From Rooftop to Chamber: Prayer in Jerome’s Rendering of the Book of Judith

Florian Wöller discusses the biblical book of Judith in a Latin rendering (4th c. AD) by the church father Jerome. This book tells the story of a courageous widow who saved Israel from the Assyrians by killing the Assyrian general Holofernes. In the oldest versions of the story, Judith prays on the roof of her house, but in Jerome's translation, she prays in a cubiculum. In this talk, Florian investigates Jerome's move of Judith's place of prayer, contextualizing it with further late antique notions of cubiculum prayer, and suggesting a reading of Judith's cubiculum as a private-public place of prayer.

Om Podcasten

Host Natália da Silva Perez talks to guests about privacy from a historical perspective. Invited scholars come from a range of disciplines beyond history, including law, social and computer sciences, and philosophy. Lectures and seminars from the Centre for Privacy Studies are also featured in this show.