- Johns Hopkins University, German and Romance Languages and Literatures, Faculty MemberScuola Normale Superiore, Classe di Lettere e Filosofia, Alumnus, and 2 moreadd
- Renaissance Philosophy, Early Modern France, Renaissance Studies, Jean Bodin, History of the Book, French Studies, and 22 moreHistory of Ideas, History of Political Thought, Environmental History, Environmental Philosophy, Early Modern History, Michel Foucault, Travel Literature, Environmental Studies, Political Ecology, Philosophy of Nature, Environmental Humanities, History of Environmental Ideas, British Imperial and Colonial History (1600 - ), Colonial America, Renaissance, History of Medicine, Food History, Self-translation, Genetic Criticism (Genetic Criticism), Early Modern Intellectual History, Intellectual History, and History of Scienceedit
- I am a Senior Lecturer in Cultural and Intellectual History at the Warburg Institute, London, where I teach historica... moreI am a Senior Lecturer in Cultural and Intellectual History at the Warburg Institute, London, where I teach historical methodology and Renaissance intellectual history with a focus on political thought. I'm particularly interested in the transmission, reception, and reuse of texts and ideas across geographical and chronological boundaries, and in the afterlife of classical ideas in the early modern period. Current research areas include book projects on 1) early modern views of the connection between climate and human character, and 2) the theory and practice of self-translation in Renaissance Europe. I am Principal Investigator on the Leverhulme-funded project "Writing Bilingually 1465-1700: Self-Translated Books in Italy and France" (2023-2026).
2018-present Senior Lecturer in Cultural and Intellectual History, Warburg
2015-2018 Assistant Professor in French Studies, Johns Hopkins University (USA)
2012-2016 PhD in Renaissance Studies, University of Warwick (UK)
2008-2012 Corso di perfezionamento in Filosofia, Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa (cotutelle de thèse, Université Paris Descartes)
2008 MA in Philosophy, University of Pisa
2006 BA in Philosophy, University of Pisa
2003-2008 Corso ordinario, Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa, Classe di Lettere & Filosofia
2003 Maturità classica, Liceo Berchet, Milano
For more on my current and recent research please visit my Warburg webpage: https://warburg.sas.ac.uk/people/sara-miglietti
Contacts: sara.miglietti@sas.ac.ukedit
[FINAL VERSION BEFORE COPY-EDITING] The issue explored in this chapter is not whether we should study marginal annotations, nor what we can hope to gain from such a study. I consider these questions settled, following decades of seminal... more
[FINAL VERSION BEFORE COPY-EDITING] The issue explored in this chapter is not whether we should study marginal annotations, nor what we can hope to gain from such a study. I consider these questions settled, following decades of seminal scholarship that has demonstrated the heuristic potential of marginalia in a range of different fields, from reception studies and the history of scholarship to the sociology of reading and cultural history more broadly. Some of this scholarship is gathered here together for the first time, allowing us to get a good sense of how the study of annotation, particularly Renaissance annotation, has developed over the years and how it has contributed to a better understanding of this historical period. And yet, big questions remain – questions that would have been unthinkable without this scholarship and that we can only now begin to probe. In this chapter I will address only one of these questions, and even then just superficially, hoping more to prompt a conversation than to prove anything definitively. The problem in question is theoretical, and it regards the status that we should accord to annotation. I will show below that there is an entrenched tendency, even among scholars who take marginalia quite seriously, to consider them as a somewhat subsidiary, instrumental form of activity – one that is less creative, less autonomous, overall less ‘authorial’ than so-called original writing. My chapter seeks to challenge this idea, arguing that annotation should be understood not merely as a form of ‘active reading’ propaedeutic to future writing, but as a practice that has value on its own: it can be a form of original textual creation; a countercultural authorial gesture; in some cases, even an entire way of life. If we want to recover the wealth of meanings and functions that annotation had in the Renaissance, we need a new interpretive framework to make sense of it.
Research Interests:
Accepted and forthcoming in Marie-Alice Belle & Brenda Hosington (eds), "Mediated Translation in Early Modern Europe", special issue of Philological Quarterly Self-translations – works rewritten in a second language by their own authors... more
Accepted and forthcoming in Marie-Alice Belle & Brenda Hosington (eds), "Mediated Translation in Early Modern Europe", special issue of Philological Quarterly
Self-translations – works rewritten in a second language by their own authors – represent a significant subset of early modern translations. Generally taking place between Latin and a vernacular, self-translation enabled authors to expand and diversify their readership while retaining control over their message. But what happened when self-translations were translated into other languages by ‘ordinary’ translators? Was either version – the Latin or the vernacular – more commonly taken as the basis for further translations, or did translators seek to take both versions into account where possible? What can the choices made by these translators tell us about shifting language dynamics, strategies of cultural mediation, and material access to foreign language books in early modern Europe? This article will tackle these questions by focusing on Franco-Latin works translated into English according to three possible scenarios: translations based on a composite text (e.g. Knolles’s translation of Bodin's République / De republica), translations based on the Latin version (e.g. Norton’s translation of Calvin’s Institutio Christianae religionis / Institution de la religion chrestienne), and translations based on the vernacular version (e.g. Carew’s translation of Estienne’s Apologia pro Herodoto / Introduction au traité de la conformité). Overall, the article will argue that the translation of self-translations can be considered as a special case of indirect translation in which the mediating translation itself comes from the original author.
Self-translations – works rewritten in a second language by their own authors – represent a significant subset of early modern translations. Generally taking place between Latin and a vernacular, self-translation enabled authors to expand and diversify their readership while retaining control over their message. But what happened when self-translations were translated into other languages by ‘ordinary’ translators? Was either version – the Latin or the vernacular – more commonly taken as the basis for further translations, or did translators seek to take both versions into account where possible? What can the choices made by these translators tell us about shifting language dynamics, strategies of cultural mediation, and material access to foreign language books in early modern Europe? This article will tackle these questions by focusing on Franco-Latin works translated into English according to three possible scenarios: translations based on a composite text (e.g. Knolles’s translation of Bodin's République / De republica), translations based on the Latin version (e.g. Norton’s translation of Calvin’s Institutio Christianae religionis / Institution de la religion chrestienne), and translations based on the vernacular version (e.g. Carew’s translation of Estienne’s Apologia pro Herodoto / Introduction au traité de la conformité). Overall, the article will argue that the translation of self-translations can be considered as a special case of indirect translation in which the mediating translation itself comes from the original author.
Research Interests:
Published in "Disaster in the Early Modern World", ed. Ovanes Akopyan and David Rosenthal (Routledge, 2023). Final accepted version before copy-editing. What would happen if the climate of Switzerland became warmer and the Alpine... more
Published in "Disaster in the Early Modern World", ed. Ovanes Akopyan and David Rosenthal (Routledge, 2023). Final accepted version before copy-editing.
What would happen if the climate of Switzerland became warmer and the Alpine glaciers began to melt? In a paper sent to the Royal Society in the winter of 1707/1708 and recently re-discovered in the society’s archives in London, the Swiss naturalist Johann Jakob Scheuchzer imagined the catastrophic consequences that climate warming in the Alps would have for all of Europe. Arguing against those who thought that a warmer climate would transform the bleak Swiss highlands into fertile gardens, Scheuchzer called attention to the ecological function of glaciers as reservoirs of Europe’s waters and stabilizers of its climate. Although the exact role of human agency in this imaginary dystopia was left unclear, Scheuchzer's dark prophecy of ecological apocalypse contrasted strongly with contemporary ideologies of environmental improvement that described man as God’s helper in perfecting the earth. In De portione, as in his later Physica sacra, Scheuchzer advocated instead for greater humility in judging and modifying the earth, God’s already perfect creation. By problematizing the distinction between natural and manmade environmental disasters, Scheuchzer drew attention to the often unintended consequences of human intervention on nature, thus moving towards an eco-theology inspired by precautionary principles.
What would happen if the climate of Switzerland became warmer and the Alpine glaciers began to melt? In a paper sent to the Royal Society in the winter of 1707/1708 and recently re-discovered in the society’s archives in London, the Swiss naturalist Johann Jakob Scheuchzer imagined the catastrophic consequences that climate warming in the Alps would have for all of Europe. Arguing against those who thought that a warmer climate would transform the bleak Swiss highlands into fertile gardens, Scheuchzer called attention to the ecological function of glaciers as reservoirs of Europe’s waters and stabilizers of its climate. Although the exact role of human agency in this imaginary dystopia was left unclear, Scheuchzer's dark prophecy of ecological apocalypse contrasted strongly with contemporary ideologies of environmental improvement that described man as God’s helper in perfecting the earth. In De portione, as in his later Physica sacra, Scheuchzer advocated instead for greater humility in judging and modifying the earth, God’s already perfect creation. By problematizing the distinction between natural and manmade environmental disasters, Scheuchzer drew attention to the often unintended consequences of human intervention on nature, thus moving towards an eco-theology inspired by precautionary principles.
Research Interests: Intellectual History, History of Ideas, Environmental History, History of Science, Enlightenment, and 10 moreEarly Modern Europe, Seneca, Republic of Letters (Early Modern History), Classical Reception Studies, Environmental Humanities, Climate history, Ecotheology, Historical Disaster Studies, Physico-Theology, and History of Philosophy
Research Interests:
Review of Gendering the Renaissance Commonwealth, by Anna Becker, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2020, 282 pp., £78.99 (hard back), ISBN 978-1-108-48705-4 With Gendering the Commonwealth, Anna Becker has given us one of the most... more
Review of Gendering the Renaissance Commonwealth, by Anna Becker, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2020, 282 pp., £78.99 (hard back), ISBN 978-1-108-48705-4
With Gendering the Commonwealth, Anna Becker has given us one of the most stimulating discussions of the “language and concepts of Renaissance political thought” (1) in recent years. Over five chapters and a brief conclusion, Becker investigates how Italian and French thinkers of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries addressed the relationship between “public” and “private”, “polity” and “family”, the “political” and the “domestic”, in a wide range of vernacular and Latin writings.
With Gendering the Commonwealth, Anna Becker has given us one of the most stimulating discussions of the “language and concepts of Renaissance political thought” (1) in recent years. Over five chapters and a brief conclusion, Becker investigates how Italian and French thinkers of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries addressed the relationship between “public” and “private”, “polity” and “family”, the “political” and the “domestic”, in a wide range of vernacular and Latin writings.
Research Interests:
"Climate theory" is a modern umbrella term for various historical doctrines that highlighted the impact of climatic and geographical factors (e.g., temperature, winds, relief, etc.) on human bodies, minds, and behaviours. Such doctrines... more
"Climate theory" is a modern umbrella term for various historical doctrines that highlighted the impact of climatic and geographical factors (e.g., temperature, winds, relief, etc.) on human bodies, minds, and behaviours. Such doctrines were often associated with ethnic stereotyping, as different regions of the earth were thought to engender distinctive "national characters": e.g., the gluttonous German, the vengeful Italian, the fickle French. While the origins of climate theory date back to classical antiquity, with the Hippocratic school of medicine and the theory of the humors, the early modern period is often considered the heyday of this tradition. Modern surveys of climate theory generally highlight the role played by French thinkers such as Jean Bodin (1529-1596), who wrote extensively about the impact of climate on national character and about its implications for politics and law-making. Yet climate theory was not the monopoly of any one thinker or nation. On the contrary, it circulated widely throughout Europe, crisscrossing geographic and linguistic borders through the medium of print, translation, and epistolary networks of intellectual exchange. At the same time, climate theory particularly flourished in places where universities, academies, and princely courts fostered continued engagement with ancient and medieval texts steeped in that tradition. Italy in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries was just such a place. Doctors, philosophers, theologians, and political thinkers discussed these theories from various standpoints, sometimes engaging in heated controversies. In particular, three major points of debate were the scale at which environmental influences should be studied, the relationship between environment and ethics, and the accommodation of classical ideas to Catholic doctrine and to the missionary agenda of the Counter-Reformation Church.
Research Interests:
Final accepted version, published in "Traduire - tradurre - translating. Vie des mots et voies des œuvres dans l’Europe de la Renaissance", eds Jean- Louis Fournel et Ivano Paccagnella (Geneva: Droz, 2022), pp. 407-426.
Research Interests: Intellectual History, Translation Studies, French Studies, Renaissance Studies, Early Modern Europe, and 6 moreTranslation History, Neo-latin literature, History of Medicine in Medieval and Early Modern Europe, Renaissance France, History of Science and Medicine In Medieval and Renaissance Europe, and Joseph Duchesne
Cette étude porte sur l’évolution de la théorie politique de Jean Bodin entre 1566 et 1576, une période tout à fait décisive pour le penseur angevin, notamment par rapport au développement de ses idées sur la nature et les limites de la... more
Cette étude porte sur l’évolution de la théorie politique de Jean Bodin entre 1566 et 1576, une période tout à fait décisive pour le penseur angevin, notamment par rapport au développement de ses idées sur la nature et les limites de la souveraineté. L’examen comparé des deux rédactions de la Methodus (1566, 1572) nous permet de montrer que cette évolution se fit de manière graduelle et pour des raisons qui ont à faire avec la logique interne de la pensée de Bodin tout autant, sinon plus, qu’avec les circonstances historiques dans lesquelles Bodin écrivait ses œuvres.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Review of: Howell A. Lloyd, Jean Bodin: ‘This Pre-Eminent Man of France’: An Intel- lectual Biography (Oxford University Press: Oxford, 2017), xiv + 311 pp., $100.00, ISBN 978 0 19 880014 9 (hbk.).
Research Interests:
This article traces the formation of a critical discourse around human environmental agency in early Enlightenment Europe, focusing on the Swiss naturalist Johann Jakob Scheuchzer (1672-1733) and the Royal Society milieus to which he was... more
This article traces the formation of a critical discourse around human environmental agency in early Enlightenment Europe, focusing on the Swiss naturalist Johann Jakob Scheuchzer (1672-1733) and the Royal Society milieus to which he was connected. In manuscript and printed writings, and particularly in his beautifully illustrated Physica sacra (1731-1735), Scheuchzer used a combination of biblical exegesis, thought experiments, and ecological insights to reflect about the relationship between God, humankind, and nature. Against claims that the tradition of natural theology in which Scheuchzer belonged "prevented and delayed the acknowledgment of the earth as vulnerable" (Kempe 2003b, p. 166), the article shows how different thinkers could use the Bible to support competing claims regarding the role of humans as agents in God's creation. While some authors enthusiastically upheld contemporary ideologies of environmental 'improvement', others-including Scheuchzer himself-called for greater self-restraint and developed a biblically-grounded form of precautionary environmental ethics.
