The Shadow of Reason. Animal cognition in the late middle late middle ages (13th–15th Centuries)

PAVIA 14 September 2026 | Almo Collegio Borromeo, Aula Didattica

CONVEGNO in collaborazione con Università di Pavia

ORGANIZERS: Michele Meroni, Gabriella Zuccolini

PROGRAMMA
09.15: Welcome
Luca Vanzago, Direttore del Dipartimento di Studi Umanistici
Chair: Michele Meroni, Università di Pavia
09.15-10.00: Tommaso Alpina, Università di Pavia
Did Themistius Ever Write about Animals? A Medieval Mystery
10.00-10.45: Rotraud Hansberger, LMU München
Animal Cognition in the Epistles of the Brethren of Purity (Ikhwān al-Ṣafāʾ)

Chair: Gabriella Zuccolin, Università di Pavia
11.00-11.45: José Filipe Silva, University of Helsinki
Specificity and Generality in Human-Animal Cognition
11.45-12.30: Mattia Mantovani, KU Leuven / CNRS Paris
An Eye for Drugs. Peter of Spain on Animal Medicine and Animal Perception
12.30-13.15: Michele Meroni, Università di Pavia
Triplex est via: Animal Cognition and Behaviour in Some 13th-century Commentaries on Aristotle’s De animalibus

Chair: Luca Bianchi, Università di Milano
14.30-15.15: Monika Mansfeld – Marek Gensler, University of Łódź
The Process of Animal Cognition in Geoffrey of Aspall
15.15-16.00: Aurélien Robert, CNRS, SPHERE Paris
The Sense of Smell in Animals and the Olfactory Pleasures of Humans, according to Some Commentators on the De anima and De sensu

Chair: Tommaso Alpina, Università di Pavia
16.15-17.00: Christopher David Schabel, CNRS, IRHT Paris
The Cistercian Pierre Ceffons on Storks, Humans, Dogs, and other Rational Animals
17.00-17.45: Gabriella Zuccolin, Università di Pavia
Zoognostics: Animal Physiognomy in the 15th Century

LOCANDINA