The Early Modern Intelligencer

Our next event  will be on Friday 17 January: Professor Penelope Corfield (Royal Holloway), ‘Vauxhall Gardens and the Eroticisation of Mass Entertainments’, room B33, Birkbeck, Malet Street, 6.30 start.

We delighted to  welcome Profesor Corfield to Birkbeck. She has published numerous books and essays on British history post 1600, and also on History as a subject of study, for example, The Impact of English Towns, 1700-1800 (1982); Power and the Professions in Britain 1700-1850 (1995; pbk 1999); The Westminster Historical Database: Voters, Social Structure and Electoral Behaviour, with Charles Harvey and Edmund Green (1998); and Time and the Shape of History
(2007).

For more information on Professor Corfield  please see her homepage at Royal Holloway.

We are delighted to announce our student conference on the theme of Vice and Virtue in the Early Modern period which will take place on 15 February 2014.

Our conference programme is below.

The conference is free of charge and open to all. It is essential to register so we have an idea of numbers for catering purposes.

Please register using this link to this simple online form. You can use this form to register yourself and any guests.

Please note that the conference venue is still to be confirmed.

Birkbeck Early Modern Society 7th  Student Conference, 15 February 2014 : Vice and Virtue in the Early Modern Period

1.00-1.30 Registration and welcome

1.30-3.00 Panel 1: Vice or Virtue?

• Anita Butler, Letting the Serpent in? A reappraissal of the strawberry as a symbol of virtue/vice in Shakespeare’s ‘Othello’.

• Rebecca Clossick, ‘To wonder at unlawful things’: The Crime of Scholar in Elizabethan England.

• Claire Labarbe, Beyond Vice and Virtue: Moral Contradictions in Seventeenth-Century London ‘Characters’.

3.00-3.30 Tea and cakes

3.30-5.00 Panel 2: Establishing Virtue

• Lisa Gardner, Youth and Martyrdom in Marian England- A Model of Virtue and Manhood?

• Catrin Griffiths, ‘Our Virtuous Lovers’: Duty, desire and decorum in Roger Boyle’s “Parthenissa” (1651).

• Sarah Birt, ‘Vice & Virtue: Reputations of Working Women in Early Modern London’.

5.00-6.00 Closing response followed by drinks

Professor Sir Keith Thomas

13 December 2013

‘What Did it Mean in Early Modern England to be “Civilized”?’

We are absolutely delighted  that the eminent historian, Professor Sir Keith Thomas will deliver our Christmas lecture,  ’What did it mean in early modern England to be “civilized”?’

The Lecture will take place at Birkbeck, Malet Street, room  B20 at 6.30 pm followed by a Christmas party in room 414.

Admission will be on a first come first served basis so please arrive by 6.15.

Friday 22 November 2013: Andy Kesson, Roehampton University, “Peculiar Houses”: The Newness of Early Modern Theatres’

Room B20, Birkbeck, Malet Street, WC1E 7HX at 6.30 pm

For more information about Dr Kesson, please see
http://www.roehampton.ac.uk/staff/Andy-Kesson/

Interested in Tudor history? Become a Wikipedia editor for the day

The Bodleian Libraries are organising a Wikipedia editathon focusing on the Rediscovering Rycote online resource (http://rycote.bodleian.ox.ac.uk).

The Rediscovering Rycote project provides stories and documents about the history of one of England’s most important lost Tudor mansions. Over 300 years, Rycote Manor welcomed all manner of historical figures, including six English kings and queens from Henry VIII to Elizabeth I. Although the original property burned down in 1807, the Bodleian Libraries and the current property owners have pieced together the stories of Rycote and its inhabitants from the archives of over fifty different antiquaries, families and historical figures using manuscripts, letters, accounts, maps and drawings from medieval to modern times.

The Bodleian Libraries are running an editing session in Oxford, bringing together contributors and also encouraging virtual editing for those outside the city. The session is intended to improve the coverage of individuals and events connected to Rycote and explored on the Rycote website.

The day will include a short introduction by the Rediscovering Rycote project archivist as well as the opportunity to see some of the original manuscripts up close.

To sign up and get more details, please visit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_University_of_Oxford/RediscoveringRycote.

• Date: 2-5pm, Friday 15 November 2013
• Venue: Training Room, Radcliffe Science Library, Oxford (directions).
• Participants: All welcome! No Wiki editing experience is necessary, though experienced editors are very welcome; tutorials will be provided for Wikipedia newcomers. Can’t be there the whole time? No problem. Join us for as little or as long as you like.
• Can’t get to Oxford? Virtual participation is welcome. Stay tuned for details of how to chat with us on the day.

Registration: Sign up via Eventbrite (http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/event/8968317479/wikipage)
Contacts: Any questions? Please email Liz McCarthy