Research Interests: Intellectual History, Environmental Philosophy, History of Science, Enlightenment, Science and Religion, and 14 moreEnvironmental Ethics, History and Philosophy of Ecology, Natural Theology, History of Geology, Early Modern Intellectual History, History of climate studies, Early Modern Philosophy, Anthropocene studies, Biblical Exegesis, Christian Theology, Johann Jakob Scheuchzer, John Woodward, William Derham, and John Ray (1627-1705)
[Final accepted version before publication] This essay examines French Renaissance “climate theories” as a privileged locus for rethinking the relationship between “nature” and “culture” in a dynamic and non-dualistic way (B. Latour).... more
[Final accepted version before publication]
This essay examines French Renaissance “climate theories” as a privileged locus for rethinking the relationship between “nature” and “culture” in a dynamic and non-dualistic way (B. Latour). Climate theories, first advanced in ancient Greece by authors such as Hippocrates and Aristotle, were widely invoked in the Renaissance to explain temperamental differences among individuals as well as cultural and ethnic differences among human collectives. While scholars often bring such theories together under the umbrella term of “climatic determinism”, this article argues that Renaissance climate theories are in fact predominantly anti-deterministic, as they acknowledge the possibility for humans to shield themselves from climate’s influence in a variety of ways, including diet, music, and a liberal education. Far from postulating an absolute power of “nature” over “culture”, Renaissance climate theories draw attention to the peculiar “epistemic space” (lieu epistémique, J.-B. Fressoz) in-between nature and culture, as they seek to illuminate the mutually-constitutive interactions between the two. Thus, climate theories also shed light on the radical embeddedness of humans in nature, helping us to evisage man not as “external to nature” and standing in a relation of “domination or opposition” to it, but as deeply inscribed in natural processes (C. Larrère). Building on foundational scholarship by Bruno Latour and others, this essay proposes an analysis of some better- and lesser-known examples of French Renaissance climate theories (e.g. Louis Le Roy, Jean Bodin, Nicolas Abraham de La Framboisière) in order to reflect on what the “environmental reflexivity” of early modern societies can bring to a new “integrated ecology” of nature and human culture (J.-B. Fressoz, C. Larrère).
This essay examines French Renaissance “climate theories” as a privileged locus for rethinking the relationship between “nature” and “culture” in a dynamic and non-dualistic way (B. Latour). Climate theories, first advanced in ancient Greece by authors such as Hippocrates and Aristotle, were widely invoked in the Renaissance to explain temperamental differences among individuals as well as cultural and ethnic differences among human collectives. While scholars often bring such theories together under the umbrella term of “climatic determinism”, this article argues that Renaissance climate theories are in fact predominantly anti-deterministic, as they acknowledge the possibility for humans to shield themselves from climate’s influence in a variety of ways, including diet, music, and a liberal education. Far from postulating an absolute power of “nature” over “culture”, Renaissance climate theories draw attention to the peculiar “epistemic space” (lieu epistémique, J.-B. Fressoz) in-between nature and culture, as they seek to illuminate the mutually-constitutive interactions between the two. Thus, climate theories also shed light on the radical embeddedness of humans in nature, helping us to evisage man not as “external to nature” and standing in a relation of “domination or opposition” to it, but as deeply inscribed in natural processes (C. Larrère). Building on foundational scholarship by Bruno Latour and others, this essay proposes an analysis of some better- and lesser-known examples of French Renaissance climate theories (e.g. Louis Le Roy, Jean Bodin, Nicolas Abraham de La Framboisière) in order to reflect on what the “environmental reflexivity” of early modern societies can bring to a new “integrated ecology” of nature and human culture (J.-B. Fressoz, C. Larrère).
Research Interests:
This article offers a new interpretation of Bodin’s stance on the classic issue of action and contemplation -- a vexata quaestio of Bodinian scholarship that takes us to the heart of Bodin's views on ethics, politics, and theology. Taking... more
This article offers a new interpretation of Bodin’s stance on the classic issue of action and contemplation -- a vexata quaestio of Bodinian scholarship that takes us to the heart of Bodin's views on ethics, politics, and theology. Taking into account the entire arc of Bodin's production, from the Methodus to the Paradoxon, the article considers Bodin's changing views on the 'best form of life' and argues that towards the end of his life Bodin came to redefine completely the problem by positing a third stage of human experience, which he called "reflection" (actus reflexus in Latin, reflexion in French) and described as the passive enjoyment of God's light reflected in the human soul as in a mirror. The article explores how Bodin's theory of reflection relates to his theology and spirituality, on the one hand, and to his ethical views on the other. By raising the question of Bodin’s sources for this theory, the article also uncovers his profound debts to late-medieval Scholasticism and Christian mysticism, especially that of Nicholas of Cusa.
Research Interests: Intellectual History, History of Ideas, French Studies, Renaissance Studies, Christian Mysticism, and 10 moreRenaissance Philosophy, Scholastic Philosophy, Neoplatonism, Renaissance Aristotelianism, Christian Theology, Nicolaus Cusanus, Carmelite Spirituality, Jean Bodin, Renaissance France, and History of Philosophy
The article responds to recent claims that the term ‘climate’ was never used in a physical or meteorological sense until the mid-eighteenth century, and that consequently the notion of 'climate theory' (often used to denote doctrines of... more
The article responds to recent claims that the term ‘climate’ was never used in a physical or meteorological sense until the mid-eighteenth century, and that consequently the notion of 'climate theory' (often used to denote doctrines of environmental influence from Antiquity to the Enlightenment) is an anachronistic scholarly construct to be avoided at all costs. The article discusses a number of ancient and early modern examples to show that the pre-modern meaning of ‘climate’ (in its various linguistic forms) was richer than is sometimes assumed, and that a physical and/or meteorological usage of the term was in fact not completely alien to pre- modern writers. The article also raises broader methodological questions, asking whether it may be legitimate to use ‘etic’ (observer-oriented) rather than ‘emic’ (actor-oriented) categories to study the history of climate ideas.
Research Interests:
This article explores the phenomenon of philosophical and scientific self-translation in sixteenth-century France, focusing on the «astrophile» physician Antoine Mizauld (c. 1512-1578) – who, in the 1540s and 1550s, translated several of... more
This article explores the phenomenon of philosophical and scientific self-translation in sixteenth-century France, focusing on the «astrophile» physician Antoine Mizauld (c. 1512-1578) – who, in the 1540s and 1550s, translated several of his own astrometeorological works from Latin into French – but also placing Mizauld’s work in the broader context of sixteenth-century movements towards the vernacularization of philosophical knowledge. By paying as much attention to the textual and paratextual features of Mizauld’s self-translations as to Mizauld’s cultural milieus, marketing strategies, and possible goals in self-translating, the article aims at studying Renaissance self-translation not only as a literary practice but also as a social practice of cultural mediation, shaped by contextual pressures such as book market dynamics, changing reading publics, and the political implications of language use in a time of nation-building.
Research Interests:
Research Interests: Intellectual History, History of Ideas, Early Modern History, Renaissance Studies, Sociology of Knowledge, and 9 moreEnvironmental History, History of Science, Jesuit history, British Imperial and Colonial History (1600 - ), Classical Reception Studies, Atlantic history, History of geography, History of climate studies, and Early Royal Society
Nicodemism can be generally defined as the practice of religious (dis)simulation in contexts of more or less open persecution. “Nicodemite” was the name that the sixteenth-century French reformer John Calvin gave to Protestants living in... more
Nicodemism can be generally defined as the practice of religious (dis)simulation in contexts of more or less open persecution. “Nicodemite” was the name that the sixteenth-century French reformer John Calvin gave to Protestants living in Catholic countries who chose to conceal their faith out of a concern for personal safety. In the 1540s and 1550s, the legitimacy of such a behavior was at the center of a heated controversy stretching from Calvinist Geneva to nearby countries such as Italy, Germany, Holland, and France. While supporters of religious dissimulation invoked a range of scriptural and rational arguments in their own defense – including the illustrious precedent of the Roman Nicodemus, who believed in Christ but visited him only by night out of fear – prominent reformers such as Calvin denounced Nicodemism as morally inexcusable and strategically ruinous for the long-term development of Reformed churches. Historically, the emergence of Nicodemism as a particular form of religious dissimulation buttressed by scriptural and rational arguments is inextricably tied to the specific circumstances of religious life in the Reformed and philo-Reformed milieus of mid-sixteenth-century Europe. Modern historiographical discourse, however, has often stretched the term Nicodemism well beyond its context of origin, in ways that have not failed to raise debate and that ultimately reflect underlying disagreements about the meaning and essence of Nicodemism itself.
Research Interests:
[NB: the version uploaded here is the final version before copy-editing. For the published version, see link below] This article offers a re-interpretation of Jean Bodin’s Six livres de la République (1576), a work that deeply... more
[NB: the version uploaded here is the final version before copy-editing. For the published version, see link below]
This article offers a re-interpretation of Jean Bodin’s Six livres de la République (1576), a work that deeply transformed European political discourse at the time of the French Wars of Religion and that had important repercussions on the later ‘reason of state’ tradition. Highlighting the ties between Bodin’s definition of sovereignty in Book 1 and his discussion of demographic growth and territorial expansion in Books 4, 5, and 6, the article shows that Bodin’s critical contribution to early modern political thought, far from being limited to his reframing of the juristic concept of souveraineté or maiestas, extends to his novel understanding of the territory as a non-juridical ‘technologie politique’ (Michel Foucault). Through an examination of Bodin’s work and its later reception, the article argues that Bodin’s insights about territorial and demographic matters played a fundamental role in the early modern ‘territorialisation de la politique’ (Romain Descendre), in that they helped redefine the very terms in which the notion of territory would be understood and discussed in the following decades.
This article offers a re-interpretation of Jean Bodin’s Six livres de la République (1576), a work that deeply transformed European political discourse at the time of the French Wars of Religion and that had important repercussions on the later ‘reason of state’ tradition. Highlighting the ties between Bodin’s definition of sovereignty in Book 1 and his discussion of demographic growth and territorial expansion in Books 4, 5, and 6, the article shows that Bodin’s critical contribution to early modern political thought, far from being limited to his reframing of the juristic concept of souveraineté or maiestas, extends to his novel understanding of the territory as a non-juridical ‘technologie politique’ (Michel Foucault). Through an examination of Bodin’s work and its later reception, the article argues that Bodin’s insights about territorial and demographic matters played a fundamental role in the early modern ‘territorialisation de la politique’ (Romain Descendre), in that they helped redefine the very terms in which the notion of territory would be understood and discussed in the following decades.
Research Interests:
Today, faced with an environmental crisis of unprecedented proportions, we may be tempted to think that the long history of past environmental attitudes has nothing left to teach us. Why should we look back, rather than ahead? Aside from... more
Today, faced with an environmental crisis of unprecedented proportions, we may be tempted to think that the long history of past environmental attitudes has nothing left to teach us. Why should we look back, rather than ahead? Aside from mere historical interest, what is the value of studying the environmental awareness of centuries when modern disciplines such as ecology and climatology did not yet exist, the study of natural phenomena was still entangled with astrology and other “pseudo-sciences,” and the very terms “environment” and “climate” had quite different meanings from the ones we generally attribute to them today?
Research Interests:
This special issue includes three studies on climatological ideas in early modern France, plus a preface and an afterword that situate early modern "climate theories" in a longer genalogy of environmental ideas in order to investigate... more
This special issue includes three studies on climatological ideas in early modern France, plus a preface and an afterword that situate early modern "climate theories" in a longer genalogy of environmental ideas in order to investigate their relevance for current environmental thinking.
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
1. Sara Miglietti, "Introduction: The Past and Present of Climate Theories"
2. Dorine Rouiller, "Théorie des climats et cosmopolitisme dans la Sagesse de Pierre Charron"
3. Jean-Olivier Richard, "The Jesuit Who Wanted to Control the Climate: Père Castel and the Religious Roots of the Anthropocene"
4. Jean-Patrice Courtois, "The Climate of the Philosophes during the Enlightenment"
5. Phillip John Usher, "Afterword"
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
1. Sara Miglietti, "Introduction: The Past and Present of Climate Theories"
2. Dorine Rouiller, "Théorie des climats et cosmopolitisme dans la Sagesse de Pierre Charron"
3. Jean-Olivier Richard, "The Jesuit Who Wanted to Control the Climate: Père Castel and the Religious Roots of the Anthropocene"
4. Jean-Patrice Courtois, "The Climate of the Philosophes during the Enlightenment"
5. Phillip John Usher, "Afterword"
Research Interests: Intellectual History, French Literature, Environmental Philosophy, 17th Century & Early Modern Philosophy, History of Ideas, and 14 moreFrench Studies, Early Modern History, Renaissance Studies, Environmental History, History of Science, Renaissance Philosophy, Enlightenment, Jesuit history, History of Political Thought, Early Modern France, Early Modern Science, History of climate studies, Montesquieu, and Jean Bodin
Introduction to Sara Miglietti and John Morgan (eds). Governing the Environment in the Early Modern World: Theory and Practice. Abingdon and New York: Routledge, 2017, 1-22
Research Interests: Intellectual History, History of Ideas, Early Modern History, History of Medicine, Renaissance Studies, and 13 moreEnvironmental History, Food History, Early Modern England, History of Political Thought, British Imperial and Colonial History (1600 - ), Social History, Ecocriticism, Early Modern France, Classical Reception Studies, Atlantic history, History of climate studies, Spanish American colonial studies, and Climate history
"Governing the Environment in the Early Modern World" explores the relationship between cultural perceptions of the environment and practical attempts at environmental regulation and change between 1500 and 1800. Taking a cultural and... more
"Governing the Environment in the Early Modern World" explores the relationship between cultural perceptions of the environment and practical attempts at environmental regulation and change between 1500 and 1800. Taking a cultural and intellectual approach to early modern environmental governance, this collection combines a fresh interpretative perspective with new insights into a period largely unfamiliar to environmental historians.
