Ben Jonson in Print and Online

Special Collections, The Brotherton Library, University of Leeds

Friday 30 May 2014, 12.00-6.30

This event will celebrate the publication of The Cambridge Edition of the Works of Ben Jonson. Members of the CWBJ team will be discussing the challenge of editing Jonson, and the opportunities provided by the dual format of 7-volume print edition and dynamic website.

There is no charge for attendance. Refreshments will be provided, but please register in advance with Martin Butler (m.h.butler@leeds.ac.uk).

12.00
Andrew Hadfield (Sussex) Jonson among the editions
Sarah Stanton (Cambridge University Press), The publisher’s view

1.00-2.00 lunch

2.00
Tom Cain (Newcastle), Tba
Colin Burrow (All Soul’s College, Oxford), Editing the poems
David Lindley (Leeds), ‘This later hand’: editing Jonson’s masques

4.00 tea

4.30
David Bevington (Chicago) by Skype
Martin Butler (Leeds), The CWBJ online

5.30
Reception

Thomas Harriot Lecture 2014: “The Certain and Full Discovery of the World: Thomas Harriot and Richard Hakluyt”

Thursday 29 May 2014, 5pm, in the Champneys Room, Oriel College Oxford.

David Harris Sacks
Richard F. Scholz Professor of History and Humanities
Reed College, Portland , Oregon USA
Life Member, Clare Hall, Cambridge UK

Richard Hakluyt the younger and Thomas Harriot, in their different ways, were explorers and discovers in newly-opened territories of learning. The former promoted ventures of overseas discovery and published the results of those who had made them. For him the world was the terrestrial globe, the earth. His own explorations, as he would emphasize, were largely in journeys to libraries and archives. He made what might be called second-order discoveries, derived primarily from the larger narrative that emerged from his arrangement of the sources he collected, edited and published, mainly in his Principal Navigations of the English Nation, which first appeared in 1589 and was then substantially into three large volumes published between 1598 and 1600.It is a work he undertook in fulfillment of “the certain and full discovery of the world,” a project, first focused on and then developed in the era of Europe’s wars of religion, that he made his life’s work. Hakluyt was a conduit for knowledge acquired by others, and a promoter and guide to discovery.

Harriot, in his way, also sought certainty and fullness of knowledge, but for him the “world” included the celestial as well as the terrestrial globe. He made discoveries at the first hand, some in Virginia with which Hakluyt was especially connected, but most in the realms of mathematics and what we now call the natural sciences. However, apart from his account of the “new found land of Virginia,” which he published under his own name in 1588 and which Hakluyt helped make widely available thereafter, none of his discoveries reached print during his lifetime. As he would say, he “was contented with a private life for the love of learning” in order that he “might study freely.” While he lived, his numerous discoveries circulated primarily to his patrons and intimate friends. But by the time he had significant new discoveries to report in the first years of King James I’s reign, both his patron—Sir Walter Ralegh and the 9th Earl of Northumberland—were incarcerated in the Tower of London at the King’s pleasure, and as he suggested in a letter to one of his correspondents, he found it dangerous in these circumstances to philosophize openly on matters that might arouse accusations of religious or moral heterodoxy.

This lecture examines the wider cultural significance of this drive for certainty in what could be known about the world as God had created it and explores the circumstances, conditions, and contexts underpinning it. It treats the ideas and desires of both men in light of their associations with an Erasmian form of irenicism, which inculcated in each of them, it will be argued, not just in their intellectual and religious upbringing but in their experiences of the brutal religious and political upheavals of their era and its effects on individuals influential in their lives—not least Sir Walter Ralegh on whose patronage the two men depended early in their careers. For purposes of the lecture, particular attention will be given to their educations, especially in Oxford during their student days.

Modified Bodies and Prosthesis in Medieval and Early Modern England

A one-day Symposium organised by the Centre for Early Modern and Medieval Studies at the University of Sussex

Tuesday 27 May 2014, Arts B, Social Space (B274)

Registration details: there is no charge for attending the symposium; lunch and coffee will be provided.

