CfP: The Impact of Learning Greek, Hebrew and ‘Oriental’ Languages on Scholarship, Science, and Society in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance
13-15 December 2017, Leuven Collegium Trilingue
In 1517, Leuven witnessed the foundation of the Collegium Trilingue. This institute, funded through the legacy of Hieronymus Busleyden and enthusiastically promoted by Desiderius Erasmus, offered courses in the three ‘sacred’ languages Hebrew, Greek, and Latin. LECTIO (Leuven Centre for the Study of the Transmission of Texts and Ideas in Antiquity, the Middle Ages and the Renaissance) seizes the 500th anniversary of the foundation of the Leuven Collegium Trilingue as an incentive both to examine the general context in which such polyglot institutes emerged and—more generally—to assess the overall impact of Greek and Hebrew education, by organizing a three-day international conference. Our focus is not exclusively on the sixteenth century, as we also welcome papers dealing with the status and functions accorded to Greek, Hebrew, and other ‘Oriental’ languages in the (later) Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period up to 1750. Special attention will be directed to the learning and teaching practices and to the general impact the study of these languages exerted on scholarship, science and society.
The keynote speakers are: Luigi-Alberto Sanchi (Institut d’Histoire du Droit Paris) and Saverio Campanini (Università di Bologna)
Participants are asked to give 20-minute papers in English, German or French. To submit a proposal, please send an abstract of approximately 300 words (along with your name, academic affiliation and contact information) to lectio@kuleuven.be by 30 April 2017.
Please visit our website for the full CfP.