Call for Papers 

The workshop, “Visualizing Hidden Meanings: Symbolism and Cryptography in the Writings of Thomas Harriot and Galileo Galilei,” explores the intersection of science, symbolism, and cryptography in the books and manuscripts of two early modern scholars, Thomas Harriot and Galileo Galilei. Recent work in the Harriot Papers at Notre Dame (https://osf.io/r78gx/) has led to a first edition of the De infinitis (On the Infinite) while also fostering research on the history of mathematics in the early modern period. In addition to Harriot’s studies in algebra and combinatorial studies and Galileo’s contributions to astronomy and physics, both of these scholars had a hidden dimension to their work, one that involved the use of symbolism and cryptography to protect authorship and to claim the priority of their discoveries. This workshop aims to bring together new perspectives on symbolism and cryptography in the early modern period, in particular, to discuss the hidden, enigmatic elements present in the writings, notebooks, and correspondences of Galileo and Harriot. 

The workshop will be held in person at the University of Notre Dame’s Navari Family Center for Digital Scholarship, Reilly Center for Science, Technology and Values, and Rare Books and Special Collections, and online, via Zoom.

Please consider submitting an abstract on one of these topics:

• The use of cryptographic elements in early modern correspondence

• Galileo’s use of codes and ciphers to protect sensitive scientific discoveries and ideas

• Harriot’s secretive communication methods in his private notes

• The use of symbolism and natural language in mathematical texts

• Methods and circulation of scientific communication in the early modern period

• Revisiting traditional texts through comments in correspondence.

Participants are also invited to attend an interactive session, “Coding and Decoding.” 

In a dedicated practical activity in the humanities and digital humanities, participants will have the opportunity to decode some of the cryptic elements in the works of Galileo and Harriot and study other coding systems. Starting with the ciphers devised by Johannes Trithemius, Leon Battista Alberti, and Giambattista Della Porta, participants will find out more about the use of cryptography and coding in scientific and diplomatic contexts – for example in the Venetian Republic and the Medici family correspondence in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, as well as more recent coding and decoding initiatives developed around the use of punch cards and the indexing technique by Father Roberto Busa, S.J., and IBM for a concordance of works by Saint Thomas Aquinas called the Index Thomisticus project.

Concurrently with the Visualizing Hidden Meanings workshop, Rare Books and Special Collections will host a special exhibition, Making Books Count: Early Modern Books in the History of Mathematics at Notre Dame, a showcase of books relevant to the study of Harriot and Galilei.

Please send a title, an abstract of 150-200 words, and a short bio to Caterina Agostini at caterina.agostini@nd.edu by April 15, 2024. 

Workshop Organizers

Dr. Caterina Agostini, University of Notre Dame (caterina.agostini@nd.edu)

Professor Robert Goulding, University of Notre Dame (rgouldin@nd.edu)

Dr. Daniel Johnson, University of Notre Dame (djohns27@nd.edu) 

On the left, top: a Galilean giovilabio, an instrument to measure periods and eclipses of Jupiter's satellites. 

Source: Smithsonian Institution. 

On the left, bottom: the frontispiece to Galileo's Sidereus Nuncius (The Starry Messenger, Venice: Tommaso Baglioni, 1610). Photo Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

On the right: a word cloud visualization generated in Voyant Tools, from Caterina Agostini's blog post “Explaining Words, in Nature and Science: Textual Analysis in Galileo’s Works”, Northeastern University Women Writers Project (22 June 2020)

Notion at The Harriot Workshop, a video introduction to Notion.so, with video transcript, September 2022

Scalar 

Omeka

Palladio for Mapping 

Word Vectors and Text Analysis

Humanities and Research Data

Introduction to IIIF (International Image Interoperability Framework)

I intend to contribute to a culture of inclusion and equity through current programs available at my workplace, a land acknowledgment, and new programs promoting equity and diversity that I could help initiate, based on models I saw in the Diversity Peer Educators at Rutgers. My research, teaching, and service experience has helped me achieve one of my personal goals as an academic, which is to create a safe space in a culturally diverse campus where ethnic, cultural, religious, and gender differences are respected regardless of personal demographic characteristics.

