Events for October 21, 2008
October 21, 2008
Hiro Hirai, Edelstein Senior Research Fellow, Chemical Heritage Foundation
“Matter and Life in the Natural Philosophy of Daniel Sennert”
Chemical Heritage Foundation, Brown Bag Lecture | Visit site »
Time: 12:00 - 1:00 p.m.
Place: 6th Floor Conference Room, Chemical Heritage Foundation
Daniel Sennert, a professor of medicine at the Lutheran University of Wittenberg (Germany), tried to establish a synthesis of Aristotelian hylomorphism and Democritean atomism. He developed his idea of “living atoms,” especially in the fields of biology and embryology. The leading minds of the next generation of scholars, like Pierre Gassendi and Robert Boyle, eagerly read Sennert’s works. This talk explains Sennert’s conceptions of matter and life that provide the framework for Hiro’s research project at CHF.
Hiro Hirai is the Edelstein senior research fellow at CHF (2008–2009). He is particularly interested in early modern ideas on the origin of life. His first book, titled Concept of Seeds in Renaissance Matter Theories, was published in 2005 (Brepols: Turnhout). He is currently preparing his second book, Senior Medicine and Philosophy in the Renaissance.
October 21, 2008
John Zarobell, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
“How I See Is What I Know: Technology and Vision in the Nineteenth Century”
Friends of the Bryn Mawr College Library | Visit site »
Time: 5:00 p.m.
Place: Rhys Carpenter Library 21, Bryn Mawr College
John Zarobell is the Assistant Curator of Painting and Sculpture at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and was formerly the Associate Curator of European Painting Before 1900 at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Rodin Museum. While at the Philadelphia Museum of Art he curated a number of exhibitions including Manet and the Sea; African Art, African Voices: Long Steps Never Broke a Back and Renoir Landscapes. Currently the coordinating curator of Frida Kahlo, John is working on Paul Klee’s Pedagogical Sketchbook and an upcoming atrium commission with Kerry James Marshall. He received his PhD in the History of Art from the University of California, Berkeley. His book, Empire of Landscape, will be published in 2009.
This lecture marks the opening of the exhibition “Educating the Eye: Nineteenth-Century Optical Toys and Devices” (see Exhibits).