The CMT will be hosting an end-of-year garden party on Tuesday 7th July, 4-6pm in the Fellows’ Garden, St John’s College, or in the Parsons Room if wet. Strawberries will swim in the cream. All welcome.
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Johnson and Shakespeare
Johnson and Shakespeare 7–9 August 2015 Pembroke College Oxford
A Conference to Mark the Two Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of the Publication of Samuel Johnson’s The Plays of William Shakespeare
The publication of Samuel Johnson’s edition of Shakespeare on 10 October 1765 was an important event in his own life and in the history of the editing of Shakespeare. This conference, held at Johnson’s college, Pembroke College, Oxford, will invite perspectives from Shakespearians and Johnsonians, and explore the interplay of sameness and difference, restoration and innovation, in Johnson’s work. It will reassess Johnson’s achievement as a critic and textual editor by revisiting established contexts and developing new ones.
The plenary speakers will be:
Jenny Davidson (Professor of English and Comparative Literature, Columbia University) Joseph Roach (Sterling Professor of Theater at Yale University) Henry Woudhuysen (Rector of Lincoln College, Oxford, and General Editor of the Arden Shakespeare)
Lectures and panels will be supported by exhibitions in the Bodleian (including cancelled leave from Johnson’s edition) and Pembroke College (including Johnson’s copy of Warburton’s edition of Shakespeare on loan from Aberystwyth), an informal reading performance of Johnson’s play Irene, and a concert of eighteenth-century music.
For more information, and to book places please visit https://johnsonandshakespeare2015.wordpress.com
Events This Week
Wednesday 10th June
Early Modern Interdisciplinary Seminar 12-1.30pm, GR04 English Faculty Building:
Will Rossiter (University of East Anglia)
‘Two English Ambassadors, A Welsh Exile and an Italian Pornographer: Is Pietro Aretino Some Kind of Joke?’
IHR Early Modern Material Cultures Seminar 5.15pm, Montage Room, G26, ground floor, Senate House:
Sophie Read (University of Cambridge) The Immaterial Object: Incense in Early Modern Poetry
Warburg Institute Work in Progress Seminar 2.15pm, Lecture Theatre, Warburg Institute:
Stuart McManus
Humanism and Classical Rhetoric in Portuguese Asia during the Renaissance
Friday 12th June
Things That Matter conference: Matter and Materiality in the Early Modern World 9am-7pm, SG1, Alison Richard Building
A one-day conference, Matter and Materiality in the Early Modern World, in collaboration with the CRASSH graduate group Things that Matter seminar series. The conference is funded by the School of Arts and Humanities and supported by the Centre for the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities (CRASSH). It will be held in the Alison Richard Building, the home of CRASSH.The conference will be centered around the theme of ‘materiality’ in order to acknowledge the current ‘material turn’ in scholarship. This will allow speakers to emphasise how the economic, cultural, and physical attributes of certain materials contributed to understanding the value and connotations of objects in their original contexts. Discussions will also encourage a deeper awareness of the theories of matter that permeated early modern thought and how these philosophies contributed to understanding the meanings of objects in the early modern world. More information and the conference programme here.
Events This Week
Wednesday 3rd June
CRASSH Things That Matter Seminar ARB SG1 from 12.15pm – 2pm: ‘Sexy Things’
Professor Will Fisher (English, The Graduate Center, City University of New York)
’Doctor Dildo’s Dauncing Schoole’: Sexual Instruments and Women’s Erotic Agency in England, c.1600-1725
Dr Jen Evans (History, University of Hertfordshire)
Kindling Cupid’s Fire: Aphrodisiacs in early modern England
More information and abstracts here.
Thursday 4th June
IHR British History in the Seventeenth Century Seminar 5.15pm, Peter Marshall Room 204, 2nd floor, Senate House:
Sean Kelsey (University of Buckingham) The now king of England: conscience, duty and the death of Charles
Friday 5th June
Cambridge Classical Reception Seminar Series 5.15pm, G.21, Faculty of Classics:
Professor David Lupher (University of Puget Sound) “Whether Any Larned Man Will Come Unto You Or Not, I Know Not”: Classical Presences in Plymouth Plantation, 1620-1657 All welcome, more information here.
Saturday 6th June
EMPHASIS (Early Modern Philosophy and the Scientific Imagination) Seminar 2pm-4pm, Room G35 (Ground Floor), Senate House:
Angus Vine (University of Stirling) Francis Bacon’s Notes: Scribes, Secretaries and Storage
Rocco di Dio (University of Warwick) ‘Silvae Platonicorum Locorum’: Marsilio Ficino and Humanist Reading Practices
Brudermord: Puppet Hamlet
Three chances to see the 18th century style puppet show of Der Bestrafte Brudermord, with an academic talk by Professor Tiffany Stern.
