Conference on "Giorgio Valla e la sua biblioteca", co-organised by CML MSCA fellow Sandro Passavanti
The conference "Giorgio Valla e la sua biblioteca" took place at the National Academy of Sciences, Letters and Arts in Modena 31st March and 1st of April
On the 31st of March and 1st of April, Sandro Passavanti (MSCA fellow at CML) together with Berenice Cavarra and Marco Cilione (University of Modena and Reggio Emilia) hosted a conference on the personal library of the Italian humanist Giorgio Valla (1447-1500), now preserved at the Biblioteca Estense of Modena. Over two full days, researchers from Italy, France, and Germany gathered in Modena to engage in an in-depth survey of the collection of Byzantine manuscripts once in the possession of the 15th-century Italian humanist, one of the key figures in the intellectual landscape of his time. His library provides first-hand information on the reception of the Byzantine heritage in the West as well as on processes of knowledge-exchange in Early Modern Italy. Besides analyzing content and material aspects of the codices, participants focused on Valla’s work as a compiler and translator of medical and philosophical texts from Greek to Latin, unveiling some of his sources and throwing new light on his method, enriching our knowledge of the development of a European scientific vocabulary in the Renaissance.
The conference «Giorgio Valla e la sua biblioteca» took place at the National Academy of Sciences, Letters and Arts in Modena, and was sponsored by the Italian Association of Byzantine Studies (AISB) and the Italian Society of Human Sciences in Medicine (SISUMed). Sandro, together with the conference’s co-organizers, is already working toward a co-edited volume based on the papers presented during these enriching two days.
