Tamar Abramson 

 

Art History Department, Tel Aviv University

 

Tamar Abramson graduated from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (B.A., 2016) with an art history major in Renaissance and Roman art, and a classical studies minor in Latin. Since 2017 she is an M.A. student at the Tel Aviv University’s Department of Art History, currently working on her M.A. thesis under the supervision of Dr. Tamar Cholcman. Her thesis, “The Donatello Code: Attis-Amorino as a Proto-Emblematic Enigma,” offers a proto-emblematic reading of Donatello’s Attis-Amorino and turns to 15th century Florence’s humanistic society for clues as to the puzzling sculpture’s intended meaning and function.

 

Paper's Abstract:

 

Reading Between the Lines: Donatello and the literati

 

On the corner of via del Proconsolo and via de’ Pandolfini in Florence, one can still see today the portal of Vespasiano da Bisticci’s bookstore, carved in pietra serena: a garland of fruit with an open book in the center. In the 15th century, Vespasiano’s bookstore was famous not only for its owner, the most celebrated dealer of manuscripts and books of the times, but also, and perhaps primarily, as a gathering place for humanists, scholars and their followers. Besides being a bookstore, it was a forum for the discussion of manuscripts, scholarly endeavors, and the events of the day. Among the humanists who frequented the bookstore, were Cosimo de’ Medici, Donato Acciaiuoli, Leonardo Bruni, and Carlo Marsuppini. 

After closing the doors of his store in 1480, Vespasiano wrote The Lives of the Illustrious Men of the 15th Century (Vite di uomini illustri del Secolo XV), recording stories and anecdotes relating to the celebrated men he had met over the years. Among the biographies of patrons, statesmen and men of letters, the names of artists Donatello and Brunelleschi, as well as others, are mentioned by Vespasiano, in connection to their patrons. The case of Vespasiano’s bookstore thus demonstrates the inclusion of artists and artisans in the social milieu of literati in 15th century Florence, and their association with humanistic practices and knowledge. 

In this paper, I shall present the social, intellectual and commercial relationship between book dealer Vespasiano, patron of the arts Cosimo and artist Donatello, showcasing that in the 15th century connections were already well in place between art and letters. I further argue that we can identify specific artworks by Donatello, such as his bronze statue of David (c. 1430s-1440s), that express the artist’s role in the Republic of Letters in Florence, and the active role he played in the educated discourse of his social circle, composed of humanists, patrons and scholars.

 

 

 

Yael Barash

 

The Program for Religion Studies, Tel Aviv University

 

Yael Barash submitted recently her MA thesis about the importance of the senses in the epistemological thought of Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179), under the supervision of Prof. Youssef Schwartz. The importance of the senses is unique for Hildegard's time; most of her contemporary epistemology was based on rational arguments or meditation experience. In the Ph.D. thesis, Barash plans to research the relation of text and image in manuscript of Hildegard’s texts from the 12th and 13th centuries.

 

Paper's abstract:

 

An Image from a Vision: How Hildegard Conveyed Ideas through the Senses

 

Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179) was unique among 12th-century writers: she was both a woman and an original thinker. She attributed her knowledge and ideas to divine visions that began revealing themselves to her at a young age. Citing a heavenly source helped Hildegard carve out a legitimate public space for her body of thought.

In addition to medical-scientific texts and even a play, Hildegard authored three books on her mystical revelations, which touched upon major issues in 12th-century Renaissance intellectual discourse. Her depiction of sensory experiences were a foundation for abstract theories. Every vision she described begins with an ekprasis, or verbal commentary, on the sensory perception of the vision, followed by an allegorical interpretation with abstract conclusions. Hildegard believed that the senses were humans' natural way of learning about their environment. Thus, even transcendent ideas were mediated by the concrete. In this respect, Hildegard belonged to the beginning of the medieval return to empiricism.

Hildegard's use of language and illustration in her treatises begs the question of the relationship between image and text, especially given her unique ideas on the connection between the sensory and the divine. This question has not been comprehensively explored to date. I propose that Hildegard saw the illustrations a more profound way of conveying her ideas, as they connected the reader directly to the divine messages in her visions.

 

 

Mattia Biffis

 

The University of Oslo – The Norwegian Institute in Rome

 

Mattia Biffis (PhD Venice; MA London) is postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Oslo – Norwegian Institute in Rome. His research focuses on issues of geography and materiality and is mostly concerned with ideas of physical displacement and mobility of works of art and forms of knowledge in Early Modern Europe. He has worked on such topics as the representation of the exile; the quest for identity by early modern mobile individuals; the mobility of artworks and their provenance. His current project, entitled “Painting, Distance, and Circulation: Toward a Geography of Things in Early Modern Europe,” investigates the physical and material circumstances by which art is transmitted, displaced, and re-contextualized. As a former member (2013–2017) of the research project “Early Modern Source in Translation” based at the National Gallery of Art, Washington DC, he also maintains strong research interest in the field of Baroque art and culture, and in the history of art criticism. His paper at the “Republic of Letters” conference stems from his long-term interest in the connection between artists and intellectual culture, which also informed part of his PhD research (2013).

