Renaissance Science

Bruno Latour has noted that "no ‘new man’ suddenly emerged sometime in the sixteenth century, and there are no mutants with larger brains working inside modern laboratories who can think differently from the rest of us.” What, if we believe Latour, can we say about the age of scientific expansion in the Renaissance and its proximity to innovations in art and culture? This panel is seeking papers that challenge the boundaries between literature and science throughout the Renaissance in Italy, France, Spain, the Low Countries, or England and beyond. Some possible topics could include literature’s relationship to cartography, Copernicanism, architecture, anatomy, etc…Papers could also deal with how the Renaissance’s treatment of science comes to interrogate our own understanding of how science and the humanities interact. Bold, comparative approaches, as well as those informed by contemporary critical theory, particularly welcome. Brief abstracts to Tim Duffy (tduffy[at]virginia.edu) by June 5.