Colloque international, Université de Nancy 2: "Expertus sum : l’expérience par les sens en philosophie naturelle médiévale"

Date et lieu

Du jeudi 5 février 2009 à 9h00 au samedi 7 février à 13h, à l’Université Nancy 2, Campus Lettres et Sciences Humaines, 3 place Godefroid de Bouillon, 54000 Nancy, France.

Organisation et Contacts

• Atelier Vincent de Beauvais, Encyclopédisme et transmission des connaissances (UMR 7002 Moyen Age) : Isabelle Draelants isabelle.draelants@univ-nancy2.fr
• Laboratoire d’histoire des sciences et de Philosophie, Archives Henri Poincaré, (UMR 7117) : Thomas Bénatouïl thomas.benatouil@univ-nancy2.fr

Thématique

La thématique de l’expérience sera abordée sous les aspects de la théorie de la connaissance, des liens entre experientia et auctoritas, de la formulation de l’expérience dans les textes et du genre littéraire consacré à l’expérience. On envisage d’examiner les questions suivantes :

Comment l’expérience par les sens est-elle considérée par les philosophi naturales par rapport à la rationalité ?

Importance de la transmission des connaissances dans l’évolution de la notion d’expérience.

Influence des textes traduits du grec, de l’arabe et de l’hébreu sur l’émergence de l’expérience et les mutations consécutives des classifications des sciences.

Parts respectives de l’auctoritas livresque et de l’expérience par les sens dans les ouvrages de philosophie naturelle. Signification des expressions expertus sum, cum expertum fuerit, experimentator, etc., dans les textes philosophiques (commentaires, compilations didactiques, questions disputées, etc.).

Théories de la forme spécifique, de la forme substantielle, des qualités naturelles, etc. : la philosophie de la nature face à l’expérience.

Naissance du genre des experimenta – leur place dans les domaines de la médecine, de la pharmacopée, de l’alchimie, de l’astrologie, de la physiognomonie et en général dans les sciences naturelles. Avec une attention particulière pour l’évolution des disciplines savantes suite à l’émergence de la magie.

Limites chronologiques et principe d’organisation

La période d’assimilation des connaissances qui accompagne ou succède à la traduction des textes greco- et arabo-latins (12e-14e s., avec prolongements éventuels), mais en tenant compte de la transmission des savoirs depuis l’Antiquité.

C’est la raison pour laquelle l’organisation du colloque prévoit non seulement l’intervention de médiévistes comme orateurs, mais aussi de spécialistes de l’Antiquité comme « discutants » pour chacune des « sessions » du colloque.

More details on Calenda

Saint Anselm of Canterbury and His Legacy

"Saint Anselm of Canterbury and His Legacy", international conference to be held in 2009 at the Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, University of Durham.

Keynote speaker: Rev. Brian Davies, O.P.

Official website: http://www.dur.ac.uk/cmrs/conferences/anselm2009/
Blog: http://anselm2009.blogspot.com/

The Virtues and the Formation of the Feminine Moral Subject: 1250-1550

As part of the 7th ANZAMEMS Conference to be held 2-6 December 2008 at the University of Tasmania, Hobart, we propose to hold a symposium, with several sessions, devoted to the construction of women as virtuous agents in texts written by and for them during the period 1250-1550 This symposium will explore the construction of women as virtuous agents in texts written by and for them during this period. This was time during which there were great political upheavals and setbacks for women, such as their exclusion from the succession in France but which also spawned the Reformation and /querelle des femmes/, and produced a number of significant texts which demonstrate women’s effective moral didacticism.

Our focus will be on works dedicated to women or written for their edification, such as devotional texts and manuals for princesses, as well as ethical and didactic works written by women such as Marguerite Porete, Christine de Pizan, Laura Cereta, Vitoria Colonna, Gabrielle Bourbon, Marguerite of Navarre, etc. Writing during a period when contemplative spirituality vied with more classical representations of active virtue, and against the background of Aristotelian and biblical representations of women as defective males and as particularly susceptible to vice, the above women adopted various strategies of self-authorization. We are particularly interested in exploring the continuities and discontinuities between women’s texts, and in women’s understanding of the good life for women and men, as well as the differences, if any, between female and male authored texts. We also invite the discussion of Platonic, Stoic, Epicurean, Aristotelian and monastic conceptions of virtue in women’s self-representation as
virtuous subjects.

Could those interested in contributing to this stream indicate their interest as soon as possible and no later than 1st July 2008 to Karen.Green@arts.monash.edu.au. A 500 word abstract will be required by 20th August 2008.

A published volume on the topic is proposed. Contributors who are unable to attend the Hobart Conference, but would like to contribute a paper to the volume are invited to submit papers for consideration by December 15th 2008.

