Prof Michael Hunter, ‘The Decline of Magic: The Paradoxical Role of the Royal Society’
By Karen Baston | March 11, 2010
Prof Michael Hunter, ‘The Decline of Magic: The Paradoxical Role of the Royal Society’
You are warmly invited to our next paper. Prof. Michael Hunter returns to the Birkbeck Early Modern Society, having last spoken to us almost four years ago when we were a fledgling society. His biography of Robert Boyle was published last year, and now Michael Hunter is working on the decline of magic, the subject of one of his MA courses. It promises to be a fascinating paper!
Membership is £5 and can be obtained at any of our lectures, alternatively it costs £3 to attend a single event.
Topics: Birkbeck Early Modern Society Events | No Comments »
A Declaration of Indulgence: Assessing the Stuart Restoration and its Legacy
By Karen Baston | March 9, 2010
A Declaration of Indulgence: Assessing the Stuart Restoration and its Legacy
A Lecture Series at the National Maritime Museum
Dates: 25 March-29 April, Thursdays
Times: 11.00-13.00
Fee: £48/£36 or £8/£6 per lecture
Event type: Lectures & talks
Booking: Booking required
This year marks the 350th anniversary of the restoration of the Stuart monarchy. To mark this occasion the National Maritime Museum is holding a spring lecture series assessing the impact of the Restoration. What specifically distinguishes Restoration culture and society from what went before and came after? And how did early modern British women and men accommodate themselves to the dramatic historical changes of the period?
Questions raised will include that of national identity and difference, such as what it meant to be English or British or both; what was the impact of international trade and ambition; and how did a developing commercial society deal with the changes of religious and royal authority? Titles include:
* The Stuarts: an Unsuccessful Monarchy, Prof Jeremy Black, Exeter University
* Science and the Stuarts, Dr Stephen Clucas, Birbeck University, London
* The Image of Charles II, Prof Kevin Sharpe, Queen Mary, London
* Theatre in the Age of the Stuarts, Julian Day, The Shakespeare Institute
* A Declaration of indulgence: Assessing the Stuart Restoration and its Legacy, Curator Richard Johns, NMM
* Republic and Restoration: Britain, 1649–1663, Prof John Miller, Queen Mary, London
Booking: (Debit and Credit Card only):
Online: www.nmm.ac.uk/tickets
E-mail: NMM Bookings.
Tel: 020 8312 6608.
The Bookings office is open 10.00-16.00
National Maritime Museum
Romney Road, Greenwich
London SE10 9NF
Ta, Robin!
Topics: Seminars/Lectures | No Comments »
Volunteers required for ‘British Printed Images to 1700′ website appraisal
By Stephen | March 5, 2010
Many of you will be aware of the British Printed Images to 1700 website (www.bpi1700.org.uk), an online library of printed images from early modern Britain that has been built under the directorship of Professor Michael Hunter of the History department at Birkbeck with funding from the AHRC. There are now plans to carry out an appraisal of this, and it is very much hoped that members of the Birkbeck Early Modern Society will be able to assist in this.
The primary purpose of this user engagement exercise will be to gauge responses to the bpi1700 website and database, thus making it possible to assess its effectiveness and plan further work on it. No preparation on your part will be required and it does not matter if you are not familiar with the bpi1700 website already. Lunch will be provided for all those who participate in the appraisal!
The exercise will comprise one-to-one interviews and a small focus group, and volunteers will be divided between these two activities. It will take place over a few hours on a single day. The date has yet to be decided, and will depend on volunteers’ availability. It could be on either the morning or the afternoon on Friday, 26th, Monday, 29th, or Tuesday, 30th March. At present, it appears that Monday 29 March is the most popular day, so the appraisal might well happen on that day, but this isn’t set in stone yet!
If you would like to be involved, please contact Paul Vetch at the Centre for Computing in Humanities, King’s College: this is located at 26-9 Drury Lane, WC2, which is where the exercise will take place. Paul’s email address is paul.vetch@kcl.ac.uk. When emailing him, please indicate which of the dates given above you could manage, and whether morning or afternoon or both. It would also be helpful if you could briefly indicate your status, viz., student (taught or research; part-time or full-time); lecturer; or other [please specify]. Please contact him by Monday, 8 March, so as to allow time for detailed arrangements to be made.
The bpi1700 website is an important, pioneering project and I do hope that you will be able to consider helping the team with their work.
