The international conference /Cicero in Basel/ aims at charting the presence of the statesman, orator, and philosopher M. Tullius Cicero in the cultural history of Basel, the city located in the border region between Switzer­land, Germany and France. While the study of Classical receptions tends to focus on particular cultural forms and discourses, the scope of the planned conference is programmatically open. Cicero in Baselexplores a broad spectrum of engagements with Cicero through the ages: from the manuscript tradition of his works, to Hu­ma­nist editions and commentaries, up to the political debates and con­tro­versies of today. In this, Cicero in Baselwill assess Cicero’s impact on the formation of a specific idea of Humanism in Basel as well as Basel’s role in Ci­cero’s Nachleben.

The aim of the conference is thus twofold: It seeks to contribute both to the study of Ciceronian reception and to fur­ther our understanding of the history and development of Basel and the regio Basiliensis. Indeed, we expect this cri­tical survey of Ciceronian reception histories from Basel to shed light on the emergence and development of the specific idea of Humanism that to this day plays a funda­mental role in the self-image and identity politics of the ‘Hu­manistenstadt Basel’.