23 - 24 October 2009
THE MUSES AND THEIR AFTERLIFE IN POST-CLASSICAL EUROPE
Speakers include: Kathleen Christian, John Dillon, Clare Guest, Stanko Kokole, Penelope Murray, Bissera Pentcheva, Ulrich Pfisterer, Karin Schlapbach, Monika Schmitter, Jan Söffner, Claudia Wedepohl and Brigitte van Wymeersch
Organized by: Claudia Wedepohl (The Warburg Institute), Kathleen Christian (University of Pittsburgh), Clare Guest (University of Agder)

As personifications of the arts from antiquity to the present, the Muses have been self-evident subjects of study in a wide variety of academic fields. This colloquium will map out changes in their reception over time, tracing how the afterlife of the Muses sheds light on cultural notions of creativity and on the changing organization of artistic disciplines.
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6 - 7 November 2009
BETWEEN ORIENT AND OCCIDENT
Organized by Benno van Dalen (Ludwig Maximilians University, Munich, Germany). Speakers will include:
Sonja Brentjes (Universidad de Sevilla, Spain); Charles Burnett (Warburg Institute, London); Pieter De Leemans (De Wulf-Mansion Centre, Leuven, Belgium); Bruce S. Eastwood (University of Kentucky, Lexington (KY), USA); Dag Nikolaus Hasse (Julius-Maximilians-Universität, Würzburg); Jan P. Hogendijk (Universiteit Utrecht, Niederlande); David Juste (University of Sydney, Australia); Kim Plofker (Union College, Schenectady (NY), USA); Peter E. Pormann (Warwick University, England); Stefan Schröder (Universität Kassel, Germany); Michael H. Shank (University of Wisconsin, Madison (WI), USA); Renate Smithuis (Centre for Jewish Studies, University of Manchester); John Steele (Brown University, Providence (RI), USA); Hidemi Takahashi (University of Tokyo, Japan); Anne Tihon (Université Catholique, Louvain-de-la-Neuve, Belgiën); Warren Van Egmond (Tempe (AZ), USA)
This conference, to be held in Munich, will place next to each other a wide range of cases of transmission involving the Eastern world and Europe over a period of nearly 2000 years. In this way it is hoped to obtain more insight into the general process of transmission of scientific knowledge than is possible by means of studies dealing with specific instances.

The conference is organized as part of the project “Wissenstransfer zwischen Orient und Okzident”, which was granted under the “initiative of excellence” of the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich. Besides Benno van Dalen as a researcher, this project allows the appointment of two guest professors for half a year, currently Prof. Charles Burnett (Warburg Institute).
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13 - 14 November 2009
MEDICINE AND CLASSICISM IN COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE
Speakers will include: David Arnold, Guy Attewell, David Hardiman, Helen King, Pauline Koetschet, Elaine Leong, Vivienne Lo, Anne-Marie Moulin, Vivian Nutton, Peter E. Pormann, Miri Shefer and Ronit Yoeli Tlalim.
The term ‘classical’ has come to be applied to a number of medical traditions around the world, from ancient to modern times and from Europe and the Middle East to South Asia and East Asia. The conference will bring together scholars from different backgrounds to consider what is meant by the term ‘classical’ when applied to medicine. Among the main questions to be examined are: Does ‘classical’ denote adherence to a set of written, canonical sources (and, if so, how do those sources acquire their authority)? Does it indicate certain kinds of training or understandings of the body and disease-causation (perhaps in conscious contrast to non-‘classical’ concepts of healing)? Does ‘classical’ signify certain ways in which medicine is practised (and on whom)? How does it reflect and inform the social standing of the practitioners, and how do they defend their traditions in the face of criticism (as from modern, western medicine)? As well as addressing these questions in relation to specific times and places, the participants will also consider how concepts of medical classicism have spread and how effectively a concept of ‘classical medicine’ enables us to make comparisons and recognise connections between one medical tradition and another.

