Early Modern Circle
Convenors:
Julie Davies - daviesja@unimelb.edu.au
Catherine Kovesi – c.kovesi@unimelb.edu.au
Jenny Spinks - jspinks@unimelb.edu.au
The Early Modern Circle is an informal, interdisciplinary seminar group open to interested students, academics and researchers. Drinks are provided and a gold coin donation helps to make this possible.
The group meets at 6:15 on the third Monday of the month, unless noted otherwise below.
To be added to the mailing list, please email Andrew Stephenson - andrewws@ unimelb.edu.au.
Programme for 2012
Wednesday 29 February
South Lecture Theatre (room 224), first floor, Old Arts
Andrea di Robilant
From Venice to Greenland: The Medieval Voyages of the Zen Brothers to the North Atlantic
Andrea di Robilant, a journalist for La Stampa in Rome, is the highly successful author of A Venetian Affair and Lucia: A Venetian Life in the Age of Napoleon. This seminar will focus on his latest book Venetian Navigators: The Voyages of the Zen Brothers to the Far North (Faber and Faber 2011).
12 March
North Theatre, Old Arts (Room 239)
Professor James Walvin, University of York
The Zong Massacre and the Problems of Historical Reflection
In 1781 a British slave ship, the Zong, left West Africa carrying 442 Africans, arriving in Jamaica with only 208. Many had died in the crossing, but 132 had been thrown overboard by the crew, whose aim was to claim for the Africans on the ship’s insurance. But why should the crew deliberately kill people they intended to sell for a profit? And what transformed an ordinary group of sailors into mass-murderers? There has been a recent and expansive interdisciplinary literature inspired by the history of genocide and mass killings. In the process, scholars have turned their attention to the concept of ‘evil’ as a historical force: What is it, what brings it about, what makes ordinary people do terrible deeds? Can historians begin to rethink Atlantic slavery in the context of this debate? And what do we learn from the example of one single slave ship, the Zong in 1781-1783?
23 April
North Theatre, Old Arts (Room 239)
Professor Randall Albury, University of New England
Multiple Audiences in and for Castiglione’s Book of the Courtier
The Book of the Courtier is a complex work addressed to multiple audiences, both within and outside the text, and it conveys different messages to each group. Failure to appreciate this point accounts for the view which many critics have formed, incorrectly I argue, that the text is characterized by a fundamental ‘indeterminacy’ or ‘dialogic openness’. Who, then, are these multiple audiences?
The book is aimed firstly at the general literate public, to whom it presents literary entertainment and a memorialization of the court of Urbino at the peak of its refinement. Secondly, it addresses actual and aspirant members of courts (including princes as well as courtiers), setting out a model of courtly conduct in both the personal and the professional sense, together with advice about survival and advancement in the court environment. Finally, it seeks to attract the attention of a small group of careful readers who will exert themselves judiciously to uncover a more veiled meaning within the text.
These three cohorts comprise the ‘external’ audiences to which the text as a work of literature is addressed. But the actions described within the text are also addressed to multiple ‘internal’ audiences, again three in number: the principal courtiers of Urbino, both male and female; a group of frequent male visitors to the court; and another group of male visitors from the papal court who are in attendance only because of unique circumstances. The presentation will consider the textual evidence for the treatment of these audiences as distinct groups to whom different messages are addressed, and will then outline some of the consequences of this approach for the interpretation of The Book of the Courtier.
21 May
North Theatre, Old Arts (Room 239)
Professor Keith Hutchison, The University of Melbourne
An Angel's View of Heaven: The Mystical Cosmology of Pintorichhio's 1503 “Coronation of the Virgin”
Although Galileo's defence of Copernican heliocentricity is one of the classic loci for illustrating the tension that sometimes arises between science and religion, it is a strange (but relatively unknown) fact the heliocentricity emerges in religious contexts before it is popularised by early modern astronomers. It can often be found in the background to religious paintings, like Botticelli's late 15c depiction of Dante's arrival in heaven, or Pintoricchio's early 16c 'Coronation of the Virgin'. After demonstrating this rather trivial fact; my talk will sketch a tentative answer to the obvious question: What is going on in these depictions? I will be observing that the cosmology at issue is very different from that revived by Copernicus. The sun in these pictures is not the material sun, but its immaterial prototype -- something far grander, and a traditional figure for God. Its centrality is in heaven (itself the prototype of the material world) and modelled on that of the celestial pole, another traditional location for the seat of divinity. Yet the depictions may well be revealing a belief that the material universe had a heliocentric design, even if that design was not achieved, perhaps as a consequence of some ancient catastrophe (like the Fall).
Download a pdf version of this abstract with images included.
18 June
Old Arts, room 209
Professor Dale Kent, The University of Melbourne
Cosimo de’ Medici’s autorità over Florentine Citizens and Foreign Friends
Contemporaries often described Cosimo de Medici's power as “autorità,” an elusive attribute that distinguished him by comparison with other influential citizens of the Florentine republic. This paper will argue that he enjoyed autorità largely because he exemplified the patronage practices and patriarchal ideals that structured his society and framed personal relationships within it. It will explore the expression of his autorità in the advisory councils to the city's governing magistracy and in his relations with Francesco Sforza, his closest foreign ally and Duke of Milan.
20 August
Old Arts, room 209
Professor Trevor Burnard, The University of Melbourne
The Population Principle in the Early Modern British Empire, 1660-1776
17 September
Old Arts, room 209
Professor John Griffiths, The University of Melbourne
The Prehistory of the Vihuela: 15th-century Images, Documents and Extrapolations
15 October
Old Arts, room 209
Julie Robarts, The University of Melbourne
Margherita Costa (1600-1664) and the Medici: Singer, Poet and Courtesan
19 November
Old Arts, room 209
Dr Veronique Duché, Dr Andrea Rizzi, Dr Vicente Pérez de León and Professor John Griffiths, The University of Melbourne
Translating Authorship in Early Modern Europe: Case Studies and Tentative Conclusions
This paper discusses the complex practices and understandings of authorship inthe translation and circulation of early modern European literary texts and music (1450-1650). To date, little work has been carried out on early modern authorship and translation. Translation is understood here as intertextual, intragenre or interlinguistic rewriting of texts across cultures and societies. Through the discussion of three case studies from Italian, French and Spanish literature and music, the presenters reveal the translatability and ubiquitousness of authorship in early modern Europe.