Introduction

Abstract

Conferences and colloquia are held and their results often published, but very rarely is any account provided of why and how they came to be. Such an account would naturally not be as significant as the “proceedings” or “acts” themselves. In this instance, however, something beyond the simple recording of the date and circumstances of the birth of a colloquium, some glimpse of the deliberations that occurred in its period of gestation, may help explain the purpose of the event and the character or nature of the eventual offspring.