Upcoming Events: Kislak Center

Coffee with a Codex: Prayers in German

On June 4, curator Dot Porter will bring out Ms. Codex 2141, a 16th century collection of approximately 20 prayers with calligraphic ornamentation.

• June 4, 2026
• 12:00pm - 12:30pm
• Online

Coffee with a Codex: Astronomy Manuscript in Rochester, NY

On June 11, curator Dot Porter will be attending a workshop at the Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, NY. While there, she will visit the Cary Graphic Arts Collection and bring out their 15th c. copy of Sacrobosco’s De sphaera mundi (On the Sphere of the World).

• June 11, 2026
• 12:00pm - 12:30pm
• Online

Coffee with a Codex: Penitential Psalms in German

On June 18, curator Dot Porter will bring out Ms. Codex 1564, a copy of the Penitential Psalms in French, written in France in the 17th century.

• June 18, 2026
• 12:00pm - 12:30pm
• Online

The Foucault Century

2026 marks the centennial of Michel Foucault’s birth and the 50-year anniversary of the publication of his landmark History of Sexuality, Vol. 1. This two-day symposium offers a renewed assessment of Foucault’s thought.

• September 24 - 25, 2026
• Class of 1978 Orrery Pavilion, 6th Floor, Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Center

Stranger Things

This year’s topic interrogates the multi-angled intersections of magic, science, religion, and ritual in the pre- and early modern world, especially as manifested in manuscript books, documents, and other inscribed surfaces variously expressed in words, images, diagrams, and annotations.

• November 12-14, 2026
• Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts; Free Library of Philadelphia & Online