Convegno - Nicholas of Cusa and the Metaphor(s) of Light

PRESENTATION

One recurring and central theme in the oeuvre of Nicholas of Cusa (1401-1464) is the motive of light. While scholars have been examining in great detail and depth the history and significance of this motive, it is still up for debate which role(s) light plays in Nichola’s work. Blurring established disciplinary boundaries, engagements with the subject of light call into question traditional distinctions: Is light a metaphor, a concept, a notion, a model, or something that cannot be grasped properly by deploying our scientific categories? How should we describe, understand and appreciate Nicholas’ contribution to the history of speculative engagements with light? What are the afterlives and repercussions of his ideas regarding light? These are only three examples for questions on which contributions to this Tagung may revolve.

The 11th Juncusaner Tagung will take place from Wednesday, September 11 to Friday, September 13, 2024 at the Academy of Sciences of the Institute of Bologna (Italy), with the sponsorship of the Società Cusaniana Italiana and the Kueser Akademie für Europäische Geistesgeschichte. Attendance will be possible both in presence and at a distance (a hybrid option will be available) Taking Nichola’s usage of light as a point of departure, this Tagung aims to explicate a plethora of different perspectives which all find their center of gravity in Nicholas’ multilayered work.

Being essentially transdisciplinary, the topic of light aptly intertwines religious, philosophical, historical, and aesthetical approaches.

PROGRAM

WEDNESDAY, 11TH SEPTEMBER 2024

3.00 p.m. – INSTITUTIONAL GREETINGS - Gianluca Cuozzo (University of Turin)

3.45 p.m. – BOOK PRESENTATION - Salvatore Carannante, Greta Venturelli (eds.), I campi della sapienza. A partire dal De venatione sapientiae di Nicola

Cusano, Milano, Mimesis, 2024.

SINGLE SESSION

Chair: Annarita Angelini (University of Bologna)

4.15. p.m. – Milo Spotti (University of Bologna) Coins, Humans, and God: Nicholas of Cusa’s Morphological  Theory of Economic Value

 5.00 p.m. – Paolo Colizzi (University San Raffaele of Milan) Luce, oscurità e individualità. Niccolò Cusano e il platonismo antico

5.45 p.m. – Witalij Morosow (Kueser Akademie – Bernkastel-Kues) The Concepts of lumen naturae and lumen gratiae in the Writings of Nicholas of Cusa

6.30 p.m. – ROUND TABLE

THURSDAY, 12TH SEPTEMBER 2024

FIRST SESSION

Chair: Daniel Bella (Goethe University of Frankfurt a.M.)

9.15 a.m. – Michela Battaglino (University of Turin)Light and Theurgy: Nicholas of Cusa Interpreting the

Hermetic Tradition

10.00 a.m. – Fabian Marx (University of Siegen) How to Read Pseudo-Dionysius? Wenck and Cusanus on the Concept of Light

COFFEE BREAK

11.15 a.m. – Francesco Maria Zema (University of Chieti-Pescara) Light as Perfect Image of the Principle. Beginning with Cusa’s De non aliud and De venatione sapientiae

12.00 a.m. – Klédson Tiago Alves de Souza (University of Coimbra) Tra luce e oscurità. Il concetto di relazione in Nicola Cusano

LUNCH BREAK

SECOND SESSION

Chair: Matías Ignacio Pizzi (University of Buenos Aires-CONICET)

3.00 p.m. – Alice Ferrari (University San Raffaele of Milan)

In bilico tra luce e tenebra. L’antropologia di Cusano in immagine 3.45 p.m. – Andrés García-Rengifo (Kueser Akademie of Bernkastel-Kues) Nicholas of Cusa’s Metaphysics of Darkness

4.30 p.m. – Paolo Piccirillo (University of Bologna) La luce come attante narrativo. Verso una rilettura semiotica di Cusano tra visibile e intelligibile

COFFEE BREAK

5.45 p.m. – Francesco Brusori (Centre d’Études Supérieures de la Renaissance of Tours) Nicholas of Cusa and Beato Angelico: Considerations on a Symbolic Metaphysics of Light 

6.30 p.m. - Round Table

FRIDAY, 13TH SEPTEMBER 2024

SINGLE SESSION

Chair: Francesco Brusori (Centre d’Études Supérieures de la Renaissance of Tours)

9.00 a.m. – Matteo Pirazzoli (Foundation Collegio San Carlo of Modena) Bovillo e Bruno lettori di Cusano sulla metafisica della luce

9.45 a.m. – Agustín Bianchi (University of Buenos Aires-CONICET) The Metaphor of Light in Nicholas of Cusa’s De coniecturis and its Projection in Giordano Bruno

COFFEE BREAK

10.45 a.m. – Daniel Bella (Goethe University a.M.) “Lux, Lumen, Lucerna”: Searching for Reflexions of Cusanus’ Light Metaphor in 17th Century Thought

11.30 a.m. – Diego Molgaray (University of Buenos Aires) La oscuridad como prerrequisito de la luz en Cusano y Schelling

12.15 a.m. – Matías Ignacio Pizzi (University of Buenos Aires-CONICET) «Lux infinita sensibilibus sensibilite»: la recepción de la metáfora cusana de la luz en la nouvelle phénoménologie française

1.00 p.m. – ROUND TABLE