Kostiantyn Riabtsev

PhD candidate - 2nd cohort

KOSTIANTYN RIABTSEV is a research associate at the DFG-funded Research Training Group 2792 “Autonomy of Heteronomous Texts in Antiquity and the Middle Ages” in the Faculty of Philosophy.

He obtained a BA in Classics at the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv with a thesis on lingua-stylistic means of expressing persuasiveness in the speeches of Demosthenes and Cicero. An MA with a dissertation on Petrarch’s Secretum followed, where he provided the first-ever partial translation of the dialogue into Ukrainian.

From 2021 to 2025 he studied Ancient Greek, Latin, Ancient Philosophy and the Humanities at the Accademia Vivarium Novum in Italy, where he also taught a number of courses and seminars in Ancient Greek and Latin.

His doctoral research explores the reception of Plato’s Timaeus in the Latin West from Pre-Reformation to Counter-Reformation.

Research project

My research argues that the Timaeus has been one of the major authorities used from Pre-Reformation until Counter-Reformation to either support or condemn the radical views of Western Christianity. One of the crucial topics discussed in these contexts was the perfect intelligible world created by the demiurge as model for the sensible world (Tim. 29c-31a). The doctrine of mundus archetypus, the world of ideas, describes the perfect world that enables the constitution of metaphysical and epistemological dialectic between the sensible and the intelligible.

Within my research I intend to make accessible a previously ignored cultural patrimony by editing hitherto unpublished texts. Based on these critical editions, I will address a major gap in scholarship by examining the reception of the Timaeus in the Latin West between the famous and well-studied School of Chartres and the Italian Renaissance. The main goal of my project is to provide the first-ever doctrinal study of the use of the Timaeus in two major moments of the Western thought: the beginning of the Reformation (from John Wyclif to Jan Hus) and Counter-Reformation. This project revisits a seminal hermeneutical concept in history of philosophy: Plato Christianus.

Three major sections articulate my PhD project: (i) an introduction to the reception of the doctrine of mundus archetypus in the Latin West (12th-13th-c.); (ii) a study with critical editions of the reading of the Timaeus in 14th-15th-c. in Pre-Reformation, from John Wyclif to Jan Hus; (iii) a study with partial critical editions from commentaries on the Timaeus from the 15th-16th-c., during the Reformation and Counter-Reformation.

Curriculum Vitae

2023-24 (Academic Year)

International Academy Vivarium Novum:

  • In-detail Readings in Latin of Horace’s “Odes” for the 1st year students within Ancient Poetry and Metric course
  • In-detail Readings in Latin of Ovid’s “Metamorphoses” for the 1st year students within Ancient Poetry and Metric course
  • Latin and Ancient Greek Classes for visiting high-school groups
Academic education
Since Apr. 2025

Doctoral Research Associate at the DFG Research Training Group 2792 "Autonomy of Heteronomous Texts in Antiquity and the Middle Ages", Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Germany

2023

MA in Classics, specialization «Classical Languages and Literatures (Translation Included)», educational programme «Classical Studies and West-European Language», Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Ukraine: diploma with honours, thesis «De secreto conflictu curarum mearum by Francesco Petrarch: internal dialogue as a reflection of the creation of a new worldview»

2021

BA in Classics in specialization «Classical Languages and Literatures (Translation Included)», educational programme «Classical Philology and the English Language», Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Ukraine: diploma with honours, thesis «Lingua-stylistic means of expressing persuasiveness in the rhetorical discourse of Antiquity (based on the speeches of Demosthenes and Cicero)»

2022

Islamic Philosophy course at the International Academy Vivarium Novum (Frascati, RM, Italy)

2021

ΙΑΣΩΝ Online School of Modern Greek Language and Culture for Advanced Level (Γ1.1.1) organised by Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (course with evaluation, successfully completed with the highest possible score: 10/10) (with scholarship)

2021

OLP Oxford Online Summer School of Latin for Advanced Level (with scholarship)

2021

OLP Oxford Online Summer School of Ancient Greek for Intermediate Level (highest accessible at the time within OLP programmes) (with scholarship)

Teaching
2024-25 (Academic Year)

International Academy Vivarium Novum: Advanced Reading Seminars in Ancient Greek on Demosthenes’ “On the Crown” (supported by biographical and stylistic introduction by means of anthology from Cicero, Dionysius of Halicarnassus and Plutarch) for the 2nd+ year students within Ancient Greek Literature course

2024 (Summer Programme)

International Academy Vivarium Novum: - Introductory Ancient Greek History lecture course in English for the future 1st year students

  • Advanced Reading Seminars in Latin on Einhard’s “Vita Karoli Magni” within “Otia Latina”
  • Advanced Reading Seminars in Ancient Greek on Euripides’ “Iphigenia in Aulis” within “Ἑλληνικὴ συνουσία”
  • Advanced Reading Seminars in Ancient Greek on Homer’s “Odyssey” within “Ἑλληνικὴ συνουσία”
  • Latin and Ancient Greek Tutoring Classes held in person in Latin and Ancient Greek respectively
  • Ancient Greek Online Tutoring Classes in Ancient Greek
2023 (Summer Programme)

International Academy Vivarium Novum:

