List members may be interested in the following ONLINE conferences and short course during summer 2022 at the Warburg Institute, University of London:


CONFERENCE - An Imagined Past: Architectural Reconstructions and Geographical Imaginations in the Making of Mediterranean History
20 & 21 June 2022. Online via zoom
Organised by The Warburg Institute and the Institute of Classical Studies, University of London

This two half-day online conference examines visual representations and Mediterranean history with a focus on how architectural reconstructions and geographical imaginations have affected our views of the Mediterranean past and present.

We are all aware of how reconstructions affect the creation of the past, and that reconstruction is also always partly imagination. It is only fairly recently that maps and architectural reconstructions became used as scientific evidence, with the expectation that they reflect the 'actual' past. The conference wants to take the imaginative part of representations and its impact on the history of the Mediterranean seriously as a starting point: how have architectural reconstructions and cartographic representations affected our image of the past and influenced our conceptions of the Mediterranean? The conference will examine iconic historical reconstructions and maps, from antiquity and post-antiquity up to today, that had an impact - but also wishes to consider those images that may have been forgotten but which have also shaped our images of the past. Themes and questions that will be discussed during the conference are:


  *   How architectural and cartographic representations were conceived in pre-modern times when they did not yet serve, or served in a very different way, as scientific data
  *   How architectural reconstructions and maps became part of our modern scientific discourse
  *   How reconstructions of the past have been affected by contemporary realities
  *   How the presence of some, and the absence of other representations have added to our current image and concepts of the Mediterranean

Programme and booking: https://warburg.sas.ac.uk/events/conference-an-imagined-past



CONFERENCE - Rethinking Natural Magic: New Perspectives on Giambattista Della Porta
23 June 2022. Online via zoom
Organised by Donato Verardi (Warburg Institute Visiting Fellow) with John Tresch (Professor in the History of Art, Science and Folk Practise, Warburg Institute)

The notion of "magic" holds a range of elusive; it is an equivocal, complex, and liminal term, often attached to other tricky terms, such as natural, mathematical, and theurgic. The purpose of this conference is to examine magic from a limited, precise, but by no means reductive point of view. It explores the idea of "natural magic" promoted by Giambattista Della Porta (1535-1615), a leading figure of the Italian Renaissance in natural philosophy. Della Porta was harassed by the Inquisition after publishing his first book, Magia naturalis (1558), which proclaimed that marvels could be created naturally by deploying empirically knowable occult qualities. In the seventeenth century, Della Porta's views became widely known among avant-garde intellectuals and his work impacted European scientists and inventors into the nineteenth century. The extraordinary diffusion of Magia naturalis - especially its second edition, published in twenty books in 1589, and translated into English in 1658 - contributed significantly to Della Porta's fame and influence.

This conference brings together contemporary scholars working on Della Porta, to consider his work and legacy from new perspectives, including his use of hieroglyphics, recipes, and experiments, his approach to sound, and his reputation as "Wizard of Naples."

Programme and booking: https://warburg.sas.ac.uk/events/rethinking-natural-magic



SHORT COURSE - Decoding the Renaissance: 500 years of codes and ciphers
Mon-Fri, 4-8 July: 3.00-5.00pm (UK time / BST). Online via zoom
Course Tutor: Professor Bill Sherman (Director and Professor of Cultural History)

A systematic introduction to secret communication-in theory and in practice-stretching from the birth of printing to the advent of the computer.

Through a combination of illustrated lectures and close examination of primary texts, we will learn how the field of cryptography was one of the great achievements of Renaissance culture. The 16th- and 17th-century books on the subject-by Johannes Trithemius, Gustavus Selenus, John Wilkins, Athanasius Kircher and others-put the study of codes and ciphers onto solid footing. And many of the technical inventions involved in encryption-including the Alberti disk, the Cardan[o] Grille, the Vigenère table and Bacon's biliteral cipher-carry the names of leading Renaissance figures. But we will go deeper to see how the field left its mark on many aspects of Renaissance culture, and will end by exploring the surprising role played by Renaissance ciphers in the making of modernity.

Programme and booking: https://warburg.sas.ac.uk/events/decoding-the-renaissance



Jon Millington
Academic Engagement and Impact Officer
School of Advanced Study | University of London
Senate House | London WC1E 7HU
T: +44 (0)20 7862 8910 | E: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>

The School of Advanced Study at the University of London is the UK's national centre for the facilitation and promotion of research in the humanities and social sciences.


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