In 1710, a mysterious slapstick German Hamlet was found in the archives of a German monastery. The Hidden Room Theatre has worked with Oxford University’s Tiffany Stern to re-create this historic eccentric event as it may have originally been performed: a puppet show. The marionette show, suitable for scholars and children alike, employs on-stage narrators who perform all the voices, the music and all sound effects for the show. The 18th century German version includes additional comic characters and scenes but the show will be performed in English. Acting as a laboratory for Professor Stern’s research, the Hidden Room uses a new English translation by Christine Schmidle with puppets created by Mystery Bird Puppet Show and styled and costumed by Jennifer Davis to imagine the staging conditions of an early 18th century puppet play. 31st May, Shakespeare’s Globe, 4pm and 7pm (7pm performance introduced by Tiffany Stern)
2nd June, Magdalen College, Oxford 2-6pm (one hour talk and puppet show by Stephen Mottram; one hour talk by Tiffany Stern; Brudermord by Hidden Room): contact Laurie Maguire (laurie.maguire@ell.ox.ac.uk) or Tiffany Stern (tiffany.stern@ell.ox.ac.uk) for a free ticket.
3rd June Shakespeare Institute, Stratford Upon Avon, 3pm (one hour talk by Tiffany Stern), 5.30pm Brudermord.
Samuel Daniel, Poet and Historian
September 10th – 11th, 2015 Parry Rooms, Royal College of Music This is the first Conference devoted to Samuel Daniel (1562-1619), and it is presented by a consortium of universities—UCL’s Centre for Early Modern Exchanges, the English Faculty at Oxford University, St John’s College Oxford, and the Royal College of Music.
Samuel Daniel was a very considerable and prolific poet, writer, historian and man of letters. He is however the least studied and least understood of the major Elizabethans. Daniel was taught at Oxford by John Florio, and he did much to introduce Italian sweetness and ease of writing into the bloodstream of English poetry. He was also an impressive historian. He had extensive personal connections with the rich and powerful of the day, and with leading scholars, antiquarians, lawyers and academics. Daniel’s brother, John Danyel (1564-1625), was a musician of the first rank, who wrote songs and lute pieces that by general agreement keep company with Dowland’s finest compositions. The Daniel brothers, who were very close, collaborated fruitfully on several occasions, but their work together has rarely been looked at.
This is the context for this interdisciplinary Conference, which will explore the full range of Daniel’s interests in poetry, history and music, and how these come together in his work. Specific attention will be paid to the influence of the continental Renaissance on his writing, his importance as a student of history, especially medieval history, his achievements as a poet and writer, and his links to the world of music and the arts, through his brother John Danyel and others, Ferrabosco and Inigo Jones among them. Other speakers will consider Daniel’s special place in the history of ethical writing in verse, his high standing among Jacobeans—writers and readers, poets and dons—his masques, his translations, his conversation and his portraits.
There will be a concert of John Danyel’s music, with some poetry from Samuel Daniel, on the Thursday evening, 10 September, at the Britten Theatre. This will be led by Sam Brown of the Royal College of Music. The Conference will include many firsts—including a reading of the prose History, and staged readings at the concert of ‘Ulysses and the Siren’ and selections from Musophilus in association with Globe Education, and performed by the Dolphin’s Back theatre company. There is a programme of seven academic panels in sequence (no parallel sessions) over the two days, with two or three 20-minute papers in each, from 21 speakers.
John Pitcher of St John’s College Oxford and Yasmin Arshad of UCL are the organizers of the conference. Pitcher is the Oxford editor of Daniel and has published a dozen essays and editions of Daniel’s work. Arshad has published on Daniel and mounted the highly successful UCL production of Daniel’s The Tragedy of Cleopatra in 2013.
After the Conference, the papers will be considered in terms of where they might be best published—perhaps some in a special issue of one of the early modern journals, others in a themed book of chapters, ‘Samuel Daniel: the other side of Elizabethan civilized life’, for instance, or ‘Samuel Daniel: the importance of poetry’. Papers on John Danyel will be gathered together as well, where possible in relation to his brother. It is intended to announce at the Conference that the first volumes of the OUP edition of Daniel will be heading to the Press.
Confirmed Speakers include: Warren Boutcher (QMUL); Christopher Goodwin (Lute Society); Karen Hearn (formerly of the Tate, Hon. Professor UCL).
