CfP: International Conference "The Science of Natural Properties: Knowledge, Transmission, and Practice (6th – 15th century)"

The conference The Science of Natural Properties: Knowledge, Transmission, and Practice  will explore how theoretical and technical knowledge of natural properties was shaped through transmission, translation, and adaptation, as well as the impact of its practical applications in crafts and artisanal practices. By tracing these trajectories across time (6th – 15th century), space (Mediterranean area, Near East, Iran and Central Asia), as well as cultures and languages (Greek, Latin, Arabic, Middle Persian and Persian, Hebrew, Syriac, and Turkish), the conference seeks to illuminate the pathways of transmission through which mediaeval understanding of natural properties and their applications was shaped and circulated. 

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to the following: 

• Theories of properties: explicit formulations or implicit theories, encoding, the conceptual space of properties within the study of nature.
• Properties across genres and fields of knowledge: the technical side and application of properties in different textual genres (medicine, magic, alchemy, agriculture, crafts, fraud, etc.), its application to various purposes, erudite and popular circulation, the combination of technical and literary elements.
• Practical and artisanal applications and techniques: technical knowledge applied to the manipulation of nature, examined in connection with professionals or with specific social and intellectual groups and contexts, and from different perspectives (erudite physicians, street physicians, root cutters, apothecaries, etc.); techniques, instruments, and materials; practices of counterfeiting and adulteration; the role of replication in the study of premodern natural properties.
• Clues of transmission: Manuscripts and manuscript traditions; textual criticism (variant analysis and its impact, the study of fluid traditions); multilingual traditions; corpora, lines and clusters of transmission; authorship, and pseudo-epigraphy. 

The conference is organised by Alessandra Scimone & Amine Xhakoni, with the participation of Lucia Raggetti (University of Bologna, UseFool Project), and will feature a special event for the launch of the edition of The Book of Occult Properties by Abū al-ʿAlā ibn Zuhr, as a collective research endeavour of the UseFool Project.   

We invite abstracts from scholars at any stage in their academic career with a philological, linguistic, and historical background, or an expertise in premodern material culture. Poster presentations are also welcome and may be included in a dedicated session. 

 

Abstract Submission: Abstracts of papers and posters (in Italian, English, French, Spanish or German) must not exceed 300 words (papers) or 200 words (posters) and must include: author(s)’ full name(s); title of the contribution, institutional affiliation; abstract; three to five keywords for papers, three for posters. 

Presentation format: 20 minutes + 10 minutes (Q&A) 

Submission deadline: 15th January, 2026. Accepted papers and posters will be announced by mid-February 2026. 

Conference activities will be free of charge both for speakers and for attendees. For the speakers, travel and accommodation expenses are to be covered by the UseFool project. 

Please consider submitting an abstract and feel free to share this call with colleagues who might be interested.  

 

Further details can be found in the full Call for Papers, here attached and available at the following link: https://www.academia.edu/145294551/Call_for_Papers_The_Science_of_Natural_Properties_Knowledge_Transmission_and_Practice_6_th_15_th_century_Bologna_17_19_June_2026?source=swp_share.  

If you have questions about the event, please do not hesitate to contact me or my co-organiser, Amine Xhakoni.