To register please email Chloe Porter (C.Porter@sussex.ac.uk) or Katie Walter (K.L.Walter@sussex.ac.uk), by Monday 12 May 2014.

The notions of prosthesis and bodily modification increasingly preoccupy contemporary critical discourse, from disability studies to David Wills’ characterisation of the body as ‘a prosthesis’. Such contemporary explorations can preclude or overlook the ‘pre’ or the ‘early’ modern; ‘prosthesis’ itself, as a term for medical or bodily (rather than grammatical) supplementation doesn’t appear until the eighteenth century. Yet a growing body of scholarship recognises both the particular ways in which medieval and early modern technologies modify the body, and the significance of notions of ‘prosthesis’ for literary interpretation and cultural analysis in these periods. This one-day symposium draws together new scholarship on bodily modification and prosthesis, from facial disfigurement and the disabled soldier’s body, to bodily practices –such as kneeling, dress, and the use of charms in healing –which may modify, or become extensions of the body. How can medieval and early modern modified bodies be contextualised in relation to philosophical and theological understandings of the natural human body and the body post-mortem? And how can these historical contexts participate in contemporary critical discourse? Through an interdisciplinary discussion, we will ask what medieval and early modern examples reveal about the historical, philosophical and (literary) theoretical possibilities of prosthesis.


Programme
10.45-11.00

Registration

11.00-12.30 Session 1
Patricia Skinner (Swansea) ‘“My broken nose made me ridiculous”: Unwanted Facial Modifications in the Middle Ages’
Helen Davies (Lancaster) ‘“Nature cannot be surpassed by art”: The Power of Prosthetics in the Body of the Soldier’
Margaret Healy (Sussex) ‘Healing Prosthetics: Word Charms, Amulets and Talismen’

12.30-1.30 Lunch

1.30-2.45 Session 2
Chloe Porter (Sussex) ‘Post-mortem Prosthesis: Modified Bodies and the Early Modern Afterlife’
Naomi Baker (Manchester) ‘“The body of this death”: Paul and Disability on the Early Modern Stage’

2.45-3.15 Coffee

3.15-4.45 Session 3
Isabel Davis (Birkbeck) ‘Kneeling’
Jenny Tiramani (School of Historical Dress) ‘The Rise and Fall of Geometry: The Development of Underpinnings in Early Modern Europe’
Katie Walter (Sussex) ‘Plasticity and Prosthesis’

4.45-5.00 Break

5.00-6.00 Session 4: Response and Round Table with Peter Boxall (Sussex)

British Academy Shakespeare Lecture: ‘The two hours’ traffic of our stage’: Time for Shakespeare

Professor Tiffany Stern

Wednesday 21 May 2014, 6-7.15pm
Venue: Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, Shakespeare's Globe, London

When the Prologue to Romeo and Juliet announces that the performance will last two hours, what does Shakespeare mean? Join Professor Tiffany Stern at the new Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, as she asks how time was understood in an age of sandglasses, sundials and inaccurate clockwork. Considering the sound and the look of the instruments of time, this event will ask about Shakespeare’s works ranging from the practical to the editorial and to the analytical. How long did Shakespeare’s plays take to perform? Why are Shakespearean characters associated with ways of measuring time? What textual cruxes in Shakespeare’s plays relate to timepieces? And what did terms like an hour, a minute, or a second actually convey to a Shakespearean audience?

About the Speaker:
Tiffany Stern is Professor of Early Modern Drama at the University of Oxford. Her books include Rehearsal from Shakespeare to Sheridan (2000), Making Shakespeare (2004), Shakespeare in Parts (2007) and Documents of Performance in Early Modern England (2009). She has edited a number of plays and written over forty articles and chapters on 16th, 17th and 18th century literature.

Admission to this event is Free but you are required to register on the British Academy website in order to book online.

