Some members may remember the early editions of the Bulletin – they were handed out at our events on whatever paper we could beg, borrow, or steal. John has transformed these early efforts into the publication you find today – 65 pages long, illustrated, online, and with a varied content that includes reviews and visits. John has visited more early modern sites than most of us and has always taken the time to write insightful reviews of his experiences for the Bulletin.

This special issue features all of the good things that John has developed over his years (!) as Editor. It is a tribute to him that the Bulletin has survived this long (and long may it continue).

The issue features:

Visits to Sudeley Castle (where he also demonstrates some Birkbeck history know-how!) and Hammerwood Park by John Croxon and an in-depth look at the architecture and history of the Royal Salt Works of France – now a World Heritage Site by Timothy Alves in ‘Claude-Nicolas Ledoux and La Saline Royale at Arc-et-Senans’.

Two very different Shakespeare productions are reviewed by John Croxon (who was less than impressed by a modern take on The Merchant of Venice) and Karen Baston (who enjoyed an open air presentation of The Taming of the Shrew).

Karen Baston has a go on a new website about witches – the WEWE Project.

Book reviews

John Croxon is pleasantly surprised by The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet but appalled by the lack of historical revisionism in Great Tales from English History: A Treasury of True Stories of the Extraordinary People Who Made Britain Great.

Fatal Colours: Towton, 1461 – England’s Most Brutal Battle, however, is ‘captivating’.

Karen Baston follows the travels of Liberty’s Exiles and finds some answers to lifelong questions.

All of this and, of course, the Quiz!

Thanks, John!

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This issue travels widely in space and time. It features articles about visits by:

Timothy Alves who takes us on a tour of the tombs, shrines, courtyards, and monuments of early modern India in ‘A Brief Guide to Mughal Architecture’ and John Croxon who stays closer to home with a tour of the battlefield at Tewkesbury.

This issue’s arts reviews are from Sue Dale on The Damnation of Faust at the Coliseum, John Croxon on Cardenio at the Swan, and An Outraged Edinburgher (I wonder who that could be?) on Burke and Hare.

Our book reviews are from
Non-fiction
John Croxon on John Ashdown-Hill’s The last days of Richard III

Fiction
Bansari Mitra on Sir Walter Scott’s Kenilworth and Karen Baston on recent Scottish fiction by Shirley McKay (Hue and cry; Fate and fortune) and Shona Maclean (The redemption of Alexander Seaton; Game of Sorrows)

All that and the Summer Quiz!

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The next Bulletin will be the last with our fine editor John Croxon at the helm. He’ll be standing down after creating twenty issues. If you would like to contribute to our twentieth issue, please send contributions to John Croxon. This special issue will appear this autumn.

The Society is in search of a new editor for the Bulletin. Please contact us at Birkbeck Early Modern Society if you would like to take on this role. If you would like to know more about how it all works contact John Croxon. Previous issues of the Bulletin are available here.

The Society is also seeking new officers and committee members to take it into an exciting new era in the next academic year. Current Birkbeck students are particularly welcome to get involved.

Our Spring 2011 issue features:

An obituary for Professor Barry Coward by John Croxon

John Croxon’s visit to Mister Lovell Hall in Oxfordshire (with some lovely photos!)

John Croxon’s review of The Rivals (directed by Peter Hall ) at the Haymarket Theatre

Timothy Alves writes on the Bronzino exhibition (‘Artist and Poet at the Court of the Medici’) at the Palazzo Strozzi in Florence

John Croxon writes on the Thomas Lawrence exhibition (‘Regency Power and Brilliance’) at the National Portrait Gallery in London

Book Reviews

Karen Baston reviews Behind Closed Doors: At Home in Georgian England (Amanda Vickery)

John Croxon reviews The Last White Rose Dynasty, Rebellion and Treason: the Secret War Against the Tudors (Desmond Seward)

Karen Baston time-travels to find out what sort of reader Henry Fielding had in mind when he wrote The history of Tom Jones

All that and the Spring Quiz! Enjoy!

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In this issue John Croxon experiences the riches of early modern culture in Vienna, Timothy Alves reviews Salvator Rosa at Dulwich, and Karen Baston reports on several Scottish things (and one London exhibition). You’ll also find reports on our recent events (lectures by Andrew Hopper and David Starkey), book and television reviews, and the Winter Quiz.