Convenors: Janice Pinder, Constant Mews and Karen Green.

Augustine Again: "After Augustine. A Survey of His Reception from 430 to 2000"

The St. Andrews School of Classics is currently managing a complex research project dealing with St. Augustine's reception from 430 to 2000.

More details: http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/classics/after-augustine/

New Augustinian Sermons Found

"Four entirely new sermons and two up to now only partly known sermons were recently discovered by I. Schiller, D. Weber und C. Weidmann (scholars at the CSEL / Vienna); the new texts are preserved in a 12th century manuscript in the Bibliotheca Amploniana (Erfurt, Germany). The codex, probably written in England, transmits approximately 70 sermons of Caesarius, Pseudo-Chrysostom, Augustine, the Venerable Bede and others. [...]

Three of the new Erfurt sermons deal with aspects of charity and almsgiving (Erfurt 2, 3, 4). Two others were delivered at feasts of martyrs: Erfurt 1 is on Perpetua and Felicitas, Erfurt 6 (probably incomplete) on Cyprian. One sermon deals with resurrection (Erfurt 5).

The new texts will be edited in two parts: Erfurt 1, 5, and 6 in Wiener Studien 121 (2008), Erfurt 2, 3, and 4 in Wiener Studien 122 (2009)."



Source: http://www.oeaw.ac.at/kvk/kv09engl.htm

2 New Conferences and one important research resource

Medieval Relativism and its Legacy, 1230-1450
Université Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne
Paris, June 5-7, 2008

- x -

Translating the Middle Ages
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Urbana (IL), October 28-29, 2008

- x -

Inter Libros
"Inter Libros is an interactive research guide for classics and medieval studies research, created by Harvard College librarians in collaboration with Harvard faculty and departments."

2008 Medieval Philosophy Conferences

Cornell Summer Colloquium in Medieval Philosophy, Cornell University, May 29-31, 2008
Vagantes 2008. Seventh Annual Graduate Medieval Conference, Ohio State University, Feb. 28-Mar.2, 2008
(further details on Vagantes site)

Doctor Virtualis

Today, I discovered a new on-line journal for the history of medieval philosophy: "Doctor Virtualis. Rivista online di storia della filosofia medievale". Although I cannot make any comments on the quality of the papers present there (because I didn't have the time to read any materials), I want to mention four articles that caught my attention:

• Francesco Bottin, Dal 'logos' al 'verbum': Gadamer traduce/tradisce Tommaso che traduce/tradisce Aristotele
• Francesca Forte, La poetica aristotelica nella tradizione islamica
• Orsola Rignani, Ruggero Bacone su traduttori e traduzioni
• Claudio Fiocchi, Problemi di traduzione della "Politica" di Aristotele

Coming Closer to Aquinas' Writings

In the last twenty years, or since the introduction of Internet, scholars from all over the world had the chance to get closer and closer to Aquinas' writings. Manuscript repositories from various European and American parts opened their pages via virtual libraries to almost anyone interested. HMML's Vivarium is making no exception. The Vivarium is hosting an on-line selection of folios from two 14th cent. manuscripts containing Aquinas' Catena Aurea (Arca Artium; aap2094) and Expositio in Job (Codex Campililiensis 10).

Other mss. of Aquinas' work:

• Two folios (40r-4ov) of a late XVth cent. vellum ms. containig Aquinas' In libri Sententiarum
• Compendium theologiae (Codex Sedinensis I, 14th-15h cent ms.)
  

Why is it important to come closer to Aquinas' writings in manuscript? I think at least two answers can be offered to this question: first, the paleographical scholarship may help restore an original text reflecting the ideas intended by Thomas Aquinas himself and not those introduced by his editors or copyists.

Weisheipl ([1974] p. 222) wrote that the Summa Theologiae “was the most widely circulated work [of all the writings of Thomas Aquinas] both in manuscript and in print”. But we are still far from appreciating at full extent its circulation and influence. As I have tried to explain in my PhD thesis, which I hope will be printed in fall 2008, the Thomist tradition has had a great influence on our current moral traditions and especially on the modern interpretations of Aristotle's moral thought. But also the modern Thomists influenced Aquinas' reading. So, by unfolding the layers of tradition, contrary to the principle exploited by the bee allegory, we will be able to uncover not only Aquinas' thinking, but also that of Aristotle.

