Anatomicae Natura 1542-1584 (Tivoli, 20-21 Mar 25)

Anatomicae Natura 1542-1584 (Tivoli, 20-21 Mar 25)

Tivoli, Villa d’Este, Mar 20–21, 2025
Deadline: Jan 6, 2025

Istituto Villa Adriana e Villa d’Este, Ministero della cultruraThe late Renaissance which witnessed the birth of Villa d’Este and its garden, fostered both cabinets of curiosities where unsystematic collections were assembled, and a different cosmogony for a new definition of paràdeisos. This era became the cradle of natural and artistic knowledge in the early modern age. In the mid-16th century, in fact, a synesthetic, ambiguous culture began to emerge, blending natural and artificial elements in a manner often challenging to discern as work of human hands or nature, art or mysterious energy. This concept then formed the basis both of the design of Villa d’Este’s gardens and of the Botanical Garden of Padua. The interdependence between botanical and medical knowledge, between circulatory and vital systems with natural analogies and biological similarities, as well as the fluid connection between bodies and the organic mechanisms that govern life, are object of interest (curiosa) at the centre of the pre-scientific thinking that developed in the shade of a new cosmopolitan knowledge. This knowledge was cultivated in dialogue with antiquity, even as it contended with an ever-expanding world. In 1542, Andreas Vesalius’s De Humani Corporis Fabrica and Leonhart Fuchs’s herbal De Historia Stirpium systematised a research exploring different aspects that would lead to the definition of that natura naturans, later codified in 1584 by Giordano Bruno in De la Causa, Principio et Uno. A cultural context that opened up to science through a normative encyclopaedism, represented by personalities such as Realdo Colombo, Andrea Cesalpino, and Luca Ghini among others. Scholars that were at the service of a world that was becoming increasingly marvellous and infinite, never exempt from a different spirituality of neo-Pythagorean origin, where microcosm and macrocosm coincide.

Based on these premises, the study days aim to propose an interdisciplinary focus, which is considered the most suitable approach to delineate such an ‘open and contemporary’ historical period, especially in relation to the Counter-Reformation climate in which it developed. The conference aims to create an opportunity for dialogue among scholars from disciplines that are now seen as antithetical, to reconstruct the portrait of an era that was both contradictory and a precursor to issues that are extremely relevant to our present day.

Participation as a speaker is free of charge and subject to the acceptance of an abstract of approximately 300 words to be sent to va-ve.convegni@cultura.gov.it.
This must be accompanied (in a separate file) by a descriptive note on the author(s), including their affiliation, title, e-mail, telephone number.
Acceptance of the abstract is determined through a double-blind peer review process. To ensure anonymity during the selection process, abstracts must not contain any references to the author’s identity or to specific research and studies clearly associated with them.

Anatomicae Natura: 1542-1584
International Conference on Studies
Tivoli, Villa d’Este, 20-21 March 2025
DATE
06 JANUARY 2025
Abstract submission deadline
31 JANUARY 2025
Notification of accepted submissions