ILIESI


The ILIESI is an institute of the Italian National Research Council (CNR). Its mission is to foster and to develop research on the philosophical and scientific terminology of the European cultural tradition from the Age of Greek civilisation to the Early Modern Age.

ILIESI’s specific approach to the history of ideas is characterised by the methodological assumption that research in the field of the history of thought takes substantial benefit and achieves more rigorous results when focussing on the various linguistic expressions employed in time by the philosophical and the scientific traditions. Thus, special attention is paid to the textual dimension of these traditions, to the transmission of written texts, and to their effective dissemination.

On this basis, different kind of activities have been undertaken over the years: investigations on individual technical terms or on groups’ related terms, editions of lexica, elaborations of indexes and concordances, setting up of textual databases, workshops on methodological problems and on specific aspects of the history of terminology, international colloquia, essays and monographs. As a result, more than 150 books have been published in two distinct series of volumes, Elenchos (by Bibliopolis, Naples) and Lessico Intellettuale Europeo (by Olschki, Florence).