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IMC 2018: Sessions

Session 250: Scientific, Empirical, Biblical, and Hagiographical Knowledge in the Middle Ages, II: Water and Sea between Science and Religion

Monday 2 July 2018, 14.15-15.45

Sponsor:School of Arts, English & Languages, Queen's University Belfast
Organiser:Marilina Cesario, School of Arts, English & Languages, Queen's University Belfast
Moderator/Chairs:Sarah Baccianti, School of Arts, English & Languages, Queen's University Belfast
Marilina Cesario, School of Arts, English & Languages, Queen's University Belfast
Paper 250-aOne Ocean, Many Seas: Representing the Waters of the Earth on 11th-Century Maps
(Language: English)
Margaret Tedford, School of Arts, English & Languages, Queen's University Belfast
Index terms: Geography and Settlement Studies, Language and Literature - Old English, Learning (The Classical Inheritance)
Paper 250-bThe Sea in the Old English Orosius
(Language: English)
Helen Appleton, Balliol College, University of Oxford
Index terms: Geography and Settlement Studies, Language and Literature - Old English, Learning (The Classical Inheritance), Literacy and Orality
Paper 250-cBaptism at the Red Sea: Exodus Echoes in Old English Poetry
(Language: English)
Elisa Ramazzina, School of Arts, English & Languages, Queen's University Belfast
Index terms: Geography and Settlement Studies, Language and Literature - Old English
Abstract

This session will focus on attitudes to knowledge, which constitutes one of the most complex concepts in the Middle Ages, as suggested by the vast semantic range of the Latin terms commonly translated as 'knowledge', including scientia, cognitio, notitia, eruditio and sapientia.
It will consider how scientia was transmitted and manipulated in the Middle Ages by looking at diverse sources ranging from astronomical, computistical and mechanical texts (medicine, agriculture, and navigation), maps and the environment, and liturgical and hagiographical compositions from England, Scandinavia, and the Continent. Furthermore it will discuss the ways in which scientific knowledge and biblical and hagiographical learning were used to exercise power and the role that beliefs played in shaping and promoting scientific thinking.