 

Paper's abstract:

 

“A Science of Names and Words:” Art, Knowledge, and the Learned Artist in Late Renaissance Venice

 

In recent years, a great effort has been made to describe the cultural and educational backgrounds of early modern artists, and to provide new evidence of their participation in the cultural life of their time. New in-depth investigations exemplary succeeded in the reconstruction of knowledge cultures relevant to the 16th and 17th century artists, bringing out new characters and projects so far overlooked. My paper contributes to this scholarly trend by bringing into focus the case of Giuseppe Porta (1520–1575), also known as Giuseppe Salviati, a well-established painter Tuscan by origin and active in mid- 16th century mostly in Venice and Rome. Salviati embodied, to some extent, the ideal of learned artist (or pictor doctus) delineated by Alberti: he was knowledgeable in astrology and mathematics, and his achievements in these fields received much praise and attention from contemporaries, including the polymath Daniele Barbaro and the philosopher Francesco Patrizi. His main work, an unfinished treatise composed in the 1550s that circulated only manuscript in Venice, deals with the connections between acoustics and astrology. Combining empirical observation with a simplistic theoretical background, Salviati endeavored to provide a rough classification of natural and artificial sounds, describing at the same time an ingenuous (as well as largely ineffective) means for their artificial reproduction. Such an unusual subject is close in spirit to some researches carried out in Venetian intellectual milieus, in particular in the celebrated and short-lived “Accademia Venetiana.” I will consider Salviati’s scholarly contributions in connection with contemporary scholarship, teasing out its peculiarities as well as its flaws. This analysis will provide a solid background to discuss the role of the artist in the context of the early modern Respublica Literaria, a trans-disciplinary institution whose boundaries were constantly debated and negotiated.

 

 

Tobias M. Bitterli

 

History Department,  The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

 

Tobias M. Bitterli received his B.A.  and M.A. in History and complementary studies from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem Israel. He is a Mosse Scholarship recipient and part of the PhD. Honors program at the Mandel School for Advanced Studies in the Humanities and a fellow at the Richard Koebner Minerva Center for German History at the Hebrew University. His dissertation, supervised by Prof. Dror Wahrman, is about cabinets of curiosities of the 16th and 17th century and how knowledge was produced and disseminated based on various collections ranging from royal collections, bourgeois collections to teaching collections. Underlying the research is an interdisciplinary approach including art history, history of science, material culture, history of the book and bibliography and sociology of scientific knowledge.

 

Paper's abstract:

 

“...wie ichs begeren iederzytt zu leeren” – Basilius Amerbach and the Artists

 

Basilius Amerbach (1533-1591) was a lawyer, professor and collector from Basel. Upon Boniface's death in 1562, Basilius inherited his father's Kunstkammer, or "cabinet of curiosities". He expanded the collection of artworks, antiques, coins, and wonders. His additions to the "Amerbach Cabinet" also included the equivalent of the entire contents of at least two goldsmiths' workshops. He was also part of the Republic of Letters and was in correspondence with wide array of humanist (Occo, Capito) and as well with many artists ranging from painters to sculptors. The topics of the correspondence between the artists and Basilius was mainly about the role of artists as agents for procuring objects for his collection. There were exceptions to the rule in which the artists and Basilius were discussing iconology or plans for a mural sundial. Basilius Amerbach asked his friend, the painter Hans Bock to sketch the plans of the Roman amphitheater which Amerbach and Ryff excavated at Augst, Switzerland. The correspondence between the artists and Basilius included among other things requests for tips on casting seals and life casts. The paper will present a case study on the relationship between humanists and artists and argues that artists were not only part of the Republic of Letters who refined their techniques and theories by exchanging ideas with humanists but were in the same way important for the collectors since they functioned as reliable agents for acquiring art works and objects for the humanist’s cabinets.

 

 

Alexandra Challenger

 

Art History Department, Florida State University

 

Alexandra Challenger is a doctoral candidate studying art history at Florida State University with a focus on printed works in early modern Germany. She is currently completing her dissertation, which examines the novel use of images and instruments in the texts of the cosmographer and mathematician, Peter Apian. For this, she recently received scholarships from the Herzog August Bibliothek and the Verband der Deutsch-Amerikanischen Clubs to conduct research in Munich and Wolfenbüttel, Germany.

