for Advanced Studies
Sceptical AtelierSimone Luzzatto's "Socrates"Reading the forthcoming first English Translation
22 May 2017
Photo: UHH
The Sceptical Atelier is a pre-read event devoted to the discussion of the forthcoming bilingual (Italian/English) edition of Simone Luzzatto’s Socrate overo dell’humano sapere (1651) prepared by Giuseppe Veltri and Michela Torbidoni. It is an important but overlooked work, which provides a critical perspective on the place of Jewish scepticism within the 17th century.
Hence I likewise started to suspect that as human beings we are indeed not endowed with sufficient organs and faculties to apprehend and acknowledge the truth. Besides, the early bases and foundations from which rise the edifice of human knowledge are indeed not fixed and stable, but arbitrary and laid at our whim, as is usually the case with games, especially with chess, where similarly, while deductions and consequences are necessary, the first positions are indeed contingent and voluntary.
Simone Luzzatto (Socrate overo dell’humano sapere)
The Sceptical Atelier is a pre-read event devoted to the discussion of the forthcoming bilingual (Italian/English) edition of Simone Luzzatto’s Socrate overo dell’humano sapere (1651) prepared by Giuseppe Veltri and Michela Torbidoni. It is an important but overlooked work, which provides a critical perspective on the place of Jewish scepticism within the 17th century.
Simone Luzzatto (ca. 1583–1663) was the chief rabbi of the Jewish community of Venice as well as a highly talented classicist and a passionate reader of medieval Italian literature.
Convenors
Michela Torbidoni, Giuseppe Veltri
Invited participants
Guido Bartolucci (University of Calabria/Italy)
Paolo Bernardini (University of Insubria/Italy)
Antonella del Prete (Tuscia University of Viterbo/Italy)
Cristiana Facchini (University of Bologna/Italy)
Fabrizio Lelli (Salento University of Lecce/Italy)
Anna Lissa (University Paris 8/France)
Luciana Pepi (University of Palermo/Italy)
Emidio Spinelli (La Sapienza University of Rome/Italy)
Josef Stern (University of Chicago/USA)
Syros Vasileios (University of Jyväskylä/Finland)
The discussion will be led both in Italian and English.
Required reading will be made available by the end of April 2017. The event is open to the public with advance registration via e-mail.