The conference concentrates on questions about the actual production and publication of scientific literature, as well as the availability and use of canonical or standard editions in the time of Galen and Ptolemy, considering questions such as: what texts of Aristotle, Plato, Euclid, Hippocrates etc. but also of Hellenistic authors in all domains were read? how many copies were available, where and to whom? how were they quoted? what could the authors presuppose on the part of their readers?
There has been quite a lot of discussion about single authors in particular fields in recent times, notably in connection with important new evidence which came to light with the rediscovery of Galen's De indolentia. It is hoped that the conference will help to broaden the perspective and integrate further evidence from Galen and other contemporary and nearly contemporary authors.
Confirmed speakers and participants include Véronique Boudon-Millot (Paris Sorbonne), Tiziano Dorandi (CNRS Paris), Myrto Hatzimichali (Exeter/Cambridge), Inna Kupreeva (Edinburgh), Matthew Nicholls (Reading), Nigel Wilson (Oxford).
The conference is supported by the Einstein Foundation and the Zentrum Grundlagenforschung Alte Welt of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities. In cooperation with Liba Taub (Cambridge, Einstein Foundation Visiting Fellow Berlin).