 

Paper's abstract: 

 

Networks of Scientific and Artistic Knowledge in Peter Apian’s Astronomicum Caesareum

 

The Astronomicum Caesareum (1540), an astronomical work composed by Peter Apian and dedicated to the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, was a marvel of print technology that integrated a series of intricate and interactive paper instruments into the space of the page. Diverging from traditional approaches to astronomy, Apian’s stated goal in creating the Astronomicum was to replace mathematical calculations with illustrations and tools. As an inherently visual object intended for an elite consumer, the book was the product of a network of influences from aristocratic readers, to artistic illustrators and innovative toolmakers. While this object is often considered in light of its creative visual solutions to scientific problems, little has been done to understand this object’s position within the wider context of scientific and artistic exchange during the early modern period.

Instead, my paper addresses this object by positioning the Astronomicum as a case study for the creation and dissemination of knowledge in the sixteenth century. Apian’s technique used astronomical data—normally comprised of observations and mathematical theories—and transformed it into striking visual illustrations. Far from supplementing the text, these tools altered and replaced it. Yet these efforts were not a solitary endeavor and must be examined within the networks of the court and the print shop, which fostered new producers, consumers, and contexts for astronomical practices. By considering this work in terms of its position within a web of different influences, I demonstrate that creators of scientific works, like Apian, benefited from their relationships with artists and craftsmen and shaped the landscape of mathematical knowledge

 

 

Alexandra Dvorkin 

 

Art History Department, Tel Aviv University

 

Alexandra Dvorkin is a PhD student and a research assistant at the Art History Department in Tel Aviv University. Her MA thesis, written under the supervision of Dr. Sefy Hendler and Dr. Yuval Sapir, investigated the political use of botany by Duke Cosimo I de’ Medici (1519–1574) via the case studies of Benvenuto Cellini’s (1500–1571) Narcissus (1548–1565) and Bachiacca’s (1494–1557) Scrittoio murals (c. 1545). Her PhD research examines the role of botanical illustration in 16th century herbals, focusing especially on Mattioli’s I Discorsi, as part of a period of scientific uncertainty and fear of errors. 

 

Paper's Abstract:

 

Benvenuto Cellini's Narcissus: A Flowering and Colorful Ticket to the Republic of Letters

 

Benvenuto Cellini’s (1500–1571) Narcissus (1548–1565) is a complex and rather enigmatic sculpture. It presents the mythological youth who is about to metamorphose and burst into bloom, as suggested by the highly naturalistic, unprecedented narcissus flowers adorning his locks. At a moment’s thought, the composition seems to follow closely Ovid’s Metamorphoses, but an in-depth examination shows there are certain elements that absent from the Ovidian myth, or considered marginal, but present and emphasized in Cellini’s work. These unusual choices to include and accentuate them raise questions both regarding their sources and purposes, and regarding Cellini’s motivations. In addition, the circumstances of the work’s commission, as well as its originally planned location, remain unknown. It is known, however, that Cellini created it while working in service of Duke Cosimo I de’ Medici (1519–1574), who was an enthusiastic patron of arts, science, and scholarly endeavors. Therefore, my paper will explore Cellini’s Narcissus as a product of the intellectual discourse at the Medici court. 

As I will argue, Cellini was introduced in Cosimo’s court to the botanical developments of the period, and to the artistic-intellectual discourse of paragone, both of which, intertwined, find evidence in Cellini’s sculpture. Therefore, considering the artist’s patron, the sculpture’s composition and its way of setting, and Cellini’s participation in the paragone correspondence survey, my paper will suggest reading Narcissus as possibly grunting Cellini a citizenship, or at least a residency, in the Republic of Letters. I will show that Cellini not only combined between the different scientific and literary texts – such as: Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Pietro Andrea Mattioli’s I Discorsi, Pliny the Elder’s Naturalis Historia, Theophrastus’s Historia Plantarum, and Philostratus’s Imagines – but created a sophisticated synthesis to serve his artistic-intellectual cause. 

 

 

Antoine Gallay

 

University of Geneva / University of Paris 10

 

Antoine Gallay studied art history and intellectual history in Lausanne and Edinburgh, and completed his MPhil in History and philosophy of science at the University of Cambridge. As a PhD candidate at the University of Geneva and the University Paris-Nanterre, he is currently working on the relationship between art and science in Louis XIV's reign through the work of the engraver Sébastien Le Clerc. His research interests are the relationship between artistic and scientific practices from the XVIIth to the XIXth century, the history of optics, perspective and visual apparatuses, and the history of scientific illustration.