“Medieval Padua Painted City” is my pedagogical project celebrating the 14th-century fresco cycles in Padua, Italy being included in the UNESCO World Heritage List, May 2022

I presented this project at the 2022 International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo MI, in a panel sponsored by TEAMS, Teaching Association for Medieval Studies, and Iter: Gateway to the Middle Ages & Renaissance

Here is my outreach on Twitter

Digital storytelling is the practice of using computer-based tools to create, tell, and share stories. This is a powerful tool in the cultural heritage sector, as it can help you communicate while you engage with your audiences.

In the Europeana Storytelling Task Force (1 September 2020 - 31 March 2021), I collaborated on the following projects and strategies:

• Europeana Network Association, "New Task Force Launches: Europeana as a ‘Powerful Platform for Storytelling’ Task Force: Report and Recommendations" (16 September 2020). License: CC BY-SA

• "Europeana as a Powerful Platform for Storytelling" (March 2021) 

• "Storytelling with Digital Culture Is Booming - Find Out Why" (12 May 2021)

• "Explore Fantastic Examples of Storytelling with Digital Culture" (14 May 2021)

• "How We Ran a Task Force Entirely Virtually during a Pandemic" (18 May 2021)

• "Seven Tips for Digital Storytelling with Cultural Heritage" (31 May 2021)

• "Digital Storytelling Festival" (31 May 2021), an online event by Europeana and The Heritage Lab, non-profits in Europe and India that share culture for users, digitally.

• 2021 Digital Storytelling Festival Contest, "the creative contest bringing people and cultural heritage together"

• "Storytelling with Digital Culture" (10 June 2021).

In the Europeana Communicators Community, we discussed examined three case studies of digital storytelling: 

1. “A Picture of Change for a World in Constant Motion” by Jason Farago (The New York Times, 7 August 2020), narrating Hokusai’s woodblock print through Storiiies, a IIIF-based digital tool

2. #MetKids, a digital resource from The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, presenting an interactive map and a digital discovery strategy designed for, with, and by children

3. ‘You are Flora Seville’ from the Egham Museum, on Twitter, made by the Egham Museum (@EghamMuseum) in the UK. Follow the story of Flora Seville in 1887, as she entered the new Royal Holloway College for Women.

For an overview of digital storytelling at Europeana, the cultural web portal for the European Union, click here. 

Find more resources on:

• Digital contents

Open access collections 

Everyday objects and images

Nature and environment

Fair use

Diversity and inclusion

Women's History

Social media style guides

• Digital tools

Creating timelines with Timeline JS Knight Lab (Northwestern University)

Making animated GIFs

Making digital books online with Book Creator

Creating AR galleries on Spark AR Studio

Voice-over narrations with Narakeet 

Making visual stories through infographics with Piktochart 

Creating interactive images, presentations, and infographics with Genial.ly

For a list of digital storytelling tools, click here

This year, I have been collaborating on conference presentations and articles. Topics include:

• Pedagogical cases for digital image standards, transcriptions, and annotations to showcase medieval fresco cycles in Padua, Italy, as celebrated by the UNESCO World Heritage List

• My invited talk at the 2022 Renaissance Sociey of America annual meeting in Dublin, Ireland 

• A professional workshop that I organized and taught at the 2022 NeMLA convention, “Introduction to the International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF)” in Baltimore, MD (10 March 2022) 

• My invited talk, “Digital Traveling: Maps in Dati’s La Sfera” at The New College Conference on Medieval and Renaissance Studies in Sarasota, Florida (4 March 2022)

• The Transcription Challenge Framework established by Laura Morreale (Georgetown) and Ben Albritton (Stanford)