Visualizing Hidden Meanings: Symbolism and Cryptography in the Writings of Thomas Harriot and Galileo Galilei

 Register here: https://forms.gle/qH3xALFQHLLd6G5d8

June 6, 2024

Venue: Hesburgh Libraries, University of Notre Dame

9:00-9:30 Registration and breakfast

Center for Digital Scholarship, Hesburgh 246

9:30-9:45 Opening Remarks

Robert Goulding (University of Notre Dame), “Unlocking Digital Texts: Towards an Interoperable Text Framework”

Center for Digital Scholarship, Hesburgh 246

Matthias Schemmel and Stefano Farinella (Universität Hamburg), “Algebraic Symbolism and Natural Language in Mathematical Derivations by Harriot and Galileo”

Robert Goulding (University of Notre Dame), “Harriot’s On the Infinite (De infinitis)”

Center for Digital Scholarship, Hesburgh 246

11:15-11:30 Coffee and Refreshments

Center for Digital Scholarship, Hesburgh 250

11:30-12:00 Exhibit Tour

Caterina Agostini is giving an exhibit tour of “Making Books Count: Early Modern Books in the History of Mathematics at Notre Dame”

Rare Books and Special Collections, Hesburgh Libraries 102

12:00-1:00 Lunch

Center for Digital Scholarship, Hesburgh 246

1:15-2:30 Symbolism and Cryptography (Panel moderator: Joel David Hamkins, University of Notre Dame)

Everett Lang (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill), “From Artificial Numbers to Artificial Versifying”

Caterina Agostini (Indiana University Bloomington), “Riddles, Anagrams, and Enigmas: Galileo’s and Harriot’s Coding and Decoding Information”

Center for Digital Scholarship, Hesburgh 246

2:30-2:45 Coffee and Refreshments

Center for Digital Scholarship, Hesburgh 250

2:45-3:15 Digital Editions

Dan Johnson, “Digital Editions as Collaborative Work in the Humanities”

Center for Digital Scholarship, Hesburgh 246

3:30-4:15 Coding and Decoding Workshop

Participants at the conference will engage in a hands-on workshop in humanities and digital humanities, led by Caterina Agostini (Indiana University Bloomington). Learn how to decode cryptic communication in works by Galileo and Harriot, and explore various coding systems used in the 1500s and 1600s.

Visualization Studio, Hesburgh 249

4:15-5:00 Roundtable

Center for Digital Scholarship, Hesburgh 246

6:00-8:00 Dinner at Rohr’s

Visualizing Hidden Meanings:

Symbolism and Cryptography in the Writings of Thomas Harriot and Galileo Galilei

June 6

Call for Papers

The workshop, “Visualizing Hidden Meanings: Symbolism and Cryptography in the Writings of Thomas Harriot and Galileo Galilei,” explores the intersection of science, symbolism, and cryptography in the books and manuscripts of two early modern scholars, Thomas Harriot and Galileo Galilei. Recent work in the Harriot Papers at Notre Dame (https://osf.io/r78gx/) has led to a first edition of the De infinitis (On the Infinite) while also fostering research on the history of mathematics in the early modern period. In addition to Harriot’s studies in algebra and combinatorial studies and Galileo’s contributions to astronomy and physics, both of these scholars had a hidden dimension to their work, one that involved the use of symbolism and cryptography to protect authorship and to claim the priority of their discoveries. This workshop aims to bring together new perspectives on symbolism and cryptography in the early modern period, in particular, to discuss the hidden, enigmatic elements present in the writings, notebooks, and correspondences of Galileo and Harriot. The workshop will be held in person at the University of Notre Dame’s Navari Family Center for Digital Scholarship, Reilly Center for Science, Technology and Values, and Rare Books and Special Collections, and online, via Zoom.

Please consider submitting an abstract on one of these topics:

• The use of cryptographic elements in early modern correspondence

• Galileo’s use of codes and ciphers to protect sensitive scientific discoveries and ideas

• Harriot’s secretive communication methods in his private notes

• The use of symbolism and natural language in mathematical texts.

• Methods and circulation of scientific communication in the early modern period.

• Revisiting traditional texts through comments in correspondence.

Participants are also invited to attend an interactive session, “Coding and Decoding.” In a dedicated practical activity in the humanities and digital humanities, participants will have the opportunity to decode some of the cryptic elements in the works of Galileo and Harriot and study other coding systems. Starting with the ciphers devised by Johannes Trithemius, Leon Battista Alberti, and Giambattista Della Porta, participants will find out more about the use of cryptography and coding in scientific and diplomatic contexts – for example in the Venetian Republic and the Medici family correspondence in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, as well as more recent coding and decoding initiatives developed around the use of punch cards and the indexing technique by Father Roberto Busa, S.J., and IBM for a concordance of works by Saint Thomas Aquinas called the Index Thomisticus project.

Concurrently with the Visualizing Hidden Meanings workshop, Rare Books and Special Collections will host a special exhibition, Making Books Count: Early Modern Books in the History of Mathematics at Notre Dame, a showcase of books relevant to the study of Harriot and Galilei.