 

 

Paper's abstract:

 

“Il se pique d’être universel”: Sébastien Le Clerc and The Scientific Circle of Matthieu-François Geoffroy in Early Eighteenth-Century Paris

 

At the end of Louis XIV’s reign, Sébastien Le Clerc was undoubtedly one of the most acclaimed engravers in France. However, it seems that he aspired to be more than just an engraver: at the very beginning of the eighteenth-century, he wrote three articles on optics, pneumatics and cosmology for the Journal de Trévoux. A few years later, in 1706, he published an entire book devoted to physics, the Nouveau système du monde.

A Professor of perspective in the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture and the author of two celebrated books on practical geometry, Le Clerc seems to have always been interested in the scientific aspects underlying artistic practices. However, his works on physics were anything but related to the arts of drawing, leading historians to wonder about the engraver’s motivations and the way he gained the required knowledge.

While Le Clerc was undoubtedly connected with the polymath Pierre Le Lorrain de Vallemont, the author of the engraver’s first biography, I would like to show that Vallemont was in fact one of the many scholars that were related to Le Clerc, thanks to the informal circle of Matthieu-François Geoffroy, the First Echevin of Paris, and a renowned pharmacist. I will then examine the type of relationship Le Clerc could have entertained, as a professional engraver and an amateur physicist, with such a highly diversified network – gathering members of the Royal Academy of Sciences, powerful ecclesiastics and provincial amateurs. Finally, I will try to understand how these various relationships may have contributed to Le Clerc’s attempt to build himself as a universal man.

 

 

 

 

Ahuvia Goren

 

Cohn Institute for History and Philosophy of Science, Tel Aviv University

 

Ahuvia Goren is a Rabbi in 'Machanaim' Rabbinical seminary. He completed his M.A in the Cohen institute for History of science and ideas in Tel Aviv University and just started his Ph.D. there. Member of different research projects in TAU and the Israeli association for Inter -religious dialog.

 

​Paper's abstract:

 

'The first cause holding a Paint-Brush'- Art and Theology in 17th century Jewish Venice

 

As scholars had noted, in the 16th – 17th century one can easily find the new trends of renaissance culture ideas and style leaving their footprints upon minority communities in Italy such us the Jews. Those prints are notable in many ways, from tracking the issues negotiated in responsa, to the style of decoration of books and Synagogues. While some scholarly attention was given to the impact of the new sciences on Jewish scholarship, my intention in this proposed paper will be to strengthen the claim implied in the title of the conference by pointing at two interesting Jewish-Italian phenomena that have much to do with art. 

  First, at the way the new methods of art were addressed in sermons to make philosophical arguments, as done by the men of the republic of letters. Those different address of art can not only show Jewish attitudes towards it but also how interwoven were the arts in intellectual discussions of the period.

The second will be to show examples of new usages of graphic arts in the writing of science in Jewish intellectual circles. Although the Medieval norm of many Jewish communities to refrain from free drawing of man and nature, the 16th and 17th centuries show the establishing of new Jewish norms of graphic representation, which were in some cases justified by the importance of proper = ('visualized') learning, showing again the imminent role artistic-graphic representation played in the sphere of learning, from math to bible studies. 

By these two points I hope to show that even partly integrated members of  16th - 17th  century intellectual circles like the Italian rabbis that will be discussed, expressed the close link between art and philosophy in yet another way.   

 

 

Erik Harrington‏

 

History of Art and Architecture, University of Virginia

 

A native of Virginia born and raised outside of Washington, D.C., Erik received his bachelor’s degree from the College of William & Mary.  Before graduating as a history major and art history minor, he spent semesters studying at the University of St. Andrews and with William & Mary in Washington D.C., where he also interned at the Corcoran Gallery of Art.  Back in Williamsburg, he worked with the Muscarelle Museum of Art, including assisting with the exhibition A Brush with Passion: Mattia Preti (1613-1699).  For the past five-and-a-half years, Erik has been attending the University of Virginia, where he is working on a doctorate degree in art and architectural history.  He is currently writing a dissertation on the seventeenth-century Dutch winter scene. Recently, he has curated shows in Charlottesville on both contemporary art and Netherlandish Renaissance prints.  Erik’s specializes in Renaissance and Baroque art, particularly in Dutch-speaking areas.  His research aims to understand images as their original beholders did.  Thus he seeks to situate works in their cultural contexts in an approach that combines the study of art, literature, book history, and historic cultural practices.  

