The competition for the Josef Delz Prize for the promotion of Latin in schools once again met with great interest in the 2023/2024 school year. The jury headed by Prof Dr Cédric Scheidegger Lämmle read the works submitted by pupils from Gymnase Auguste Piccard, Lausanne, Kantonsschule Limmattal, Kantonsschule Rychenberg, Winterthur, Kantonsschule Solothurn, Kollegium Spiritus Sanctus, Brig, and Literar- und Realgymnasium Rämibühl, Zurich, with great interest. Three works stood out from a strong field, whose authors had each found their own approach to Roman literature and culture with thematically very different works - from a study of political philosophy in the Renaissance to an investigation into the reception of Virgil in Romantic opera and a novellistic work on myth. The jury therefore decided to split the first prize and honour these three special works, which show how varied and stimulating the teaching of Latin in schools is. The award ceremony took place on 25 September 2024 in the rooms of the Department of Classical Studies.

1st prize ex aequo

Anita Widmer, Kantonsschule Rychenberg Winterthur (Betreuer: F. Gerber, T. Grütter)
for her works
princeps legibus solutus non est. Eine Untersuchung zum kontraktualistischen Gedanken der Volkssouveränität in Salamonios Dialog De principatu
and
Mario Salamonio degli Alberteschi: Über das Fürstentum / De principatu. Übersetzt und herausgegeben von Anita Widmer

Anita Widmer presented the jury with two interlinked works of impressive quality. In an independent edition and translation, she has analysed the treatise De principatu by the now little-known Renaissance scholar Mario Salamonio degli Alberteschi (1450-1533). In it, Salomonio sheds light on a question that is unfortunately highly topical today: that of the legitimisation and need for legitimisation of the power of the ruler in the state. Anita Widmer has provided the translation with a lucid study that analyses Salomonio's philosophy of the state and classifies it in terms of the history of ideas. The author shows that Salomonio consistently links the power of the prince to the sovereignty of the citizenry and advocates a conception of the state that is based on an actual social or ruling contract. The dialogue thus anticipates ideas that only really gained a foothold in the Enlightenment. It is one of the many merits of Anita Widmer's study that she clearly emphasises the innovative power of Solomonio's treatise.

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1st prize ex aequo

Chantal Bollinger, Kantonsschule Limmattal (Betreuerin: M. Kissling)
for her work
Ungehörte Stimmen. Feministische Neuerzählung eines antiken Mythos

Chantal Bollinger has taken a completely different path with her work Ungehörte Stimmen (Unheard Voices), which impresses with its reflective and structured approach: right into the narrated landscapes of Ovid's Metamorphoses. She takes as her starting point the genre of feminist retellings of ancient material, which have recently appeared in increasing numbers (Margaret Atwood's Penelopiad or Madeline Miller's Circe spring to mind). This work examines the structure of such paraphrases and adaptations and shows the extent to which contemporary social concerns can be addressed here. However, this critical work only forms the background for a creative one: the retelling and myth correction of the story of the momentous encounter between the nymph Daphne and the god Apollo from the first book of Ovid's Metamorphoses. Chantal Bollinger's short story is as sensitive as it is entertaining, pointedly formulated and thought-provoking: the Ovidian material has arrived in the age of #metoo.

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2nd prize

Mathéo Klingler, Gymnase Auguste Piccard (Betreuerin: E. Stoll)
for his work
Enée, un héros en voyage à travers les arts. Analyse littéraire et musicale de l’épopée de Virgile et de l’opéra de Berlioz

Mathéo Klingler's work combines a keen sense of ancient literature with an in-depth knowledge of classical music. In meticulous textual work and on the basis of his own translation from Latin, he compares Virgil's Aeneid with the libretto of Hector Berlioz's opera Les Troyens, records and explains similarities with and deviations from the ancient text and shows how the potential meaning of Virgil's epic could be actualised in the Romantic period. A particular achievement of the work is also that it traces how the text is brought to new life through Berlioz's music.

Cédric Scheidegger-Lämmle on behalf of the jury

Dr. Anne-Sophie Meyer
Prof. Dr. Cédric Scheidegger Lämmle
PD Dr. Petra Schierl

Basel in September 2024