What was new in the renaissance? What were some of the catalysts for change? How did globalization affect technology in the early modern period? Using Giovanni Stradano’s famed Nova Reperta print series as a case study, this international symposium and its related collaborative research project will consider the relationship between novelty, technology, and globalization in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, exploring in particular the role of the printed image to disseminate knowledge.

This symposium is sponsored by the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation and Jack and Dorothy Jiganti.

Schedule

Thursday, May 2, Towner Fellows Lounge

1 - 3 pm Introductory Panel: Defining the Nova Reperta

Inventing the Nova Reperta
Lia Markey, Newberry Library

Philips Galle's Nova Reperta: A Case Study in Print Prices and Distribution
Karen L. Bowen, University of Antwerp

Representing Labor and Workshop Practice in the Nova Reperta
Madeleine Viljoen, New York Public Library

Instruments, Instrumentality, and Pictorial Convention in the Nova Reperta
James Clifton, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

3 - 3:30 pm Coffee Break

Conversations

3:30 - 4:15 pm Travel, Navigation, Colonization

Jim Akerman, Newberry Library
Pedro Raposo, Adler Planetarium
Moderator: JB Shank, University of Minnesota

4:15 - 5 pm Warfare

Jennifer Nelson, School of the Art Institute of Chicago
David Cressy, Claremont Graduate University
Moderator: Suzanne Karr Schmidt, Newberry Library

Friday, May 3, Towner Fellows Lounge

9:30 - 10:15 am Collection Presentation

10:15 - 10:30 am Coffee

Conversations

10:30 - 11:15 am Mechanical Reproduction

Jill Gage, Newberry Library
Dirk Imhof, Plantin-Moretus, Antwerp
Moderator: Martin Antonetti, Northwestern

11:15 am - 12 pm Image Making and Visuality

Sven Dupré, Utrecht University/University of Amsterdam
Claudia Swan, Northwestern University
Moderator: Christine Göttler, Universität Bern/Newberry Lib

12 - 1:30 pm Lunch on Your Own

1:30 - 2:15 pm Transformation of Substances

Luca Molà, University of Warwick
Rebecca Zorach, Northwestern University
Moderator: Matthew Crawford, Kent State University

2:15 - 3 pm Energy

Deborah Howard, Cambridge University
Jessica Keating, Carleton College
Moderator: Niall Atkinson, University of Chicago

3 - 3:30 pm Coffee break

3:30 - 5 pm Concluding Talks

The Reception of the Nova Reperta
Daniel Margocsy, Cambridge University

Practical Knowledge in Sixteenth-Century Europe
Pamela Smith, Columbia University