In the early modern period, scientific debate and governmental action became increasingly preoccupied with the environment. As this collection shows, discussions spread across Europe and the wider world as to how to improve land and climate for human benefit. Encounters with entirely new contexts in colonial settings and changing local environments in Europe led to the reconsideration of long-held beliefs about the role of climate in upholding the social order, driving economies and affecting public health. The chapters in this volume reveal how in a variety of national and international contexts practical efforts to enhance productive aspects of the environment were both led by and contributed to new conceptualisations of the role of ‘nature’ in human society. ‘Climate theories’ first advanced by ancient authors remained a popular explanatory paradigm throughout the early modern period, shaping social, environmental and public health policies. Yet, as this volume makes clear, the period between 1500 and 1800 was also one of substantial intellectual, scientific, and technological change. New conceptions of nature, climate, and weather were developed, and as the human footprint on Earth grew heavier, regulatory bodies made their first steps towards conservation and sustainable resource management.
By taking a cultural and intellectual approach to early modern environmental history, "Governing the Environment in the Early Modern World" will be of special interest to environmental, cultural and intellectual historians, as well as anyone with an interest in the culture and politics of environmental governance.
CONTENTS:
Foreword - Mike Hulme
Introduction: Ruling "Climates" in the Early Modern World - Sara Miglietti and John Morgan
1.Climate, travel and colonialism in the early modern world - Rebecca Earle
2. Jean Bodin and the idea of anachorism - Richard Spavin
3. Marshes as microclimates: governing with the environment in early modern France - Raphael Morera
4. Mastering North-East England's "river of Tine": efforts to manage a river's flow, functions and form, 1529-c. 1800 - Leona Skelton
5. "Take plow and spade, build and plant and make the waste land fruitful": Gerrard Winstanley and the importance of labour in governing the earth - Ashley Dodsworth
6. Winter and discontent in early modern England - William Cavert
7. "A considerable change of climate": Glacial Retreat and British Policy in the Early-Nineteenth-Century Arctic- Anya Zilberstein
8."Vast factories of febrile poison": wetlands, drainage, and the fate of American climates, 1750-1850 - Anthony Carlson
https://books.google.com/books?id=zSqEDgAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false
In the early modern period, scientific debate and governmental action became increasingly preoccupied with the environment. As this collection shows, discussions spread across Europe and the wider world as to how to improve land and climate for human benefit. Encounters with entirely new contexts in colonial settings and changing local environments in Europe led to the reconsideration of long-held beliefs about the role of climate in upholding the social order, driving economies and affecting public health. The chapters in this volume reveal how in a variety of national and international contexts practical efforts to enhance productive aspects of the environment were both led by and contributed to new conceptualisations of the role of ‘nature’ in human society. ‘Climate theories’ first advanced by ancient authors remained a popular explanatory paradigm throughout the early modern period, shaping social, environmental and public health policies. Yet, as this volume makes clear, the period between 1500 and 1800 was also one of substantial intellectual, scientific, and technological change. New conceptions of nature, climate, and weather were developed, and as the human footprint on Earth grew heavier, regulatory bodies made their first steps towards conservation and sustainable resource management.
By taking a cultural and intellectual approach to early modern environmental history, "Governing the Environment in the Early Modern World" will be of special interest to environmental, cultural and intellectual historians, as well as anyone with an interest in the culture and politics of environmental governance.
CONTENTS:
Foreword - Mike Hulme
Introduction: Ruling "Climates" in the Early Modern World - Sara Miglietti and John Morgan
1.Climate, travel and colonialism in the early modern world - Rebecca Earle
2. Jean Bodin and the idea of anachorism - Richard Spavin
3. Marshes as microclimates: governing with the environment in early modern France - Raphael Morera
4. Mastering North-East England's "river of Tine": efforts to manage a river's flow, functions and form, 1529-c. 1800 - Leona Skelton
5. "Take plow and spade, build and plant and make the waste land fruitful": Gerrard Winstanley and the importance of labour in governing the earth - Ashley Dodsworth
6. Winter and discontent in early modern England - William Cavert
7. "A considerable change of climate": Glacial Retreat and British Policy in the Early-Nineteenth-Century Arctic- Anya Zilberstein
8."Vast factories of febrile poison": wetlands, drainage, and the fate of American climates, 1750-1850 - Anthony Carlson
https://books.google.com/books?id=zSqEDgAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false
Research Interests: Intellectual History, History of Ideas, Climate Change, Early Modern History, Political Ecology, and 10 moreGovernmentality, Environmental Studies, Environmental History, History of Science, Environmental Ethics, Environmental Policy and Governance, British Imperial and Colonial History (1600 - ), History of climate studies, Historical Climatology, and Governmentality Studies
Johann Jakob Scheuchzer’s "De ignis seu caloris certa portione Heluetiae adsignata" (1708) is one of a series of scientific papers that the prominent Swiss physician and naturalist (1672-1733) sent to the Royal Society in the early 1700s.... more
Johann Jakob Scheuchzer’s "De ignis seu caloris certa portione Heluetiae adsignata" (1708) is one of a series of scientific papers that the prominent Swiss physician and naturalist (1672-1733) sent to the Royal Society in the early 1700s. This particular essay provides an original contribution to physico-theological thought. Unlike most natural-theological works, it emphasises the dangers of human intervention in nature. As an early modern thought-experiment on climate warming and its expected consequences on Alpine and European ecosystems, it seems to anticipate modern anxiety on climate change. But it is also, a fine piece of Neo-Latin mountain-writing in the tradition of earlier authors such as Henricus Glareanus (1488-1563) and Conrad Gesner (1516-1565). This article offers the first edition of "De ignis seu caloris certa portione", based on Scheuchzer’s autograph in the Royal Society collections in London. Scheuchzer’s text is accompanied by an English translation, a full textual commentary, a short biography of the author, and an appendix providing the details of Scheuchzer’s papers and letters to the Royal Society for 1703-1708.
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Full text available at: https://www.buffalo.edu/content/dam/www/nemla/NIS/XXXVIII/NeMLAIS16-10-Miglietti.pdf In the early modern period, environmental discourse pervaded multiple disciplinary fields, from medicine to literature, from... more
Full text available at: https://www.buffalo.edu/content/dam/www/nemla/NIS/XXXVIII/NeMLAIS16-10-Miglietti.pdf
In the early modern period, environmental discourse pervaded multiple disciplinary fields, from medicine to literature, from political thought to natural philosophy. It was also fraught with tensions and precarious negotiations between tradition and innovation, as ancient authorities were read and reinterpreted through the lens of new conceptual frameworks. This article draws attention to the shifting methods, aims, and epistemic status of early modern environmental discourse by examining a paradigmatic case study: the dispute over the (alleged) insalubrity of Roman air that took place in Italy from the late sixteenth century to the early eighteenth century, reactivating ancient controversies on the same topic. By focusing on one, particularly influential intervention in this debate--Giovanni Battista Doni’s "De restituenda salubritate agri Romani" (Florence 1667)--the article shows how early modern environmental discourse was made, unmade, and remade at the intersection between an ever-present classical tradition and the changing faces of late-Renaissance scientific culture.
In the early modern period, environmental discourse pervaded multiple disciplinary fields, from medicine to literature, from political thought to natural philosophy. It was also fraught with tensions and precarious negotiations between tradition and innovation, as ancient authorities were read and reinterpreted through the lens of new conceptual frameworks. This article draws attention to the shifting methods, aims, and epistemic status of early modern environmental discourse by examining a paradigmatic case study: the dispute over the (alleged) insalubrity of Roman air that took place in Italy from the late sixteenth century to the early eighteenth century, reactivating ancient controversies on the same topic. By focusing on one, particularly influential intervention in this debate--Giovanni Battista Doni’s "De restituenda salubritate agri Romani" (Florence 1667)--the article shows how early modern environmental discourse was made, unmade, and remade at the intersection between an ever-present classical tradition and the changing faces of late-Renaissance scientific culture.
Research Interests: Intellectual History, Reception Studies, History of Ideas, Italian Studies, History of Medicine, and 10 moreRenaissance Studies, Environmental Studies, Environmental History, Renaissance Philosophy, Early Modern Europe, The Classical Tradition, Early Modern Italy, Classical Reception Studies, Renaissance Italy, and History of Environmental Ideas
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"Reading Publics in Renaissance Europe (1450-1650)" is a collection of essays investigating early modern reading publics in a comparative perspective—spanning two centuries and covering some of the most important areas of cultural... more
"Reading Publics in Renaissance Europe (1450-1650)" is a collection of essays investigating early modern reading publics in a comparative perspective—spanning two centuries and covering some of the most important areas of cultural production in Renaissance Europe, including England, Italy, France, and Spain—and with a special emphasis on the interconnectedness of historical, intellectual, and literary developments. By examining the crucial role that readers and other non-authorial figures (including printers, stationers, translators, and censors) played within early modern processes of intellectual production and transmission, this collection sheds new light on Renaissance textual cultures, their social and cultural contexts, and their relevance for the study of early modern intellectual history. Each of the articles sets out to clarify the forms, strategies, and contexts of early modern readership by identifying concrete networks and communities of readers (sometimes rooted in institutional or semi-institutional milieus, such as academies, ecclesiastic congregations, scientific societies, etc.) and by setting their activity against the backdrop of broader cultural phenomena, including religious censorship, scientific polemics, and transnational communication.
(From Miglietti and Parker, 'Editorial')
(From Miglietti and Parker, 'Editorial')
Research Interests: Intellectual History, Print Culture, Censorship, Reception Studies, Book History, and 15 moreHistory of the Book, Renaissance Studies, History of Science, Manuscript Studies, History of Reading and Writing, Reader Response, Early Modern Literature, History of Scholarship, Early Modern Intellectual History, Renaissance literature, Early Modern print culture, Paratexts, Early Modern Art and Visual Culture, Authoriality and Authorship, and Readership
This essay investigates censorial responses to Jean Bodin’s Methodus (1566) in Counter-Reformation Italy, using evidence from Italian libraries and archives to shed new light on the process that led to the inclusion of the work in the... more
This essay investigates censorial responses to Jean Bodin’s Methodus (1566) in Counter-Reformation Italy, using evidence from Italian libraries and archives to shed new light on the process that led to the inclusion of the work in the Roman Expurgatory Index of 1607. By examining the diverse, and sometimes conflicting, opinions that Catholic censors expressed on Bodin’s text and the ‘errors’ it contained, the essay shows that even a relatively cohesive ‘reading community’ such as that of Counter-Reformation censors could nurture fundamental disagreement in evaluating the content and dangerousness of a book, as well as in devising appropriate countermeasures. Censors often made sense of the same texts in utterly different ways, based not only on their own intellectual interests and backgrounds, but also on the different interpretive strategies that they adopted. In light of this fact, the article suggests that early modern censorship should be seen less as a purely repressive practice than as a peculiar type of readership, characterised (as all forms of readership) by instability, controversy, and active ‘meaning-making’.
Research Interests: Intellectual History, Censorship, Reception Studies, French Studies, Early Modern History, and 13 moreItalian Studies, Renaissance Studies, Hermeneutics, History of Reading and Writing, Reader Response, Early Modern Italy, Renaissance literature, Religious History, Authorship, Jesuits, Counter-Reformation, Jean Bodin, and Readership
From early humanist treatises on city government in Italy to Rousseau’s Social Contract, “greatness” (grandezza, grandeza, grandeur) was often presented as both the aim that political communities should pursue and the touchstone to... more
From early humanist treatises on city government in Italy to Rousseau’s Social Contract, “greatness” (grandezza, grandeza, grandeur) was often presented as both the aim that political communities should pursue and the touchstone to measure their relative success. But what exactly should be understood by “greatness”, and how could it be achieved? Although most authors agreed that it took more than a large territory for a state to be truly “great”, they all seemed to prioritise different things: political liberty, military strength, material wealth, absence of strife, a solid social and political order, or the happiness and overall wellbeing of the citizens. In an age of state- and empire-building, the debate on the nature of political “greatness” raised critical questions and contributed to shaping the agenda and the self-representation of European powers. By concentrating on a few selected thinkers (Machiavelli, Bodin, Botero, Bacon, Burton) whose works form a complex network of mutual influences, this chapter seeks to investigate an exemplary case of unceasing dialogue between the Renaissance and the early modern period.
Research Interests: Intellectual History, Political Philosophy, 17th Century & Early Modern Philosophy, Reception Studies, History of Ideas, and 11 moreRenaissance Studies, Renaissance Philosophy, Early Modern Europe, Francis Bacon, History of Political Thought, Machiavelli, History of Political Ideas, Reason of State from Machiavelli to Botero, Jean Bodin, Robert Burton, and History of Philosophy
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The essay offers a critical overview of Cesare Vasoli’s contribution to the renewal of Bodin studies, focusing on three main aspects: 1) Vasoli’s understanding of Bodin as a rich and complex thinker, irreducible to his juridico-political... more
The essay offers a critical overview of Cesare Vasoli’s contribution to the renewal of Bodin studies, focusing on three main aspects: 1) Vasoli’s understanding of Bodin as a rich and complex thinker, irreducible to his juridico-political theory of sovereignty; 2) his attempt to identify the properly philosophical nucleus of Bodin’s thought, and to situate the latter within a larger intellectual tradition; 3) his emphasis on the internal consistency and ‘harmony’ of Bodin’s thought, of which he particularly stresses the encyclopedic nature. After clarifying Vasoli’s position in the landscape of Bodinian scholarship, the article sheds light on both the merits and the potential limits of his historiographical approach: among the latter, in particular, the risk of overlooking the diachronic dimension of Bodin’s intellectual biography, so rich in shifts, adjustments, and spectacular contradictions.
