小瓢虫传媒

1) Edition
of the Ras膩鈥檌l Ikhw膩n al-峁�af膩鈥�

Edition of Epistles 7 (鈥淭丑别
scientific arts鈥�), 28 (鈥淭he limits of human knowledge鈥�), 36 (鈥淐ycles and revolutions鈥�), 52a (鈥淥n Magic I鈥�, with Bruno Halflants) and 52b (鈥淥n Magic II鈥�, with
Bruno Halflants and S茅bastien Moureau) as part of the on-going project at
Oxford University press in association with the Institute of Ismaili Studies to
publish a multi-volume Arabic
critical edition of The Epistles of
the Brethren of Purity, with an annotated English
translation, introduction and critical commentary.

For the whole project, see: .

For the edition of Epistle 52a, published
in 2011, see:

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2) Speculum Arabicum

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Speculum Arabicum (ARC
2012-2017: 鈥淥bjectifying the contribution of the Arab-Muslim world to the
history of sciences and ideas: the sources and resources of medieval
别苍肠测肠濒辞辫补别诲颈蝉尘鈥�) is a five-year project on comparative medieval
encyclopaedism now under way at the University of Louvain. The project seeks to
explore medieval encyclopaedism in the East and the West in order to provide
unbiased information and quantifiable benchmarks that can help us better
understand the extent of what Europe owes to the scholars of Islam. Promoters: Godefroid
de Callata每 (chairman), Baudouin Van den Abeele, Mattia Cavagna, Fran莽oise Van
Haeperen.

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The contribution of the Arab-Muslim world
to the field of the history of science remains a matter of debate and
controversy today. In spite of the undeniable achievements of scholarship over
the last 150 years, current research is still in need of unbiased information
and quantifiable benchmarks in order to assess, on a truly scientific basis,
the extent of what Europe owes to the scholars of medieval Islam. Because their
purpose is precisely to organise and classify human knowledge with an
all-encompassing scope, encyclopaedias are works that reflect, as do mirrors,
the cultural and intellectual concerns of the societies that have produced
them. Research on medieval encyclopaedism has generated excellent results in
various fields so far, but still suffers from a regrettable propensity for
compartmentalization, with the result that Arabists, Byzantinists, Latinists,
and Romanicists are only rarely involved in common projects.

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At the core of our investigations since the
founding of our group of research in 2003, the comparative study of
encyclopaedias in the East and the West offers a wide range of concrete and
objective data that are directly usable to help us answering our initial
question. This cross-cultural approach proves to be especially helpful in what
regards the study of the sources and of the transmission of the texts.
Therefore, in view of evaluating the importance of the Arab-Muslim world as one
of the roots of Europe鈥檚 cultural and intellectual identity, we have defined
five complementary fields of inquiry that are designed either for doctoral or
post-doctoral research, namely:

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1. 鈥淎谤补产颈肠
   sources in black and white: a study of Arab authorities in the Latin encyclopaedias
   of the 13th C.鈥� (PhD: Gr茅gory Clesse; supervisors: G. de Callata每 鈥� B. Van
   den Abeele)





2. 鈥淏etween the East and the West: the
   sources and scopes of the Byzantine Suda (10th C.)鈥� (Post-doc听:
   Bastien Kindt; supervisor: F. Van Haeperen)





3. 鈥淔rom the Speculum historiale to the
   Miroir historial: towards a more 鈥榥eutral鈥� approach of Islam鈥� (PhD:
   Florence Ninitte; supervisor: M. Cavagna)





4. 鈥淎 comparison of the Oriental and
   Occidental traditions on the Wonders of the Word鈥� (Post-doc: Omayra
   Herrero; supervisor: G. de Callata每)





5. 鈥淔rom Latin to the vernacular: the
   translation of Arab authors into the Romance-speaking area鈥� (Post-doc:
   Lorenzo Mainini; supervisors: B. Van den Abeele 鈥� M. Cavagna).

In addition to the
specifically designed supervisors for each field, researchers naturally benefit
from a collegial coaching, combining the expertise of the four promoters of the
project. Synergies are facilitated by: 1) the pursuit of the annual seminar; 2)
the organization by our group of at least one international conference on the
issue at the heart of our research project.

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