meaning and administration of the eucharistic cup. Against a group of Christians who were taking only water, Cyprian argues that wine is necessary for the ritual to be effective. While there has been much discussion surrounding the biblical references marshaled by Cyprian t…[Read more]

Humankind, for Gregory of Nyssa, was poisoned through a primordial act of eating the forbidden fruit from the Garden of Eden. As a result, the toxin of sin and death has been blended into the body and soul of each person, dispersing itself throughout the component parts of their nature. If eating and drinking initiated the spiritual and physical…[Read more]

Review of Douglas Boin’s Coming Out Christian in the Roman World

Review of Seducing Augustine, by Virginia Burrus, Karmen MacKendrick, and Mark Jordan (2010)

overview on the history of the card game “Höllfahren” or “in die Höll”

This paper re-examines the question of the presence of distinct sociolects in Classical Athenian tragedy (Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides). While the general idea is that all characters in tragedy spoke a similar language, without much distinction between sociolects that could have marked their socio-political status, some recent research has…[Read more]

In this article, I examine how the apocryphal Acts of John depicts wealthy Christian
converts as part of the “Christianization” of Ephesus. I note how the Acts of John
uses its portrayal of leading citizens not only to critique, but to preserve and
adapt prevailing expectations surrounding Greco-Roman cultic patronage. My
analysis com…[Read more]

The Persian King Darius I (reigned 522-486 BCE) constructed a canal connecting the Nile to the Red Sea – an ancient precursor to the Suez Canal that made it possible to sail from Egypt to Persia, and to places in between.

Chapter on the interactions between Roman theatrical tradition and late dramatic production in Greek language.

Introductory chapter to the collective volume ‘Theatre and Metatheare: Definitions, Problems, Limits’

The aim of this book is to explore the definition(s) of ‘theatre’ and ‘metatheatre’ that scholars use when studying the ancient Greek world. Although in modern languages their meaning is mostly straightforward, both concepts become problematical when applied to ancient reality. In fact, ‘theatre’ as well as ‘metatheatre’ are used in many differe…[Read more]