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DTSTAMP:20260419T013648Z
DESCRIPTION:Joan-Pau Rubiés will give a Brown Bag Lunch\npresentation on Th
 ursday\, September 14\, at 12:15 pm. His talk is entitled\n“Artistic Skill
 s and the Hierarchy of Civilizations in Medieval and Early\nModern Travel 
 Writing: A Chinese Theme through Muslim\nand European Eyes.”In the Renaiss
 ance terminology\, human ingenuity—ingenium—often\nencompassed artistic an
 d mechanical skills distinct from the abstract use of\nreason. This distin
 ction could have an important impact in the way Europeans\nassessed the re
 lative degrees of civility of the various people of the world.\nIt was per
 fectly possible\, for example\, for Bernabé Cobo\, a seventeenth-century\n
 Jesuit historian of the New World\, to praise the artistic skills of the\n
 American Indians as superior to those of Europeans while showing contempt 
 for\ntheir intellectual abilities. Interestingly\, looking back at evidenc
 e from the\nMiddle Ages\, including Chinese and Muslim as well as European
  sources\, suggests that the cross-cultural assessment\nof cultural accomp
 lishments was often built upon the capacity to make exquisite\nobjects ove
 r other considerations. This talk will take the history of the\nsaying “th
 e three eyes of the world\,” from the Seljuks through Sung and Ming\nChina
  to the European Enlightenment\, as a guideline in order to explore the\na
 mbiguities of the assessment of rationality and civil capacity in medieval
  and\nearly modern  travel writing. Rubiés\nwill discuss why the capacity 
 to make beautiful objects had such an important\ncross-cultural significan
 ce for so long\, and why things were to change with the\nadvent of a moder
 n European discourse on civilization.  Joan-Pau\nRubiés is ICREA Research 
 Professor at Universitat Pompeu Fabra\, Barcelona.  He was formerly Reader
  in International\nHistory at the London School of Economics\, and Visitin
 g Professor at the École des Hautes Études et Sciences Sociales.\nHe has a
 lso been Research Fellow at Queens’ College\, Cambridge\, and Jean\nMonnet
  Fellow at the European University Institute\, Florence. He is a member of
 \nthe Council of the Hakluyt Society\, and Director of the Research Group 
 on Ethnograhies\, Cutural Encounters and\nReligious Missions at Universita
 t Pomeu Fabra. His publications include Travel and Ethnology in the Renais
 sance:\nSouth India through European Eyes\, 1250-1625 (Cambridge Universit
 y Press:\nPast and Present Publications\, 2000) and\nTravellers and Cosmog
 raphers: Studies in\nthe History of Early Modern Travel and Ethnology (Ash
 gate\, 2007).  He is currently writing two monographs\, Europe´s New World
 s: Travel Writing and the\nOrigins of the Enlightenment\, 1550-1750 (CUP) 
 and Misioneros Etnógrafos (Acantilado)\, and editing a volume on Cosmopoli
 tanism and the Enlightenment.\nFor a list of recent publications\, see htt
 ps://www.icrea.cat/Web/ScientificStaff/joan-pau-rubies-mirabet-550.
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20170914T121500
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20170914T131500
SUMMARY:Bard Graduate Center: Artistic Skills and the Hierarchy of Civiliza
 tions in Medieval and Early Modern Travel Writing
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