Rescuing the Image. Re-conceptualizing the Role of Visuality in Eighteenth-Century Acts of Reading

This is one of a series of talks under the Multimodality Satellite
Speakers: Alessio Mattana (University of Leeds) and Giacomo Savani (University of Leicester)
Abstract: Contemporary critical studies on the culture of the long eighteenth century have tended, across different disciplines, to overlook the function and impact of images for the readers of the age. In this work-in-progress talk, Giacomo (Roman archaeology) and Alessio (English literature) investigate and problematize the importance of visuality in eighteenth-century acts of reading. By focusing on two preliminary case studies – that of a misleading etching depicting a set of Roman baths and that of Robert Hooke’s book on microscopic observation Micrographia (1665) – they aim at fostering discussion by questioning accepted critical practices and sketching possible research leads to advance a more complex understanding of the nexus between image and text.
Biosketches:
Alessio Mattana is a doctoral student in English. His research interests lie in the intersection between literature and natural philosophy in the long eighteenth-century, with particular focus on Newtonian philosophy and the wide genre of ‘history’.
Giacomo Savani has recently obtained a PhD in Roman Archaeology at the University of Leicester. His research interests lie in the field of Roman social and cultural history, Roman art and architecture, and the reception of the Greco-Roman culture in Early Modern Europe.