Sponsored by the Center for Early Modern Studies

Free and open to the public

Sponsored by the Center for Early Modern Studies,

the Anonymous Fund, the Center for Visual Culture, the Center for European Studies, The Center for German and European Studies, the Departments of Art History, History of Science, German, French and Italian, and the Society for Emblem Studies

Center for Early Modern Studies

cems.wisc.edu

Center for Early Modern Studies Conference

Spiritual Optiks': Jesuits and Visual Culture

University of Wisconsin-Madison

Memorial Library

Special Collections

6-7 May, 2013

“Spiritual images appeal to the spiritual eye, the oculi mentis and are therefore proper to the spiritual optiks”

(Henry Hawkins, S.J.)

As missionaries, scholars, teachers, authors, and members of learned academies, members of the Society of Jesus exerted great influence on the world of early modern European book culture, in particular illustrated volumes in fields such as astronomy, mathematics, history, travel, geography, as well as works of systematic theology, prayer books, and preaching manuals. Notably, Jesuits published more emblematic books than any other group during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Jesuits employed symbolic images as means of instruction and the dissemination of scholarship. The Ratio Studiorum of 1599 included instructions on the production of mnemonic images and emblems as part of the rhetorical inventio. This practical aspect of their pedagogy and dissemination strategy led to a wealth of materials that help us to understand today how the Jesuits influenced the ways that the early modern period interpreted and constructed knowledge through symbolic representation and allegory.

Monday, 6 May - Room L 150 Elvehjem

Laurence Grove (Glasgow):

"Jesuit Emblems and Catholic Comics"

Tuesday, 7 May - Memorial Library Special Collections

9 am Introduction:

Sabine Mödersheim (Madison):
"The Heart of Man: A Jesuit Emblem Book Goes Global"

10 am

Peter M. Daly (Montreal):
"Jesuits, Emblems and Knowledge Transfer"

11:30 am

Pedro F. Campa (Chattanooga):
"The Origin and Early Development of the Jesuit Emblem"

2 pm

Meridith Beck Sayre / Nick Jacobson (Madison):
"'A Place Where No Men Dwell, Nor Souls Pass Away': Spiritual and Geographic Visualization in Giambattista Riccioli's Selenography"

Florence C. Hsia / Robin Rider (Madison):
"Jesuits and the Construction of Knowledge, 1540–1773"

4 pm

Volker Remmert (Wuppertal):
"Picturing a Jesuit Empire of Knowledge"

7 pm Conference Dinner