CALL FOR PARTICIPANTS: Workshop on Intoxication in Early Modern France

University of Warwick, 20th May 2014. Confirmed speakers:

Daniel Andersson (Wolfson College, Oxford), ‘L'ivre and livre in early modern France: toward an intellectual history of intoxication’

Matthew Jackson (Warwick), ‘The Boundaries of Intoxication: Tavern Drinking in Early Modern Bordeaux’.

For organisational and catering purposes please register free of charge at renaissance@warwick.ac.uk by 13 May 2014.

Contact the organiser, Professor Beat Kümin
http://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/ren/eventscalendar/intoxication_poster_2.docx

Jayne Brown

Centre Administrator

Centre for the Study of the Renaissance
H448b, 4th Floor Annexe, 

Humanities Building

The University of Warwick

Coventry

CV4 7AL

renaissance@warwick.ac.uk

http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/ren/

Society for Neo-Latin Studies - Graduate Student Forum

King’s College London, Strand Building S8.08
Friday 16th May 2014, 1-6.30pm

We are organizing a graduate student forum to be held at King’s for graduate students working on or with neo-Latin material. The event is open to students in any discipline and at all stages, including MA/MPhil/MSt students and undergraduates considering graduate work in the field as well as PhD students. The event is scheduled for a Friday afternoon to allow those not based in London to make a weekend of it if they wish. KCL’s Strand campus is extremely central and easily accessible by tube from all the mainline terminals.

Graduate students in neo-Latin studies are unusually isolated: the UK has no departments of neo-Latin, so students are scattered among many departments across the country, including history, English, classics, modern languages, history of science, philosophy and theology. They are often the only student in their department (or even institution) working on a neo-Latin topic. There is a strong need for such students to meet each other, share their research and consult with more senior academics, who are themselves hard to locate and contact for the same reasons – they are scattered among many departments, and almost none of them will have ‘neo-Latin’ in their job title. As a result, strategies for career planning and job applications are particularly challenging for these students. This forum will offer the opportunity to speak pragmatically about such challenges and to discuss career development with staff and students at all stages.

The aim of the forum is to combine brief presentations by five or six students (limited to 10-15 minutes to allow even students at an early stage, for instance an MA dissertation, to present) with a session of presentations by four established academics from a range of disciplinary backgrounds and career stages to advise on career development in the field.

There will be a small registration fee of £10 (payable in cash on arrival) to cover a sandwich lunch, coffee in the afternoon and drinks at the end of the event. We are applying for funds to allow us to offer some graduate bursaries to cover this fee and travel expenses. The event is generously supported by the Institute of Classical Studies.

If you would like to attend, please book a place by emailing Victoria Moul (victoria.moul@kcl.ac.uk) by the 1st of May 2014.Please indicate your institution, research area and the stage you are at (e.g. first year PhD; prospective MA student). If you would like to be considered for a bursary, should funds be available, please indicate this. (Priority would be given to those traveling the greatest distances.)

If you are interested in presenting a short paper on a neo-Latin element of your research please also contact Victoria, with a brief outline of the possible topic. Exploratory papers on ongoing research, or discussions of a particular problem are very welcome: you don’t have to be sure of your conclusions.


Programme

1.00-2.00: Arrival, registration, sandwich lunch in S8.08. Chance for introductions and informal networking.

2.00-4.15: series of short (10-15 minute) papers by five or six graduate students on their research.  Followed by questions and discussion.

4.15-4.45: coffee break

4.45-6.00: 'Careers in Neo-Latin' session, four presentations by neo-Latin scholars at various career stages and from various disciplinary backgrounds: Dr Paul Botley (Warwick, holder of Leverhulme funding for a Neo-Latin project); Dr Emma Buckley (Classics department, St Andrew’s); Dr Andrew Taylor (Cambridge, MML/English); Professor Brenda Hosington (Centre for the Study of the Renaissance, Warwick).

