Greetings! This list announces talks in the greater Boston area pertaining to the study of
the early modern period ca. 1450-1750, in any discipline and with any regional
specialization. Please forward announcements, in the format requested at the end of this
message, and e-mail addresses to: earlymod(a)fas.harvard.edu.
If you do not wish to be on this list, please reply to that effect. Many thanks to those
who contributed to this effort.
* indicates a newly announced event
** indicates an updated or corrected event
UPCOMING EVENTS IN EARLY MODERN STUDIES
Tuesday, March 20, 2018, 12:00-1:30 pm
Early Sciences Working Group (ESWG)
“The ‘Catholic Cook’ and ‘Natural Transubstantiation’: Theologies of Nutrition in
Seventeenth-Century French Medicine”
Julia Reed (Harvard, History of Science)
Room 252, Science Center, Harvard University, 1 Oxford Street, Cambridge MA
Lunch will be served. Please RSVP here <https://goo.gl/forms/vhScARAQ4xE8wN8s1> to
receive a copy of the pre-circulated paper.
**Tues March 20 – time to be announced
Brown University Medieval & Early Modern History Seminar (MEMHS)
“Natural History in the ‘Aztec Encyclopedia’, c. 1576.”
Iris Montero Sobrevilla, Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in the Humanities (Brown University)
Pavilion Room, Department of History, Brown University, 79 Brown St., Providence, RI
Please note that there is a pre-circulated paper, which has been posted at:
https://blogs.brown.edu/memhs/
Please send an email to maria_sokolova(a)BROWN.EDU to receive the password to open the
paper.
**Postponed!Thursday, March 22, 4pm
Thursday, March 29, 4-6pm
Arthur F. Kinney Renaissance Center: Five College Seminar in Book History
“Popol Vuh: Latin America’s Book of Creation”
Ilan Stavans, Amherst College
The Arthur F. Kinney Center for Interdisciplinary Renaissance Studies, 650 East Pleasant
Street, Amherst, MA 01002
Reception to follow. Lecture free; $10 donation requested for a reception following the
lecture.
Friday, March 23, 4-6pm
De Bosis Colloquium in Italian Studies 2018, Harvard University
“Eros Visible: Art, Sexuality and Antiquity in Renaissance Italy (Yale University Press).”
IN ENGLISH.
James G. Turner (University of California, Berkeley), respondent: Luca Politi, second
respondent: Amelia Linsky.
Boylston Hall, Room 403, Harvard Yard
More information:
https://debosiscolloquium.wordpress.com/program/
Monday, March 26, 4–6 pm
Early Modern History Workshop, Harvard
"Francesco Pecorini’s Letter in Arabic to Francesco Redi (Florence, 1667)—an exercise
in microhistory and world philology"
Pier Mattia Tommasino (Columbia University)
Robinson Hall, Basement Seminar Room, Harvard Yard
*Tuesday, March 27, 3:30p.m.
University of Massachusetts Boston Department of Modern Languages, Literatures, and
Cultures
Lecture, "Wine Over Water: Wine Culture in Medieval Italian Literature"
Danielle Callegari, UC Davis
Campus Center 3545, 100 William T. Morrissey Blvd., UMB, Boston, MA
A discussion of the socially constructed values of wine in the late Italian Middle Ages
tracked through literary examples.
No RSVP required; for questions, please contact Shannon McHugh
(shannon.mchugh@umb.edu<mailto:shannon.mchugh@umb.edu>)
Wednesday, March 28, 4pm
Arthur F. Kinney Renaissance Center: Wednesdays @ 4 Lecture Series
“Insects in the Renaissance”
Brian Ogilvie, UMass
The Arthur F. Kinney Center for Interdisciplinary Renaissance Studies, 650 East Pleasant
Street, Amherst, MA 01002
Refreshments co-sponsored by the Amherst Woman’s Club
*Thursday, March 29, 6:00 pm
2018 Gordon R. Willey Lecture and Reception. Free and open to the public. Presented by
Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology.
“Teotihuacan and the Making of a World
City<https://www.peabody.harvard.edu/Teotihuacan-and-the-Making-of-a-Wor…
Deborah L. Nichols, William J. Bryant 1925 Professor of Anthropology; Chair, Latin
America, Latino, and Caribbean Studies, Department of Anthropology, Dartmouth College
Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford Street. Free event parking at 52 Oxford Street
Garage<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.google.c…ekKczU01iI0EPOegOKM&e=>.
