From the October 2014 edition of the Bulletin: The University of Southampton’s Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Culture hosted the 6th Biennial SRS Conference on the theme of ‘Performative Spaces’ between 12th and 15th July 2014. With lovely sunshine on all four days, and about 200 delegates in total, the whole event was a great […]
Reflections on SRS 2014 Read More »
Matthew Prior’s diplomatic negotiations with France in the period 1711–15 were the most important and worst rewarded of his career. From 1711 the English career-diplomat and poet acted as secret negotiator for the Tory government with enemy France. His journeys and talks were part of wider negotiations that ultimately led to peace and the Treaty
‘To His Grace the Duke of Shrewsbury’ by Matthew Prior (1713) Read More »
A few months ago, I attended a symposium organized by my old friend Peter Miller, now Dean of the Bard Graduate Center in New York. It celebrated 20 years of that institution’s innovative programme on the history of decorative arts and material culture. The speakers included academics from various fields and curators from museums on
Between the University and the Museum: The View from the V & A Read More »
‘The Culture of Early Modern Sussex’, a HEIF-funded project, intends to challenge assumptions about the county, demonstrating both the strangeness of Sussex and its importance in the period 1500 – 1700. Through a series of public events in the Spring and early Summer of 2015 – including two exhibitions, a number of public lectures, and
The Culture of Early Modern Sussex Read More »
Extraordinarily, despite his ongoing popularity (tesitified by the amount of his work in the National Gallery’s own collection), there has never yet been a monographic show on Paolo Veronese in England. This is a striking omission that has been handsomely corrected in the National Gallery Exhibition, which ran from 19 March until 15 June 2014.
Veronese: Magnificence in Renaissance Venice Read More »
When I was invited to a Christmas party last year, I was requested to “dress smartly and don’t bring any cider!”. Yet, even without this warning, good manners would have dictated that I leave the four-pack of Scrumpy Jack at the back of my fridge. For me, however, the incident also posed the question: why
The Renaissance of Tobacco: A New Drug from the Old World Read More »
Standing at a busy crossroads, at rush hour, I looked up at the towering magnificence of Genoa’s Medieval Porta Soprana. This fleeting glimpse, before the traffic lights changed and the roar of the contemporary city struck up again, impressed me with a sense of the power, protection and wealth of this Republic, dubbed ‘the Proud’.
A Gateway into Renaissance Genoa Read More »
One striking development in Renaissance studies over the last five years has been the surge of interest in the theory and practice of translation. This has been evident not just in the number of conferences and books on the subject, including the publication of volume 2 (1550-1660) in the admirable Oxford History of Literary Translation
Translating for the Commonwealth Read More »
