European Encyclopedia Conference in Rome

Organised by the Institute of the Italian Encyclopedia Treccani, the fourth European Encyclopedia Conference was held in Rome from 13 to 15 October, bringing together editors and publishers from 13 countries. The Miroslav Krleža Institute of Lexicography was represented by its director general, Bruno Kragić, and assistant director for research and inter-institutional cooperation, Nataša Jermen.

The first European Encyclopedias Conference was held in Brussels in 2019, organised by the Great Norwegian Encyclopedia, the European Parliamentary Research Service, and the Norwegian Mission to the European Union, the second in 2022 in Zagreb, organised by the Institute of Lexicography, and the third in 2024 in Oslo, organised by the Great Norwegian Encyclopedia.

Following the opening addresses by the president of the Treccani Institute, Carlo Ossola, and Massimo Bray, its director general, who also gave the introductory speech, representatives of national and general encyclopedias from Bulgaria, Montenegro, Denmark, Georgia, Croatia, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Slovakia, Spain (Catalonia), Sweden, and Ukraine exchanged experiences regarding the current state of national encyclopedias.

Among the speakers were also the editors of the Treccani Institute, Valeria Della Valle, scientific director of the Treccani Vocabulary, and Sandro Cappelletto, scientific director of the Encyclopedia of Music, while Andrea Vitelli spoke about the Institute’s role in digital education. Gino Roncaglia, a professor at the Roma Tre University, spoke about the role of artificial intelligence in organising knowledge and the future of encyclopedias.

Invited presentations were also given by the editors-in-chief of national encyclopedias from Croatia, Ukraine, Norway, and Latvia: Bruno Kragić, Alla Kyrydon, Erik Bolstad, and Valters Ščerbinskis, as well as by Naja Bentzen, a political analyst at the European Parliament, and Michael Coates, an independent scholar from the USA.

The conference in Rome also provided an opportunity to mark the centenary of the Institute of the Italian Encyclopedia Treccani.