The annual Robert Grosseteste Day takes place at Bishop Grosseteste University on Friday 7th October (Grosseteste’s feast day in the Christian Church is 9th October). Organised by Jack Cunningham the activities include a public lecture, and the launch of a new collection of essays from the 2014 International Grosseteste Society Conference, also held at BGU.
The public lecture starts at 15.00, in the Robert Hardy Building Lecture Theatre, and will be delivered by Giles Gasper (Durham University). Giles will be talking on Grosseteste’s treatise On the Generation of Sounds. The treatise, probably the second in Grosseteste’s canon, deals with the production of sound and its instantiation in the human voice. Exploring the context and content of the treatise, the lecture will compare Grosseteste’s thinking to earlier models and to some of his near contemporaries. Where Grosseteste was when he composed On the Generation of Sounds opens up consideration of the English schools of the late 12th and early 13th centuries, relations between England and France under Kings John and Philip Augustus, and the course of Grosseteste’s early career. The lecture is open to the public.
In addition, the Robert Grosseteste Day will launch a new collection of essays Robert Grosseteste and the Pursuit of Religious and Scientific Learning in the Middle Ages. Edited by Jack Cunningham and Mark Hocknull, published by Springer, the essays cover a wide range of topics, from particular treatises (De luce, the Hexameron, the De iride), to Grosseteste’s framework for knowledge and learning, Roger Bacon, and lessons from the medieval period for modern science and religion debates. It is wonderful to see the volume in print, and a testament to Jack’s efforts in putting it and the conference together.
So, if you are in Lincoln on Friday 7th, come and join in!