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Contributions to the Bulletin are always welcome and should be directed to the Editor, John Croxon. The only real criteria for contributions is that they deal with a subject within our date range of 1450-1815.

Older issues of the Bulletin are available here.

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This issue features:

John Croxon’s visit to the moated grandeur of Baddesley Clinton.

Timothy Alves reviews Henry VIII and John Croxon reviews Anne Boleyn both at the Globe.

John Croxon looks at pictures relating to English history in ‘Delaroche and Lady Jane Grey’ at the National Gallery, London.

Karen Baston reports on the archaeological excavation at Edinburgh’s Old College and tells what it’s like to be a volunteer room guide at the Georgian House in Edinburgh.

The Arts Report includes reviews of plays from Edinburgh’s International (Caledonia) and Fringe (The Way to Keep Him) Festivals from Karen Baston.

Karen Baston ponders ‘Material Cultures’ and group dynamics.

This issue’s Book Reviews:

John Croxon reviews works of fiction and fact including The White Queen by Phillippa Gregory, The Secret History of Georgian London by Dan Cruikshank, and Richard III by Pauline Harrison Pogmore.

Robin Rowles considers The English Civil Wars by Blair Worden, 1700: Scenes of London Life by Maureen Waller, and Memoirs of the Royal Navy by Samuel Pepys.

And, of course, the Autumn Quiz!

Older issues of The Bulletin are available here.

Contributions to the Bulletin are always welcome and should be directed to the Editor, John Croxon. The only real criteria for contributions is that they deal with a subject within our date range of 1450-1815. Submissions for the Winter issue should be sent no later than 20 December 2010.

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For Summer 2010 you’ll find:

Reports on our most recent events by John Croxon (Michael Hunter on ‘The Decline of Magic: The Paradoxical Role of the Royal Society’), Timothy Alves (Richard Williams on ‘Culture Clash? World and Image in Reformation Europe’), and Jackie Mountain (Malcolm Jones on ‘A Transform’d Metamorphosis: Variation and Derivation in the Early Modern English Print Culture’)

John Croxon’s visit to Hall Place, Bexley, Kent

Arts reports and reviews of Edward II by Christopher Marlowe at Berkeley Castle (John Croxon), Mozart’s Requiem performed by the Hertfordshire Chorus at the Barbican (John Croxon), and The Pearl Fishers at the Coliseum (Sue Dale)

Timothy Alves on ‘Michelangelo Presentation Drawings for Tomaso de’Cavalieri’ at the Courtauld

Karen Baston on the ‘Colloquium on the Book in the Low Countries’ at the National Library of Scotland

Book reviews by John Croxon (Richard III’s ‘Beloved Cousyn’: John Howard and the House of York by John Ashdown-Hill) and Karen Baston (The Bones of Avalon by Phil Rickman).

Information about upcoming early modern events – including our 4th Student Conference on 3 July 2010 and a peak at next year’s provisional lecture programme

The Summer Quiz

Karen Baston’s considerations on the fate of some early modern Maltese cats imported by Horace Walpole (see here for a clue about one of the thoughts)

A request for help in locating the bookplate of Charles Areskine of Alva.

You can find older editions of the Bulletin here: The Bulletin

We may be a London-based society, but as you can see, we do get around in the pursuit of early modern events. Contributions to the Bulletin are always welcome and should be directed to the Editor, John Croxon. The only real criteria for contributions is that they deal with a subject within our date range of 1450-1815.

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For Spring 2010 you’ll find:

Reports of our most recent events by Anne Byrne and John Croxon

John Croxon’s visit to the gorgeous moated Oxburgh Hall in Norfolk

Arts Reports – King Lear at the RSC and Bristol Brass at Holy Trinity Church, Minchinhampton

Art Exhibition Reviews by Timothy Alves (who discusses Turner’s early modern influences as seen in ‘Turner and the Masters’ at Tate Britain) and Karen Baston (who points out all the early modern highlights at ‘The Print Maker’s Art’ at the National Gallery of Scotland)

A report on the excellent 4th Thomas Browne Seminar on ‘Early Modern Libraries’ at the University of York
by Karen Baston

Book Reviews by John Croxon (Eleanor by John Ashdown-Hill, Cardinal Wolsey by Stella Fletcher, Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel), Robin Rowles (Restoration by Tim Harris) and Karen Baston (Kill-Grief by Caroline Rance, aka @quackwriter!)