Other useful links:

• The Aquinas Translation Project (DeSales University, Dir. Stephen Loughlin)
• Robert Pasnau's Aquinas Latinus

Aquinas' works on-line:

• Corpus Thomisticum (Dir. Enrique Alarcon)

• La Somme contre les gentils (French trans., Editions du Cerf, Preface par James A. Weisheipl, trad. par R. Bernier & M. Corvez)
• Le Somme de Theologie, 4 tomes (French trans., Editions du Cerf) - tome 1; tome 2; tome 3; tome 4
  
• Summa Theologicae (English trans., tr. Alfred J. Fredosso, translation & commentary)
• Summa Theologiae, Ia, qq. 75-89 (English trans., tr. Robert Pasnau)

• COMMENTARIES ON THE BIBLE
  
• Le Commentaire des Psaumes (French trans., Editions du Cerf, Preface par Mark D. Jordan)
• Postilla super Pslamos, I-54 (French trans., tr. J.E. Stroobant de Saint-Eloy, Editions du Cerf, 1996)
  
• Expositio super Iob at litteram (French trans., tr. O.P. J. Kreit, 2001)
• Expositio super Isaiam ad litteram (French trans., tr. by monks of the Fontgombault Abbey, 2007)
• Super Jeremiam (French trans., tr. Jacques Menard, 2006, Ist ed.)
• Super Threnos (French trans., tr. Dominique Pillet, 2005)

• OTHER COMMENTARIES
  
• Commentaires des Sentences de Pierre Lombard (French trans., tr. Raymond Berton, 2005)

• COMMENTARIES ON ARISTOTLE'S WORKS
  
• Commentaire sur l'Ethique a Nicomaque (French trans., tr. Yvan Pelletier)
• Commentaire du Traite de l'Ame (French trans., tr. Yvan Pelletier)
• Commentary on De memoria et reminscentia, II-III (English draft trans., tr. Robert Pasnau)
• Sentencia libri De sensu et sensato, l. I-II (French trans., tr. Alain Blachair)
• Expositio libri Peryermeneias (French trans., tr. Yvan Pelletier, 2000)
• In libros Physicorum, lb. 1,2, 4 (French trans., tr. Yvan Pelletier, 1998)
  

• QUESTIONS
  
• De veritate (French trans., tr. Madeleine du Barroux, in progress since 2005)
• De veritate (English trans., tr. Robert W. Mulligan, 1952)
• De falaciis (French trans., tr. Yvan Pelletier)
• Questions disputees de l'ame (French trans., tr. Francois Genuyt, 2000)
  
• De potentia (French trans., tr. Raymond Berton, 2004)
• De spiritualibus creaturis (French trans., tr. Cecile Wattiaux & Raymond Berton, 2005)
• De malo (French trans., tr. Damien Saurel, 2005)
• De virtutibus (French trans., tr. coord. Raymond Berton, 2007)
• De unioni Verbi incarnati (French trans., tr. Jean Sebastien, 2005)
• Quaestiones quodlibetales (French trans., tr. Jacques Menard, 2005)

• OTHER WRITINGS
  
• Contra impugnates (French trans., tr. Jacques Menard, 2007)
• De perfectione spiritualis vitae (French trans., tr. Jacques Menard, 2007)
• Contra doctrinam retrahentium a religione (French trans., tr. Jacques Menard, 2007)
• De ente et essentia (French trans., tr. Alain Blachair, 2005)
• De principiis naturae (French trans., tr. Jean Madiran, 1977)
• De regno ad regem Cypri (French trans., tr. O.P. Martin-Cottier, 1946)
• Super Decretales (French trans., tr. Charles Duyck, 2005)
• Epistola ad Bernardum (French trans., tr. Stephane Mercier, 2004)
• Contra errores graecorum (French trans., tr. Charles Duyck, 2005)
• De forma absolutionis (French trans., tr. Charles Duyck, 2005)
• De secreto (French trans., tr. Charles Duyck, 2005)
• De judiciis astrorum (French trans., tr. Pierre Monat, 2007)
• Epistola ad comitissam Flandria (French trans., tr. Stephane Mercier, 2004)

PS: I agree with those that say that not everything on the Internet can be useful for research, but there are some reliable sources that any scholar cannot overlook. For example, some respectable researchers have decided to post on the Internet their pre- and post- printed materials. Why not use them if the references are in a standard form?

Roger Bacon. Seven Centuries of Scholarship

One year ago, I have begun working on a bibliography for Roger Bacon as being in need of references for one article I was drafting back then. Now, it is time to post the first public draft (see the "Research Resources" section of my website) and wait for remarks and suggestions. It will be updated from time to time and, in the end, published under the title "Roger Bacon. Seven Centuries of Scholarship" in a new Romanian journal for Ancient & Medieval Studies. It contains references both to manuscripts and editions, and to critical studies and other secondary literature. It is only a draft and should be treated as such.

Update (September 5, 2007):
Due to some problems with the hosting service for my website, I am forced to postpone the publication of the Roger Bacon bibliography for a later date.