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The article compares the use that was made of Machiavelli’s thought by some French authors of the 1570s occupying different positions on the political spectrum: the politique Jean Bodin, who upheld absolute sovereignty; and the Huguenot... more
The article compares the use that was made of Machiavelli’s thought by some French authors of the 1570s occupying different positions on the political spectrum: the politique Jean Bodin, who upheld absolute sovereignty; and the Huguenot constitutionalists François Hotman, “Eusebius Philaldelphus” (author of the Reveille-matin) and “Stephanus Junius Brutus” (author of the Vindiciae, contra tyrannos). While the chief goal was for all of them to find a way out of the severe crisis that had been shattering France since the outbreak of the civil wars, these authors put forward different representations of the crisis itself and also suggested different remedies to it. The article argues that competing interpretations of Machiavelli’s thought inspired and reinforced the belief in such different remedies: while the Huguenot constitutionalists called for a renovatio described in terms of a return to the origins, Bodin pursued the ideal of a virtuous and daring prince who, by his bold transformative action, builds on popular favour to govern an unruly aristocracy and carry out necessary reforms.
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In this article, I seek to develop a genetic/diachronic approach to the phenomenon of authorial revision, and to the interpretation of texts that exist in multiple versions. In all such cases, the reconstruction of textual meaning cannot... more
In this article, I seek to develop a genetic/diachronic approach to the phenomenon of authorial revision, and to the interpretation of texts that exist in multiple versions. In all such cases, the reconstruction of textual meaning cannot be separated from the reconstruction of the process through which the text in its ‘final’ form came into being; furthermore, an understanding of the author’s intentions in (re)writing cannot be entirely separated from an understanding of his/her motives for (re)writing. This article is divided into three sections. In the first section, I consider recent trends in editorial and literary theory that aim at characterising texts in terms of processes rather than products, in order to uphold the equal dignity of each version without losing sight of its connectedness to other stages in the history of the text. In the second section, I discuss how Quentin Skinner’s views on meaning and context apply to cases of authorial revision, and I
suggest that some key aspects of Skinner’s contextualism need to be reconsidered. In the concluding section, I focus on a case study in order to demonstrate the operational value of such a genetic and motive-based approach to authorial revision: more particularly, I seek to show how a close examination of Jean Bodin’s rewriting practices in the Methodus (15661572) and the République (1576) can throw new light on his shift from a concept of limited sovereignty to one of absolute sovereignty.
suggest that some key aspects of Skinner’s contextualism need to be reconsidered. In the concluding section, I focus on a case study in order to demonstrate the operational value of such a genetic and motive-based approach to authorial revision: more particularly, I seek to show how a close examination of Jean Bodin’s rewriting practices in the Methodus (15661572) and the République (1576) can throw new light on his shift from a concept of limited sovereignty to one of absolute sovereignty.
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Mancava sia in Italia che in Francia una moderna edizione della Methodus ad facilem historiarum cognitionem che segnalasse le varianti tra le due stampe parigine del 1566 e del 1572. Questo volume presenta ora l’edizione comparata del... more
Mancava sia in Italia che in Francia una moderna edizione della Methodus ad facilem historiarum cognitionem che segnalasse le varianti tra le due stampe parigine del 1566 e del 1572. Questo volume presenta ora l’edizione comparata del testo corredato dall’apparato delle fonti e da un ampio commento, affiancati dalla traduzione italiana. Il lettore ha così a disposizione un’opera che, da un lato, raccoglie la tradizione critica e storiografica precedente a Bodin, dall’altro individua e comincia a sviluppare temi essenziali del pensiero e della cultura dell’Europa moderna.
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In this paper, I seek to reconstruct the reception of Bodin's Methodus in Early Modern Europe, with a particular emphasis on England and Italy. Relying on a large body of fresh evidence yielded by copies of Bodin's Methodus that bear... more
In this paper, I seek to reconstruct the reception of Bodin's Methodus in Early Modern Europe, with a particular emphasis on England and Italy. Relying on a large body of fresh evidence yielded by copies of Bodin's Methodus that bear marginalia, censorial expurgations, ownership marks and so forth, I address the following questions: Who were the readers of the Methodus? In what ways and for what purposes was the work read? What were the institutional contexts of its use, if any?
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This article examines sixteenth-century French "artes historicae" (Bodin, Baudouin) and other texts discussing theories of history-writing (Estienne, Montaigne) to illustrate the renewal in Renaissance France of a historiographical... more
This article examines sixteenth-century French "artes historicae" (Bodin, Baudouin) and other texts discussing theories of history-writing (Estienne, Montaigne) to illustrate the renewal in Renaissance France of a historiographical paradigm originally established by Herodotus, "testimonial history". "Testimonial history" suggests that the perfect historian is as an "eyewitness" carefully reporting all that he sees. The article specifically examines connections between this historiographical model and actual legal practice in Renaissance France, explaining how Renaissance testimonial history differs both from its Herodotean counterpart and from the modern model of the historian as a judge.
Research Interests: Intellectual History, Testimony, 17th Century & Early Modern Philosophy, Empiricism, Rhetoric, and 18 moreHistory of Ideas, Renaissance Studies, Historiography, History of Science, Renaissance Philosophy, Early Modern England, Francis Bacon, Ancient Historiography, Michel de Montaigne, Early Modern France, History of Historiography, Scientific Revolution, History of Rhetoric, Skepticism, Herodotus, Thucydides, and Historiography, Jean Bodin, François Baudouin, and Carlo Ginzburg
Analyse de l'expérience des volontaires italiens de "Giustizia e Libertà" dans la Guerre Civile d'Espagne à travers leurs reportages de guerre, carnets personnels et lettres privées, pour faire ressortir le caractère existentiel et... more
Analyse de l'expérience des volontaires italiens de "Giustizia e Libertà" dans la Guerre Civile d'Espagne à travers leurs reportages de guerre, carnets personnels et lettres privées, pour faire ressortir le caractère existentiel et philosophique de leur militantisme
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Il Fondo antico della Biblioteca della Scuola Normale Superiore. Esposizione di edizioni di pregio dalle raccolte Delio Cantimori e Eugenio Garin (Pisa: Edizioni della Normale, 2008) A cura di: Barbara Allegranti; Arianna Andrei; Lucio... more
Il Fondo antico della Biblioteca della Scuola Normale Superiore. Esposizione di edizioni di pregio dalle raccolte Delio Cantimori e Eugenio Garin (Pisa: Edizioni della Normale, 2008)
A cura di: Barbara Allegranti; Arianna Andrei; Lucio Biasiori;
Carlo Alberto Girotto; Agnese Lorenzini; Sara Miglietti
A cura di: Barbara Allegranti; Arianna Andrei; Lucio Biasiori;
Carlo Alberto Girotto; Agnese Lorenzini; Sara Miglietti
Research Interests: Intellectual History, Early Modern History, Book History, Renaissance Studies, Rare Books and Manuscripts, and 8 moreRenaissance Philosophy, History Of Rare Book Libraries, Early Modern Literature, Renaissance literature, Italian Renaissance literature, Eugenio Garin, Scuola Normale Superiore, and Delio Cantimori
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Sarton Centre research seminars, Ghent, 28 May 2020 (held on Teams)
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Workshop: "Managing Airs and Climates: New Approaches from History and Beyond", Oxford, 26 May 2020 (held on Zoom)
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In a recent article entitled ‘Marginalia and Authorship’ (2016), Heather Jackson has argued for the special value that authors’ marginalia hold for historical and literary analysis. Authors’ annotations in books, Jackson argues, ‘reveal... more
In a recent article entitled ‘Marginalia and Authorship’ (2016), Heather Jackson has argued for the special value that authors’ marginalia hold for historical and literary analysis. Authors’ annotations in books, Jackson argues, ‘reveal something about their mental lives and about the sources of the creative process’. While she admits that ‘all writers of marginalia are to that extent writers’, she still maintains that authors’ annotations should be treated as a separate category, because of the different intention with which authors, as opposed to ‘mere’ annotators, specifically write in their books: ‘In this context, “writer” signifies more specifically “author,” someone whose occupation or aspiration is to write for publication’.
Building on the results of the ‘Archaeology of Reading’ project, this paper will show that early modern annotation practices defy any neat distinction between authorial and non-authorial marginalia. In fact, the paper will invite us to rethink the very adequacy of modern notions of authorship when dealing with early modern annotation – if not, perhaps, with annotation in general.
Building on the results of the ‘Archaeology of Reading’ project, this paper will show that early modern annotation practices defy any neat distinction between authorial and non-authorial marginalia. In fact, the paper will invite us to rethink the very adequacy of modern notions of authorship when dealing with early modern annotation – if not, perhaps, with annotation in general.
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In his groundbreaking studies on John Dee (1527-1608), Nicholas Clulee introduced a concept, that of "active consideration", which he used to examine young Dee's reading interests and their impact on his intellectual development.... more
In his groundbreaking studies on John Dee (1527-1608), Nicholas Clulee introduced a concept, that of "active consideration", which he used to examine young Dee's reading interests and their impact on his intellectual development. Clulee's concept of "active consideration" rests on a sharp distinction between reading and writing. Reading, Clulee seems to suggest, only becomes truly "active" when it leads to some sort of original textual creation. In this view, marginal annotations can only be interpreted as a form of "active consideration" if - and insofar as - they represent a preparatory stage towards the writing of a new text. In this paper, I will suggest that viewing marginalia in this light is doubly misleading: first, because reading is an activity that has value in itself and should not be subordinated to a subsequent act of writing (which may or may not take place); second, because the early modern practice of reading ”pen in hand” can be seen as a specific form of authoriality - different from, but not inferior to, our modern concept of the author as an original creator.
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While the term “Anthropocene” is of relatively recent coinage (Crutzen 2002), the concept of human climatological agency that lies at its core has a long and complex history. In the 4th century BC, the Greek philosopher-botanist... more
While the term “Anthropocene” is of relatively recent coinage (Crutzen 2002), the concept of human climatological agency that lies at its core has a long and complex history. In the 4th century BC, the Greek philosopher-botanist Theophrastus already identified a correlation between deforestation and changes in rainfall patterns. From the late fifteenth century onwards, the reactivation of Theophrastus’ ideas triggered a new generation of studies into how human activities on the land may alter local climates in more or less deliberate (and more or less desirable) ways (Grove 1996). This paper will explore the links between early modern meteorology and the emergence of early ideas of anthropogenic climate change through an examination of manuscript evidence from the archives of the Royal Society. While early Royal Society fellows and affiliates often tackled the question of human agency in and on nature from the perspective of contemporary ideologies of “improvement” (Slack 2015), the paper will show that this early modern discourse of mastery and improvement was not blind to the possible side-effects of man’s environmental intervention. Beginning with the “hortulan” utopias of FRS John Beale and John Evelyn in the mid-seventeenth century (Leslie and Raylor 1992) to conclude with the climatological thought experiments of the Swiss natural historian and FRS Johann Jakob Scheuchzer in the early 1700s (Barton and Miglietti 2015), the paper will show that the environmental reflexivity of early modern scientific networks was in fact much more complex, fraught, and self-scrutinizing than is usually acknowledged.
Research Interests: Intellectual History, 17th Century & Early Modern Philosophy, History of Ideas, Environmental History, History of Science, and 7 moreEarly Modern Europe, Natural philosophy, Intellectual and cultural history, Early Modern Christian Theology, History of climate studies, Physico-Theology, and Johann Jakob Scheuchzer
Contemporary narratives of climate change are almost invariably dominated by an apocalyptic tone: climate change is for us virtually synonymous with global disaster (LEJANO, INGRAM & INGRAM 2013). Not so in the early modern period, when... more
Contemporary narratives of climate change are almost invariably dominated by an apocalyptic tone: climate change is for us virtually synonymous with global disaster (LEJANO, INGRAM & INGRAM 2013). Not so in the early modern period, when climate change (whether real or imagined) was met with a much broader range of emotional responses: fear and uncertainty (e.g., BEHRINGER 1999; BEHRINGER, LEHMANN & PFISTER 2005; MARKLEY 2008; PARKER 2013; but see CAVERT 2017) coexisted alongside an optimistic discourse of human mastery
over climate, which went so far as to theorize anthropogenic climate change as a tool for improving both society and nature (e.g., FLEMING 1998; GROVE 1995; ZILBERSTEIN 2016). This chapter examines three case studies from early modern France, Britain, and Switzerland to shed light on such competing understandings of climate change – as a destabilizing and potentially catastrophic phenomenon on the one hand; and as a natural process that could be mastered and turned to good purpose by human cleverness on the other. While building on previous studies of natural disasters and emotions in early modern Europe (EßER 1997; SPINKS & ZIKA 2016), this chapter turns from single “extreme” natural events to longer-term processes of climate change to ask questions about post-Reformation conceptions of the temporality of nature, the “direction” of history, and the (ir)regularity and (ir)reversibility of natural phenomena, thus casting light on the interplay of science, ideology, religion, and emotion that coloured discussions of and responses to climate change in early modern Europe.
over climate, which went so far as to theorize anthropogenic climate change as a tool for improving both society and nature (e.g., FLEMING 1998; GROVE 1995; ZILBERSTEIN 2016). This chapter examines three case studies from early modern France, Britain, and Switzerland to shed light on such competing understandings of climate change – as a destabilizing and potentially catastrophic phenomenon on the one hand; and as a natural process that could be mastered and turned to good purpose by human cleverness on the other. While building on previous studies of natural disasters and emotions in early modern Europe (EßER 1997; SPINKS & ZIKA 2016), this chapter turns from single “extreme” natural events to longer-term processes of climate change to ask questions about post-Reformation conceptions of the temporality of nature, the “direction” of history, and the (ir)regularity and (ir)reversibility of natural phenomena, thus casting light on the interplay of science, ideology, religion, and emotion that coloured discussions of and responses to climate change in early modern Europe.
