Beyond Words: The Unknowable and the Unutterable in early modernity

Posted on 5 June 2018

In this keynote address, Professor William Franke closes a conference on the parameters of the unknowable and the unutterable in early modernity.

Professor Franke's talk addresses one of the most important figures on the cusp of the Renaissance, Nicolas of Cusa, and how his apophatic ideas – the language of what can’t be said– emerged in concert with the artistic and scientific thought of the era.

The talk was the culmination of a day of papers that spoke to natural philosophy, music, poetics and the theological in early modern thought in relation to the apophatic. See conference website for full programme.

The conference was part of the annual Thomas Browne Seminar.