University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada, September 12 - 13, 2014
Cultural Encounters and Shared Spaces in the Renaissance City, 1300-1700
A Conference in Memory of Shona Kelly Wray
Recent scholarship in the history of information, art, and science has
emphasized how knowledge and ideas flowed in varied ways and circulated
between people of different social status with distinct levels of
formal education and access to power. This interdisciplinary conference
seeks to explore in greater depth the ways that material spaces of the
early modern city functioned to facilitate cultural encounters and the
nature of these exchanges. Where did the exchange of knowledge take
place (from workshops to streets to bridges to classrooms to
marketplaces to churches, etc.)? Was the physical arrangement of these
places conducive to interaction (e.g. openness to street; benches
outside)? How open or closed were spaces to different kinds of people?
What sort of information did city dwellers and travelers seek and why;
what knowledge and information did they bring to these encounters and
what did they receive? Were ideas shared openly and how was information
demonstrated? How did visitors participate (did they simply watch or
did they take part)?
We hope to uncover cases of unexpected encounters (in terms of
participants and information) by using creatively the surviving
evidence (e.g. graffiti, architecture, marginalia, sketches, books of
secrets, ricordanze, archival records, etc.). In addition we aim to
illuminate the ways in which the activities and vocabulary of different
spaces permeated multiple disciplines and discourses (e.g. politics,
poetry, philosophy, etc.), often generating new ideas.
Program
Friday, September 12, 2014
409 Tier building
The University of Manitoba
9:00: welcome: David Watt, Institute for the Humanities, University of
Manitoba
Introductory remarks: Roisin Cossar, Filippo De Vivo, Christina Neilson
9:30: Niall Atkinson, University of Chicago: The Sonic Dimensions of
the Florentine Piazza
10:00: Christina Neilson, Oberlin College: The Display of Knowledge:
Making and Knowing in Renaissance Artists’ Workshops
10:30: Comment, Nicholas Terpstra, University of Toronto, questions and
discussion from audience
11:00: coffee break
11:30: Yvonne Elet, Vassar College: Symbolic Topography at Villa Madama
12:00: Nicoletta Marcelli, University of Macerata: Florentine
intellectuals in an “open” space: the Orti Orcellari circle, 1502-1522
12:30: comment, Nicholas Terpstra, questions and discussion
1:00: lunch
2:00-4:00: afternoon workshop session for presenters and discussants
only
Saturday, September 13, 2014
9:30: Cecilia Hewlett, Monash University: Rotten eggs and tainted
bread: the politics of the marketplace in Renaissance Florence
10:00: Roisin Cossar, University of Manitoba: Notarial Networks in
Trecento Venice
10:30: comment, Tom Cohen and Elizabeth Cohen, York University,
questions and discussion with audience
11:00: coffee break
11:30: Dario Tessicini, Durham University: Talking Statues discuss
comets: the circulation of astrological prognostications in Venice at
the end of the 16th century
12:00: Filippo De Vivo, Birkbeck College, The University of London:
Walking in Renaissance Venice
12:30: comment, Tom Cohen and Elizabeth Cohen, and questions from
audience
1:00: lunch
2:00-4:00: afternoon workshop session for presenters and discussants
only
Advanced registration for the conference is necessary. Please register
by September 1 at:
http://www.eventbrite.ca/e/cultural-encounters-and-shared-spaces-in-the-renaissance-city-1300-1700-tickets-11922491493?utm_campaign=new_eventv2&utm_medium=email&utm_source=eb_email&utm_term=eventurl_text
Please provide your name and institutional affiliation.
Due to budgetary restrictions, lunches are open to presenters and
discussants only.
This conference is generously funded by The Lila Wallace – Reader’s
Digest Special Project Grant from Villa I Tatti: The Harvard University
Center for Italian Renaissance Studies and a Connection Grant from the
Canadian Government’s Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.
Thanks also to the University of Manitoba’s Institute for the
Humanities and Department of History.
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