Paper's abstract:

 

Horace on Skates: A Classically Dutch Interpretation of the Seventeenth-Century Winter Scene

 

Success in their struggle for independence against Spain led the people of the newly formed Dutch Republic to address questions of national identity.  Both seventeenth-century artists and writers played active roles in exploring Dutch identity as they turned for subject matter to the people, landscapes, and lifestyles of the Netherlands.  Particularly, writers reworked ancient texts to articulate the lived experience in the young republic.  This development reveals what the Dutch considered to be specifically theirs and affirms that their culture was worthy of standing with–or even excelling–that of the esteemed ancients. The winter scenes produced by artists such as Hendrick Avercamp, Jan van Goyen, and Aert van der Neer correspond to the literary trend of identifying what is distinctively Dutch and putting it in dialogue with classical antiquity.  Depictions of people from across Dutch society engaged with local winter pleasures finds its counterpart in contemporary poetry responding to Horace’s Odes and Epodes. Poets made these classical poems more identifiable with the experiences of a Dutch audience by inserting many of the ideas and details that we find in the winter scene but were never known to the ancient Romans. Thus, readers would have received the ancient poet’s urge to relax and celebrate through unpleasant weather in a manner resembling that seen in the winter pictures, suggesting that a specifically Dutch Horatian interpretation is applicable to the images.  Dutch readers also encountered winter pleasures in the work of Netherlandish humanists who considered ice skating and the ability to enjoy winter as ways in which the Dutch surpassed the admired ancients. When viewed alongside contemporary literature, the Dutch winter scene indicates that artists and writers explored not only how ancient lessons applied to their new republic, but also how their young nation could exceed the lofty examples of antiquity. 

 

 

Manuel Llano

 

ERC SKILLNET, Utrecht University (NL)

 

Manuel Llano studied Philosophy and Book History in Madrid and Leiden and is currently working on his PhD thesis The structure of the field of learning in the United Provinces, 1575-1715  as part of the European Research Council SKILLNET (Sharing knowledge in Learned and Literary Networks) research group at Utrecht University. His interests include the social history of knowledge, digital and quantitative history, and Early Modern European Philosophy.

 

Paper's Abstract:

 

Portraying the Republic of Letters: The Scholarly Clientele of Pieter Schenk I, Engraver

 

Pieter Schenk I (1660 Elberfeld – 1711 Leipzig) was a prolific print-maker and publisher based in Amsterdam, catering to the English, German and Dutch markets. He specialised in the newly perfected technique of mezzotint, particularly suited for portraiture. In this contribution I study Schenk’s relation with his scholarly clients. 

My argument is twofold. Firstly, I present the main document to Schenk’s life, his album amicorum. Autograph albums appeared in the 16th century as memorabilia of one’s student time. However, they became fundamental instruments for career advancement in academia during the 17th century.2 I contend that Schenk kept an album in the manner of scholars as a mean for self-fashioning and as a professional calling card. By cross-referencing the inscribers of his album and Schenk’s extant prints, I argue that the large majority of them actually sat for Schenk, and that the album was most likely signed while their likeness was being captured. This includes notorious academics, like Jean Leclerc (1657-1736), Jacques Basnage de Beuval (1653-1723) and Adriaan Reland (1676-1718). 

Secondly, using the epistolary dataset of the SKILLNET project, I examine how the scholarly clients of Schenk were communicating among themselves, forming a small-world network. The overlap between the album inscribers and a clearly defined correspondence circuit shows how Schenk’s commercial strategy was successful: he targeted this closely-knitted clique relying on previous commissions and affecting erudite habits, like his autograph album, to project his persona as a scholarly portraitist. Thus, further light will be shed on how artists negotiated their place in the Republic of Letters around 1700.

 

 

Shachar Machlev

 

Art History Department, Tel Aviv University

 

Shachar Machlev is currently completing her M.A. thesis at Tel Aviv University in the Department of Art History under the supervision of Prof. Assaf Pinkus and Dr. Renana Bartal-Cohen. Her research revolves around Spanish illuminated apocalypse manuscripts from the tenth century, with an emphasis on issues of bodily performance and animation. She examines the manners in which the illustrated gestural delivery functions as annotation of the exegetical text, while deriving from classic and medieval rhetorical traditions. 

 

Paper's abstract:

 

Delivering the Apocalypse: The Illustrated Use of Pronuntiatio in the Tenth-Century Commentary on the Apocalypse

 

The manifestation of body movements and gestures was a main pivot in medieval monastic culture. The simplest expression of this historic claim is found in extensive lexicons of sign language formed by cenobitic communities to allow daily communication while obeying the Benedictine rule of Silence. Furthermore, gestures had a religious role in the monasteries; they were perceived as a way of expressing the virtuous soul and were performed during sermons to contribute to the understanding of orally preached messages. This perception of gestures was adapted from the classic rhetorical writings, mainly Cicero’s, that position the principle of Pronuntiatio, or delivery, as one of the main canons that form a proper speech. The presence of gestures in the monastic life is well evident in visual objects made by and for cenobites. These objects do not only reflect the practice, but arguably helped to shape the reading of texts, as I will attempt to show in the case of the Girona Beatus from 975 (Catedral, Núm. Inv. 7 (11)).

