Pre-Modern Encyclopedic Texts, Groningen

CALL FOR PAPERS

Announcement: International Congress on Pre-Modern Encyclopedic Texts
1-4 July, 1996

COMERS
Centre for Classical, Oriental, Medieval and Renaissance Studies
University of Groningen
The Netherlands

Visit our WWW page:
http://www.let.rug.nl/comers/encycl-congress.html
In July 1996 the research institute COMERS will host its second international congress, on the subject of Pre-Modern Encyclopedic Texts. This project treats Encyclopedic literature as a paradigm, in which texts can participate to a greater or lesser degree, rather than a prescriptively defined genre. This congress, the culmination of the institute's Encyclopedia project, will deal with a wide range of encyclopedic texts, from the lexical lists of the ancient Near East, through Greek mythographical digests, early medieval Syriac compilations, studies of particular medieval encyclopedias, and studies of the "encyclopedic culture" of the later Middle Ages and Renaissance, as embodied in, for example, collections of moralised lore, bestiaries, handbooks, cosmographic treatises, etc. The Encyclopedia Congress follows the COMERS "Centres of Learning" Congress (August 1993; proceedings ed. A.A. MacDonald and J.W. Drijvers, Brill, 1995). This congress will be a splendid opportunity for an interdisciplinary meeting at the crossroads of the Western, Near Eastern, Byzantine and other pre-modern traditions.

Call for Papers

Scholars engaged in research on any aspect of encyclopedic texts are invited to present a paper. The conference will be structured around five domains, each of which will be the subject of a plenary address.

1. Encyclopedia: Definitions and Theoretical Questions. The problem of defining the encyclopedia as a genre, given the various uses for which encyclopedic works were composed and to which they were put. Plenary speaker: prof. Robert Fowler, University of Waterloo

2. Cultural and Political Uses. The functions of encyclopedic works in various cultures are more diverse than a narrow view based on modern encyclopedias would encompass. This topic might include the role of encyclopedic knowledge in the service of religion, for example, or the role of encyclopedic activity in bolstering cultural identity. Plenary Speaker: dr. G. J. van Gelder, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen

3. Reception and Transmission of Texts. Problems in the transmission of individual texts, and in the role of the encyclopedia as transmitter of knowledge, within cultures and between cultures. Do encyclopedias move knowledge, or do they store it? Plenary Speaker: prof. Michael Twomey, Ithaca College

4. Epistemology of Encyclopedic Knowledge. The question of the relation of encyclopedic texts to ideas about the limits (or lack of limits) to human knowledge. Can we know omne scibile? Plenary Speaker: prof. John North, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen

5. Organisation of Knowledge. The widely divergent ways in which encyclopedic knowledge can be organised, and the intellectual and social factors than can affect the organisation of knowledge. Plenary Speaker: prof. Christel Meier, Westfaelische Wilhelms-Universitaet Muenster

Papers will be 30 minutes long. The proceedings of the conference will be published; the organisers reserve the right to select papers for publication.

Scholars who are interested in presenting papers should submit a proposal to the organisers, indicating the title of the paper, a brief abstract (no more than 300 words), and the domain in which they would like it to be included.

The deadline for submitting abstracts is 15 January, 1996.

If you require further information, please contact dr. Peter Binkley at COMERS, or visit our WWW page:

http://www.let.rug.nl/comers/encycl-congress.html

COMERS
International Encyclopedia Congress
Oude Boteringestraat 23
9712 GC Groningen
The Netherlands

fax: (50) 63 72 63
telephone: (50) 63 72 58
e-mail: binkley@let.rug.nl
www: http://www.let.rug.nl/comers/encycl-congress.html
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O I would like to attend the congress.
O I am submitting a proposal for a paper.

Interested persons will be sent information on travel, hotels, registration fees, etc.

[JM October 10, 1995]