Centre for Renaissance and Early Modern Studies

Centre for Renaissance and Early Modern Studies
Name	Centre for Renaissance and Early Modern Studies
Established	2000s
Type	Research institute
Focus	Renaissance studies; Early Modern studies
Location	University campus

Centre for Renaissance and Early Modern Studies is an interdisciplinary research centre dedicated to the study of the Renaissance and Early Modern periods. It brings together scholars working on figures such as William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe, Miguel de Cervantes, Michelangelo, and Niccolò Machiavelli alongside specialists in political, religious, and cultural change tied to events like the Reformation, Counter-Reformation, and the Thirty Years' War. The centre promotes comparative work across languages and regions, engaging with archives associated with Vatican Library, Bodleian Library, British Library, Bibliothèque nationale de France, and Archivio di Stato di Venezia.

History

The centre was founded amid a wave of institutional consolidation that echoed initiatives at institutions such as University of Oxford, University of Cambridge, King's College London, University College London, and University of Edinburgh. Early directors drew on scholarship influenced by figures like Jacob Burckhardt, Ernst Kantorowicz, E. H. Gombrich, Frances Yates, and Stephen Greenblatt and engaged debates shaped by events such as the French Revolution and the English Civil War. Its archival collaborations recalled major cataloguing efforts at Harvard University, Yale University, Columbia University, and Princeton University, and benefited from grants modelled on awards from the Leverhulme Trust, Arts and Humanities Research Council, and European Research Council.

Mission and Research Focus

The centre’s mission foregrounds textual, material, and visual culture across regions including Italy, Spain, France, England, the Holy Roman Empire, and the Ottoman Empire. Research themes include authorship studies for figures like Ben Jonson, John Donne, Lope de Vega, Torquato Tasso, and Petrarch; print culture associated with Aldus Manutius and William Caxton; diplomatic history involving envoys to Constantinople and embassies to Muscovy; and intellectual networks linked to Nicolaus Copernicus, Galileo Galilei, Johannes Kepler, René Descartes, and Francis Bacon. The centre emphasizes connections to visual artists such as Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Sandro Botticelli, Titian, and Caravaggio, and to religious figures including Martin Luther, John Calvin, Ignatius of Loyola, and Teresa of Ávila.

Academic Programs and Teaching

Teaching spans undergraduate modules, postgraduate seminars, and doctoral training aligned with models at Sorbonne University, Bologna University, University of Salamanca, Humboldt University of Berlin, and Princeton Theological Seminary. Courses cover archival palaeography used in collections like State Archives of Florence and Archivo General de Indias, theatre studies referencing Globe Theatre and Commedia dell'arte, and manuscript studies dealing with codices such as Codex Leicester. Graduate supervision engages with comparative literatures exemplified by Molière, Rabelais, Aphra Behn, Mary Sidney, Góngora, and Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz and with legal histories tied to Corpus Juris Civilis and treaties such as Treaty of Tordesillas.

Research Projects and Publications

Major projects have addressed topics from book history tied to printers like Christophe Plantin to cartography associated with Gerardus Mercator and Abraham Ortelius, and from diplomatic correspondence linked to Cardinal Wolsey to economic networks involving Medici family led enterprises. Edited volumes and journals draw on editorial practices exemplified by Oxford World's Classics, Cambridge University Press, Routledge, Brepols, and Brill. The centre produces monographs on authors such as Thomas More, Edmund Spenser, Gérard de Nerval, and John Milton and critical editions referencing projects like the Folger Shakespeare Library edition and the Saintsbury tradition. Grants have followed schemes similar to those of the British Academy and collaborations mirror projects at the Max Planck Institute.

Collaborations and Partnerships

The centre maintains partnerships with cultural institutions including the Victoria and Albert Museum, National Library of Scotland, Tate Britain, Museo Nazionale del Bargello, and the Uffizi Gallery. Academic alliances extend to networks at University of Warwick, University of York, University of St Andrews, University of Manchester, and Trinity College Dublin as well as international links with Yale University Press editorial projects, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton University, and research consortia like the European University Institute. Public humanities initiatives involve museums such as the Ashmolean Museum and festivals like the Cheltenham Literature Festival.

Facilities and Resources

The centre provides seminar rooms, research clusters, and digitisation labs for projects modeled on the Digital Humanities infrastructures at King's Digital Lab and uses imaging equipment compatible with standards at the British Library's Imaging Services. Manuscript access facilitates study of items from collections including the Sforza Archives, Habsburg Collections, and private holdings once associated with families like the Medici family and the Hohenzollern. The library holdings draw on catalogues from JSTOR-hosted journals and specialist databases paralleling resources at Bibliothèque de l'Institut de France.

Notable Staff and Alumni

Faculty and alumni include scholars whose research intersects with names such as Stephen Greenblatt, Lisa Jardine, Patrick Collinson, Christopher Haigh, Peter Burke, Jonathan Bate, Nicholas Boyle, Ewan Fernie, Marjorie Levinson, Margo Todd, R. J. Knecht, David Scott Kastan, Julie Crawford, John Dover Wilson, Helen Hackett, Alistair Fox, Gillian Wright, Anthony Grafton, Alain Touraine, Carlo Ginzburg, Natalie Zemon Davis, Robert Darnton, Janet Todd, Susan Doran, Julia Bolton Holloway, Andrew Hadfield, and Sharon Achinstein. Alumni have taken posts at institutions including King's College London, University of Cambridge, University of Oxford, University of California, Berkeley, Stanford University, University of Toronto, McGill University, Australian National University, University of Melbourne, and museums such as the British Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Category:Research institutes