The Inquiry-Orientated Dialogues project (InqDialog) investigates dialogue-based forms of knowledge transfer between approximately 1150 and 1650 CE. 

We aim to reveal the importance of vernacular, inquiry-led conversation for the acquisition of new insights in premodern times, thereby broadening the definition of “scientific” beyond its traditional association with academic and Latinate discourse. To this end, InqDialog is digitising a corpus of dialogue-orientated texts from the medieval and late premodern periods. We will then analyse this largely unexplored body of texts using methods from data science and cultural studies to shed new light on discourses in and about premodern intellectual culture. This project comprises different components, ranging from close analyses of texts to the development of new pedagogical methods.

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