Call for Submissions

Abstract

The editors invite your submissions to the following issues scheduled to appear in 2024. Send one hard copy of the manuscript double-spaced, including endnotes, along with an electronic copy (by e-mail attachment or in a shared folder online), following the style guidelines of the Chicago Manual of Style (17th ed., chap. 14 on documentation). More specific contributor guidelines may be consulted on the journal website. Manuscripts should not exceed 10,000 words inclusive of notes. Illustrations accompanying a manuscript should be submitted ideally in the form of TIFF digital files, and permissions for their reproduction must be provided before publication. Submissions pass through anonymous specialist review before publication. We do not consider articles that have been published elsewhere or are under simultaneous consideration with another publisher. Send to:Edited by Manuela Bragagnolo and John Jeffries MartinVolume 54 / Number 1 / January 2024Physiognomy was, as is well known, one of the most influential disciplines of the Renaissance. Based on the interpretation of bodily signs to read inner moral and intellectual inclinations, physiognomy developed in the West from the twelfth century and quickly acquired the status of a scientia normale in European universities. Drawing on both medical and divinatory origins, the science enjoyed great success in the sixteenth century, when, as Michel Foucault has famously demonstrated, the curiosity in decoding the secrets of nature placed physiognomic investigation in the framework of a new attention to signatures and sympathies. Physiognomy was grounded on the idea of a strong connection between body and soul. At its height, physiognomic pursuit functioned as a window opening onto the heart, lifting the veil of dissimulation and making visible invisible inner moral inclinations. The early modern period thus witnessed the emergence of a physiognomic mentality. But what has not been understood well so far is how jurists, judges, and more generally Renaissance legal culture theorized and made use of physiognomy and other related practices of reading the bodies or even the minds of those accused of crimes. This special issue seeks to show that late medieval and early modern culture was, indeed, deeply physiognomic not only in its literature and its theories but also in judicial practice. We invite contributions not only from scholars of the law but also from those working in any discipline (art history, history, literature, philosophy, or religion) whose work might cast light on this aspect of late medieval and early modern legal culture. Contributions may stress either courtroom practice or physiognomic theory more generally.Deadline for submissions: November 1, 2022Volume 54 / Number 2 / May 2024For this open-topic issue of the journal, the editors invite articles that are both informed by historical inquiry and alert to issues raised by contemporary theoretical debate. We expect that essays will be grounded in an intimate knowledge of a particular past and that their argumentation reveal a concern for the theoretical and methodological issues involved in interpretation. We are particularly committed to work that seeks to overcome the polarization between history and theory in the study of premodern Western culture.Submissions may be sent starting September 1, 2022Deadline for submission of manuscripts: March 1, 2023