Costume history has become more interesting in recent years. What people wore and why, what was thought about it, and how it was recorded are matters with repercussions not only for theatrical designers, but more broadly, for anthropologists, art historians, cultural historians, and scholars of book history.
We are delighted
to have the chance to explore this field with Ann Rosalind Jones,
the Esther Cloudman Dunn Professor of Comparative Literature at Smith College.
She co-authored (with Peter Stallybrass) Renaissance Clothing and the
Materials of Memory (Cambridge UP, 2000), which juxtaposed material
and literary culture to analyse the links between what people in early modern
Europe wore, and who they thought they were.
Professor Jones is currently researching 16th- century costume books and their woodcut illustrations of clothing from Europe, Turkey, Asia, Africa, and the New World. She will give two lectures while she is in Toronto. Students and scholars interested in booking a private meeting may do so by contacting Kim Yates at the CRRS at (416) 585-4484 or by email.
21 March 2006 at 4:00 p.m.
“Exhibiting Others: Early Modern Costume Books in France and Italy”
23 March 2006 at 4:00 p.m.
“Costume, Custom, and Change: The End(s) of the Costume Book”
Both lectures will be presented in Old Victoria College, Alumni Hall (89 Charles Street West).
It has spread controversy and suspicion, engaged book clubs in hotly debated topics, revolted some, and thrilled others: evidently Dan Brown's novel, The Da Vinci Code, cannot go unnoticed...or at least, it shouldn't!
“If Truth
Be Told: Debating The Da Vinci Code”
Wednesday 18 January 2006
4-6 pm (tea at 3:30 pm)
Old Victoria College Chapel, 89 Charles St. W.
Please join the Renaissance Students Association in a thought-provoking evening led by three distinguished University of Toronto professors:
Professor Rocco Capozzi (Italian Studies)
Professor Capozzi will speak on the Umberto Eco phenomenon in Dan Brown's
novel and how Brown exploits the genre of popular literature.
Professor Marcel Danesi (Semiotics and Communication)
Using puzzles and mathematical codes, Professor Danesi will expose the use
of the mystical numerology in The Da Vinci Code.
Father Guy Trudel (Mediæval Studies)
Father Trudel will dispel some of the novel's claims against the sects and
beliefs associated with the Catholic Church.
This event is free and all are welcome!
Konrad Eisenbichler has been awarded the prestigious Umberto Saba International Literary Prize (2005) for his translation of Arrigo Petacco's volume A Tragedy Revealed: The Story of the Italian Population of Istria, Dalmatia, and Venezia Giulia, 1943-1956 (University of Toronto Press, 2005). Although he is best known for his extensive work on the Italian Renaissance, he is also a scholar of the modern history and literature of Italian populations of the eastern shores of the Adriatic, that is, from the peninsula of Istria, the coastline of Dalmatia, and the region of Venezia Giulia. This is the second major award he has received for his work in this area.
January
18 Renaissance Students Association Seminar with Rocco Capozzi,
Marcel Danesi, and Guy Trudel "If Truth
be Told: Debating The Da Vinci Code" 4:00 pm (tea 3:30), VC 213
26 TRRC Lecture, François Paré "Linguistic Plurality in
Sixteenth-Century France" 4:00 pm, Burwash Hall Senior Common Room
27 Ad Fontes Neo-Latin seminar 3:00 pm, PR 304
27 Friday Workshop, Mónica Domínguez "Interpreting the
Artistic Encounter: Latin American Art History and the 'Discovery' of the
New World" 3:30 pm, NF 205
February
3 Friday Workshop, Stefano Riccione "Nomina. A Corpus of
the Signed Works of Art in Italy: Siena and Its Artists (Simono Martini
and Ambrogio Lorenzetti)" 3:30 pm, NF 205
10 Friday Workshop, Joanna Carraway "The Secular Inquisition"
3:30 pm, NF 205
17 Friday Workshop, Sean Armstrong "From Superstition to
Science: The Witch-Hunt and Bacon's Ideals of the Mind" 3:30 pm, NF 205
