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On the Nature of Things: Modern Perspectives on Scientific Manuscripts

1st Annual Lawrence J. Schoenberg Symposium on Manuscript Studies in the Digital Age

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October 24-25, 2008
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Virtual
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Open to the Public
Digital Proceedings
Constellation Map from an Astronomical Anthology.

In partnership with the Philadelphia Area Center for History of Science (PACHS) and the Chemical Heritage Foundation, the University of Pennsylvania, Penn Libraries, and the Department of the History and Sociology of Science are pleased to announce the 1st Annual Lawrence J. Schoenberg Symposium on Manuscript Studies in the Digital Age.  This year's symposium examines scientific manuscript book production in Western Europe, Asia, and the Arabic world before the year 1600.  It consists of two events: a public lecture hosted by PACHS and the Chemical Heritage Foundation on Friday, October 24, and a day-long symposium hosted by the Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Penn on Saturday, October 25.

Six scholars will present papers on various topics from medieval astronomy, alchemy, chiromancy, scientific writing in the Near East, and the influence of Arabic scientific manuscript production on the medieval West.  The symposium will conclude with a panel of digital humanities scholars who will discuss the role of new technologies in advancing our understanding of this period in the history of science. 

 

  • Alejandro García Avilés, Universidad de Murcía
  • Gerhard Brey, Center for Computing in the Humanities, King's College, London
  • Charles Burnett, The Warburg Institute
  • Marilyn Deegan, Center for Computing in the Humanities, King's College, London
  • Gabriele Ferrario, Independent Scholar, Milan, Italy
  • Menso Folkerts, Institute for the History of Science, Ludwig-Maximilians Universität
  • Monica Green, Arizona State University
  • Kim Plofker, Union College
  • Dot Porter, Digital Humanities Observatory, Royal Irish Academy
  • Michael Solomon, University of Pennsylvania
  • John A. Walsh, Indiana University
  • Dominik Wujastyk, University College, London

Event Series

Program

 Friday, October 24, 2008

Public Lecture

The lecture will be held at the Chemical Heritage Foundation, 315 Chestnut St, Philadelphia, PA [map]. The event is free and open to the public.

6:00 pm: Archimedes in Bits: The Digital Presentation of a Write-Off

William G. Noel, Curator of Manuscripts and Rare Books at the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore and Director of the Archimedes Palimpsest Project, will speak on the trials, tribulations, successes, and surprises in the decade-long project to retrieve the lost texts of Archimedes, the ancient Greek mathematician, from a 13th-century Greek prayer book.

Saturday, October 25, 2008

On the Nature of Things: Modern Perspectives on Scientific Manuscripts

The symposium will be held in the Rosenwald Gallery, on the 6th floor of Van Pelt-Dietrich Library [map] and will include an exhibition of scientific manuscripts selected from the Rare Book and Manuscript Library and the Schoenberg Collection.  

8:30 Coffee and Registration

9:00 Welcome

David McKnight, Director, Manuscript and Rare Book Library, University of Pennsylvania

Susan Lindee, Chair, Department of the History and Sociology of Science, University of Pennsylvania

9:15-10:00 The Arts and Science

Medieval Diagrams of the Heavens and Monastic Time-Keeping
Alejandro García Avilés, Universidad de Murcía, Spain

10:00-10:30 Coffee

10:30 - 12:30 Writing Science in the East

A Medieval Arabic Alchemical Lexicon: Ms Sprenger 1908 in the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin and Mss Egerton 709 and Or. 1593 in the British Library
Gabriele Ferrario, Independent Scholar

Manuscripts of Latin Translations from Arabic
Charles Burnett, The Warburg Institute

Spoken text and written symbol: the use of layout and notation in Sanskrit scientific manuscripts
Kim Plofker, Union College

12:30 - 2:00 Lunch

2:00 - 3:30 Scientific Texts in Lay Contexts

Gendering the Audiences of Medieval Scientific Texts:  The Case of Chiromancy
Monica Green, Arizona State University

Spectacles of Erudition: Physicians and the Vernacular Medical Treatise in Early Modern Spain.
Michael Solomon, University of Pennsylvania

3:30 - 3:45 Coffee

3:45 - 5:45 Scientific Manuscripts in the Digital Age: A Panel Discussion

Moderator: Gerhard Brey, Center for Computing in the Humanities, King's College, London

Panelists:

  • Dot Porter, Digital Humanities Observatory, Royal Irish Academy
  • John A. Walsh, School of Library and Information Science, Indiana University
  • Charles Burnett, The Warburg Institute
  • Menso Folkerts, Institute for the History of Science of the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität
  • Marilyn Deegan, Center for Computing in the Humanities, King's College, London
  • Dominik Wujastyk, Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellow, University College, London

6:00 - 7:00 Reception

The symposium is made possible with the generous support of the Program in Comparative Literature and Literary Theory, the Departments of Classical Studies, History, Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, Romance Languages, and Religious Studies, and Dean Ann Matter and Dean Rebecca Bushnell.

Featured image: Constellation Map from an Astronomical Anthology, Catalonia, ca. 1361, fol. 113r (collection of Lawrence J. Schoenberg)