International Conference
in collaboration with Humanities Center, Stanford University
Venice, Island of San Giorgio Maggiore
For some time Stanford University and the Giorgio Cini Foundation have been working on the history of the “Republic of Letters”. This year the two institutions have jointly organised a two-day conference to seek answers to the question whether today the Republic of Letters may be considered a state or a network.
In fact the Republic of Letters is a marvellous example of an aggregation in which literati and scientists from various nations corresponded in the name of a shared ideal, based not on social rank but on the quality of intellectual work. The creation of a transnational network now invites us to ponder the institutional nature of this intellectual community.
Was the political and scientiï¬ c effectiveness of the Republic of Letters due to the fact that a state coordinated its activities? Or because it was a forerunner of today’s social networks in which the casual relationships between intellectuals is the very condition of their freedom of thought and movement?
Humanities Center, Stanford University, has been using innovative technology to map out the geographical conï¬ guration of epistolary relations underlying the intellectual history of the Republic of Letters. Accordingly, on the ï¬ rst day of the conference several scholars will discuss their ongoing work, thus also illustrating how the latest technology can be a considerable aid in studying historical sources.
On the second day of the conference at the Giorgio Cini Foundation various experts will come together with the aim of analysing and discussing the lessons that can still be learned today from the “political” organisation of the Republic of Letters and how its “state” management was organised within various institutions that fully identiï¬ ed with it.
Participants include Alberto Abruzzese, Cesare De Michelis, Giorgio Ficara, Gilberto Pizzamiglio, Lorenzo Tomasin.
