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Call for Papers Theme: "Noviter in lucem data – iudeorum secreta" – Johannes Pfefferkorn's Campaign against the Jews Subtitle: Antisemitism and Ethnography in the Sixteenth Century Type: International Conference Institution: Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities Location: Stockholm (Sweden) Date: 23.–25.2.2015 Deadline: 1.10.2014 __________________________________________________ Johannes Pfefferkorn and the dispersion of his texts The beginning of the sixteenth century saw the arrival of a new genre of polemical writing about Jews and Judaism, viz. ethnographical books that aimed at providing their readers with revealing knowledge about Jews, their rituals, and their customs. Among the most prominent of these writers was the Moravian Jew, Johannes Pfefferkorn (c. 1469–1523), a converted Jew who joined forces with the Dominicans in Cologne to publish a series of books and pamphlets that attacked the Jews’ way of life. His aim was to draw the Jews “into the light” and expose their anti-Christian behaviour. Furthermore, he called for the destruction of Jewish books, a stance that brought him into direct conflict with the humanist Johann Reuchlin. Pfefferkorn’s works were soon translated into other German and Scandinavian languages as well as Latin, and thus rapidly spread to areas that remained unaffected by the local conflicts and debates in Cologne. Furthermore, Pfefferkorn’s publications about the religion of his birth did not remain the only example of writings by converts that shaped images of Jews in the early modern era. Aim of the conference The conference aims to draw together scholars of medieval and early modern ethnographical writing about Jews and of Jewish-Christian relations as well as to offer a forum for discussion and methodological innovation. Areas of interest might include: - Pfefferkorn and early modern antisemitism - Elements of Pfefferkorn’s enterprise and their broader history - The ethnographical aspect of Pfefferkorn’s works and the emergence of critical research on Jewish texts and rituals - The various versions and translations of Pfefferkorn’s works - Other sixteenth-century converts who write about Jews, such as Victor von Carben, Anthonius Margaritha, Ernst Ferdinand Hess, and Paulus Staffelsteiner Keynote Speakers Yaacov Deutsch (Head of History Department, David Yellin College, and History Department, Hebrew University), author of 'Judaism in Christian Eyes: Ethnographic Descriptions of Jews and Judaism in Early Modern Europe' (Oxford University Press, 2012). Participation The conference organisers welcome submissions from scholars working in all disciplines and all areas of late medieval and early modern culture and Jewish-Christian relations. The conference seeks to offer a meeting ground for established scholars as well as younger researchers. Please send a title and a short abstract (about 200 words) to the organisers Cordelia Heß (cordelia.h...@historia.su.se) and Jonathan Adams (jonathan.ad...@nordiska.uu.se) before 1 October 2014. Contact: Jonathan Adams Department of Scandinavian Languages Uppsala University Box 135 751 04 Uppsala Sweden Phone: +46 18 471-3403 Email: jonathan.ad...@nordiska.uu.se __________________________________________________ InterPhil List Administration: http://interphil.polylog.org Intercultural Philosophy Calendar: http://cal.polylog.org __________________________________________________
