VMs: "Silent Languages" conference (at Birkbeck College)...?

[Nick Pelling <incoming@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

*Very* interesting... :-)

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http://www.bbk.ac.uk/eh/eng/conf/silent.htm

SILENT LANGUAGES: CHARACTERS, NOTES AND SYMBOLS IN THE EARLY MODERN PERIOD
Birkbeck, University of London, 12-13 APRIL 2002

The idea of this conference is to explore the diverse uses and functions of 
symbolic notation in the early modern period. Beginning with the question 
of the emergence of algebraic notation against a background of apparently 
'unscientific' uses made of various kinds of symbolic notations in the 
fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the conference organisers hope that this 
conference will stimulate a debate about the nature of the 'sign' and the 
'symbol' in the Renaissance. Bringing together papers on algebra, Lullism, 
cryptography, universal languages, shorthand, the cabala, emblems, musical 
notation and magical characters we will explore the complex milieu in which 
symbolic notation emerged in the Renaissance through a wide range of 
interdisciplinary papers.