Emotional Persuasion in Early Modern Science: Vernacular and Neo-Latin Perspectives
- Event type
- Conference
- Address
- Warburg Institute, Woburn Square, London WC1H 0AB
- Event dates
- Contact
- warburg@sas.ac.uk 020 7862 8910
The conference will investigate the use of emotion as a persuasive tool in early modern scientific writing, both within vernacular and Neo-Latin texts and with a comparative aim. Despite programmatic statements declaring that the author will adhere to technical language and an impersonal, seemingly objective style, a stunning number of these texts display a completely different stylistic character: high emotions, enthusiastic expressions of gratitude, praise, astonishment and pathos can be found in various parts of numerous scientific works, both in Neo-Latin and vernacular examples. Thus we find Johannes Kepler filling his Astronomia nova (1609) with emotional appeals; Athanasius Kircher describing the intriguing features of nature in Mundus subterraneus (1665); and Robert Boyle using Aristotelian pathos in his Sceptical Chymist (1661).
The conference examines these developments, studying the use of emotion in scientific texts from ca. 1550 to 1750, including literary genres such as encyclopedic treatises, dialogues, reports and diverse forms of scientific poetry.
Friday, 16th May, 2025
9.30am: Welcome, Tea and Coffee
9.50–11.00am: Panel 3:
9.50–10.25: Daniel Margocsy (University of Cambridge): 'Negative Theology and Exalted Science in the Writings of Matthew of Saint Joseph, OCD'
10.25–11.00 Monica Azzolini (University of Bologna): 'Out of the Earth’s Fertile Womb: Powers and Properties of Subterranean Matter in Kircher’s Mundus Subterraneus'
11.00–11.30am: Tea and Coffee Break
11.30–12.40pm: Panel 4:
11.30–12.05: Daniel Samuel (The Warburg Institute): 'A Fanciful Account of the Passions: Margaret Cavendish’s Theory of Emotion'
12.05–12.40: Maria Avxentevskaya (Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Berlin): 'Persuasion through Epistemic Emotions in the Early Royal Society (1660s–1670s)'
12.40–1.00pm: Concluding Remarks
The conference examines these developments, studying the use of emotion in scientific texts from ca. 1550 to 1750, including literary genres such as encyclopedic treatises, dialogues, reports and diverse forms of scientific poetry.
Organisation:
Dr Sara Miglietti (sara.miglietti@sas.ac.uk): Senior Lecturer in Cultural and Intellectual History, Warburg Institute
Dr Johanna Luggin (Johanna.Luggin@uibk.ac.at): Department of Classical Philology and Neo-Latin Studies, Innsbruck University
Programme:
Thursday, 15th May, 2025
2.00–2.30pm: Welcome and Introduction - Sara Miglietti (The Warburg Institute), Johanna Luggin (Innsbruck University)
2.30–3.40pm: Panel 1:
2.30–3.05: Domenico Graziano (Università degli Studi di Napoli “Federico II” / Innsbruck University): 'Mathematics for a Sublime Reader: Simon Grynaeus’ (1493 – 1541) Prefaces to Ancient Greek Scientific Texts'
3.05–3.40: Dilwyn Knox (University College London): 'Giordano Bruno: Allusion and Complicity'
3.40–4.15pm: Tea and Coffee Break
4.15–6.00pm: Panel 2:
4.15–4.50: Irina Tautschnig (University of York): 'Pro tumulo tibi, nate, loco mirabile sidus: Science in Johannes Kepler’s Funerary Poems'
4.50–5.25: Richard Serjeantson (Trinity College, Cambridge): tba
5.25–6.00 Kevin Killeen (University of York): 'Maplessness, Encyclopaedism and the Emotion of absolute Uncertainty in Early Modern Scientific Poetry'
9.30am: Welcome, Tea and Coffee
9.50–11.00am: Panel 3:
9.50–10.25: Daniel Margocsy (University of Cambridge): 'Negative Theology and Exalted Science in the Writings of Matthew of Saint Joseph, OCD'
10.25–11.00 Monica Azzolini (University of Bologna): 'Out of the Earth’s Fertile Womb: Powers and Properties of Subterranean Matter in Kircher’s Mundus Subterraneus'
11.00–11.30am: Tea and Coffee Break
11.30–12.40pm: Panel 4:
11.30–12.05: Daniel Samuel (The Warburg Institute): 'A Fanciful Account of the Passions: Margaret Cavendish’s Theory of Emotion'
12.05–12.40: Maria Avxentevskaya (Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Berlin): 'Persuasion through Epistemic Emotions in the Early Royal Society (1660s–1670s)'
12.40–1.00pm: Concluding Remarks
ATTENDANCE FREE IN PERSON OR ONLINE WITH ADVANCE BOOKING
For further query please contact the organisers: Sara Miglietti (The Warburg Institute: sara.miglietti@sas.ac.uk), Johanna Luggin (University of Innsbruck: johanna.luggin@uibk.ac.at)
image: Jan Matejko, Astronomer Copernicus, or Conversations with God, 1873, Kraków, Poland. Jagiellonian University Museum, Collegium Maius