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Classics Department Lecture Series, Johns Hopkins University, 12 October 2017, 5:15 PM
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Faculty in Focus research lecture, Johns Hopkins University, 4 October 2017
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In recent years, the phenomenon of self-translation has attracted increasing interest among scholars. In the broadest possible terms, self-translation occurs when “the author of a literary text completed in one language reproduces it a... more
In recent years, the phenomenon of self-translation has attracted increasing interest among scholars. In the broadest possible terms, self-translation occurs when “the author of a literary text completed in one language reproduces it a second language” (Whyte 2002: 64). Complex theoretical issues are intimately involved in the practice of self-translation, ranging from questions of linguistic commensurability and translatability to questions of authorial intentionality. In the Renaissance, self-translation was widespread practice among European authors, with Latin being either the source- or the target-text in a majority of cases. While we can now rely on a number of high-quality case studies (e.g. Árquez and D’Antuono 2012; Deneire 2013; Turchetti 2013), theoretical explorations of Renaissance self-translation are still significantly underdeveloped, particularly when compared to the study of self-translation in contemporary contexts (e.g. Hokenson and Munson 2007; Cordingley 2013). This paper will contribute some thoughts about the forms, functions, and contexts of self-translation in Renaissance France, with a special attention to (traditionally neglected) examples of philosophical and scientific translation as opposed to literary translation proper.
Research Interests: Intellectual History, French Literature, Translation Studies, French Studies, Renaissance Studies, and 10 moreTextual Criticism, Renaissance Philosophy, Early Modern Literature, Renaissance literature, Self-translation, Editorial theory, Early Modern Philosophy, Bilingualism and Multilingualism, Bilingualism, and Authoriality and Authorship
The Second ‘John of Seville Conference’. Warburg Institute, 22-23 June, 2017 Organized by Charles Burnett (Warburg Institute) and Pedro Mantas España (Córdoba Near Eastern Research Unit) Climates and Elements: Man and his Environment in... more
The Second ‘John of Seville Conference’. Warburg Institute, 22-23 June, 2017
Organized by Charles Burnett (Warburg Institute) and Pedro Mantas España (Córdoba Near Eastern Research Unit)
Climates and Elements: Man and his Environment in Western Culture
The concern of man’s relationship with his natural environment is not new. The elements from which the human body is made are the same as the elements in his surroundings, and the events in the sky (whether of the stars or of meteorological phenomena) effect human health, character and well being. Ever since Hippocrates’ Airs, Waters and Places, a strong medical tradition has related human regimen and diet to the seasons of the year and geographical and topographical conditions. Astrological traditions relate different regions and different latitudinal bands (climes) to different human characteristics. There was even the idea that an individual or a society could improve the bad effects of the environment through good conduct. This workshop will take up some of the issues surrounding elements, climates and regions as they are found in philosophical, medical, astrological, and alchemical literature in the Greek, Syriac, Arabic and Latin in late Antique and medieval Western culture.
Organized by Charles Burnett (Warburg Institute) and Pedro Mantas España (Córdoba Near Eastern Research Unit)
Climates and Elements: Man and his Environment in Western Culture
The concern of man’s relationship with his natural environment is not new. The elements from which the human body is made are the same as the elements in his surroundings, and the events in the sky (whether of the stars or of meteorological phenomena) effect human health, character and well being. Ever since Hippocrates’ Airs, Waters and Places, a strong medical tradition has related human regimen and diet to the seasons of the year and geographical and topographical conditions. Astrological traditions relate different regions and different latitudinal bands (climes) to different human characteristics. There was even the idea that an individual or a society could improve the bad effects of the environment through good conduct. This workshop will take up some of the issues surrounding elements, climates and regions as they are found in philosophical, medical, astrological, and alchemical literature in the Greek, Syriac, Arabic and Latin in late Antique and medieval Western culture.
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Paper for international conference "Libraries, Scholarship, & Science at the Crossroads, from Copernicus to Dee, 1490-1610" (Kraków, May 21-25, 2017) co-sponsored by Johns Hopkins University, Singleton Center/Polish Academy of Arts &... more
Paper for international conference "Libraries, Scholarship, & Science at the Crossroads, from Copernicus to Dee, 1490-1610" (Kraków, May 21-25, 2017) co-sponsored by Johns Hopkins University, Singleton Center/Polish Academy of Arts & Sciences
Research Interests: Intellectual History, History of Ideas, French Studies, History of Medicine, Book History, and 15 moreHistory of the Book, Renaissance Studies, History of Science, History of Renaissance Science, Neo-latin literature, History of Scholarship, Republic of Letters (Early Modern History), Elizabethan Literature, History of Reading, John Dee, History of Medicine in Medieval and Early Modern Europe, Marginalia, Reading Practices, Print Culture, Book History and the History of Reading, and Reading practices and marginalia
The practice of translating one’s own works from one language into another was widespread in Renaissance Europe. Thus far, scholarly examinations of Renaissance self-translation have mostly taken the form of isolated case studies, often... more
The practice of translating one’s own works from one language into another was widespread in Renaissance Europe. Thus far, scholarly examinations of Renaissance self-translation have mostly taken the form of isolated case studies, often privileging literary genres such as lyric poetry at the expense of other genres, and only rarely engaging with issues of readership and reception. Moving from an examination of cases of self-translation in various branches of philosophy (including natural philosophy and politics), this paper will propose a tentative conceptual framework for studying Renaissance self-translation as a unified, though not monolithic, phenomenon with deep roots in contemporary practices of authorship and readership. Particular attention will be given to France as a paradigmatic instance of broader European dynamics.
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Was there any such thing as a Renaissance “philosophy of translation” (Norton 1984), and if so, how did it relate to actual translative practice? In recent years, this question has come to the fore as Renaissance translation began to be... more
Was there any such thing as a Renaissance “philosophy of translation” (Norton 1984), and if so, how did it relate to actual translative practice? In recent years, this question has come to the fore as Renaissance translation began to be approached from a more theoretical perspective than had been the case in the past. While answers to this question have varied, most of them have shared a focus on “literary translation” at the expense of “non fiction” (Burke 2007). They have also largely neglected a particular form of translation—self-translation, where the author of a text translates his or her own work into a second language. This paper will consider cases of self-translation in various branches of “philosophy” (including natural philosophy and politics) to reflect on what the study of Renaissance self-translation can teach us about Renaissance philosophies of translation and the practice of translating philosophy in this period.
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Presentation paper for the FISIER roundtable "Reconsidering thought and action in the Renaissance", RSA, Chicago, 2017
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In the early days of European exploration and expansion in the New World, idyllic descriptions of the American environment were, on the one hand, the expression of a certain literary sensibility, built through a centuries-long tradition... more
In the early days of European exploration and expansion in the New World, idyllic descriptions of the American environment were, on the one hand, the expression of a certain literary sensibility, built through a centuries-long tradition and refashioned in this period into a subgenre in its own right—the “American georgics” recently studied by Timothy Sweet (2013). They were also powerful instruments of public persuasion, specifically intended at creating an image of America as “a welcoming and familiar dwelling-place, where acclimatization is no problem and where one can live as in the mother country” (Gerbi 1985). Blending together two classic strategies vis-à-vis “Otherness”—exoticism and domestication—early colonial promotional writings aimed to both intrigue and reassure prospective settlers by representing the colonies at once as utopian destinations and as a “home away from home”. Focusing on a selection of sixteenth-century and early seventeenth-century French and English writings on Florida, Maryland and Virginia, this paper will seek to unpack the two-fold rhetoric that early colonial writers adopted to represent America to their European readers. More particularly, it will shed light on the pivotal, but controversial, role that notions of “familiar” and “ideal” climates played in such representations throughout the early colonial period.
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New York University, NYC
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Research Interests: Renaissance Studies, Environmental Studies, History of Science, Climatology, Astrology, and 8 moreHistory of Astrology, History of Geographic Thought, Early Modern Intellectual History, Philosophy of Science, History of the Philosophy of Science, Epistemology of Experimentation, History of the Human sciences, History of geography, History of climate studies, The Royal Society, and History of Philosophy
In recent years, the phenomenon of self-translation has attracted increasing interest among scholars. In the broadest possible terms, self-translation occurs when “the author of a literary text completed in one language reproduces it a... more
In recent years, the phenomenon of self-translation has attracted increasing interest among scholars. In the broadest possible terms, self-translation occurs when “the author of a literary text completed in one language reproduces it a second language” (Whyte 2002: 64). A number of delicate issues are involved in the practice of self-translation, ranging from questions of linguistic commensurability and translatability to questions of authorial intentionality. In the Renaissance, self-translation was widespread practice among European authors, with Latin being either the source- or the target-text in a majority of cases. While we can now rely on a number of high-quality case studies (see e.g. Árquez and D’Antuono 2012; Deneire 2013; Turchetti 2013), theoretical explorations of Renaissance self-translation are still significantly underdeveloped, particularly when compared to the study of self-translation in contemporary contexts (see e.g. Hokenson and Munson 2007; Cordingley 2013). This paper will contribute some thoughts towards the development of a conceptual framework that may allow us to study Renaissance self-translation as a unified phenomenon, while paying heed to the remarkable variety of its historical manifestations.
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In his 1566 Methodus, Jean Bodin reviewed a number of ancient and modern authors—from Plato to Cardano—who advanced various, and sometimes incompatible, opinions about the influence that climate exerts on human beings. Bodin thus unveiled... more
In his 1566 Methodus, Jean Bodin reviewed a number of ancient and modern authors—from Plato to Cardano—who advanced various, and sometimes incompatible, opinions about the influence that climate exerts on human beings. Bodin thus unveiled the conflicted nature of Renaissance ‘climate theory’, and the simultaneous presence of competing ways of understanding the relationship between man and the physical world. Moving beyond Bodin’s Methodus to consider other significant cases of climatological disagreement in Renaissance Europe (including the famous Cardano-Scaliger polemic), this paper will address the following questions: How did early modern authors make sense of conflicting climatological opinions? What sources did they mobilize as authoritative, and what guided their preference for one authority over another? Did these debates lead to greater uncertainty or rather to the construction of a definitive canon of climatological authorities—and what can they tell us about the epistemological foundations of early modern climatological discourse?
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In the early modern period, environmental discourse pervaded multiple disciplines and genres, from medicine to literature, political thought, and natural philosophy. It also fruitfully blended tradition and innovation, as ancient... more
In the early modern period, environmental discourse pervaded multiple disciplines and genres, from medicine to literature, political thought, and natural philosophy. It also fruitfully blended tradition and innovation, as ancient authorities continued to be read through the lens of new environmental knowledge. In the seventeenth century, however, new controversies began to arise over issues of genre and tradition, reflecting an on-going debate on the method and epistemological status of the “new science”. This paper will investigate the emergence of such issues by considering how the theme of the “salubrity of Roman air” was discussed in Rome between 1581 and 1667. Looking at the texts and paratexts of works produced within or for the Papal court (Petronio, Cagnati, De Neri, Doni), this paper seeks to explore the shifting ties between rhetoric and science in early modern environmental discourse, and to trace the evolution of a new rhetoric of efficacy.
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Why are the Germans such great drinkers and eaters, whereas the Arabs eat sparingly and abstain completely from wine? Why is it that the very same food proves wholesome to some and poisonous to others? In the early modern period, these... more
Why are the Germans such great drinkers and eaters, whereas the Arabs eat sparingly and abstain completely from wine? Why is it that the very same food proves wholesome to some and poisonous to others? In the early modern period, these questions often found an answer in climate theory, a corpus of doctrines of ancient Greek origins which was passed on to the Renaissance chiefly, though not exclusively, through the work of medical writers. According to this tradition, climatic and environmental factors (such as air temperature and rainfall frequency) influence not only the body, but also the character and behaviour of human beings. Different places thus breed different human types, whose ‘temperaments’ react differently to the same things (e.g. wine) and incline to different dietary and moral behaviours (e.g. temperance or incontinence). Yet at the same time Renaissance authors thought that a ‘balancing diet’ could go very far in correcting temperamental excesses and in protecting individuals from the unwanted effects of environmental influence. This paper will show that belief in the balancing power of diet was key to developing a non-deterministic view of climatic influence, and to reminding individuals that the achievement of health and virtue depended less on geographic location than on self-mastery and free will.
Research Interests: Intellectual History, Nutrition and Dietetics, 17th Century & Early Modern Philosophy, History of Ideas, Early Modern History, and 10 moreHistory of Medicine, Renaissance Studies, Environmental Studies, Renaissance Philosophy, Food History, Early Modern Europe, Free Will, Environmental Humanities, Food Studies, and History of Climatology
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Chapter 5 of the Methodus and chapter V.1 of the République are traditionally identified as the main loci of Bodin’s reasoning on the environmental and spatial components of human life. However, perceptive remarks on the interplay between... more
Chapter 5 of the Methodus and chapter V.1 of the République are traditionally identified as the main loci of Bodin’s reasoning on the environmental and spatial components of human life. However, perceptive remarks on the interplay between geography and power, place and community, territory and population, are more widely dispersed throughout his works. In this paper, I shall focus on Bodin’s view of the relationship between territory and population, first by examining his idea of what an ‘ideal’ territory and an ‘ideal’ population should look like, and secondly by analysing his populationist stance on the optimal balance between territorial extension, economic development, and demographic weight. I shall seek to show how Bodin builds on, and at the same time distances himself from, a longstanding tradition of politico-philosophical reflexion on such matters (from Plato to Machiavelli), and how by doing so he sets the terms of further research on these topics by later authors such as the Italian Jesuit Giovanni Botero (author of the Reason of State, the Universal Relations and the Causes of the Greatness and Magnificence of Cities) and the seventeenth-century English demographers. By delving deeper into such aspects of Bodin’s political geography, I hope to situate Bodin’s concern with space and territory at the very heart of his idea of sovereign power.