This event will be livestreamed on the Harvard Museums of Science & Culture Facebook
page<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.facebook.c…7-r9v4U85TIxywpxy0Y&e=>.
A recording of this program will be available on our YouTube
channel<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.youtube…
approximately three weeks after the lecture.
In the first century CE, Teotihuacan became the capital of the area known today as Central
Mexico. The city grew to include 100,000 people, drawing immigrants from Western Mexico,
the Valley of Oaxaca, Veracruz, and the Maya region. Deborah Nichols will discuss how
Teotihuacan became the largest and most influential city in Mexico and Central America;
how it maintained this position for 500 years through diplomacy, pilgrimages, military
incursions, and commerce; why modern scholars consider it a “world city”; and what
challenges exist in advancing an understanding of its legacy.
Monday, April 2, 5-7pm
De Bosis Colloquium in Italian Studies 2018, Harvard University
“Malleable Anatomies: Models, Makers, and Material Culture in Eighteenth-Century Italy
(Oxford University Press).”
IN ENGLISH.
Lucia Dacome (University of Toronto), respondent: Valentina Frasisti, second respondent:
TBA.
Boylston Hall, Room 403, Harvard Yard
More information:
https://debosiscolloquium.wordpress.com/program/
Wednesday, April 4, 4:30pm
Harvard Renaissance Colloquium
"New Histories of the Blackfriars Playhouse"
Lucy Munro (King's College London)
Room 114, Barker Center, Harvard, 12 Quincy Street, Cambridge MA
Co-sponsored with the Harvard Theater and Performance Colloquium
*Wednesday, April 4, 2018, 6pm-7pm
Lecture, “Deciphering Rome”
Professor Joseph Connors, Department of History of Art and Architecture, Harvard
University
Harvard Art Museums, 32 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA
Professor Joseph Connors will explore the origins of the historic Renaissance center of
Rome and its links to the papacy.
Website URL:
https://www.harvardartmuseums.org/visit/calendar/deciphering-rome
Thursday, April 5, 2018, 5:30 pm
Women & Culture in the Early Modern World, Mahindra Humanities Seminar, Harvard
University, Co-Chairs: Diana Henderson and Marina Leslie
“Women and Witnessing: Reading Rape and Reformation in Spenser’s Faerie Queene”
Stephanie Bahr, Department of English, Hamilton College
Room 133, Barker Center, 12 Quincy St., Cambridge, MA 02138
http://mahindrahumanities.fas.harvard.edu/content/women-and-culture-early-m…
Thursday, April 5, 2018, 4: 30pm
Arthur F. Kinney Center for Interdisciplinary Studies
Five College Renaissance Seminars
"Of Keepers and Stewards, or the Princely Business of a Northern Renaissance
Court"
Jeun Cho, History Dept. Amherst College
The Arthur F. Kinney Center for Interdisciplinary Renaissance Studies, 650 East Pleasant
Street, Amherst, MA 01002
Friday, April 6, 2018, 9 am - 6 pm
Fairfield University Art Museum
Symposium: "Art of the Gesù: Bernini and His Age"
Barone Campus Center, Oak Room, Fairfield University, 1073 North Benson Rd, Fairfield,
CT
Free and open to public; reception to follow; for registration and further info:
https://www.fairfield.edu/museum/gesu/
April 6-8, 2018
Conference: Interdisciplinary Approaches to the Study of Healing Charms and Medicine
Harvard, Barker Center, 12 Quincy St, Cambridge MA
Website:
https://harvardcharmsandmedicine.wordpress.com<https://urldefense.proofp…
Monday, April 9, 2018 - 6:00pm
Eighteen Century Studies, Mahindra Humanities Seminar, Harvard University
“Materiality, Text and Image: What is Enlightened and Romantic Travel Literature?”
John Brewer, California Institute of Technology
Room 133, Barker Center, 12 Quincy St., Cambridge, MA 02138
More information:
http://mahindrahumanities.fas.harvard.edu/content/eighteenth-century-studies
Monday, April 9, 5-7pm
De Bosis Colloquium in Italian Studies 2018, Harvard University
“Animation, Plasticity, and Music in Italy, 1770-1830 (University of California Press).”
IN ENGLISH.
Ellen Lockhart (University of Toronto), respondent: Amelia Linsky, second respondent:
Francesco Guzzetti.
