The Virgil Society

THE Virgil Society was founded in 1943, and its first President, the poet T.S. Eliot, delivered What is a Classic? as his Presidential Address in the following year. The purpose of the Society was and is to unite all those who cherish the central educational tradition of Western Europe. Of that tradition Virgil is the symbol. Membership is open to all those who are in sympathy, whether they read Latin or not.

There are normally five or six meetings each year in London, held on Saturday afternoons in Senate House, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HU.

The speakers include both amateur and professional scholars, many of them Virgilians of international repute. Lectures are followed by refreshments, giving an opportunity to meet the speaker and other members of the Society.

Most lectures are published in full in the Proceedings of the Virgil Society, which also include some reviews of works relevant to Virgil. Members also receive a Newsletter, which appears twice a year.

Virgil Society Programme: 2018-19

Meetings are held with the support of the Institute of Classical Studies.

All meetings take place in Senate House, Malet Street, University of London, WC1E 7HU.

Saturday 20 October 2018 at 2.00 pm (please note earlier start):
Room 349, Senate House South Block
Presidential Address: Natalie Haynes (writer, journalist and broadcaster)
'The Female Hero and the Aeneid'

Saturday 1 December 2018 at 2.30 pm
Room G22/26, Senate House South Block
Dr Viola Starnone (University College, Dublin)
'The dress of Venus-as-virgin in Aeneid 1.314-417. Hermeneutic tradition and artistic representations through the ages'

Saturday 19 January 2019 at 2.30 pm
Room G22/G26, Senate House South Block
Professor Yasmin Haskell (University of Bristol)
'The tears in things: How early modern Jesuits ripped off Virgil'

Saturday 9 March 2019 at 2.30pm: : Room G22/26 South Block
Discussion meeting led by John Hazel: 'Virgil and Horace'
This meeting will take the form of a 20-minute talk from John Hazel followed by discussion among members of the Society

Saturday 11 May 2019 (all-day meeting)
Room G22/26, Senate House South Block
11.30 am: ‘Reading the Poet: Aeneid 8’ (Virgil Society members led by John Hazel)
1 p.m. Lunch
2.30 p.m. AGM
3 pm: Professor Rory Egan (University of Manitoba)
‘'The Sights and Sounds of Virgil's Phyllis'’  

All Welcome!

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