Anja will speak on “Reading and Visualising Physics in Post-Reformation Switzerland: Conrad Gessner’s Work reconsidered”: The Swiss physician and polymath Conrad Gessner (1516–1565) was one of the ground-breaking natural philosophers of the 16th century, the renowned and prolific author of encyclopaedias about animals, plants and stones. He turned large bodies of multi-language information and graphic illustration into books of scholarly and general knowledge that were frequently reprinted long after his death. Anja’s talk will explain how his theoretical and practical approach towards the world and mankind was centred on his preoccupation with the human soul, an object of study that had challenged classical writers such as Aristotle and Galen, and which remained as important in post-Reformation debate. Reading commentaries on Aristotle’s De Anima (On the Soul) was part of early-modern physics education at university and formed the preparatory step for studying medicine.
David’s talk is titled “‘I do – not – ken’: Getting Lost with the Romantics”. He will discuss the prose experiments of three Romantic-period writers, Allan Cunningham, James Hogg and Walter Scott, who help us discover the literary pleasures in wandering through dark bogs. His talk will look at their experiments in literary form which permit an exploration of place that is epistemological as well as physical, and which suggests success may come when in saying ‘I do – not – ken’.
The seminar will take place on Wednesday, 16 March 2016, 4.30pm onwards in Lipman 121. Refreshments will be available.
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