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Among Cantimori's fundamental contributions to 16th-century religious history were his seminal studies on “nicodemism,” which he defined as the rationally justified practice of religious dissimulation: keeping one's true faith hidden, by... more
Among Cantimori's fundamental contributions to 16th-century religious history were his seminal studies on “nicodemism,” which he defined as the rationally justified practice of religious dissimulation: keeping one's true faith hidden, by means of external conformation to the ceremonies and authorities of the established Church, in order to avoid persecution and martyrdom. Cantimori's groundbreaking research on the subject inspired much further research in the following decades. Although Cantimori mainly focused his attention on the practice and justification of nicodemism in a specific period (the mid-16th century) and area (Italy), he also acknowledged that “nicodemite tendencies” could be found elsewhere and at different dates as well. Many later contributions were made from the standpoint of extending the study of nicodemism beyond the limits that Cantimori had set for his own research (the German Empire in the first decades of the Reformation, France before and during the civil wars, and so forth). Using “nicodemism” as a wider and more comprehensive category obviously raises problems of historical legitimacy and prudence. In this paper, we will first attempt to provide a status quaestionis, considering post-Cantimori scholarship on nicodemism (Rotondò, Ginzburg, Biondi, Eire and others), to then suggest some potentially new perspectives in the field.
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The present dissertation discusses the relationship between cultural constructions of climate and practical attempts at regulating the latter’s perceived influence on human beings in the ‘long’ seventeenth century — a... more
The present dissertation discusses the relationship between cultural constructions of climate and practical attempts at regulating the latter’s perceived influence on human beings in the ‘long’ seventeenth century — a time of crucial historical and intellectual changes. Drawing upon a broad range of printed and manuscript sources written in various languages (including travel accounts, missionary letters, scientific papers, political treatises, and medical writings), the research presented here reconstructs the long-term success of classical ‘climate theories’ and the concrete behaviours that these theories inspired in early modern Europe and the American colonies. By investigating the various strategies that were used to cope with, and capitalize on, the perceived influence of climate, the dissertation challenges common characterizations of climate theory as a form of determinism. After a preliminary chapter about the origins, transmission, and circulation of climate theory in its multiple and conflicting forms, the following chapters each explore a different way of negotiating climatic influence in the ‘long’ seventeenth century, notably diet and lifestyle (Chapter 2), geographical displacement (Chapter 3), and environmental engineering (Chapter 4). The ‘Epilogue’ then briefly looks at post-seventeenth-century developments before drawing some general conclusions about the historical evolution and cultural significance of early-modern climate theories. Situating itself at the intersection of several disciplinary fields (including intellectual history, reception studies, and the history of medicine and science), this dissertation examines, on the one hand, the interplay of environmental ideas and practices in specific historical contexts; and, on the other hand, the acquisition, transmission, and circulation of environmental knowledge at, and across, different socio-cultural levels. It thus raises questions of tradition and innovation, consistency and diversity, ‘learned’ and ‘popular’ culture, investigating the ways in which epistemic paradigms are formed and transformed across time and space.
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The close link between ethics and “literature”, in the wide sense of litterae, is one of the defining features of early modern culture. The emphasis on the good life and on self-cultivation, typical of early modern ethics, required... more
The close link between ethics and “literature”, in the wide sense of litterae, is one of the defining features of early modern culture. The emphasis on the good life and on self-cultivation, typical of early modern ethics, required differentiated sets of genres and readerships, stimulating their readers intellectually, while also involving them emotionally in the process of moral refinement. This workshop will investigate how virtue, language, and learning belonged together. How did literary culture provide guidance in institutional contexts (e.g. language academies and literary societies), through material features (e.g. books as artefacts with their own mediality), literary aspects (e.g. genre and narrative), and philosophical discussions concerning ethical issues in literature and literary topoi in ethics? Furthermore, this workshop will explore the thoroughly European dimension of early modern literary and moral culture: How did key notions, genres, and forms of life circulate in Europe? How were they communicated, and by whom? What role did translations, intermediary figures, and semantic differences in key words play in shaping the development and reception of these debates?
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With the participation of Daniela D'Eugenio, Simon Gilson, Jill Kraye, Ullrich Langer, Micha Lazarus, Valentina Lepri, David Lines, Cecilia Muratori, Eugenio Refini, Matthias Roick, Claudia Rossignoli, Enrica Zanin
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The conference is hosted by the Warburg Institute, but it will take place online. To obtain the Zoom link please register here: https://warburg.sas.ac.uk/events/event/24164 (registration is free)
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Attached is a full programme of the conference.
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With the participation of Daniela D'Eugenio, Simon Gilson, Jill Kraye, Ullrich Langer, Micha Lazarus, Valentina Lepri, David Lines, Cecilia Muratori, Eugenio Refini, Matthias Roick, Claudia Rossignoli, Enrica Zanin
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The conference is hosted by the Warburg Institute, but it will take place online. To obtain the Zoom link please register here: https://warburg.sas.ac.uk/events/event/24164 (registration is free)
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Attached is a full programme of the conference.
Research Interests: Ethics, History of Ethics, History of Ideas, Italian Studies, History of the Book, and 15 moreRenaissance Studies, Renaissance Humanism, Virtue Ethics, Italian Literature, Early Modern Literature, Early Modern Intellectual History, Renaissance literature, Moral Philosophy, Italian Renaissance literature, Aristotelianism, Classical Reception Studies, History of Reading, Aristotle's Rhetoric and Poetics, Early Modern print culture, and History of Philosophy
CFP for a seminar session with *precirculated papers* at the 2020 meeting of the Renaissance Society of America (Philadelphia, 2-4 April 2020). Organizers: David Lines (Warwick) and Sara Miglietti (Warburg) Deadline: 15 August 2019... more
CFP for a seminar session with *precirculated papers* at the 2020 meeting of the Renaissance Society of America (Philadelphia, 2-4 April 2020).
Organizers: David Lines (Warwick) and Sara Miglietti (Warburg)
Deadline: 15 August 2019 (early submissions encouraged)
Organizers: David Lines (Warwick) and Sara Miglietti (Warburg)
Deadline: 15 August 2019 (early submissions encouraged)
Research Interests:
*** Organisers: David Lines (Warwick) & Sara Miglietti (Warburg) *** Speakers: Sietske Fransen, Mario Turchetti, Dario Tessicini, Cecilia Muratori, Jean-Louis Fournel *** Sponsors: Society for French Studies, Society for Renaissance... more
*** Organisers: David Lines (Warwick) & Sara Miglietti (Warburg)
*** Speakers: Sietske Fransen, Mario Turchetti, Dario Tessicini, Cecilia Muratori, Jean-Louis Fournel
*** Sponsors: Society for French Studies, Society for Renaissance Studies, British Society for the History of Science
Self-translation (the practice of translating one’s own works from one language into another) was a widespread phenomenon in early modern Europe, yet one that still remains largely uncharted in modern scholarship. While there have been isolated studies of important figures – mainly literary authors such as Leon Battista Alberti, Joachim Du Bellay or John Donne – we still do not know enough about the activities of self-translators in other domains, including those of philosophy and science.
‘Writing Bilingually in Early Modern Europe’ will begin to fill this gap by investigating the practice of self-translation in fields such as natural and moral philosophy, medicine, politics, and religion. Prominent European thinkers from this period – from Giordano Bruno and Tommaso Campanella to Jean Bodin and Jan Baptist Van Helmont – will be studied comparatively in order to identify similarities and idiosyncrasies in their respective self-translative practices, but also with a view to addressing more general questions:
What functions did self-translation fulfil in creating and disseminating knowledge among different reading publics? To what extent did self-translators engage theoretically with contemporary debates on language (questione della lingua, querelle de la langue)? Why did they translate themselves, for whom, and in what contexts (institutional sites, intellectual networks, economy of the printed book)? And how did self-translating affect the reception of their works?
*** Speakers: Sietske Fransen, Mario Turchetti, Dario Tessicini, Cecilia Muratori, Jean-Louis Fournel
*** Sponsors: Society for French Studies, Society for Renaissance Studies, British Society for the History of Science
Self-translation (the practice of translating one’s own works from one language into another) was a widespread phenomenon in early modern Europe, yet one that still remains largely uncharted in modern scholarship. While there have been isolated studies of important figures – mainly literary authors such as Leon Battista Alberti, Joachim Du Bellay or John Donne – we still do not know enough about the activities of self-translators in other domains, including those of philosophy and science.
‘Writing Bilingually in Early Modern Europe’ will begin to fill this gap by investigating the practice of self-translation in fields such as natural and moral philosophy, medicine, politics, and religion. Prominent European thinkers from this period – from Giordano Bruno and Tommaso Campanella to Jean Bodin and Jan Baptist Van Helmont – will be studied comparatively in order to identify similarities and idiosyncrasies in their respective self-translative practices, but also with a view to addressing more general questions:
What functions did self-translation fulfil in creating and disseminating knowledge among different reading publics? To what extent did self-translators engage theoretically with contemporary debates on language (questione della lingua, querelle de la langue)? Why did they translate themselves, for whom, and in what contexts (institutional sites, intellectual networks, economy of the printed book)? And how did self-translating affect the reception of their works?
Research Interests: Intellectual History, 17th Century & Early Modern Philosophy, History of Ideas, Translation Studies, Renaissance Studies, and 13 moreHistory of Science, Early Modern Europe, History of Political Thought, Renaissance literature, Self-translation, Early Modern Science, Tommaso Campanella, Giordano Bruno, History of Medicine in Medieval and Early Modern Europe, Della Porta Giambattista, Jean Bodin, History of Philosophy, and Medieval and Neolatin Texts
This one-day interdisciplinary conference aims to explore the relationship between cultural perceptions of the environment and practical attempts at environmental regulation and change between 1500 and 1800. In the early modern period,... more
This one-day interdisciplinary conference aims to explore the relationship between cultural perceptions of the environment and practical attempts at environmental regulation and change between 1500 and 1800.
In the early modern period, the environment became a privileged locus of scientific debate and governmental action. Discussions spread across Europe and its colonies as to how to improve the land, and possibly even the climate of a given place; practical efforts were made to enhance the healthiness, productivity, and overall pleasantness of the environment (both natural and built) in the belief that environmental ‘improvement’, as it was then called, would immediately bring about human improvement—a larger, healthier, happier population that would make the country more powerful. Such debates and practices were driven by a persistent belief in the influence that landscape, weather and climate would exert on human beings, both at a physical and a spiritual level. ‘Climate theories’—first advanced by ancient authors such as Hippocrates, Plato, Aristotle and Ptolemy—remained a popular explanatory paradigm throughout the early modern period, actively dictating trends in environmental management, social governance, and the administration of both private and public health, as well as shaping colonial attitudes to foreign climates and peoples. Yet the period between 1500 and 1800 was also one of substantial intellectual, scientific, and technological change in which new conceptions of nature, climate, and weather were developed. The human footprint on Earth grew heavier, whilst the first moves towards conservation and sustainable resource management were made. Finally, it was in this period that changing climatic patterns were observed for the first time, partly because of a cooling trend that reached its peak around 1650 (the so-called Little Ice Age).
‘Ruling Climate’ aims to investigate this complex of problems in an interdisciplinary fashion, focusing particularly on three central research questions:
1) continuities and discrepancies between ancient and early modern climate theories: how were classical theories of climatic influence received and adjusted to new contexts in the early modern period? How did the understanding of climate itself change over time?
2) climate theories and ‘eco-governmentality’: how did climatological ideas inspire and sustain governmental efforts of various kinds, at both a domestic and a colonial level? e.g. the displacement of populations, environmental planning in connection to public health issues, engineering works, choice of specific sites for new colonies, etc.
3) governed with climate / governing climate: what is the relationship between theories of climatic influence and the development of strategies to cope with / modify climate and the environment? e.g. through agricultural improvement, increased human settlement, draining of bogs and marshes, deforestation, etc.
We welcome abstracts for 20-minute papers from PhD students and scholars at any stage in their career. Papers from all disciplinary backgrounds are welcome, including environmental history, colonial history, intellectual history, history of philosophy, history of medicine, history of science, history of political thought, history of technology. Please send a 200-word abstract (including your name, institutional affiliation and a provisional title) and a one-page CV to rulingclimate@gmail.com by 10 December 2014. Successful speakers will be notified in January 2015.
In the early modern period, the environment became a privileged locus of scientific debate and governmental action. Discussions spread across Europe and its colonies as to how to improve the land, and possibly even the climate of a given place; practical efforts were made to enhance the healthiness, productivity, and overall pleasantness of the environment (both natural and built) in the belief that environmental ‘improvement’, as it was then called, would immediately bring about human improvement—a larger, healthier, happier population that would make the country more powerful. Such debates and practices were driven by a persistent belief in the influence that landscape, weather and climate would exert on human beings, both at a physical and a spiritual level. ‘Climate theories’—first advanced by ancient authors such as Hippocrates, Plato, Aristotle and Ptolemy—remained a popular explanatory paradigm throughout the early modern period, actively dictating trends in environmental management, social governance, and the administration of both private and public health, as well as shaping colonial attitudes to foreign climates and peoples. Yet the period between 1500 and 1800 was also one of substantial intellectual, scientific, and technological change in which new conceptions of nature, climate, and weather were developed. The human footprint on Earth grew heavier, whilst the first moves towards conservation and sustainable resource management were made. Finally, it was in this period that changing climatic patterns were observed for the first time, partly because of a cooling trend that reached its peak around 1650 (the so-called Little Ice Age).
‘Ruling Climate’ aims to investigate this complex of problems in an interdisciplinary fashion, focusing particularly on three central research questions:
1) continuities and discrepancies between ancient and early modern climate theories: how were classical theories of climatic influence received and adjusted to new contexts in the early modern period? How did the understanding of climate itself change over time?
2) climate theories and ‘eco-governmentality’: how did climatological ideas inspire and sustain governmental efforts of various kinds, at both a domestic and a colonial level? e.g. the displacement of populations, environmental planning in connection to public health issues, engineering works, choice of specific sites for new colonies, etc.
3) governed with climate / governing climate: what is the relationship between theories of climatic influence and the development of strategies to cope with / modify climate and the environment? e.g. through agricultural improvement, increased human settlement, draining of bogs and marshes, deforestation, etc.
We welcome abstracts for 20-minute papers from PhD students and scholars at any stage in their career. Papers from all disciplinary backgrounds are welcome, including environmental history, colonial history, intellectual history, history of philosophy, history of medicine, history of science, history of political thought, history of technology. Please send a 200-word abstract (including your name, institutional affiliation and a provisional title) and a one-page CV to rulingclimate@gmail.com by 10 December 2014. Successful speakers will be notified in January 2015.