6.00 onwards: Drinks in situ. There will be a dinner afterwards at a local restaurant of an appropriate grad-student-friendly budget for anyone who'd like to come along.

Revolutions and Continuity in Greek Mathematics – International Conference

Organiser: Dr Michalis Sialaros, British Academy Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Department of History, Classics and Archaeology

Saturday 10th & Sunday 11th May 2014 Room 415, Birkbeck Main Building

Confirmed keynote speakers: Professor Sabetai Unguru (Tel-Aviv), Professor Bernard Vitrac (Paris), Dr Serafina Cuomo (London), Dr Andrew Gregory (London), Professor Vassilis Karasmanis (Athens), Professor Jean Christianidis (Athens).

In 1962, T. Kuhn’s influential book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions challenged the dominant view of the time that scientific progress is ‘continuous’ and introduced the (rather revolutionary) term ‘revolution’ in the vocabulary of the historians of science. Considering that the scholars of ancient Greek mathematics do not (usually) work in literary isolation, it was only a matter of time before this terminology was introduced into the field; thus, when S. Unguru’s 1975 paper ‘On the Need to Rewrite the History of Greek Mathematics’ caused heated debates on the nature of Greek mathematics, some scholars rushed to support the idea that a revolution took place. An agreement, however, could not be reached, not only in regard to the current state of affairs in the discipline, but, perhaps more importantly, in regard to the usefulness of employing terms like ‘revolutions’ and ‘continuity’ in order to describe the progress of the field.

While these debates were taking place in the field of the historiography of Greek mathematics, time did not stand still in the field of its history either; in fact, the impressive number of recent publications reveals growing interest for the subject. Historians of Greek mathematics today apply methodologies, which appear as diverse as the authors themselves; i.e., in terms of language, culture, educational background and selection of topics. The aim of this two-day international conference is to bring together a number of leading scholars of Ancient Greek mathematics in order to explore the ideas of ‘revolutions’ and ‘continuity’ as they appear in/disappear from the Greek mathematics. Within this framework, we shall endeavour, through examining various case-studies, to identify and evaluate some general characteristics of the methodologies and approaches of the discipline as practiced today and, additionally, to suggest directions for future research.

We welcome proposals for papers (abstracts) from academics working in this field. We are particularly keen to receive proposals from PhD students and early career researchers. A short abstract (max. 300 words) and a CV should be sent to the following e-mail address: m.sialaros@bbk.ac.uk by Friday, 20th of December, 2013. Please notice that the language for abstracts, papers, and discussions is English.

Registration and payment - here.  The registration fee for the conference is £45.00 (students: £35.00). It includes reception meal (for two days) and coffee/tea. Unfortunately, due to limited space, we will only be able to accept a small number of participants.

For more information contact Dr Michalis Sialaros.

CALL FOR PAPERS: Northern Renaissance Roses Seminar, 2014: 'Time and Early Modern Thought’

Sat 10th May 2014 - York Minster Old Palace Library Run jointly by the universities of Lancaster and York, this seminar will look at ‘time’ in the renaissance. We will consider this broadly, but papers would be welcome, for example, on any of the following:

• Was there a ‘concept of time’, distinct to the period? What ideas of time were inherited from antiquity?
• How was time related to music and poetics, measure and proportion? how was it perceived, on the pulse, in the heart and on the brain?
• How was time related to timelessness, quotidian time to divine time? What did it mean, as Plato has it, to suppose time is a moving image of eternity?
• Was the relationship between time and mortality – emblematised in the Renaissance hour-glass and skull – terrifying or mere renaissance kitsch?
• What were the functions of early modern antiquarianism and the obsession with chronologies?
• How does renaissance theatre figure time, and what is the relationship between dramatic time and quotidian time?
• What was the relationship between time and space, eternity and infinity?
• Who were the Renaissance theorists of time?

The seminar will be held in the beautiful surroundings of York Minster Old Palace Library, and will conclude with a concert given by the Minster Minstrels, a renaissance-baroque early music wind group.

