CONFERENZA SULLE BIBLIOTECHE ANTICHE

ORGANIZZATA DALLA SCHOOL OF CLASSICS, UNIVERSITY OF ST ANDREWS, U.K.

"La conferenza mira a riaprire la discussione sul ruolo, la funzione e gli utenti delle antiche biblioteche. Noi siamo avidi di esplorare il mutamento delle condizioni sotto le quali operava la biblioteca come entità fisica e istituzionale, ma anche come spazio intellettuale e simbolico durante tutto l'ampio arco dell'antichità. In aggiunta, noi desideriamo investigare una varietà di pratiche tipiche degli studiosi e della società, nonché gli intrecci intellettuali che si svilupparono all'interno del dominio dell'antica biblioteca. Di conseguenza ci proponiamo di far luce sulla relazione tra la biblioteca e la più vasta cultura della lettura, della scrittura e degli scambi intellettuali nell'antichità."

In questi termini si apre la presentazione della conferenza sugli scopi e la funzione delle antiche biblioteche in seno alla società. Da sottolineare che la conferenza rientra fra le attività del progetto "Science and Empire in the Roman World" (Scienza e Impero nel mondo Romano).
(http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/classics/science-and-empire/)

Segue l'elenco dei temi specifici predisposti per l'invio dei saggi agli organizzatori, tenendo presente che alla conferenza possono partecipare con l'invio dei propri contributi sia studiosi che giovani laureati. Gli abstracts, da inviare a Katerina Oikonomopoulou (ao40 @st-andrews.ac.uk) per il 30 April 2008, non dovranno superare 300 parole.

Un doveroso ringraziamento a David Meadows per la gentile segnalazione.

ANCIENT LIBRARIES CONFERENCE
SCHOOL OF CLASSICS, UNIVERSITY OF ST ANDREWS

9-11 SEPTEMBER 2008

Libraries operate as the core foundation of research and study in the modern
Western world. Historically, they have enabled the preservation and
transmission of knowledge from antiquity to the Middle Ages, to the
contemporary era. Yet in the diachronic history of the library, we still lack
fundamental facts about its institutional role, organisation and mode of
operation in the ancient world. This is especially acute as both archaeological
research and the study of ancient literary texts have enabled significant
advancement to our knowledge and understanding of ancient written culture and
its various loci of production and dissemination.

The conference aims to re-open discussion of the role, function and users of
ancient libraries. We are keen to explore the shifting conditions under which
the library operated as a physical and institutional entity, but also as
intellectual and symbolic space over the long span of antiquity. In addition,
we wish to investigate a variety of scholarly practices and social and
intellectual networks that developed within the domain of the ancient library.
We thus hope to illuminate the relationship between the library and the broader
culture of reading, writing and intellectual exchange in antiquity.

Conference organisers:
Dr Jason König (jpk3@st-andrews.ac.uk)
Dr Katerina Oikonomopoulou (ao40@st-andrews.ac.uk)
Professor Greg Woolf (gdw2@st-andrews.ac.uk)

The conference is part of the activities of the Leverhulme-funded

"Science and Empire in the Roman World" project
(http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/classics/science-and-empire/).

It will bring together literary scholars, historians and archaeologists of all periods of
Graeco-Roman antiquity specialising in the above fields. Confirmed speakers
include: Ewen Bowie, Annette Harder, George Houston, Christian Jacob, William
Johnson, Richard Neudecker.

We invite papers on the following broad themes:
• The library as both material and intellectual archive: its history,
significance and development
• Libraries and the reading culture of antiquity
• Patterns of source usage, cross-referencing and annotating in antiquity
• The institutional function of ancient libraries, and their role in ancient
intellectual life
• Libraries and patronage, or benefaction
• Libraries and acquisitiveness, material or intellectual
• The organisation and operation of ancient libraries
• The topography of the ancient library: libraries and civic space
• Public and private libraries in the ancient world

Scholars, including postgraduate students, are asked to send 300-word abstracts
to Katerina Oikonomopoulou (ao40 AT st-andrews.ac.uk) by the 30th of April 2008

.

Posted by david meadows on Jan-19-08 at 7:02 PM