  • Introductory Ancient Greek History lecture course in English for the future 1st year students
  • Ancient Greek History lecture course in Latin for the future 2nd year students
  • Advanced Reading Seminars in Latin on Petrarch’s “De secreto conflictu curarum mearum” within “Otia Latina”
  • Advanced Reading Seminars in Ancient Greek on Polybius’ “Histories” within “Ἑλληνικὴ συνουσία”
  • Advanced Reading Seminars in Ancient Greek on Homer’s “Odyssey” within “Ἑλληνικὴ συνουσία”
  • Advanced Reading Seminars in Ancient Greek on Procopius’ “Gothic War” within “Ἑλληνικὴ συνουσία”
  • Ancient Greek Online Tutoring Classes in Ancient Greek

 

2022-2023 (Academic Year)

International Academy Vivarium Novum:

  • In-detail Readings in Latin of Cicero’s 2nd Philippic for the 1st year students within Roman Literature course - Advanced Reading Seminars in Latin on Helmold’s “Chronica Slavorum” for the 2nd+ year students within Medieval Literature course
  • In-detail Readings in Latin of Ovid’s “Metamorphoses” for the 1st year students within Ancient Poetry and Metric course

 

2022 (Summer Programme)

International Academy Vivarium Novum:

  • Advanced Reading Seminars in Latin on Livy’s “Ab Urbe condita” within “Otia Latina”
  • Advanced Reading Seminars in Ancient Greek on the Fall of Constantinople Testimonies by contemporary historians within “Ἑλληνικὴ συνουσία”
  • Advanced Reading Seminars in Ancient Greek on Leo the Deacon’s “History” within “Ἑλληνικὴ συνουσία”
  • Advanced Reading Seminars in Ancient Greek on Procopius’ “History of the Wars”, “Buildings” and “Secret History” within “Ἑλληνικὴ συνουσία”
  • Advanced Reading Seminars in Ancient Greek on Demosthenes’ 1st Philippic (supported by biographical and stylistic introduction by means of anthology from Cicero, Dionysius of Halicarnassus and Plutarch) within “Ἑλληνικὴ συνουσία”
  • Latin Online Tutoring Classes in Latin
  • Ancient Greek Online Tutoring Classes in Ancient Greek

 

2021-2022 (Academic Year)

International Academy Vivarium Novum:

  • In-detail Readings in Latin of Cicero’s 2nd Philippic for the 1st year students within Roman Literature course
  • Advanced Reading Seminars in Ancient Greek on Demosthenes’ 1st Philippic (supported by biographical and stylistic introduction by means of anthology from Cicero, Dionysius of Halicarnassus and Plutarch) for the 2nd+ year students within Ancient Greek Literature course

 

2018-2019

Guest Lecturer (with speeches on Rhetoric) at Students Lectorium "РЕПЛІКА" organised by the Students Parliament of the Educational and Scientific Institute of Philology at Taras Shevchenko National University, Kyiv

Organisation of Academic Events
2021-2025

2021-2025: Contributor to the International Academy Vivarium Novum conferences (including simultaneous translation of speeches and presentations within language pairs English-Latin, Italian-Latin, Ancient Greek-Latin, Latin-English, Ancient Greek-English), Frascati

14th September 2021

Organiser of a lecture with practical session elements by Dr Irene Polinskaya (King’s College London) on “The role of epigraphic in discovering ancient monuments” in Ukrainian Archaeological Museum, Kyiv

7th November 2019

Co-organiser of the “Ancient Polis” event – workshop on Ancient Greek language, history, literature and philosophy, Kyiv

Publications
2019

Peer-review articles: Lazer-Pankiv O. V., Riabtsev K. A. ‘Peculiarities of Expressing Persuasiveness in Demosthenes’ Philippics’ in Studia Linguistica Vol. XV, edited by ЛОГОС, Kyiv, 2019, p. 125-139.

2019 - 2021

Editorial contributions as Project Assistant at the Department of General Linguistics, Classical Philology and Neohellenistics of the Educational and Scientific Institute of Philology at Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv (2019-2021):

  • Revising and correcting the new edition of Ancient Mythology, Ancient Literature and Ancient Rhetoric Textbook (2020-2021)
  • Revising, correcting and re-arranging the new amplified edition of Latin Language University Textbook, whose original edition is honoured and highly recommended by the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine (2020)
  • Revising and correcting the new Ukrainian – Ancient Greek – Modern Greek – English Dictionary (2020)
  • Providing the initial translation of a previously unknown letter by Pylyp Orlyk (Ukrainian Cossack military commander, Hetman in exile, political figure of 17th-18th century) to the Swedish king (2019)

Grants and awards

2021-2025

Full-Scholarship at the International Academy Vivarium Novum (Frascati, RM, Italy) for the Study of Ancient Greek and Latin Languages, Ancient Greek and Roman Literature, Ancient Philosophy, History and Culture (with all the subjects being fully taught either in Latin or in Ancient Greek); for the Study of Special Courses held by acknowledged visiting professors within the Academy’s Superior Studies Programme, e.g. Plato’s Timaeus by Prof. Franco Ferrari, Spinoza’s Ethica by Prof. Filippo Mignini, Renaissance Cosmology by Prof. Miguel Angel Granada etc.

2021

1st place at the University Contest for Classics

2020

Mitacs Globalink Research Internship for the project «Associations in the Western Roman Provinces (I BCE – IV CE)» led by Professor Richard Ascough (Queen's University, Kingston) [declined]

2010, 2011

2-time National Ukrainian Olympiad Winner for School Students in Modern Greek