The seminar particularly encourages early career and post-graduates working in any Renaissance discipline: literature, history, music, art, philosophy.

Please send abstracts (c. 250 words) by Dec 15th to Kevin Killeen and Liz Oakley-Brown http://www.york.ac.uk/crems/

Leonardo da Vinci Society Annual Lecture

Dr Ashok Roy (National Gallery)
“Analysing Leonardo: New Research on his Practice of Painting”

Friday 9 May 2014, 6.00 pm at the Kenneth Clark Lecture Theatre
Courtauld Institute of Art, Somerset House, Strand, London
Admission is free, all are welcome

CALL FOR PAPERS: "Perchance to Dream": Sleep and Related Phenomena in English Literature

University of Bristol, Thursday 8th May

From Medieval Dream Allegory to the lexical recreation of the subconscious mind in Finnegan's Wake, literature has often explored the subject of sleep and its related phenomena. This conference aims to consider the many and diverse representations of sleep within English literature, and to explore the ways in which writers respond to this still largely mysterious biological necessity.

Professor Garrett Sullivan, of Penn State University, is a key figure within the academic field of Sleep Cultures. His monograph Sleep, Romance and Human Embodiment: Vitality from Spenser to Milton (2012) considers the use of sleep in Early Modern literature as a vehicle for exploring different levels of humanness. Memory and Forgetting in English Renaissance Drama: Shakespeare, Marlowe, Webster (2009) sets the role of sleep within a discussion of forgetting and selfhood in Renaissance drama.

We invite 250-word proposals for twenty-minute papers, indicating any IT requirements you might have, to be submitted by Monday 31st March 2014. Topics might include but are not restricted to:

• Dreams and dreaming
• The cognitive functions of sleep: levels of awareness and perception
• Sleep and human embodiment
• Narcotic sleep
• Forgetful slumber - the relationship between sleep and memory
• The landscapes and geographies of sleep
• Disordered sleep - insomnia and restlessness
• Psychoanalysis and the psychology of sleep
• Sleep, mortality and eternity
• Historical and cultural approaches to sleep
• Sleep and human vitality
• 'Sleep: friend or foe?
• Lethargy and Exhaustion

This conference is part of a two-day event on Sleep Studies and we welcome attendees to attend a second public interdisciplinary seminar with Professor Sullivan on Thursday 8th May. The aim for this seminar is to bring together parties interested in the area of sleep studies from a variety of different backgrounds in both the arts and the sciences. We anticipate this will be a lively and enlightening discussion exploring the nature in which scientific, cultural and literary approaches to sleep interpenetrate and coincide. Other confirmed speakers are Dr. Michael Greaney and Dr. Hilary Hinds, Senior Lecturers in the Department of English and Creative Writing from the University of Lancaster and Dr. Matthew Jones, reader in neurophysiology at UoB. Please contact us if you would like to attend this session.

Reform and Reformation: The Eighth Research Colloquium

University of Warwick

Tuesday 6 May 2014

The eighth annual "Reform and Reformation" research colloquium will take place at the University of Warwick on Tuesday, 6 May 2014. We expect proceedings to last roughly from 11-5, allowing participants to travel on the day. The host institution will be able to offer refreshments and lunch, but not travel expenses (on previous occasions, delegates from partner departments have often travelled together).

The Colloquium deals with any aspect of the European Reformation(s) very broadly conceived. Previous talks have ranged from late medieval music via Renaissance food cultures and Reformation theology to seventeenth-century almshouses. Everyone with an active interest in our period and themes is very welcome to attend. Postgraduates wishing to present a 20-minute paper are requested to email a title and brief thematic sketch to b.kumin@warwick.ac.uk by 15 February 2014.

Contacts: b.kumin@warwick.ac.uk (programme) M.J.Wakeman@warwick.ac.uk(organisation).

