Open Knowledge Dialogues

Presentation

Fondazione Ca’ Foscari and Edizioni Ca’ Foscari present Open Knowledge Dialogues, a new space for exchange and discussion dedicated to the presentation and debate of the publishing house’s scholarly publications. The initiative aims to enhance the University’s editorial production and to promote opportunities for qualified dialogue around research outcomes, bringing together authors with series editors, scholars in the field and, more broadly, members of the academic community interested in the topics addressed in these volumes.

The initiative also seeks to strengthen the visibility of the research published by Edizioni Ca’ Foscari by highlighting the scholarly network that develops around its editorial series and their authors. Through these meetings, publications become an opportunity to foster direct exchange among scholars, encouraging dialogue between different research perspectives and contributing to the dissemination and discussion of recent research results.

The Open Knowledge Dialogues events are organized in connection with significant publications or editorial projects, offering dedicated moments of discussion on topics of interest to the academic community. Each meeting is structured as a conversation among authors, series editors and scholars in the field, with the aim of critically addressing the themes discussed and situating them within the broader landscape of contemporary research.

Upcoming Events

The next meeting of Open Knowledge Dialogues will take place on May 19, 2026 at 2:30 PM, in a hybrid format, both in person at the Sala Alumni of Ca’ Foscari University of Venice and online.

The event will be dedicated to the volume The Trial Against Atheism in Naples (1688-1697). Chronology and Documentation, by Leen Spruit (Radboud University Nijmegen), published by Edizioni Ca’ Foscari and available in open access.

The book analyses an important inquisitorial trial held in Naples between 1688 and 1697, involving a group of intellectuals accused of atomism and atheism. The documentation examined shows how “atomism” functioned both as an ideological category and as a polemical and defamatory label. The spread of new scientific and philosophical ideas in late seventeenth-century Naples was part of a broader process of cultural renewal, in which atomism became both a reference point for innovative intellectual circles and a target for their opponents.

The study further highlights how the Inquisition not only maintained its activity in the Kingdom, but also established a precedent through a series of imprisonments and abjurations. This precedent functioned as a deterrent against those engaged in innovative research practices.

During the event, the results of the research will be presented and discussed, with particular attention to the relationship between cultural transformations, ideological conflicts, and institutional practices in the early modern period.

Talk

The Trial Against Atheism in Naples (1688-1697) – Chronology and Documentation

Intellectual conflict, scientific renewal, and inquisitorial control in early modern Naples

Between 1688 and 1697, Naples became the stage of a large-scale inquisitorial trial against a group of intellectuals accused of atomism and atheism. Far from being a neutral philosophical label, ‘atomism’ functioned in this context as both an ideological category and a tool of polemical accusation.

The presentation explores the trial through its documentary evidence, showing how the circulation of new scientific and philosophical ideas was deeply entangled with processes of cultural transformation. Atomism emerged simultaneously as a marker of intellectual renewal and as a target of institutional repression.

The case also reveals the strategies through which the Inquisition maintained its authority in the Kingdom of Naples, establishing a precedent through imprisonments and forced abjurations. These measures had a lasting impact, functioning as a deterrent against further innovative intellectual activity.

Book Series Presentation

Knowledge Hegemonies in the Early Modern World is dedicated to the socio-cultural study of knowledge cultures in the early modern period (c. 1450-1750). The series explores science as a collective and often contested practice, shaped by political, philosophical, and religious tensions and embedded in broader dynamics of cultural hegemony and socio-economic interests.

By combining critical monographs with the presentation of historical sources, the series investigates how identities, ideologies, and power structures have influenced the development of knowledge and its epistemic values.

The presentation will be followed by a discussion and a Q&A session.
The event will be held in a hybrid format (in person and online).


Registration is required.
Registered participants will receive the access link to the video call.

Past Events

The meeting was dedicated to the volume Verifying the Truth on Their Own Terms, published by Edizioni Ca’ Foscari and available in open access. The book reconstructs, on the basis of a recently rediscovered text, a philosophical-theological debate that took place in 1466 at the Ottoman court of Sultan Mehmed II, centered on the controversial interpretation of divine unity (tawḥīd) within the Avicennian philosophical tradition. The study offers a new perspective on Ottoman philosophical culture in the fifteenth century, highlighting its intellectual vitality and its capacity to critically reinterpret inherited models from the Islamic philosophical tradition.

The author of the volume, Efe Murat Balıkçıoğlu, Visiting Scholar at Harvard University and researcher at the Department of Philosophy and Cultural Heritage at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, presented the results of his research, offering an innovative reading of the debate developed at the court of Mehmed II and of the broader Ottoman intellectual context of the second half of the fifteenth century.

The discussion was led by Professor Pietro Daniel Omodeo, Professor of History of Philosophy at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice and an internationally recognized scholar in the history and philosophy of early modern science. As scientific director of the book series Knowledge Hegemonies in the Early Modern World, he also introduced the series.

The event also explored the philosophical-theological exchange that took place in 1466 at the court of Mehmed II, focusing on the tension between Greco-Arabic philosophy and Islamic theology. The debate, long considered lost and now recovered through an unpublished text, highlighted the complexity of reflections on divine unity in light of Avicennian metaphysics, showing how such discussions were part of a dynamic intellectual culture capable of producing critical syntheses through the practice of taḥqīq.