Dear Colleagues,

For the forthcoming SIS Biennial conference (Oxford, 28-30 September), I am organizing in collaboration with Simone Testa (Harry Ransom Center, Texas) one or more panels on the Italian Academies, and we would welcome proposals.

CALL FOR PAPERS

Italian Academies 1450-1700: knowledge, culture and networks  

The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries saw the great expansion of the academic movement in Italy with more than 800 documented academies. These social and intellectual circles were present across the peninsula, in big cities as well as smaller towns and villages. It was impossible for intellectuals, both Italians and foreigners, to ignore the social space of academies and their importance for sharing activities and ideas. This panel builds on the new research in this field produced as a result of the AHRC-funded Italian Academies project and the related Italian Academies Database (www.bl.uk/catalogues/ItalianAcademies/Default.aspx), which has renewed interest in these gatherings and their cultural and scientific production in centres across the Italian peninsula.

We welcome paper proposals on, but not limited to, the following topics:

• Less studied geographical centres outside the ‘golden triangle’ of Venice, Florence and Rome
• Networks and relations between different academies in the same city or across cities
• Transnational connections between Italian academies/their members and other cognate institutions in Europe
• Printed or manuscript works, and oral culture in the academies
• Proto academies of the 15^th century
• Visual culture – emblem studies, symbols, paintings related to specific academies
• Music, theatre and spectacle in the Italian academies
• Science and secrets in the Italian academies
• Academies and their archives and libraries
• Digital humanities and the Italian academies

Papers may be given in English or Italian.

Please send a short abstract and biography to Lisa Sampson ([log in to unmask]) and Simone Testa ([log in to unmask]) by 5 March 2015.