All of that and the Spring Quiz!

We may be a London-based society, but as you can see, we do get around in the pursuit of early modern events. Contributions to the Bulletin are always welcome and should be directed to the Editor, John Croxon. The only real criteria for contributions is that they deal with a subject within our date range of 1450-1815.

Paul Sandby: Picturing Britain
The National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh
7 November 2009 − 7 February 2010

The Royal Academy of Arts, London
13 March 2010—13 June 2010

This exhibition celebrates Paul Sandby’s bicentenary. Born in Nottingham, Sandby (bap. 1731-1809) started his artistic career as a draftsman on the Military Survey of North Britain in the 1740s. He was captivated by the scenes and people of Scotland and his work soon went beyond map making. Sandby worked with his brother on the ‘Great Map’ of the Highlands of Scotland. When he wasn’t working on his cartography, Sandby was creating landscape scenes, castle views, and street scenes from Edinburgh. He was a master at using watercolour to create vivid pictures. Even his maps included vignettes of the places the map recorded and details about what people were doing. Thus a castle in the distance might be fronted with an image of Jacobite prisoners being marched to their destination.

When he returned to Edinburgh, Sandby took on the Old Town as a subject. (The New Town, of course, did not yet exist.) His drawings are full of tiny details like a wee sign reading ‘Good eating down this close’ as a guide for hungry visitors in an image of 1751. By the late 1750s, Sandby was back in England and ready to take on the art world. He engaged in a feud with William Hogarth by ridiculing the latter’s ‘line of beauty’ theory. Sandby created a series of prints depicting Hogarth acting foolishly and nearly always featuring a sidekick called ‘Pugg’. The works come across as rather bitter and Sandby later distanced himself from these works. Sandby continued to develop his landscape style while also working on city scenes. His ‘Twelve London Cries Done from the Life’ of c. 1759-1760 is a series of portraits of London workers. Unlike traditional images which tend to show cheerful characters going about their work, Sandby’s figures are a bit scary and surly. The fish vendor, for example, is so frightening that she’s even able to scare a cat who would surely be interested in her wares.

Sandby was incredibly prolific. He next turned to travelling throughout England, Wales and Ireland to capture views of towns, abbeys, castles and country houses. He used his camera obscura to good effect but his drawings and watercolours always have a feeling of movement and light. He also did full scale paintings. His depiction of The Rainbow (c. 1800) which is usually in Nottingham is marvellous and harks back to the Dutch Old Masters. (Sandby is particularly good at painting animals.) Sandby’s ‘Views’ from his travels were collected and published in The Virtuosi’s Museum (1778-1782) but each print was also available separately as a monthly instalment.

Paul Sandby: Picturing Britain is an exhibition which should do a lot to restore a virtually forgotten artist to his rightful status. I have been to the exhibition in Edinburgh twice now. But, be warned, it is free here and you’ll have to pay to see it in London! [Ed. note, March 2010: worth it tho'!]

Find out more and book tickets at: http://www.royalacademy.org.uk/exhibitions/paul-sandby-ra-1731-1809-picturing-britain-a-bicentenary-exhibition/.

To celebrate the arrival of 2010, the Birkbeck Early Modern Society is pleased to present a new edition of our official journal, The Bulletin.

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Our New Year edition features:

A President’s Address from Stephen Brogan

Reports on our autumn lectures which were delivered by Roger Mettam, Karen Hearn, and Quintin Skinner.

Arts reports by John Croxon (Messiah, The Winter’s Tale) and Sue Dale (Duke Bluebeard’s Castle)

Report on a visit to Berrington Hall by John Croxon

Exhibition reviews by Timothy Alves (The Sacred Made Real) and Karen Baston (Sir Peter Lely, Paul Sandby)

Book reviews by Robin Rowles (on Empires of the Sea), Bansari Mitra (on Burning Bright) and Karen Baston (on The Brothers Carburi).

The Winter Quiz

Information about forthcoming events of early modern interest

You can find previous editions of The Bulletin here: http://www.emintelligencer.org.uk/category/the-bulletin/

The only real criteria for contributions is that they deal with a subject within our date range of 1450-1815. Book and other reviews, visits to places of interest, and announcements of upcoming events are all welcome.

The new issue will be out in early 2010. You can find previous issues of The Bulletin here: http://www.emintelligencer.org.uk/category/the-bulletin/