Boylston Hall, Room 403, Harvard Yard
More information:
https://debosiscolloquium.wordpress.com/program/
*Monday, 9 April 2018, 5:00 PM
Sponsored by the Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Islamic Studies Program, Center for the Study
of World Religions, and Mahindra Humanities Center Medieval Studies Seminar, Harvard
University.
Lecture: “Female Sultan/Female Pope, Shajar and the Mamluk Origins of Pope Joan”
Benjamin Braude, Associate Professor of History, Boston College
CGIS South (1730 Cambridge Street), Cambridge MA 02138, Room S354, Harvard University.
Additional Info: From roughly the mid thirteenth to the mid-sixteenth centuries,
Christians in the Latin West believed that a cross-dressing woman had been elected pope
and that to avoid a repetition of the scandal the masculinity of popes was inspected.
Tues April 10, 4-6pm
Early Modern History Workshop, Harvard
"Apes, Slaves, and Global Markets: Boundaries of Humanity in Enlightenment
Debates"
Silvia Sebastiani (EHESS, Paris)
Goldman Room, Center for European Studies, 27 Kirkland St, Cambridge
*Apr 10, 2018, 6:00 pm
Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology, Harvard University
Lecture: “Eduardo Matos Moctezuma Discovers Himself: Excavations of the Great Aztec
Temple” (in Spanish, with English Translation)
Eduardo Matos Moctezuma, Professor Emeritus, National School of Anthropology and History,
Mexico
Geological Lecture Hall, Harvard University, 24 Oxford Street, Cambridge
The 1978 discovery of the Great Aztec Temple in downtown Mexico City riveted the
international archaeological world. This monumental shrine dedicated to the Aztec war and
rain gods had been buried beneath the city’s main plaza since the sixteenth-century
Spanish conquest. More information:
https://www.peabody.harvard.edu/Eduardo-Matos-Moctezuma-Discovers-Himself
**Wed April 11, 5:30pm
Brown University
The 38th William F. Church Memorial Lecture
“Luther, Manhood and Pugilism.”
Lyndal Roper (Regius Professor of History, Oxford)
Smith-Buonanno Hall 106, Brown University, 95 Cushing St., Providence, RI
A reception will follow the lecture. More Information at
https://blogs.brown.edu/memhs/
Thursday, April 12, 3pm
Boston College, Institute for Advanced Jesuit Studies
"Jesuit Missionaries in China"
Elisa Frei (Institute for Advanced Jesuit Studies) and Eugenio Menegon (BC)
Boston College, 140 Commonwealth Avenue, Simboli Hall, Chestnut Hill, MA 02467
At a colloquium hosted with Burns Library, Institute Fellow Elisa Frei and Affiliated
Scholar Eugenio Menegon present their research on the motivations and experiences of the
early Jesuit missionaries in China. Contact the Institute with any questions; invitations
are forthcoming (iajs(a)bc.edu).
Friday, April 13, 2018, 12pm
Brown University Medieval & Early Modern History Seminar
“Trans-Imperial Archives: Rethinking Spatial Knowledge Production in the Venetian-Ottoman
Borderlands”
Natalie Rothman, Associate Professor of History, University of Toronto
Brown University, Department of Italian Studies, 190 Hope Street, room 102, Providence
RI
Wednesday, April 18, 2018 – 4:30-6:15pm
Wesleyan Renaissance Seminar
Seminar, “Images of Oblivious Memory: Ritual Lament from Ancient Greece to El Greco”
Felipe Pereda, Fernando Zóbel de Ayala Professor of Spanish Art, Harvard University
Boger Hall 113, Wesleyan University, 41 Wyllys Ave, Middletown, CT 06457
The seminars are entirely devoted to discussion of previously circulated papers. For a
copy of this paper please contact Esther Moran by email at emmoran(a)wesleyan.edu
http://rensem.site.wesleyan.edu/
*Thursday, April 19, 5:30pm
John Carter Brown Library: Vasco da Gama Lecture
“Navigation and Narrative: The Epic Seas of Luís de Camões”
Josiah Blackmore (Harvard)
MacMillan Reading Room, John Carter Brown Library, 94 George Street, Providence RI
Reception to follow. RSVP to jcb-events(a)brown.edu not necessary but appreciated.
More
Information<https://www.brown.edu/academics/libraries/john-carter-brown/…
Thursday, April 19, 5-7pm
De Bosis Colloquium in Italian Studies 2018, Harvard University
“Measured Words: Computation and Writing in Renaissance Italy (University of Toronto
Press).” IN ENGLISH.
