The Society for Renaissance Studies warmly congratulates Dr Angela Andreani (Milan) on winning the Mariangela Tempera Book Prize 2018. This prize is awarded triennially by the Italian Association of Shakespeare and Early Modern Studies for the best book published in the field of English Studies. Andreani’s book, The Elizabethan Secretariat of the Signet Office is the first book to be published in our series, Routledge Studies in Renaisance and Early Modern Worlds of Knowlege, and came out in hardback in 2017. Examining the production of state papers from 1590-1596, Andreani focusses upon an under-explored, moment in Elizabethan history. Following the death of Francis Walsingham in April 1590, the office of principal secretary remained vacant for six years. Andreani traces how the mechanisms of state continued and how the processes of state functioned in a pre-bureaucratiic age.
The Routledge Studies in Renaissance and Early Modern Worlds of Knowledge is an interdisciplinary series dedicated to the exploration of the many cultures of knowledge learning, reading and performing in the Renaissance and early modern world (c.1400-c.1700). It publishes high quality monographs and edited collections. The Society for Renaissance Studies is delighted to announce the publication of the most recent volume in the series: Machiavelli and Political Conspiracies by Alessandro Campi (Perugia). The theme of conspiracy is central to Machiavelli’s writing. Surprisingly, it has not yet received the attention it merits. This volume corrects an interpretation which reduces Machiavelli’s position to one of censorious observer of conspiracies. Campi challenges received wisdom to illustrate how Machiavelli developed an anatomy of conspiracy and provided a practical manual for coup d’etat and violent seizure of power.