IMC 2020: Sessions

This session approaches the theme of 'boundaries' in two ways. First, the presentations demonstrate continuities across geographical boundaries, with papers on Central, Northern, and Southern Europe. The presentations also consider another boundary - the line between true and false. This session explores knowledge-making and the attempts of individuals to distinguish true from false in subjects that straddled magic and science, the natural and the occult. Some germane questions included: How can 'true' knowledge be obtained? How can 'truth' be verified?, and Who can be trusted? This session addresses these questions as they related to the topics of prophecy, alchemy, and eschatology.

Ambiguity and Alchemy in Venice: Michael A Ryan of the University of New Mexico will address the liminal and ambiguous space occupied by alchemy, an occult discipline which straddled magic and science, internal contemplation, and technical practice.
Do Women Make the Best Prophets?: The Case for Female Prophecy in Late Medieval Germany: Frances Kneupper of the University of Mississippi will explore the writings of late medieval advocates of female prophetic gifts and their justifications of women as true prophets.
Who were the False Prophets in Hussite Sources? Pavlína Cermanová of the Czech Academy of Sciences will focus on the labelling of the false prophets in the polemical writings of various Hussite groups. She will consider the question of how the authority of Hussite preachers was constructed and disputed.