Organised by David Arnold and Peter E. Pormann (University of Warwick). For further information please contact David Arnold (d.arnold@warwick.ac.uk) or Peter E. Pormann (p.e.pormann@warwick.ac.uk).
Click here to download the conference poster (pdf 4 mb)
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12 February 2010
FOURTEENTH-CENTURY CLASSICISM: BERNAT METGE AND PETRARCH
Speakers will include: Lola Badia, Romana Brovia, Lluís Cabré, Alejandro Coroleu, Stefano Maria Cingolani, Enrico Fenzi, Roger Friedlein, Barry Taylor and JaumeTorró.
This conference examines the early influence of Petrarch’s Latin works in the Crown of Aragon and France, and focuses on Bernat Metge (c. 1348-1413), the first writer to adapt Petrarch in the Iberian Peninsula.

Organised by Lluís Cabré and Alejandro Coroleu (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona) and Jill Kraye (Warburg Institute).
For further information, please contact Lluís Cabré
(e-mail: Lluis.Cabre@uab.cat) or Alejandro Coroleu
(e-mail: Alejandro.Coroleu@icrea.cat).

Click here to download the programme
Click here to download the poster (pdf 1 mb)

10 - 12 June 2010
HISTORIA SACRA: RENAISSANCE VISIONS OF CHRISTIAN ORIGINS

Adam Beaver, Liam Brockey, Euan Cameron, David Collins, Simon Ditchfield, Anthony Grafton, Giuseppe Guazzelli, Jean-Marie Le Gall, Howard Louthan, Margaret Meserve, Kenneth Mills, Ros Oates, Matthias Pohlig, Jean-Louis Quantin, Salvador Ryan, Kate van Liere, Alex Walsham and Joanna Weinberg 

NB: The opening lecture will take place at the Warburg Institute on 10 June at 5.30 pm
The rest of the conference will take place on 11 and 12 June at the University of Notre Dame London Centre, 1 Suffolk St, London SW1Y 4HGAT

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18 June 2010
SENSE, AFFECT AND SELF-PRESERVATION IN BERNARDINO TELESIO (1509-1588)

Speakers include: Michaela Boenke, Roberto Bondì, Andrew Campbell, Stephen Clucas, Jean-Paul De Lucca, Sabrina Ebbersmeyer, Guido Giglioni, Nuccio Ordine, Anna Laura Puliafito.

The fifth centenary of Bernardino Telesio’s birth provides an opportunity to revisit some of the most characteristic themes in his philosophy. This one-day conference will focus on the key notions of sense (sensus), affect (affectus and passio) and self-preservation (conservatio). Telesio’s cosmology rests on the basic assumption that the universe is maintained in a steady-state of equilibrium by the inherently responsive character of matter. Material nature, in other words, has the ability to perceive and to be affected; and, as a consequence, the universe works as an autonomous domain of actions and reactions, both in a physical and psychological sense and in an ethical and political one. A central feature of Telesio’s philosophy is his belief that the material spirit is aware of everything (omniscius omnino). In order to contribute to the self-preservation of the universe, the spirit must perceive the nature and power of each individual thing, infer what it cannot perceive in a direct way, and remember everything that has happened in the past, as well as foreseeing future developments. It has the ability to react to every single thing and to adjust itself to the constantly changing conditions of the universe. The notion of an omniscient sapientia inherent in nature represents the metaphysical foundation of the universe’s activity and its disposition to be affected by everything. Telesio wrote that everything in the universe has the capacity to be affected (nihil apud nos impatibile est).

Telesio’s concept of sense has metaphysical, physiological, ethical, epistemological and aesthetic aspects. Sensus stands for the constitutive nature of the active powers (heat and cold); it denotes the spirit’s ability to perceive its surrounding reality — the actual act of sensation; it is a criterion of knowledge and intelligibility; finally, it produces a canon of aesthetic taste and judgement. Given these premises, human knowledge and life can be seen as a natural expression of the spirit’s activity and a re-enactment of the original sentience of nature. In Telesio’s philosophy, the senses and sense knowledge are manifestations of the very life of nature.

By investigating the various interrelationships between sense, affect and self-preservation in both the natural and human world, this international conference at the Warburg Institute will reassess the significance of Telesio’s philosophy both for his time and for later centuries.

Click here to access the programme
Click here to download the conference poster (pdf 7 mb)