An ESHS Conference will be held in Florence from 15:00 of Thursday October 31st to Saturday November 2nd (a European holiday). The Conference will be hosted by La Specola Museum, Via Romana 17 (near Palazzo Pitti and Ponte Vecchio), in the center of Florence, and will be organized by the University of Pavia.
The Conference will be dedicated to implementing point 2 of the Purposes of the European Society of History of Science (Promoting cooperation between its members; article II of our Statutes), that is to bring together representatives and members of the European National Societies of History of Science and History of specific scientific disciplines, National Committees and Research Centers of History of Science. Current projects, historiographical trends and problems will be discussed and cooperation established or enhanced, also with the goal of establishing an official network in the next (8th) EU Framework Programme. Representatives of the DHST, of the EUI, of the Russian, Dutch, Czech, British, French, German, Austrian, Portuguese, Spanish, Swiss, Greek, Italian societies and/or National Committees of History of Science, History of Physics, History of Mathematics, History of Chemistry and History of Medicine will give contributions. Soon others from various countries will be added. A special session of the Conference will be dedicated to the “History of the national History of Science Societies”.
To facilitate participation, conference costs will be kept to a minimum.There will be no conference fee but attendance is limited to forty people. Deadline for applications and abstracts is the end of September. Please write to the Conference secretariat: Patrizia Contardini (marni@unipv.it). Proceedings will be published online, possibly on the ESHS web site with an Open Access approach. ESHS Council Meeting will be held from Friday lunch time.
Three visits to scientific museums are being organized: the Fondazione Scienza e Tecnica (P.Brenni) late Thursday afternoon; the Specola itself (F. Barbagli) late Friday afternoon; the Galileo Museum (S.Strano) early Saturday afternoon.
On Friday night there will be a Conference dinner at the Ristorante Santo Graal opposite the Specola Museum (for 30 euros).
The fastest and cheapest way to book hotels or B&B is through the standard commercial online channels such as airbnb.com/it, expedia.com/it, booking.it, trivago.it, venere.com/it.
Walking is the best transport in Florence: the whole centre is a pedestrian area, but of course public transport is available. You might be interested in the Firenze Card (72 hours of Museums, Bus, WiFi): http://www.firenzecard.it/index.php?lang=en