Call for Papers: "Knowledge Organization in the Middle Ages: The Universitas" (Kompetenzzentrum Zürcher Mediävistik, Summer School)

 

This non-profit summer course event (not recurrent) is looking at the topic of "Knowledge Organization in the Middle Ages: The Universitas" from an information-historical point of view. Briefly about the term: Outside the context of the second half of the 20th and beginning of the 21st century, we understand information very broadly as an etic (externally applied) reference term to describe and analyze a group of concepts, formats, objects, practices and processes. Information is understood here as a meaningful message that is passed on by means of various media, with the media and their technological systems of transmission quite often playing a prominent role in the interpretation of the message.

Taking into account a variety of different religious and cultural areas of the medieval period, we have structured the five days of the summer course around the following six categories. 

Orality, written exchanges, and the question how information circulates

School objectives and the classification of teaching disciplines

Compendia

Visualizations, translations, and passages of knowledge

Libraries, archives, bureaucracy

Domains of information generation and dissemination

 

Please email koordination@mediaevistik.uzh.ch for more information.

Session Topics

Anja-Silvia Goeing (UZH/Harvard, History of Humanism and Higher Education): Institutions, Networks, and the Creation of Academic Information and Knowledge (Introductory Session)

Kathryne Beebe (University of North Texas, Medieval History): Orality, Religion and Circulation of Information: Pilgrimage and Travel

Marc Winter (UZH, Sinology): Teaching Confucius: Higher Education in China

Andreas Sohn (Sorbonne, Paris, Medieval History): Benedictine Teachers and the Monastery Library of Admont

Inga Mai Groote (UZH, Musicology), Hein Sauer (UZH, Musicology): Manuscripts of Musical Theory

Iolanda Ventura (University of Bologna, Medieval Studies): Medical Compendia in and outside the Late Medieval Classroom

Paul Michel (UZH, German Studies): Visualizations of Abstract Concepts

Urs Leu (ZB Zürich, Director of Rare Books): Storage: Early Libraries and Archives

Henrike Gaetjens (UZH, German Studies), Anja-Silvia Göing (UZH/Harvard), Eveline Szarka (University of Cambridge, History): Domains of Information Generation and Dissemination (Concluding Session)

 

Excursions:

Central Library Zurich: Medieval Manuscripts and Early Prints

On the Way of St. James to Rapperswil and Einsiedeln. Places of Pilgrimage, Institutions of Learning, and the Circulation of Information: Needs, Knowledge, Care and Spirituality