Conference by Prof. Dr. Dana Jalobeanu and Dr. Rodolfo Garau
June 12–13, 2026, University of Technology Nuremberg (UTN)
On the occasion of the four-hundredth anniversary of the death of Francis Bacon (1561–1626), this international conference aims to reassess Bacon’s philosophical, scientific, literary, and cultural legacy, as well as the complexity of his reception across early modern Europe.
The conference is organized by Dana Jalobeanu and Rodolfo Garau at the University of Technology Nuremberg (UTN), thanks to the generous support of a grant from the Thyssen Stiftung.
The conference brings together scholars working in Bacon studies and related fields, including early modern philosophy, the history of science, and literary studies, among them Doina-Cristina Rusu, Peter Anstey, Claudia Dimitru, Mordechai Feingold, Daniel Garber, Vera Keller, Silvia Manzo, Claire Crignon, Richard Serjeantson, Oana Matei, Angus Vine, Grigore Vida, and Cesare Pastorino.
Program
12. Juni – New perspectives on Bacon’s Philosophy
09.00–09.30 Dana Jalobeanu, Rodolfo Garau – Welcome and Introduction
09.30–10.15 Peter Anstey – Bacon’s Theory of Judgment
10.15–10.30 Coffee Break
10.30–11.15 Richard Serjeantson – Francis Bacon and the Vicissitudes of Greatness
11.15–12.30 Daniel Garber – Bacon’s Real Method?
12.30–13.30 Lunch Break
13.30–14.15 Ori Belkind – Bacon’s Dynamic Corpuscularianism and the Idol of the Theater
14.15–15.30 Angus Vine – Loose Notes and Learned Digests: Bacon’s daily Accounts
15.30–15.45 Coffee Break
15.45–16.30 Claudia Dumitru – Bacon on Sounds and Colours
16.30–17.15 Doina C. Rusu – Spirits, Volatility, and Fluidity in Bacon and Beyond
17.15–18.00 Cesare Pastorino – Francis Bacon and the History of Early Parallel Trials
19.00 Dinner
13. Juni – Bacon’s Wirkungsgeschichte
09.30–10.15 Mordechai Feingold – Francis Bacon and the Early Royal Society, Again
10.15–11.00 Vera Keller – Theories of Transplantation: Bacon and the Places of Natural History and Natural Philosophy in the History of Colonialism
11.00–11.30 Coffee Break
11.30–12.15 Howard Hotson – Bacon’s Early Reception in Reformed Central Europe, c. 1625–1645
12.15–13.00 Grigore Vida & Dana Jalobeanu – Physiologia Democrito-Bacono-Cartesiana. Henry Power, Pierre Borel, and the Construction of a New Science of Microscopy
13.00–14.00 Lunch Break
14.00–14.45 Oana Matei – Post-Baconian Natural History and the Rise of Collaborative Plant Inquiry
14.45–15.00 Coffee Break
15.00–15.45 Silvia Manzo – Francis Bacon and Thomas Hobbes on Freedom and Impediments
15.45–16.30 James D. Fleming – The Return: From Naturalism and the New World
18.30 Dinner
For further information, please contact the organizers, Rodolfo Garau (rodolfo.garau@utn.de) and Dana Jalobeanu (daniela.jalobeanu@utn.de).