The Girona Beatus is one of 27 illuminated copies that survived in whole of the Commentary on the Apocalypse written in the eight-century. Illuminated by Emeterius and Ende, supposedly a priest and a nun, the Girona copy displays an abundant variety of hand gestures. These, I believe, portray the use of gestures in the Spanish monastery and guide the community in reading the exegetical text, while using the platform of the illuminated manuscript – an unrivalled example in terms of duration of the engagement of Letters and Art. This paper will examine the Girona Beatus as a case-study to explore the role of artists from within the community in promoting and shaping the liturgical and didactic meanings of using Pronuntiatio as a rhetorical tool, while placing it in a specific textual and visual context.

 

 

Monika Raič

 

Department of Comparative Literature, University of Innsbruck

 

Monika Raič studied Political Science and Comparative Literature at the Goethe University Frankfurt (2003-2009) and the Universidad de Buenos Aires (2006-2007). Since 2013 she works as a university assistant at the Department of Comparative Literature at the University of Innsbruck where she is also a doctoral candidate. Her current research evaluates the interstices of cosmopolitanism and world literature. Specifically, she is interested in the classic French ‘Voyage en Orient’, the late works of Argentine writer Roberto Arlt, early photography (1850ies) and cinema (1920/30ies).

 

Paper's abstract:

 

Cosmopolitan Republic of Letters. On the Worldliness of Literature and Photography

 

The early modern respublica literatum as described by Grafton refers to a “lost continent” (cf. Grafton 2009, 9–17), one that has no borders, no government and no capital. In The World Republic of Letters Pascale Casanova expands the scale of republic as she addresses the global literary community in her study and assesses the interactions between writers, readers and critics. Her “literary sociology” similarly operates with spatial paradigms consecrating Paris as the global literary capital and adds that “[c]inema illustrates the same mechanism and […] is a direct consequence of national literary capital.” (Casanova 2004, 166). In both cases “cosmopolitan and tolerant” (Grafton 2009, 19) cities occupy a decisive role for the “[c]itizens of the Republic” who don’t possess passports, but “could recognize one another by certain marks […]. They looked for learning, for humanity, and for generosity, and they rewarded those who possessed these qualities.” (Grafton 2009, 20). But the use of geographical entities (cities) and metaphors (continent) seems misleading since what distinguishes these specific citizens and their republic from territorially existing republics (e.g. nation states) should rather be thought of as a boundless artistic community held together by universal values: a common language (e.g. Latin), artistic visions and ethics. Moreover, both notions (early modern/modern-contemporary) seem to rest upon an understanding of republic as a space populated by homogenous, exceptionally educated citizens.

My paper will critically discuss these underlying notions of republic and citizenship from an aesthetic point of view drawing on notions from political philosophy. Although global connectedness has increased drastically since the emergence of the republica literatum, its fundamental idea can be used as a starting point for re-thinking contemporary, post-colonial contexts. By doing so, I will suggest to shift from a spatial to a timely understanding of the constitution of republic and arts (literature, photography, film) for they both (re-)organise world and “[w]orld […] is originally a temporal category. […] A world only is and we are only worldly beings if there is already time.” (Cheah 2016, 2) Literatures’ power to create (imaginary) world(s) apart form spatial classification will serve as the point of departure for a cosmopolitan republic that I will outline using the enunciations of Argentine writer, journalist, photographer, inventor and playwright Roberto Arlt. An actualized respublica literatum cannot be thought as attached to a location, it is “always provisional” as Edward Said describes in his essay Reflections on Exile. Thus, this perspective should also be taken into account for the aesthetic constitution of the representation of world whose mode of production is essentially transmedial (cf. Mersch 2005) exceeding the idea of ekphrasis. 

 

 

Noga Shlomi

 

Cohn Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Ideas, Tel Aviv University 

 

Noga Shlomi is an MA student at The Cohn Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Ideas, Tel Aviv University, since 2015. She is writing her Thesis dissertation about the Tacuinum santatis manuscripts, and the changes in traditions of collecting, organizing and representing medical knowledge in the late middle ages and early Renaissance; with the supervision of Prof. Yosef Schwartz (The Cohen Institute) and Prof. Matteo Valleriani (Max Planck Institute). Noga Shlomi holds a B.F.A from Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, Jerusalem (graduated in 2015, with excellence).