23 TRRC Lecture, Sanda Munjic "Mystical Love: Fray Juan
de los Ángelos and his Spiritual and Amorous Struggle with God"
4:00 pm, Burwash Hall Senior Common Room
March
3 Friday Workshop, Jamie Smith "'To Avoid Great Fraud and
Illegal Acts': The Role of General Curators in Early Fifteenth-Century Genoa"
3:30 pm, NF 205
4 Senior Undergraduate Seminar I, Milton Kooistra "The
Bible in the Renaissance" 9-5, PR 304
10-11 CMS Conference "The Body in Medieval Culture" 9-5, Old Victoria College
Alumni Hall
16 TRRC Lecture, Alan Shepard "For the Stuarts, the Grave
Risk of Fresh Fruit" 4:00 pm, Burwash Hall Senior Common Room
17 Friday Workshop, Matt Kavaler "Renaissance Gothic: The
Functions, Authority, and Sacrality of Gothic Architecture around 1500 in
Northern Europe" 3:30 pm, NF 205
21 Distinguished Visiting Scholar Ann Rosalind Jones Lecture
I "Exhibiting Others: Early Modern Costume Books in France and Italy" 4:00
pm, Old Victoria College Alumni Hall
23 Distinguished Visiting Scholar Ann Rosalind Jones Lecture
II "Costume, Custom, and Change: the End(s) of the Costume Book" 4:00 pm,
Old Victoria College Alumni Hall
24 Ad Fontes Neo-Latin seminar 3:00 pm, PR 304
31 Friday Workshop, Irina Guletsky "Flos et Gemma Cantorum:
Phillipe de Vitry and a New Page of His Heritage" 3:30 pm, NF 205
April
1 Senior Undergraduate Seminar II, Jess Paehlke "The Classics
in the Renaissance" 9-5, PR 304
7 Friday Workshop, Chris Matusiak "The Kirkes, the Beestons,
and the Cockpit: A Canadian Connection to the 17th-Century London Theatre"
3:30 pm, NF 205
21 Friday Workshop, James Thomas "The Cartesian Circle,
Memory, and Reminiscence" 3:30 pm, NF 205
22 Conference: Canada Milton Seminar II, 9-5, Old Victoria College Alumni
Hall
28 Ad Fontes Neo-Latin seminar 3:00 pm, PR 304
May
8-12 Paleography Seminar, Konrad Eisenbichler "Reading
Early Modern Italian Hands" 10-12 each day, NF 205 12 Friday Workshop, Jess
Paehlke "Vives's Commentary on The City of God" 3:30 pm, NF 205
15, 17, 23, 25 Paleography Seminar, Alexandra Johnston,
Abby Young, and Arleane Ralph (REED project)
"Reading Early Modern English Hands" 10-12 each day, location TBA
26 or 30 Special Lecture, Shaul Bassi "Shakespeare's Venice"
4:00 pm, Burwash Hall Senior Common Room
Two in one year! The rare book market is a wonderfully unpredictable place,
and we were fortunate to have the opportunity to purchase the second edition
of Erasmus's letters to Jacques Lefèvre D'Étaples.
ERASMUS, Desiderius. [Apologia ad eximium virum Jacobum Fabrum Stapulensem]. Io. Frobenius lectori S. Iacobus Faber Stapulensis in secu(n)da suarum in Paulum adnotationiu(m) aeditione .... Basel: Johann Froben , Feb. 1518.
The letters reflect an important difference in biblical scholarship between the two great humanists. "The publication of Erasmus's New Testament undoubtedly greatly affected Lefèvre. It led in the first place to a quarrel provoked in part by the fact that Lefèvre felt intimidated by the evident superiority of Erasmus's scholarship. There can be no question that the latter was the better humanist; his erudition was deeper, his sense of grammar more exact, and his sense of history more profound. The dispute was nominally over a quite trivial point. Erasmus criticized Lefèvre for his reading of Hebrews 2:7 as 'Thou madest him a little lower than God' instead of 'a little lower than the angels.' Their disagreement, insignificant though it appeared, nevertheless reflected profound differences in spiritual outlook and temperament. Lefèvre based his view...on an extraordinary awareness of the dignity of Christ...Erasmus stressed the historical and theological significance of Christ's suffering on the Cross. There seems little doubt that Erasmus was right on both counts...The quarrel opened up a breach between Lefèvre and his followers and Erasmus that was really never bridged. Lefèvre and those who followed him... believed that Erasmus had sacrificed piety to scholarship" (Contemporaries of Erasmus, II, 317).