Research Interests: Environmental Engineering, Intellectual History, Environmental Philosophy, History of Ideas, Early Modern History, and 12 moreHistory of Medicine, Renaissance Studies, Governmentality, Environmental Studies, History of Technology, Environmental History, History of Science, Early Modern Europe, History of Political Thought, Early Modern Intellectual History, Intellectual and cultural history, and Colonial Studies
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For more info and to register: https://warburg.sas.ac.uk/events/remembering-michael-jb-allen-1941-2023 Join us on Zoom on Wednesday 7 June to celebrate the life and work of the late Michael J.B. Allen, a most distinguished Renaissance... more
For more info and to register: https://warburg.sas.ac.uk/events/remembering-michael-jb-allen-1941-2023
Join us on Zoom on Wednesday 7 June to celebrate the life and work of the late Michael J.B. Allen, a most distinguished Renaissance scholar and friend of the Warburg, who passed away on 25 February 2023.
A small panel of invited speakers will share what Michael’s scholarship, friendship, and example meant to them, followed by further contributions and questions from the audience. Speakers include Tamara Albertini, Brian Copenhaver, James Hankins, Douglas Hedley, Stephen Gersh, John Monfasani and Valery Rees.
Organized by Sara Miglietti (Warburg Institute) and Valery Rees (School of Philosophy and Economic Science)
Join us on Zoom on Wednesday 7 June to celebrate the life and work of the late Michael J.B. Allen, a most distinguished Renaissance scholar and friend of the Warburg, who passed away on 25 February 2023.
A small panel of invited speakers will share what Michael’s scholarship, friendship, and example meant to them, followed by further contributions and questions from the audience. Speakers include Tamara Albertini, Brian Copenhaver, James Hankins, Douglas Hedley, Stephen Gersh, John Monfasani and Valery Rees.
Organized by Sara Miglietti (Warburg Institute) and Valery Rees (School of Philosophy and Economic Science)
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Seminar session at RSA 2020
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"Governing the Environment in the Early Modern World: Theory and Practice", ed. Sara Miglietti and John Morgan, Routledge 2017 *** Throughout the early modern period, scientific... more
"Governing the Environment in the Early Modern World: Theory and Practice", ed. Sara Miglietti and John Morgan, Routledge 2017
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Throughout the early modern period, scientific debate and governmental action became increasingly preoccupied with the environment, generating discussion across Europe and the wider world as to how to improve land and climate for human benefit. This discourse eventually promoted the reconsideration of long-held beliefs about the role of climate in upholding the social order, driving economies and affecting public health.
"Governing the Environment in the Early Modern World" explores the relationship between cultural perceptions of the environment and practical attempts at environmental regulation and change between 1500 and 1800. Taking a cultural and intellectual approach to early modern environmental governance, this edited collection combines an interpretative perspective with new insights into a period largely unfamiliar to environmental historians. Using a rich and multifaceted narrative, this book offers an understanding as to how efforts to enhance productive aspects of the environment were both led by and contributed to new conceptualisations of the role of ‘nature’ in human society.
This book offers a cultural and intellectual approach to early modern environmental history and will be of special interest to environmental, cultural and intellectual historians, as well as anyone with an interest in the culture and politics of environmental governance.
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Foreword Mike Hulme Introduction Sara Miglietti and John Morgan 1.Climate, travel and colonialism in the early modern world - Rebecca Earle 2. Jean Bodin and the idea of anachorism Richard Spavin 3. Marshes as microclimate: governing with the environment in early modern France Raphael Morera 4. Mastering north-east England's "River of Tine": efforts to manage a rvier's flow, functions and form 1529-c.1800 Leona Skelton 5. "Take plow and spade, build and plant and make the waste land fruitful": Gerrard Winstanley and the importance of labour Ashley Dodsworth 6. Winter and discontent in early modern England - William Cavert 7. “A considerable change of climate”: glacial retreat and British policy in the early-nineteenth-century Arctic - Anya Zilberstein 8."Vast factories of febrile poison": wetlands, drainage, and the fate of American climates, 1750-1850 - Anthony Carlson
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Sara Miglietti is an Assistant Professor of French Studies at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, USA.
John Morgan is an environmental and social historian, and a Lecturer in Early Modern History at the University of Manchester, UK.
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Throughout the early modern period, scientific debate and governmental action became increasingly preoccupied with the environment, generating discussion across Europe and the wider world as to how to improve land and climate for human benefit. This discourse eventually promoted the reconsideration of long-held beliefs about the role of climate in upholding the social order, driving economies and affecting public health.
"Governing the Environment in the Early Modern World" explores the relationship between cultural perceptions of the environment and practical attempts at environmental regulation and change between 1500 and 1800. Taking a cultural and intellectual approach to early modern environmental governance, this edited collection combines an interpretative perspective with new insights into a period largely unfamiliar to environmental historians. Using a rich and multifaceted narrative, this book offers an understanding as to how efforts to enhance productive aspects of the environment were both led by and contributed to new conceptualisations of the role of ‘nature’ in human society.
This book offers a cultural and intellectual approach to early modern environmental history and will be of special interest to environmental, cultural and intellectual historians, as well as anyone with an interest in the culture and politics of environmental governance.
***
Foreword Mike Hulme Introduction Sara Miglietti and John Morgan 1.Climate, travel and colonialism in the early modern world - Rebecca Earle 2. Jean Bodin and the idea of anachorism Richard Spavin 3. Marshes as microclimate: governing with the environment in early modern France Raphael Morera 4. Mastering north-east England's "River of Tine": efforts to manage a rvier's flow, functions and form 1529-c.1800 Leona Skelton 5. "Take plow and spade, build and plant and make the waste land fruitful": Gerrard Winstanley and the importance of labour Ashley Dodsworth 6. Winter and discontent in early modern England - William Cavert 7. “A considerable change of climate”: glacial retreat and British policy in the early-nineteenth-century Arctic - Anya Zilberstein 8."Vast factories of febrile poison": wetlands, drainage, and the fate of American climates, 1750-1850 - Anthony Carlson
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Sara Miglietti is an Assistant Professor of French Studies at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, USA.
John Morgan is an environmental and social historian, and a Lecturer in Early Modern History at the University of Manchester, UK.
Research Interests: American History, History of Science and Technology, Intellectual History, Environmental Philosophy, History of Ideas, and 15 moreLatin American and Caribbean History, History of Medicine, Renaissance Studies, Environmental Studies, Environmental History, History of Science, Renaissance Philosophy, Enlightenment, Early Modern Europe, History of Political Thought, Ecocriticism, Biopolitics, Environmental Humanities, Atlantic history, and History of Environmental Ideas
A tweet and image archive of the conference "Ruling Climate. The Theory and Practice of Environmental Governmentality 1500-1800", University of Warwick, 16 May 2015
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Research Interests: History of Science and Technology, 17th Century & Early Modern Philosophy, Early Modern History, Renaissance Studies, Governmentality, and 9 moreEnvironmental History, History of Science, Michel Foucault, History of Political Thought, British Imperial and Colonial History (1600 - ), Early Modern Intellectual History, Environmental Humanities, Atlantic history, and Colonial Latin American History
Registration is open until noon (GMT time) on 11 May 2015 for the interdisciplinary conference "Ruling Climate: The Theory and Practice of Environmental Governmentality 1500-1800" (University of Warwick, 16 May 2015). Register online:... more
Registration is open until noon (GMT time) on 11 May 2015 for the interdisciplinary conference "Ruling Climate: The Theory and Practice of Environmental Governmentality 1500-1800" (University of Warwick, 16 May 2015).
Register online: http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/hrc/confs/rc/
The organisers would like to acknowledge the generous support of the British Society for the History of Science, Warwick's Humanities Research Centre, Warwick's Centre for the Study of the Renaissance, and the Research Student Skills Programme.
Conference programme:
9.30 – 09.55 Registration, tea and coffee (Graduate Space, 4th Floor, Humanities)
9.55 – 10.00 Sara Olivia Miglietti (Centre for the Study of the Renaissance, Warwick) and John Morgan (History, Warwick). Welcome and opening address (H545, 4th Floor, Humanities)
10.00 – 10.45 Keynote address: Franz Mauelshagen (KWI Essen and Rachel Carson Center, Munich), The Birth of Climatology from the Spirit of the “Esprit des lois”
10.45 – 11.00 Discussion
11.00 – 11.15 Tea and coffee (Graduate Space)
SESSION 1: Between Old and New: Thinking Environmental Influence in the Early Modern Period
11.15 – 11.35 Richard Spavin (Queen’s University Belfast), Jean Bodin and the idea of “anachorism”
11.35 – 11.55 Michael Hill (Georgetown University), The Tropics in Seventeenth-Century English Libraries
11.55 – 12.15 William Cavert (The University of St. Thomas), Winter and Discontent in Early Modern England
12.15 – 12.35 Sundar Henny (University of Basel), The temperature of Homer’s brain: Climate and genius in eighteenth century anthropology
12.35 – 12.50 Discussion
12.50 – 13.45 Lunch (Graduate Space)
13.45 – 14.30 Keynote address: Rebecca Earle (History, University of Warwick), Climate, Travel and Colonialism in the Early Modern World
14.30 – 14.45 Discussion
14.45 – 15.00 Tea and coffee (Graduate Space)
SESSION 2: The Empire of Climate: Environmental Management in the Early Modern Period
15.00 – 15.20 Raphaël Morera (Centre national de la recherche scientifique/Centre de Recherches Historiques de l'Ouest), Marshes as microclimate. Governing with the environment in Early Modern France
15.20 – 15.40 Leona Skelton (University of Bristol), ‘Tinkering with the River of Tine’: Attempts to Control the Climate’s Impact on the River Tyne’s Flow, Functions and Form, 1530-1800
15.40 – 16.00 Anthony Carlson (School of Advanced Military Studies), “A Diversity of Latitudes and Climates”: Soggy North America and the Climate Crisis of the 1790s
16.00 – 16.20 Arianne Urus (New York University), Salty Sea Air and the Strength of Empires: From Fishermen to Sailors in the Eighteenth-Century North Atlantic
16.20 – 16.35 Discussion
16.35 – 16.45 Comfort break
16.45 – 17.30 Roundtable and closing remarks
17.30 – 18.30 Wine reception and buffet (Graduate Space)
Register online: http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/hrc/confs/rc/
The organisers would like to acknowledge the generous support of the British Society for the History of Science, Warwick's Humanities Research Centre, Warwick's Centre for the Study of the Renaissance, and the Research Student Skills Programme.
Conference programme:
9.30 – 09.55 Registration, tea and coffee (Graduate Space, 4th Floor, Humanities)
9.55 – 10.00 Sara Olivia Miglietti (Centre for the Study of the Renaissance, Warwick) and John Morgan (History, Warwick). Welcome and opening address (H545, 4th Floor, Humanities)
10.00 – 10.45 Keynote address: Franz Mauelshagen (KWI Essen and Rachel Carson Center, Munich), The Birth of Climatology from the Spirit of the “Esprit des lois”
10.45 – 11.00 Discussion
11.00 – 11.15 Tea and coffee (Graduate Space)
SESSION 1: Between Old and New: Thinking Environmental Influence in the Early Modern Period
11.15 – 11.35 Richard Spavin (Queen’s University Belfast), Jean Bodin and the idea of “anachorism”
11.35 – 11.55 Michael Hill (Georgetown University), The Tropics in Seventeenth-Century English Libraries
11.55 – 12.15 William Cavert (The University of St. Thomas), Winter and Discontent in Early Modern England
12.15 – 12.35 Sundar Henny (University of Basel), The temperature of Homer’s brain: Climate and genius in eighteenth century anthropology
12.35 – 12.50 Discussion
12.50 – 13.45 Lunch (Graduate Space)
13.45 – 14.30 Keynote address: Rebecca Earle (History, University of Warwick), Climate, Travel and Colonialism in the Early Modern World
14.30 – 14.45 Discussion
14.45 – 15.00 Tea and coffee (Graduate Space)
SESSION 2: The Empire of Climate: Environmental Management in the Early Modern Period
15.00 – 15.20 Raphaël Morera (Centre national de la recherche scientifique/Centre de Recherches Historiques de l'Ouest), Marshes as microclimate. Governing with the environment in Early Modern France
15.20 – 15.40 Leona Skelton (University of Bristol), ‘Tinkering with the River of Tine’: Attempts to Control the Climate’s Impact on the River Tyne’s Flow, Functions and Form, 1530-1800
15.40 – 16.00 Anthony Carlson (School of Advanced Military Studies), “A Diversity of Latitudes and Climates”: Soggy North America and the Climate Crisis of the 1790s
16.00 – 16.20 Arianne Urus (New York University), Salty Sea Air and the Strength of Empires: From Fishermen to Sailors in the Eighteenth-Century North Atlantic
16.20 – 16.35 Discussion
16.35 – 16.45 Comfort break
16.45 – 17.30 Roundtable and closing remarks
17.30 – 18.30 Wine reception and buffet (Graduate Space)
Research Interests: History of Science and Technology, Intellectual History, 17th Century & Early Modern Philosophy, Reception Studies, History of Ideas, and 13 moreClimate Change, Early Modern History, History of Medicine, Environmental History, History of Science, Colonialism, Early Modern Europe, Environmental Ethics, History of Political Thought, British Imperial and Colonial History (1600 - ), History of Colonial Mexico, Environmental Humanities, and Atlantic history
Organizers: Dr William Barton (Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Neo-Latin Studies) Dr Sara Olivia Miglietti (University of Warwick) This panel, or series of panels, aims to investigate the forms and strategies of authorial translation in... more
Organizers: Dr William Barton (Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Neo-Latin Studies) Dr Sara Olivia Miglietti (University of Warwick)
This panel, or series of panels, aims to investigate the forms and strategies of authorial translation in the long Renaissance (c. 1350-1650). By ‘authorial translation’ we intend to designate a constellation of practices ranging from self- translation proper (see e.g. Cordingley 2013, Deneire 2013, Turchetti 2013, Turchetti 2015) to the activity of ‘“strong” translators who placed their own unmistakable imprint on the works they translated’ (Bernofsky 2005:x). In the latter sense, authorial translation is not necessarily defined ‘by the translator being an author in his own right, but by his active shaping of the translated text in a particular direction’ (ibid.). By encouraging reflection on this theme, we aim to draw attention to a crucial, though still understudied, aspect of Renaissance culture, and to establish a dialogue between intellectual historians, linguists, and literary theorists concerning the character of Renaissance translation practices.
