The first faculty book launch of the 2025-26 academic year took place on Thursday, September 19th. Professor Robert Morrison, Bowdoin’s George Lincoln Skolfield, Jr. Professor of Religion and Middle Eastern and North African Studies, and Director of the MENA program, published his new book, Merchants of Knowledge: Intellectual Exchange in the Ottoman Empire and Renaissance Europe. Professor Morrison was joined by Professor Crystal Hall and Professor Marilyn Reizbaum, who moderated the Q&A.
“Merchants of Knowledge” refers to the multilingual and transregional Jewish scholars who became an important bridge between the Ottoman Empire and Renaissance Europe, particularly between 1450 and 1550. This network of scholars traded books, manuscripts, and translations in topics ranging from astronomy and astrology to Qabbalah and philosophy. Morrison weaves together disciplines of study that seem disparate to modern scholars, but were once closely intertwined.
Morrison’s book is available physically in the Faculty Display at Hawthorne-Longfellow Library, or digitally in Compass, the Library catalog.
The next faculty book launch will be on October 23rd, featuring new works by Kate Campbell Strauss, the Director of Jazz Ensembles and Lecturer in Music at Bowdoin College.