we would like to bring to your attention a PhD-position at KU Leuven, advertised in the context of the MSCA Doctoral Network ‘MECANO: Mechanics of Canon Formation and the Transmission of Knowledge from Greco-Roman Antiquity’ (http://mecano-dn.eu/) funded by the European Union.
MECANO brings together five universities and an array of academic and non-academic institutions interested in the topic of canonicity. MECANO’s twofold goal is to develop a new model for the study of canonicity and to train ten PhD researchers to become versatile intellectuals ready to tackle the challenges of modern engagement with the topics of canonicity, diversity, and cultural heritage, including also the use of digital technologies.
PhD position at KU Leuven: Citations and Quotations in the Naturalis Historia: creating the canon in the Encyclopaedia
(Supervised by Prof. Margherita Fantoli (KU Leuven, Belgium) and PD Dr. Monica Berti (Leipzig University, Germany) with an Internship at the Thesaurus Linguae Latinae, Munich, Germany).
The general objective of this PhD project is to study how people are cited in Pliny the Elder’s Naturalis Historia (NH), considered the first Encyclopaedia of the Ancient World. A monumental collection of 37 books, the NH is populated by multiple people who are mentioned in very different roles: sources, witnesses, protagonists of episodes or significant discoveries. Indices of current critical editions represent a useful but relatively flat tool to extrapolate information about the people mentioned: by developing a digital annotation of books 2–6, the PhD candidate will be able to provide an informed picture of the people associated to astronomical and geographical knowledge, and the textual strategies used by Pliny to present them. The specific objectives of this project are to systematically gather quantitative and qualitative information on the people mentioned in NH 2–6; to detect the patterns used by Pliny when selecting the people in relation to the topics treated & structure of the explanations, and thus to understand the mechanisms that guided the representation of sources, witnesses and protagonists in the first attempt to systematize the broad area of “natural sciences” in western history of knowledge.
More information with requirements and application documents is available athttps://www.kuleuven.be/personeel/jobsite/jobs/60300689?lang=en
The vacancy is open to applicants of all nationalities who comply with the MSCA mobility requirement: not having resided in Belgium for more than 12 months in the 36 months preceding appointment. The deadline for application is 1st of March 2024.