In recent decades, the ‘translation turn’ that has thoroughly reshaped literary and cultural studies by transforming translation from a ‘thing to be taught’ into a ‘thing to be studied’ (Bassnett and Lefevere 1990) has also brought into focus the importance of translation as a pivotal aspect of Renaissance culture. Renaissance translation has thereafter been investigated as a humanistic practice allowing dissemination of ancient texts and knowledge, and—more often than not— carried out under controversial theoretical guidelines (see e.g. Botley 2004); as a catalyst of transnational and/or cross-cultural communication and ‘hybridization’ (see e.g. Burke 2005, Burke and Po-chia Hsia 2007, and William Pettigrew’s on-going AHRC project on ‘Cultural Hybridisation and Early Modern Globalisation’); as a social practice defined by specific material and historical circumstances (see e.g. Pérez Fernández and Wilson-Lee 2014); and as a key contributor to the refashioning of Latin and to the development of national vernacular languages in Renaissance Europe (see e.g. Melehy 2010, Thurn 2012, Deneire 2014).
While studies such as these have greatly advanced our knowledge of the forms and strategies of Renaissance translation, as well as of the social and biographical profiles of Renaissance translators (see e.g. recent studies of John Florio by Pfister 2005, Pirillo 2013), substantial work still remains to be done in order to clarify the complex relationship between translation and authorship throughout the late medieval and early modern period—a time that witnessed profound transformations to the very notion of ‘author’ (see Brunn 2001). By focusing on the theory and practice of Renaissance authorial translation, we hope to contribute, on the one hand, to our knowledge of Renaissance translation practices, and, more broadly, to the on-going theoretical debate about the nexus between translation and authorship (see e.g. Venuti 2008 and Pym 2010).
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
We welcome abstracts for 20-minute presentations on the following themes:
- authorial translation: definition and case studies
- self-translation: forms, strategies, related issues (linguistic: Latin and vernacular, bilingualism, linguistic choice and the expressive potentialities of different languages, etc.; social and cultural: intended audiences, impact of censorship, etc.; literary: authorial revision, rewriting, authorial intention, etc.)
- supervised translation: status and case studies
- traducteur/traditeur: translation as a form of rewriting/authorship
Please send a 150-word abstract and a 300-word curriculum vitae to s.o.miglietti@warwick.ac.uk by 15 May 2015 (sample CVs are available on the RSA website: http://www.rsa.org/?page=submissionguidelines).
PLEASE NOTE that the RSA requires that all abstracts include a title, keywords, and do not exceed 150 words. Unfortunately, we will not be able to accept abstracts that do not conform to these norms.
This panel, or series of panels, aims to investigate the forms and strategies of authorial translation in the long Renaissance (c. 1350-1650). By ‘authorial translation’ we intend to designate a constellation of practices ranging from self- translation proper (see e.g. Cordingley 2013, Deneire 2013, Turchetti 2013, Turchetti 2015) to the activity of ‘“strong” translators who placed their own unmistakable imprint on the works they translated’ (Bernofsky 2005:x). In the latter sense, authorial translation is not necessarily defined ‘by the translator being an author in his own right, but by his active shaping of the translated text in a particular direction’ (ibid.). By encouraging reflection on this theme, we aim to draw attention to a crucial, though still understudied, aspect of Renaissance culture, and to establish a dialogue between intellectual historians, linguists, and literary theorists concerning the character of Renaissance translation practices.
In recent decades, the ‘translation turn’ that has thoroughly reshaped literary and cultural studies by transforming translation from a ‘thing to be taught’ into a ‘thing to be studied’ (Bassnett and Lefevere 1990) has also brought into focus the importance of translation as a pivotal aspect of Renaissance culture. Renaissance translation has thereafter been investigated as a humanistic practice allowing dissemination of ancient texts and knowledge, and—more often than not— carried out under controversial theoretical guidelines (see e.g. Botley 2004); as a catalyst of transnational and/or cross-cultural communication and ‘hybridization’ (see e.g. Burke 2005, Burke and Po-chia Hsia 2007, and William Pettigrew’s on-going AHRC project on ‘Cultural Hybridisation and Early Modern Globalisation’); as a social practice defined by specific material and historical circumstances (see e.g. Pérez Fernández and Wilson-Lee 2014); and as a key contributor to the refashioning of Latin and to the development of national vernacular languages in Renaissance Europe (see e.g. Melehy 2010, Thurn 2012, Deneire 2014).
While studies such as these have greatly advanced our knowledge of the forms and strategies of Renaissance translation, as well as of the social and biographical profiles of Renaissance translators (see e.g. recent studies of John Florio by Pfister 2005, Pirillo 2013), substantial work still remains to be done in order to clarify the complex relationship between translation and authorship throughout the late medieval and early modern period—a time that witnessed profound transformations to the very notion of ‘author’ (see Brunn 2001). By focusing on the theory and practice of Renaissance authorial translation, we hope to contribute, on the one hand, to our knowledge of Renaissance translation practices, and, more broadly, to the on-going theoretical debate about the nexus between translation and authorship (see e.g. Venuti 2008 and Pym 2010).
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
We welcome abstracts for 20-minute presentations on the following themes:
- authorial translation: definition and case studies
- self-translation: forms, strategies, related issues (linguistic: Latin and vernacular, bilingualism, linguistic choice and the expressive potentialities of different languages, etc.; social and cultural: intended audiences, impact of censorship, etc.; literary: authorial revision, rewriting, authorial intention, etc.)
- supervised translation: status and case studies
- traducteur/traditeur: translation as a form of rewriting/authorship
Please send a 150-word abstract and a 300-word curriculum vitae to s.o.miglietti@warwick.ac.uk by 15 May 2015 (sample CVs are available on the RSA website: http://www.rsa.org/?page=submissionguidelines).
PLEASE NOTE that the RSA requires that all abstracts include a title, keywords, and do not exceed 150 words. Unfortunately, we will not be able to accept abstracts that do not conform to these norms.
Research Interests: Intellectual History, Comparative Literature, Translation Studies, Medieval Literature, Multilingualism, and 14 moreRenaissance Studies, Translation theory, Genetic Criticism (Genetic Criticism), Early Modern Literature, Renaissance literature, Self-translation, Book History (History), Authorship, Vernacular, Bilingualism and Multilingualism, Histoire du livre, Traduction, Critique Génétique, and Medieval and Neolatin Texts
Registration open for: "RULING CLIMATE: THE THEORY AND PRACTICE OF ENVIRONMENTAL GOVERNMENTALITY 1500-1800" A one-day interdisciplinary conference at the University of Warwick, 16 May 2015... more
Registration open for:
"RULING CLIMATE: THE THEORY AND PRACTICE OF ENVIRONMENTAL GOVERNMENTALITY 1500-1800"
A one-day interdisciplinary conference at the University of Warwick, 16 May 2015
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/hrc/confs/rc
'Ruling Climate' aims to explore the relationship between cultural perceptions of the environment and practical attempts at environmental regulation and change between 1500 and 1800. The conference is focussed around three main themes:
1) continuities and discrepancies between ancient and early modern climate theories: how were classical theories of climatic influence received and adjusted in the early modern period? How did the understanding of climate itself change over time?
2) the political significance of climate theories: how did theories of climatic influence inspire and sustain governmental efforts of various kinds, in domestic and colonial contexts? (eg. population displacement, environmental planning and public health, engineering works, siting new colonies, etc.)
3) governed by climate/governing climate: what is the relationship between theories of climatic influence and the development of strategies to cope with/modify climate and the environment? (eg. through agricultural improvement, increased human settlement, drainage, deforestation, etc.)
Organised by Sara Miglietti (Renaissance) and John Morgan (History), with generous support from Warwick's Humanities Research Centre, the Research Student Skills Programme, and the British Society for the History of Science.
For further info and online registration: http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/hrc/confs/rc
"RULING CLIMATE: THE THEORY AND PRACTICE OF ENVIRONMENTAL GOVERNMENTALITY 1500-1800"
A one-day interdisciplinary conference at the University of Warwick, 16 May 2015
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/hrc/confs/rc
'Ruling Climate' aims to explore the relationship between cultural perceptions of the environment and practical attempts at environmental regulation and change between 1500 and 1800. The conference is focussed around three main themes:
1) continuities and discrepancies between ancient and early modern climate theories: how were classical theories of climatic influence received and adjusted in the early modern period? How did the understanding of climate itself change over time?
2) the political significance of climate theories: how did theories of climatic influence inspire and sustain governmental efforts of various kinds, in domestic and colonial contexts? (eg. population displacement, environmental planning and public health, engineering works, siting new colonies, etc.)
3) governed by climate/governing climate: what is the relationship between theories of climatic influence and the development of strategies to cope with/modify climate and the environment? (eg. through agricultural improvement, increased human settlement, drainage, deforestation, etc.)
Organised by Sara Miglietti (Renaissance) and John Morgan (History), with generous support from Warwick's Humanities Research Centre, the Research Student Skills Programme, and the British Society for the History of Science.
For further info and online registration: http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/hrc/confs/rc
Research Interests: History of Science and Technology, Intellectual History, Cultural History, History of Ideas, History of Medicine, and 15 moreRenaissance Studies, Political Ecology, Environmental History, History of Science, Climatology, Renaissance Philosophy, Colonialism, Early Modern Europe, History of Political Thought, British Imperial and Colonial History (1600 - ), History of Meteorology, History of climate studies, Enviromental Studies, Colonial Latin American History, and Governmentality Studies
The studentship covers university fees and an annual £18,000 maintenance stipend for a maximum of three years. Both home and international students are eligible to apply. For info and to apply:... more
The studentship covers university fees and an annual £18,000 maintenance stipend for a maximum of three years. Both home and international students are eligible to apply.
For info and to apply: https://warburg.sas.ac.uk/news/3-year-phd-studentship-within-leverhulme-funded-project-writing-bilingually-1465-1700
For info and to apply: https://warburg.sas.ac.uk/news/3-year-phd-studentship-within-leverhulme-funded-project-writing-bilingually-1465-1700
Research Interests: Intellectual History, Print Culture, History of Ideas, Translation Studies, French Studies, and 13 moreItalian Studies, Book History, Renaissance Studies, Renaissance Humanism, Italian Renaissance literature, History of French language, History of Italian Language, Fifteenth and Sixteenth century culture, Neolatin Literature, Questione della lingua, History of Philosophy, Latino Umanistico E Neolatino, and Medieval and Neolatin Texts
The Warburg Institute is seeking a Research Assistant (full-time, 36 months) to conduct research on the Leverhulme-funded project “Writing Bilingually, 1465-1700: Self-Translated Books in Italy and France” (Principal Investigator: Dr Sara... more
The Warburg Institute is seeking a Research Assistant (full-time, 36 months) to conduct research on the Leverhulme-funded project “Writing Bilingually, 1465-1700: Self-Translated Books in Italy and France” (Principal Investigator: Dr Sara Miglietti). Candidates must have a PhD in hand by the start of the project, in a field relevant to its remit (such as Italian Studies, Renaissance Studies, History, Classics).
Closing date: midnight on 17 October 2022.
For more info and to apply see: https://warburg.sas.ac.uk/news/job-opportunity-post-doctoral-researcher
Closing date: midnight on 17 October 2022.
For more info and to apply see: https://warburg.sas.ac.uk/news/job-opportunity-post-doctoral-researcher
Research Interests: Print Culture, History of Ideas, Translation Studies, Italian Studies, Book History, and 12 moreHistory of the Book, Renaissance Studies, Translation History, Early Modern Intellectual History, Self-translation, Early Modern print culture, Bilingualism and Multilingualism, Neolatin Literature, Renaissance Italy, Umanesimo E Rinascimento Volgarizzamenti, History of Philosophy, and Latino Umanistico E Neolatino
Join us for the official release of the "Writing Bilingually" database, a collection of self-translated books produced in Italy and France from the early age of print to the end of the seventeenth century. Self-translation (the practice... more
Join us for the official release of the "Writing Bilingually" database, a collection of self-translated books produced in Italy and France from the early age of print to the end of the seventeenth century. Self-translation (the practice of translating one's own works) offers a unique vantage to study the multilingual dimension of early modern European culture, where classical languages coexisted in fruitful symbiosis with modern vernaculars. Writers self-translated across different languages to reach wider readerships while showcasing linguistic mastery and retaining control over their work. In so doing they often revised their original source-texts, whether to adapt them to a different intended public or for other reasons. From Leon Battista Alberti’s "On Painting" to John Calvin's "Institutes of the Christian Religion", many important works from this period exist in different (but equally authorial) language versions, which should be studied together like panels of the same diptych. But self-translation was not confined to "great books" and "major figures": it occurred across the whole spectrum of textual production, from ephemera such as prognostications and funeral orations to travel accounts and surgery textbooks.
Featuring findings from an ongoing project funded by the Leverhulme Trust, the "Writing Bilingually" database currently contains c. 350 works in 2 or more language versions, with more expected to be added in the coming months. This Work-in-Progress seminar will mark the official public release of the project database, and will include a practical demonstration of its key functionalities.
ATTENDANCE FREE IN PERSON OR ONLINE WITH ADVANCE BOOKING
Featuring findings from an ongoing project funded by the Leverhulme Trust, the "Writing Bilingually" database currently contains c. 350 works in 2 or more language versions, with more expected to be added in the coming months. This Work-in-Progress seminar will mark the official public release of the project database, and will include a practical demonstration of its key functionalities.
ATTENDANCE FREE IN PERSON OR ONLINE WITH ADVANCE BOOKING