Best wishes,
Stephen Brogan
Topics: Miscellanys, Websites | No Comments »
Tim Knox on ‘The Strange Genius of Sir John Soane’ an EMS Event
By Karen Baston | March 2, 2010
Tim Knox (Director of Sir John Soane’s Museum), ‘The Strange Genius of Sir John Soane’, 6.30 pm, Friday 5 March 2010, Malet St, Room 415
You are warmly invited to our next paper on the architect Sir John Soane, which will be out first foray into the end of the early modern period and possibly beyond. Tim Knox speaks regularly about all facets of Soane’s life and house, and has recently published Sir John Soane’s Museum (Merrell, 2009) which will be available to buy for £24.95 (cash or cheque) on the night. For more details on the book see here: Sir John Soane’s Museum, London
Membership is £5 and can be obtained at any of our lectures, alternatively it costs £3 to attend a single event.
You can download our latest poster here:
Topics: Birkbeck Early Modern Society Events | No Comments »
Who were the Nuns? A Prosopographical study of the English Convents in exile 1600-1800
By Karen Baston | March 1, 2010
Who were the Nuns? A Prosopographical study of the English Convents in exile 1600-1800
Since September 2008, the Arts and Humanities Research Council funded project team at Queen Mary has been making a comprehensive study of the membership of the English convents in exile. That is, the period between the opening of the first English convent in Brussels to the nuns’ return to England as a result of the French Revolution and associated violence. Most were enclosed convents, in theory cut off from the outside world. However in practice the nuns were not isolated and their contacts and networks spread widely.
As well as studying the members and their families the project is collecting data on sponsors and patrons on both sides of the Channel.
This website will provide a range of materials for the history of the convents, including edited texts as they are finished and ultimately a fully searchable database of members.
Visit the homepage at http://www.history.qmul.ac.uk/wwtn/index.html for more information about the project. And see http://www.history.qmul.ac.uk/wwtn/links.html for some links to monastic connections.
On 29 June 2010 Dr Caroline Bowden, project manager, Dr Katharine Keats-Rohan, research fellow, and Dr Katrien Daemen DeGelder, research officer, will be giving a joint paper at the Institute of Historical Research’s ‘Religious History of Britain 1500-1800′ seminar entitled ‘Free Will and Enclosure: Recruitment and Motivation in the English Convents in Exile 1600-1700′. (International Relations Room, IHR, 5 pm)
Topics: Resources, Seminars/Lectures, Websites | No Comments »
Call for Papers: ‘Reading Anthologies in Renaissance Europe (1450-1650)’
By Karen Baston | February 25, 2010
Trinity College Dublin Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies
School of Cultures, Languages and Area Studies, University of Liverpool
Call for Papers
Reading Anthologies in Renaissance Europe (1450-1650)
Trinity College Dublin, 19-21 July 2010
As print culture developed through the Renaissance, authors, printers and editors quickly came to exploit the commerical and literary potential of compendia and anthologies. These works took many different forms: ‘recueils’, ‘œuvres’, ‘poésies choisies’, song books, joke collections. In both printed or manuscript form, anthologies circulated in sixteenth-century Europe in Latin and the vernacular.
This conference will explore the factors that governed the production, circulation and reception of anthologies in the Europe of the Long Renaissance. What editorial and commercial imperatives drove their appearance? What cultural practices arose from their publication? How are the cultural practices of the anthology related to or different from those of collected and multi-part works? How did readers react to the concept of multi-authored works?
The organisers welcome panals of up to three participants and individual papers which are related to the following broad thematic areas:
• The Semantics of the Anthology
o What is an anthology?
o Re-presenting works to the reader
o Material reconstruction of previously-circulated works
o The role of illustration in anthologies
o Literal and Metaphorical collections
• Commercial imperatives
o The emergance of collected works
o The notion of branding
o Case studies of failed brands
o The re-ordering of texts for commercial purposes
o Print vs Mansuscript
o The place of Anthology in print culture
• Anthological Methods & Editorial Practices
o How was matierial collected?
o Selection vs compliation
o Case studies of items left out or excluded
o The role of the printer/publisher/author/editor/translator
o Editorial changes
o The role of translation
o Bibliographical approaches and methodologies
• The Reader
o Strategies to modify appeal to the reader
o Moralisation as a means of attracting a new readership
o Spatial metaphors of reading and the reader’s ‘journey’
o New reading experiences
• Anthologies and Longevity
o How does the form of the anthology either promote or hinder the longevity of the text?
o Anthologies across disciplines
o Poetry
o Literature
o Moral philosophy
o Science
o Law
o Historical writing
Proposals of up to 300 words for a 20-minute paper (proportionately longer for panels) should be sent to the conference organisers Sara Barker and Pollie Bromilow by 31 March 2010.
