Kurt Smolak

Kurt Smolak (born April 5, 1944 in Vienna ) is an Austrian classical philologist .

He is a student of Rudolf Hanslik , Albin Lesky and Herbert Hunger . In 1969 he received his doctorate sub auspiciis praesidentis rei publicae with a dissertation on the Christian-Latin didactic poetry Apotheosis of Prudentius . From 1969 he worked as an assistant at the Institute for Classical Philology (since 2000: Institute for Classical Philology, Middle and New Latin) at the University of Vienna , where he qualified as a professor in 1977 for “Classical Philology, Late and Middle Latin ” . With the first edition and commentary on the Latin poetry fragment Versus Agrestii episcopi de fide from the 5th century, he became an associate professor in Vienna in 1981 (after the unification of the professorial categories according to the 1997 service law, university professor). On June 25, 2009 he gave his farewell lecture .

From 1992 Smolak was a corresponding member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences , since 1999 he has been a full member, since 2001 also chairman of the Church Fathers ' Commission, also a member of the Commission for Ancient Literature and Latin Tradition, the Commission for Byzantine Studies, the Advisory Board of the Historical Institute in Rome and of the Academy Institute for the History of the Middle Ages, the publishing commission of the Academy and representatives of Austria in the International Middle Latin Committee, further member of the Vienna Catholic Academy, Vice President of the Centro internazionale per la poesia cristiana greca e latina ( Macerata , Italy) and since 2000 member of the Academia Latinitati Fovendae ( Rome).

His research focuses on Latin literature from late antiquity and the Middle Ages as well as early Byzantine poetry and Neo-Latin.

Web links

• Literature by and about Kurt Smolak in the catalog of the German National Library
• Smolak's curriculum vitae on the website of the Institute for Classical Philology, Middle and New Latin at the University of Vienna