The Mathematisch-Physikalischer Salon of the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, together with the chairs of early modern history at the universities of Dresden, Leipzig and Munster, is holding an international conference titled 'Wissen, Repraesentation und Herrschaftspraxis am Hof Kurfuerst Augusts von Sachsen (1526-1586). 500 Jahre und viele offene Fragen'. It runs in Dresden from 4 to 6 October 2026, at the Residenzschloss (Schlosskapelle) on 4 and 6 October and at the Zwinger (Mathematisch-Physikalischer Salon) on 5 October. As the most influential Protestant imperial prince and a collector and user of scientific instruments and technical tools, August of Saxony has for generations been a subject of both political and art-historical historiography; the conference sets out to combine object- and collection-based research with the methodological innovations of the history of knowledge and to question established images of the Elector as 'Vater August', 'Friedensfuerst' and founder of the Kunstkammer. Papers address his activities as surveyor and gardener as well as his engagement with alchemy, mineralogy and astronomy, and turn attention to actors, spaces and institutions that have received too little attention but were central to understanding his court and mode of government, with particular emphasis on the material culture of knowledge and its production, use and staging. The programme opens with an evening lecture and runs across seven panels covering spatial knowledge and territorial control, tools of power, the prince as experimenter and maker, princely expertise in divination, the acquisition of external specialist knowledge, the collecting and ordering of knowledge about nature, and the healing and styling of princely bodies, closing with a concluding discussion. Registration is compulsory and is made through the Mathematisch-Physikalischer Salon website; attendance is free of charge.
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