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Knowledge and manipulation of nature between usefulness and deception in the Arabo-Islamic tradition (9th-15th century)

Descrizione del progetto

Esplorare la tradizione tecnica nella letteratura araba premoderna

Il progetto UseFool, finanziato dall’UE, indagherà sulla conoscenza e sullo sfruttamento della natura, in particolare per quanto riguarda l’intrattenimento e la frode nella letteratura tecnica araba relativa alle truffe artigianali. Le fonti principali sono i manuali arabi scritti tra il XIII e il XV secolo. Eseguirà un’analisi filologica e testuale, ricreerà l’aspetto materiale delle procedure e infine metterà in scena le caratteristiche performative e teatrali coinvolte nelle varie forme di inganno. Il progetto intende gettare nuova luce sulla storia culturale, sociale e materiale di questa conoscenza, dal punto di vista della letteratura tecnica araba.

Obiettivo

The UseFool project studies the knowledge and manipulation of nature applied to entertainment and fraud, as described in the Arabic technical literature dealing with the practice of charlatans and performers along the streets and in the markets. At the core of UseFool’s textual corpus are four Arabic handbooks composed between the 6th/12th and the 9th/15th century, combined with other sources, such as the handbooks for the inspector of the market that focus on artisanal impostures. The project will reconstruct the refined technical notions mastered by marginal social groups, showing how the lightly dismissed ‘popular knowledge’ was actually a form of ‘street science’. The project’s goal is to write a new chapter in the cultural, social, and material history of knowledge looking through the lens of Arabic technical literature. UseFool proposes a new interdisciplinary approach to its sources: this begins from a philological and textual analysis that focuses on their technical contents, expands to the reconstruction of the material dimension of the procedures through hands-on replication, and completes its all-round approach with the re-enactment of the performative and theatrical dimension entailed in the different forms of deception. In this way, UseFool will assess the interaction between the narrative component and actual practice in this textual tradition. The project will also map the sources of this technical literature on deception, in order to reconstruct lines of transmission in a long time span and across different cultures. The project reflects on the roots of the handbooks on entertainment and fraud in the antique and late antique heritage, with the aim of providing a searchable and organized structure to the lore of natural properties. UseFool also expands its horizon to the close relationship between the Arabic and the Latin Mediaeval technical sources, with the aim of deepening our understanding of their transmission in a longue durée perspective.

Campo scientifico (EuroSciVoc)

Parole chiave

Programma(i)

Argomento(i)

Meccanismo di finanziamento

HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants

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Istituzione ospitante

ALMA MATER STUDIORUM - UNIVERSITA DI BOLOGNA
Contributo netto dell'UE
€ 1 943 208,00
Indirizzo
VIA ZAMBONI 33
40126 Bologna
Italia
Regione
Nord-Est Emilia-Romagna Bologna
Tipo di attività
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
Collegamenti
Costo totale
€ 1 943 208,00

Beneficiari (1)