Reconstructing Late Medieval Quests for Knowledge: Quodlibetal Debates as Precursors of Modern Academic Practice

Project Information

ACADEMIA

Grant agreement ID: 949710

DOI

10.3030/949710

EC signature date 12 October 2020

Start date 1 July 2021

End date 30 June 2027

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - European Research Council (ERC)

Total cost

€ 1 260 485,00

EU contribution

€ 1 260 485,00

Coordinated by

FILOSOFICKY USTAV AV CR V V I
Czechia

Periodic Reporting for period 3 - ACADEMIA (Reconstructing Late Medieval Quests for Knowledge: Quodlibetal Debates as Precursors of Modern Academic Practice)

Reporting period: 2024-07-01 to 2025-12-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The ERC ACADEMIA project is a pioneering, complex study of the largely unresearched corpus of medieval manuscripts stemming from the neglected genre of quodlibetal debates that flourished at the Faculties of Arts of European universities from the fourteenth to the early seventeenth centuries. These collective debates, mostly underestimated by previous research as mere ceremonies or festivities, were among the intellectual practices shared by and connecting many European universities of the period. Participation in these events was usually prescribed by the Arts Faculty statutes for all masters of arts affiliated with the faculty, who periodically (usually annually) gathered in their dozens for the quodlibet to reply to questions assigned to them by a presiding master.
ACADEMIA hypothesises that the scholars gathered to present their most important scientific achievements and innovations over a given interval and that the whole process was similar to the modern practice of conference organisation and the publication of scientific results. This unconventional perspective offers a novel theoretical framework for understanding medieval as well as modern academia. From this perspective, among others, the Arts quodlibets were the most serious university-wide interdisciplinary research conferences, where leading scholars met to exchange and discuss knowledge. Since they also included scholars who were already attached to the other faculties (i.e. of Law, Medicine and Theology), they covered all university subjects, including astronomy, ethics, law, logic, medicine, metaphysics, meteorology, optics, physics, theology, and others (“de quolibet” meaning “on anything”). In consequence, the written forms of these unique collective works of the Middle Ages mirror contemporary scientific thought and research culture to an extent that far exceeds the frontiers of our present understanding.
ACADEMIA’s ambition is to understand the roots of the modern practice of fostering collective science through a multi-faceted analysis of the Arts quodlibets based on new interpretative and digital methods. The quodlibets are a significant subject for research and study because they have not yet been appropriately understood and investigated as a coherent corpus, which ACADEMIA intends to establish as a new field of study. The idea of a coherent corpus of texts comparable across universities will allow ACADEMIA to understand the modalities of this scientific tradition in a European context and analyse phenomena relevant to the Middle Ages and to European intellectual history in general. These include the production, transmission and reception of knowledge, networking, calls for papers, conference organisation, the publication of research results, the production of collective volumes, the spread of intellectual practices, and researchers’ social statuses and positions on the university job market.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

At the beginning of the implementation, the ERC-ACADEMIA/TRIPTIC-EU research group (Research Group for Transdisciplinary Investigation of Philosophical, Textual and Intellectual Culture in the Early Universities) was established at the Department for the Study of Ancient and Medieval Thought of the Institute of Philosophy at the Czech Academy of Sciences (IP CAS, the Host Institution).
In the initial thirty-month research period, the team made a profound heuristic delve into library collections containing medieval manuscripts and early modern prints in order to identify and gather the textual corpus of Arts quodlibets. They thoroughly explored several thousand textual items sourced from dozens of institutions across the globe, engaging in extensive study, research, and transcription efforts.
Furthermore, the team delivered lectures and organised conferences and workshops, thus disseminating project achievements not only within academic circles but also in public forums. The quodlibetal database data model and the application’s functionalities have been meticulously crafted, and a new project webpage, accessible at https://erc-academia.com/ has been launched to consolidate project news.
Seven book chapters have been submitted for peer review, while additional three are currently in the process of being written. Five books stemming from the project are under preparation, which highlights the ongoing scholarly output within the ERC group.
The ERC-ACADEMIA/TRIPTIC-EU research group has also inaugurated a fresh book series in collaboration with Brepols Publishers, titled Intellectual Practice and Thought at Late Medieval and Early Modern Universities (IPA, https://www.brepols.net/series/ipa). This series delves into the history of thought and scholarly practices within medieval and early modern universities spanning the fourteenth to sixteenth centuries. Corresponding to the focus of the ACADEMIA project’s research, the primary focus of IPA lies in exploring philosophy and the natural sciences, encompassing aspects such as university teaching, as well as diverse scholarly debates and disputations. The editorial board of this innovative book series includes researchers from the TRIPTIC-EU team and scholars from Italy, Poland, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.
As a crowning achievement, the research group is set to host the prestigious 28th Annual Colloquium of the SIEPM (Société Internationale pour l’Étude de la Philosophie Médiévale), themed Communities of Debate: Collective Intellectual Practice in Medieval Philosophical Thought, scheduled to unfold in Prague on September 4–6, 2024. TRIPTIC-EU has also organised a groundbreaking congress panel dedicated to quodlibets at the XVth International Congress of SIEPM, which took place in Paris in the summer of 2022, was widely attended, and attracted further attention to the ACADEMIA project.
In summary, at this stage of the research, a solid foundation has been laid for a new discipline dedicated to studying Arts quodlibets. This achievement underscores the dedication and scholarly expertise of the ERC-ACADEMIA/TRIPTIC-EU research group.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

ERC-ACADEMIA addresses an almost unknown topic and source material essential for understanding European intellectual and scientific traditions, their past and present. During the first thirty months of the project implementation, the team has identified a significant number of manuscript witnesses to the Arts quodlibetal tradition in numerous institutions worldwide, thus establishing the Arts quodlibetal textual corpus – a new field of research.
Furthermore, the research conducted so far has already proven several of the original and high-risk hypotheses of the project, one of which is that the early quodlibetal debates correspond to the modern practice of scholarly conferences, and another is that new formats of debate tradition disseminated from the East to the West in the 15th century, which alters the conventional perception of the spread of innovations in the opposite direction.
In the next stage, the team will focus on completing the Arts quodlibeta corpus and publishing the quodlibetal database with accompanying visualisations. The expected results until the end of the project include a written reconstruction of the history of the Arts quodlibetal debates, which will be linked more profoundly to the modern practice of conferencing. By doing so, we expect to make further important findings in the field of the history of intellectual production and practice, medieval and early modern thought, and in regard to areas such as the production, dissemination and circulation of knowledge throughout Europe. Further planned results include another monograph on the topic of disputation practices at the Faculties of Arts and two volumes as case studies delving into the details of quodlibetal debates at universities in Prague and Vienna. Furthermore, the team will organise the international SIEPM colloquium, the final project conference, and author an interactive exposition dedicated to Arts quodlibeta.

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