The First Symposium Platonicum, entitled at the time Symposium Platonicum 1986, took place in the aforementioned year in Mexico City, at the initiative of Conrado Eggers Lan (U. N. A. M.). Participating were several Mexican scholars and five scholars from elsewhere : Alfonso Gomez-Lobo, (Georgetown Univ., Washington), Giuseppe Mazzara (Univ. of Palermo), Thomas M. Robinson (Univ. of Toronto), Livio Rossetti (Univ. of Perugia), and Christopher J. Rowe (Univ. of Bristol).

The Symposium took as its theme Los diálogos tardíos, and the Acta of the meeting, edited by C. Eggers Lan and entitled Platón : Los diálogos tardíos. Actas del Symposium platonicum 1986, were published in 1987 as part of the ongoing series published by the Instituto de Investigaciones Filosóficas of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (U. N. A. M).

The volume was re-issued in 1994, with a “Preface to the second edition”, as the third volume in the series International Plato Studies.

Conrado Eggers Lan, we announce with great regret, died in March 1996.

During the Symposium of 1986, L. Rossetti proposed that a Second Symposium Platonicum be held in Perugia in 1989, and this proposal was unanimously and enthusiastically accepted.

L. Rossetti subsequently invited 90 scholars from all over the world to designate, by postal vote, an Organizing Committee for the Second Symposium, to consist of one Italian scholar, one from elsewhere in Europe, and one from outside of Europe.

Those elected were G. Reale (Univ. Cattolica, Milan), K. Gaiser (Univ. of Tübingen), and J. Annas (Univ. of Arizona). G. Reale and K Gaiser declined the offer, and were replaced by the two scholars who had received the next-highest number of votes in their constituencies (’Italy’ and The rest of Europe’ respectively), G Cambiano (Univ. of Turin) and Th. A. Szlezák (Univ. of Würzburg).

The final constitution of the Organizing Committee was therefore L. Rossetti (Co-ordinator), J. Annas, G. Cambiano, and Th. A. Szlezák. At a meeting in Zurich the Committee established the topic for the Second Symposium (the Phaedrus) ; selected the focus areas for papers and discussion ; and accepted the proposal to include in the official programme of the Symposium a session to discuss the idea of founding an International Plato Society.