 

Paper's abstract:

 

The Tacuinum sanitatis: Changes in Traditions of Collecting, Organizing and Representing Medical Knowledge in the Late Middle Ages

 

This work examines the genre of the Tacuinum sanitatis manuscripts, an illuminated medical text from late medieval Europe. It explores whether and in what ways the Tacuinum sanitatis can be considered as part of other practical medical textual genres of the late middle ages. 

The work focuses on a specific manuscript of the Tacuinum sanitatis genre (BNF, MS. Latin 9333), and compares it with examples of two close textual genres - the Materia medica and the Regimen sanitatis. Like the Teacuinum, the Materia medica and herbals ordain different items (especially plants but not solely) and their medical benefits. These are especially known for their illuminations. The Regimen sanitatis, like the Tacuinum, is based on the six Galenic Non Naturals, and guides the reader to a healthy life. Unlike the Tacuinum, the Regimen is mainly textual. 

The comparisons will be made at the textual, intellectual, visual and material levels, and will show that even though there are many common ideas and elements in the texts, it is not possible to fully consider the Tacuinum sanitatis as an integral part of each of these genres. Furthermore, the work will ask whether in light of these comparisons the Tacuium sanitatis can be considered as a hybrid text - in the manner that it is an integration of known, but different, approaches to collecting, organizing and representing knowledge. The middle ages are traditionally considered as a time of stagnation in the history of medicine and science. However, research from recent decades shows a more complex picture, and highlights important processes of change and development during the period. In this context, the appearance of this kind of "hybrid" work at the late middle ages, might be considered as representing something of this period's changing tendencies towards scientific knowledge and methods of representations.

 

 

Jodok Trösch 

 

Department of German Philology, University of Basel

 

Jodok Trösch studied German language and literature as well as philosophy in Basel (2011–2016). During this time, he was an assistant at the chair of „Older German Literature“ (Prof. Dr. Gert Hübner), he was occupied with the conception of an introduction to this field of study and several research duties, mainly focused on the Late Middle Ages. He developed a special interest in medieval semiotics and its applications in vernacular literature. On this topic, he wrote his master thesis (Erzählte Zeichen. Gottfried von Straßburg und die mittelalterliche Semiotik).

Since April 2017 he has been writing his dissertation (supervised by Ralf Simon, Basel and Nicola Kaminski, Bochum) which is financed by the Swiss National Science Funds. It deals with the use of the techniques of translation in order to produce literary works. In the center of this stands Johann Fischart and his ‚wild‘ satirical translations of François Rabelais’ Gargantua, mainly his Geschichtklitterung (1575) and Catalogus Catalogorum(1590). 

 

Paper's abstract: 

 

Making Fun of the Republic of Letters. Johann Fischart and his Satirical Book Catalogues

 

This contribution explores three satirical book catalogs composed by Johann Fischart (ca. 1546–1591) and their relation to Conrad Gesner’s Bibliotheca Universalis (1545). The Republic of letters relied heavily on the printing press as a means of communication and saw an extreme proliferation of printed texts which made it almost impossible to keep track of all the participants in the literary field. In the mid-16th century, the Swiss polymath Conrad Gesner tried to confront this problem by creating his comprehensive and alphabetic Bibliotheca universalis listing everyone who has ever published a text in one of the three linguae sacrae (Hebrew, Greek, Latin). By the end of the century, for someone like Johann Fischart who was heavily involved in the contemporaneous literary life and printing industry in Strassburg, it was obvious that this idea has failed. It seemed no longer to be possible to collect, possess represent and order all existing knowledge. In a truly literary approach which combined both artistic and scholarly aspects, Fischarts satirical book catalogues expose the limits of Gesner’s approach by rendering the principles absurd by exaggeration: Completeness is claimed not only for past, but also for future texts, the lack of criteria of relevance results in an abundance of bizarre and obscene titles (mostly obtained from the Bibliotheca universalis itself), the omission of contentrelated structure results in the absence of any ordering principle. Fischart even introduced inventing authors and book titles and deliberately misspelled the names of many colleagues. Fischart blurs the lines between fact and fiction, which forces his readers to think by themselves in order to make sense of this chaos, which forms the republic of letters. It’s a self-ironic game played, for Fischart and his ideal readers both are a part of the res publica litteraria themselves. 