Topics: Calls for Papers | No Comments »
Shakespeare Domesticated: Private Theatricals and the Enlightenment Public Sphere
By Karen Baston | February 21, 2010
Lecture:
Shakespeare Domesticated: Private Theatricals and the Enlightenment Public Sphere
Date: 09 March 2010
From: 18:00 to 20:00
Speaker: Prof. Michael Dobson
Location: Room 218, 43 Gordon Square
Free entry: first come, first seated.
The Birkbeck Eighteenth-Century Research Group is delighted to announce that Michael Dobson, Professor of Shakespeare Studies (English and Humanities, Birkbeck) will be giving a lecture on his research into private performances of Shakespeare in the eighteenth century.
Topics: Seminars/Lectures | No Comments »
Birkbeck Early Modern Society Events Update
By Karen Baston | February 19, 2010
The Birkbeck Early Modern Society now has dates and full titles for all of our remaining events this term. Our events start at 6:30 pm sharp unless otherwise indicated. All of the events take place at Birkbeck College, Malet Street, London. A map is available here: http://www.bbk.ac.uk/maps.
5 March: Tim Knox (Director, Sir John Soane’s House), ‘The Strange Genius of Sir John Soane’, Malet St room 415
25 March: Prof. Michael Hunter, ‘The Decline of Magic: The Paradoxical Role of the Royal Society’, Malet St room B30
29 April: Dr Richard Williams, ‘Culture Clash: Text and Image in Reformation Visual Culture’, Malet St, room 320
20 May: Dr Malcom Jones, ‘Death in Early Modern English Prints and Book Illustrations’, Malet St, room 320
24 June: Prof. Julian Swann, ‘Despotism, Public Opinion and the Crisis of Absolute Monarchy’, room tbc; followed by our end of term party
Membership of the Birkbeck Early Modern Society costs just £5 per year. This gets you access to all of the above lectures – plus drinks and snacks! You can join or re-join at any event throughout the year.
Topics: Birkbeck Early Modern Society Events, Seminars/Lectures | No Comments »
Royal Society Anniversary Lecture with Bill Bryson
By Karen Baston | February 18, 2010
Royal Society Anniversary Lecture: An Even Shorter History of Nearly Everything
Bill Bryson
Great Hall, Guildhall
30 September 2010, 6 pm
Celebrated author Bill Bryson will give a lecture in the Great Hall at the Guildhall in honour of the 350th anniversary of the Royal Society.
Bill Bryson is the internationally bestselling author of many books, including Mother Tongue, Notes from a Big Country, The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid and A Short History of Nearly Everything, which was shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize, won the Aventis Prize for Science Books in 2004 and was awarded the Descartes Science Communication Prize in 2005.
Admission is free but reservations are required.
See http://www.gresham.ac.uk/event.asp?PageId=45&EventId=882 to book this event.
Topics: Seminars/Lectures | No Comments »
Early Science Symposium at Wadham College
By Karen Baston | February 17, 2010
Early Science: An Historical Perspective
Speakers: Professor Allan Chapman, Professor Robin Wilson, Professor Michael Hunter, Lisa Jardine, Jim Bennett, Professor Sir Roderick Floud FBA
Date/Time: 25 November 2010, 11am – 5pm
Venue: Wadham College, Oxford
A Symposium to mark the 350th anniversary of The Royal Society, examining the early days of Wadham College, Gresham College and The Royal Society, together with the life and work of some of the founders of The Royal Society.
Chairman for the morning session: Professor Tim Connell, Honorary Fellow, Gresham College
Welcome and introduction (Professor Connell)
The Early Days of Gresham College: Professor Robin Wilson, Open University and Keble College
Wadham College: Dr Allan Chapman, Wadham College
The setting up of The Royal Society: Professor Michael Hunter, Birkbeck, University of London
Lunch (not provided)
Chairman of the afternoon session: Professor Pietro Corsi, Oxford University
Introduction (Professor Corsi)
Robert Hooke: Professor Michael Cooper
Sir Christopher Wren: Professor Lisa Jardine, Queen Mary, University of London
Early Mathematical Instruments: Dr Jim Bennett, Director, The Museum of the History of Science, Oxford University
Summing up: Professor Tim Connell
End of formal proceedings. Move to different venue within Wadham for Drinks Reception
Admission is free but reservations are required.
See http://www.gresham.ac.uk/event.asp?PageId=45&EventId=1018 for information about booking this event.
Topics: Conferences | No Comments »
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