Conference Organizers: John Pitcher (St John’s College, Oxford) & Yasmin Arshad (UCL)
For Conference Registration (which includes lunch and refreshments on both days and the concert ticket) please visit: http://onlinestore.ucl.ac.uk/browse/product.asp?compid=1&modid=2&catid=153
Early booking is suggested as space is limited. We have a number of graduate bursaries generously made available by the SRS. Please contact us about this, and with any other queries at danielconference@ucl.ac.uk.
The Concert at the Britten Theatre is also open to members of the public: To book tickets or for more information contact the RCM Box Office on 02075914314, weekdays 10.00am – 4.00pm, or visit http://www.rcm.ac.uk/events/listings/details/?id=743368.
We are grateful for the generous support of: The Society of Renaissance Studies; Globe Education; Oxford English Faculty; St John’s College Oxford; UCL’s Centre for Early Modern Exchanges; UCL European Institute; UCL English Department; UCL’s Joint Faculty Institute of Graduate Studies (JFIGS); and the Royal College of Music (RCM).
Events This Week
Tuesday 26 May
Renaissance Graduate Seminar 5.15pm GR05 (note change of room):
Dr Lucy Razzall (Emmanuel College, Cambridge) ‘The other syde of the lefe’: Textual Surfaces in Early Modern England
Wednesday 27 May
Early Modern Interdisciplinary Seminar 5.15-6.45PM, Bateman Room, Gonville and Caius (note change of room and time):
Ruth Ahnert (Queen Mary, University of London)
Tudor Networks of Power: from historical documents to network analysis.
Warburg Institute Work in Progress Seminar Warburg Institute Lecture Room, 2.15 p.m:
Miki Engel
The Influence of Aquinas’ De unitate intellectus on Jewish Philosophers in Italy during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance
Thursday 28 May
IHR: British History in the 17th Century Seminar 5.15pm Room 304, 3rd floor, IHR, North block, Senate House:
Thomas Cogswell (University of California Riverside) Truth brought to light: the Black Legend of the House of Stuart, 1650-51
IHR: Medieval and Tudor London Seminar 5.15pm Wolfson Room NB01, Senate House:
Andy Kesson (Roehampton) Peculiar houses: building the early Elizabethan London playhouses
Remembering the Reformation
‘Remembering the Reformation’ is a new AHRC-funded project at the Universities of York and Cambridge, in collaboration with York Minster Library, Cambridge University Library, and Lambeth Palace Library.
The project will launch on 1 January 2016, and run for three years, coinciding with the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther’s protest against the Church in 1517. More information here.
Théodore de Bèze, A confession of faith, made by common consent of diuers reformed churches beyond the seas (London: Henry Bynneman, 1571), title-page.
Studying God’s Languages (29 May)
Renaissance Graduate Seminar, 26 May
The last Renaissance Graduate Seminar of 2014/15 will take place next Tuesday 26 May:
Dr Lucy Razzall (Emmanuel College, Cambridge) ‘The other syde of the lefe’: Textual Surfaces in Early Modern England 5.15pm GRO5 (note change of room)
Dr Lucy Razzall was an undergraduate and graduate student at Jesus College, Cambridge, and is now a Research Fellow at Emmanuel College, Cambridge. She works on early modern literature and material culture, especially the material text, and has been active in the Centre for Material Texts since its inception.
In his recent survey Surfaces: A History (University of California Press, 2013), historian Joseph A. Amato makes an enthusiastic gesture towards the category of textual surfaces, describing how ‘humanity came to embed itself in its scribble – to marry itself to what these epiphanic and wordy surfaces showed and said’ (p. 108). However, he spends little time reflecting on what he actually means by this, and frustratingly steers clear of any specific ‘wordy surfaces’. The word ‘surface’ has its origins in early modern England, and our pervasive opposition between ‘surface’ and ‘depth’ is evident from these beginnings. These terms have many implications for literary critics, and in this paper, I want to consider one of the first ‘wordy surfaces’ that an early modern reader of a printed text encounters: the title-page. Title-pages have received relatively little attention in early modern scholarship – usually considered the domain of bibliographers, their functions are often taken for granted. In this paper I will think about how title-pages work as different kinds of surface, and how they help readers to negotiate the other surfaces of the early modern material text. Bringing literary responses to these paratextual sites alongside a range of examples, I will argue that they are especially vibrant surfaces, at which the book is especially aware of the possibilities and limitations of its own form. They remind us that the page or ‘lefe’ is not merely a passive surface on which text is laid, challenge some of our preconceptions about the ‘superficial’, and tell us about how how paper, and the book itself, take their place in three-dimensional space.