 

 

Marianne Volle

 

Department of French Studies, York University / Glendon College in Toronto

​

​Marianne Volle is a PhD student and research assistant in the French studies department at York University/Glendon College in Toronto. She holds two MA in Art History and History of Science, both from Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne. Her research focuses on the representation of the New World flora in France during the eighteenth-century and the circulation of those depictions. She examines the amount of botanical drawings made by French naturalists in the Americas, the importance of their networks, but also the role of the Jardin du Roy as a central institution for their exchanges of papers, specimens, books and drawings. Her research interests are the relationship between art and science during the Enlightenment, the viatic Literature and the history of botanical illustration from the 17th to the end of the 18th century

 

Paper's abstract:

 

Louis Feuillée and Charles Plumier: Two botanists and draughtsmen in the Republic of Letters

 

At the end of the 17th century and the beginning of the Age of Enlightenment, a lot of French scientists, botanists and drawers such as Louis Feuillée and Charles Plumier were sent to the New World, especially to South America in order to observe the flora. The purpose behind these expeditions was not only crucial for the natural sciences but it also marked a change for the arts and the letters by providing new descriptions and subjects. 

Both Louis Feuillée and Charles Plumier traveled more than once to South America, Charles Plumier between 1689 and 1706, Louis Feuillée between 1703 and 1711. They were both chosen because of their drawing skills as well as their botanical knowledge and realized an amount of drawings we can’t even count, only evidences of the New World flora by the time, knowing that Plumier’s herbarium disappeared in a shipwreck. By tracing their travels, observing their drawings and discoveries such as the vanilla, ananas, quinoa or quinquina through their diaries and archives conserved at the Natural History Museum in Paris, our communication seeks to show the link between the scientific and artistic production of Plumier and Feuillée and their importance in the Republic of Letters. Focusing on their archives reveals for example that when Louis Feuillée came back in Paris, he gave a big amount of his drawings to the comte de Caylus, while all of Plumier’s descriptions and drawings ended into Bernard and Antoine-Laurent de Jussieu hands. The Jussieu not only corrected and annoted Plumier’s work but they also made Madeleine Basseporte draw the new species on velum. The same artist who drew for the Abbé Pluche and his bestseller of the century Le Spectacle de la nature, himself influenced by Plumier and Feuillée descriptions.

This case of study aims to reveal an extended network of sociability focused on the two botanists, the artists and the circulation of their work that we want to define as characteristic of the Republic of Letters, and the way it worked as a gathering system for the arts and sciences.

 

 

Na’ama Zussman 

 

Cultural Studies Program, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

 

Na’ama Zussman is an artist and a Ph.D. candidate in the Cultural Studies program at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Her doctoral thesis draws attention to the subversive essence of the artist’s book and sheds light on its critical impetus. Zussman holds a Master’s degree in Art and the Book from The George Washington University’s Corcoran School of the Arts & Design. Her thesis essay, which received the Award for Graduate Critical Writing, discusses the coexistence of artists’ books as both map and territory. During her studies, she completed an internship at the Rare Book and Special Collections Division in the Library of Congress. Zussman is the recipient of numerous awards and scholarships for academic and artistic merits, a guest lecturer at various symposiums, and is currently a research fellow at Da’at Hamakom, I-CORE – The Israeli Centers for Research Excellence. 

Recent acquisitions of her artist's book, A Survey of a World, were made by The Rare Book and Special Collections Division of the Library of Congress, The Butler Library in Columbia University, and the Boston Athenaeum.

 

Paper's abstract:

 

Artists’ Books—A Critical Territory of Experience

 

The Republic of Letters was a print-based community for the exchange and propagation of ideas, which transcended (by way of the printing press) traditional boundaries and given roles. It simultaneously documented its history, confronted, and negotiated with it, challenging thus hierarchies and opening possibilities of observation. In this, the Republic of Letters was a subversive framework of space and time, which bound an array of practices and forms of visibility, while leaning on the moveable type—a dominant societal tool of dissemination.

The artist's book, established in the 20th-century, is an idiosyncratic manifestation of art, conveyed through modes of re-distribution and re-coding of a cultural object—the book. For millennia, the book has been an emblematic infrastructure which through both its textuality and physicality has mapped, and been mapped by, the formation of civilizations, cultures, and doctrines. Marked as a territory of experience, the artist’s book becomes a dominant territory that maintains this embedded repository power through subversive trajectories, which re-draw the direction of the grain upon which the artist’s book leans. 

In this, my talk would argue, The Republic of Letters and the Artist’s Book are print-culture-based demonstrations that rest upon the social domination of their means in order to unfold their critical impetus. Backwords / Alternate by Sam Winston (2014) and The Second Encyclopedia of Tlön by Barbara Fahrner and Markus Fahrner (1998-2003) are two artists’ books, which re-draw print culture related praxes. They are bound to the history of print culture and the codex form, yet explore their boundaries as idea and form.  As with the letters of the Republic of Letters, these works do not produce consensus, nor are they inscribed within given roles; rather, they are a meeting place that gathers elements borrowed from heterogeneous spheres and conveys little communities of experience.