Arielle Saiber (Bowdoin College); respondent: Sarah Axelrod, second respondent: Corrado
Confalonieri.
Boylston Hall, Room 403, Harvard Yard
More information:
https://debosiscolloquium.wordpress.com/program/
**April 23, 25, 27, 2018 4-6pm
The Robert P Benedict Lectures on the History of Political Philosophy
"Thomas Hobbes on History, Politics, and Philosophy"
Kinch Hoekstra (UC Berkeley)
Boston University, Barrister's Hall, 765 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, MA 02215
For more information see
https://sites.bu.edu/benedict/
Monday, April 23, lunchtime
Harvard Renaissance Colloquium
Lunchtime Discussion of "How to Theorize the World: An Early Modern Manifesto"
Ayesha Ramachandran (Yale University)
Room TBD, Barker Center, Harvard, 12 Quincy St, Cambridge
Tuesday, April 24, 12-1:30 pm
Early Sciences Working Group (ESWG)
Ardeta Gjikola (Harvard, History of Science): “Who is an Expert in Taste?”
Room 259, Science Center, Harvard University, 1 Oxford Street, Cambridge MA
Lunch will be served. Please RSVP here <https://goo.gl/forms/vhScARAQ4xE8wN8s1> to
receive a copy of the pre-circulated paper.
Thursday, April 26, 4pm
Arthur F. Kinney Center for Interdisciplinary Studies
Dan S. Collins Memorial Lecture
Katherine Eggert, University of Colorado Boulder organized by the English Literary
Renaissance Journal
The Arthur F. Kinney Center for Interdisciplinary Renaissance Studies, 650 East Pleasant
Street, Amherst, MA 01002
Reception to follow.
Thursday, April 26, 2018 5:00–6:30 p.m.
Boston College, The Early Americas Seminar
"Spaces of Property in Colonial North America"
Allan Greer, McGill University
Room 101, Devlin Hall, Boston College, 140 Commonwealth Avenue, Chestnut Hill, MA 02467
Thursday, April 26, 5pm
Harvard Renaissance Colloquium
"Babbling Bishops and 'Scurvy Jack-Dog Priests': Representing the Clergy in
Early English Drama"
Jay Zysk (University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth)
Room 114, Barker Center, Harvard, 12 Quincy St, Cambridge MA
Co-sponsored with the Harvard Medieval Colloquium
Friday, April 27, 2018, 12:00–1:30 p.m.
Boston College, The Early Americas Seminar
Seminar Discussion: Land
Boston College, 10 Stone Ave, Room 201, Chestnut Hill, MA 02467
Registration required:
http://www.bc.edu/centers/ila/events/early-americas.html
Friday, April 27, 2018, 5:45 pm Reception, 6:15 pm Seminar
Shakespearean Studies Seminar, Mahindra Humanities Center, Harvard University, Co-Chairs:
William C. Carroll and Coppelia Kahn.
Talk Title TBA
Paul Kottman, New School for Social Research
Room 133, Barker Center, 12 Quincy St., Cambridge, MA 02138
http://mahindrahumanities.fas.harvard.edu/content/shakespearean-studies
Monday, April 30, 5:15pm
Harvard Renaissance Colloquium
Title TBD
Elizabeth Samet (West Point)
Room 114, Barker Center, Harvard, 12 Quincy St, Cambridge MA
Monday, April 30, 2018, 6:30-8 pm.
Boston College Heinz Bluhm Memorial Lecture Series
"The Coming of the Italian Baroque to America: The Case of the Metropolitan
Museum"
Andrea Bayer, Wrightsman Curator of European Paintings, Metropolitan Museum of Art
Boston College, 140 Comm Ave, Chestnut Hill, MA, Devlin Hall 101
Reception to follow. No RSVP necessary.
For further info: Franco Mormando (mormando(a)bc.edu)
http://events.bc.edu/event/andrea_bayer_the_coming_of_the_italian_baroque_t…
*Cancelled Event: Monday May 7: A workshop on “Religion and the printed image in the 16th
century” Featuring prof Olivier Christin (Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Paris and
Université de Neuchâtel). details TBA.
*If you would like to request that your announcement be posted in an upcoming Early Mod
Events e-mail:
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* Event must take place in the greater Boston area.
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