For updates please check:

http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/history/research/conferences/reformreformation

Trick to Catch the Old One, by Thomas Middleton, at The Rose

Come and have some fun at the latest production for my company Mercurius (www.mercuriustheatre.co.uk), a little known Thomas Middleton City Comedy to be performed at The Rose Playhouse around the foundations of the oldest theatre in Bankside. The Rose was built in 1587 and was home to Philip Henslow’s company, worth a visit in its own right www.rosetheatre.org.uk

Written by Thomas Middleton
Directed by Jenny Eastop
Presented by Mercurius

6th to 24th May 2014

All Performances at 7.30 pm - Sundays 3.00 pm (No Performance Sunday 11th ) No Monday performances

When young Witgood’s greedy uncle tricks him out of his inheritance he determines to get his own back by passing off his courtesan as a wealthy widow. But news of this wealthy widow’s arrival sends everyone scrambling to grab the willing courtesan and Witgood’s plot threatening to spin out of control.

Who the devil (or Old One) is amongst all these schemes and counter schemes is anyone’s guess…….

The Rose is an indoor archaeological site, it is advisable to dress with an extra layer as there is no heating. There are also no toilets so please use Shakespeare’s Globe just a few hundred metres away.

Please arrive 15 minutes before the production starts to pay for or collect your tickets.

Booking Information
Tickets Full £12 / Cons £10 (Friends of The Rose, OAP, Student or Equity – on presentation of ID) £9 Southwark Residence With Proof of Address
Book Office 020 7261 9565
Email boxoffice@rosetheatre.org.uk

Matthew Lyons interviewed director Jenny Eastop about the play, you can read his interview here.

Victoria and Albert Study Day: An Audience with Shakespeare

Saturday 3 May 2014, 11.00 – 16.30, Seminar Room 3

11.00 – 11.45 ‘Life on the Southbank’
Professor Andy Gurr, University of Reading

11.50 – 12.35 ‘Into the Playhouses’
Professor Andy Gurr, University of Reading

12.35 – 13.35 Lunch

13.35 – 14.20 ‘Audience Comforts and Goodies’
Professor Tiffany Stern, University of Oxford

14.20 – 15.05 ‘Stagecraft & Special Effects’
Dr Will Tosh, Shakespeare’s Globe

15.05 – 15.35 Tea and Coffee

15.35 – 16.20 ‘Before the First Act; After the Last’
Professor Tiffany Stern, University of Oxford

16.20 – 16.30 Q&A

£45, £35 concessions, £15 students Including V&A students
Call V&A Bookings 020 7942 2525 or visit www.vam.ac.uk/courses

3rd Annual Milton Lecture

Date : Thursday 1 May 2014
Time: 6 pm
Venue: Mercers Hall, Ironmonger Lane, London EC2V 8HE , nearest tubes St Paul’s or Bank.

We are very pleased to announce the third annual Milton Lecture. This year we have been very fortunate and persuaded Dr Anna Beer to speak to us. Many readers will already know her invaluable biography Milton: Poet, Pamphleteer and Patriot (Bloomsbury, 2008). Not only is she a great writer but also a terrific speaker. She will talk to us on Milton in Italy, fresh from a sabbatical term in Italy. We know that the young Milton spent a formative period of his life in Italy and only hurried back from his delightful sojourn in southern Europe when he heard of the deteriorating political situation in England.

We are also delighted to say that for a second year the Mercers’ Company will host the event at Mercers’ Hall. Milton is the most famous alumnus of St Paul’s School and the Mercers have for centuries supported it. Their generosity will again extend to holding a reception afterwards in their grand hall upstairs: your chance to buttonhole the speaker, the master of the Mercers and anyone of consequence in Miltonian matters over a glass of wine and splendid canapés!

Please help to make this event a success by getting together a little party to attend the lecture: it promises to be a most informative and entertaining evening. As before, tickets will be available on the door at a mere five pounds each on a first-come-first-served basis. However, it may be wise to get your name onto the special reserved list which will guarantee entry by contacting the your chairman in advance by emailing Keith Sugden.