For the past five years, a small but dedicated group of graduate students, Fellows, faculty members and scholars has been meeting each month to work through neo-Latin texts. While the market for this form of social activity has never been enormous, the group has managed to provide a very regular service to scholars working with texts in Latin that were written during the Renaissance (loosely defined as 1400-1700).
The Ad Fontes group meets at 3:00 pm on the last Friday of each month in Pratt Library, room 304. At each meeting, they work through a text with a group leader who is developing a translation. Texts are available at CRRS one week prior to each meeting. The environment is friendly and supportive. If you'd like to brush up on your reading skills, or if your research has carried you into an untranslated Latin text, please consider coming out for a meeting.
For more information about upcoming seminars, please contact CRRS Graduate Fellow Jess Paehlke.
Undergraduate students who are planning for graduate studies in the Renaissance, take note! This year we will present two all day seminars, free to qualified students: The Bible in the Renaissance and Reformation (Saturday 4 March) and The Classics in the Renaissance (Saturday 1 April). Each is a day-long event with lunch, coffee breaks and materials included. Students will have the opportunity to read original texts, use rare books, and learn about their field in lectures and group discussions.
The deadline for applications has been extended by two weeks to 30 January 2006. Please send a cover letter explaining your interest in the seminar you'd like to attend and a reference letter from one of your professors to:
Early Modern Undergraduate Seminar
Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies
Pratt Library, 71 Queen's Park Cr. East
Victoria University in the University of Toronto
Toronto, ON M5S 1K7
Attention: Jess Paehlke (for the Classics seminar)
or
Attention: Milton Kooistra (for the Bible seminar)
The CRRS is pleased to be a co-sponsor of the annual Centre for Medieval Studies conference, to be held in Old Victoria College, Alumni Hall.
Keynote Speakers:
Peter Biller (University of York, UK)
"The Bodies of the Peoples of the World"
Dyan Elliott (Vanderbilt University)
"From Angel to Spouse: Consecrated Virginity and the Fall into the Body"
Nicholas Watson (Harvard University)
"'Nihil est Idolo in Mundo': Corpus Christi and Controversy over Images
in Late Medieval England"
CRRS will be running a book table with our full line of publications available at special conference rates.
Registration information and a full program with all fifteen speakers is available online or call (416) 978-2380.
During May and June 2006, the CRRS will present a series of courses, workshops, and events that are designed to bring together our local community of Renaissance students, scholars, artists, performers, and musicians.
There will be three undergraduate Renaissance-themed courses offered on the Victoria College campus; in addition, workshops in English and Italian paleography, performances by The Musicians in Ordinary and Poculi Ludique Societas, and a special public lecture by Professor Shaul Bassi (Venice) are planned. Watch the CRRS websitefor further events as they are added.
The Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies, the Department of English, and the Canada Research Chair Program are pleased to present a one-day professional conference featuring four invited speakers:
Annabel Patterson (Yale University)
"Milton's Radical Printer(s)
Balachandra Rajan (Univ. of Western Ontario)
"'Samson hath quite himself / Like Samson"
Nicholas von Maltzahn (University of Ottawa)
"Liberty of Consience and Multiculturalism: Milton in Canada"
Andrew Hadfield (University of Sussex)
"Milton and the Struggle for the Representation of the Nation"
Registration details are available here.
For further information, contact Kim Yates or conference organizer Paul Stevens.
Jamie Smith (CRRS Graduate Fellow) has accepted an 18-month position teaching History at Alma College in Michigan. Her colleague in History, Dana Wessell, who gave a very popular Friday Workshop on witch trial history last year, has taken a tenure-track appointment at the University of Texas, El Paso.
James Carley (Managing Committee) has been named as the Leverhulme Visiting Professor to the University of Oxford for 2005-2006.
Nick Terpstra (Coordinator, Renaissance Studies Program) has just published a major research study, Abandoned Children of the Italian Renaissance: Orphan Care in Bologna and Florence (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005).
 |
For more information
about the CRRS, contact our Assistant to the Director, Dr.
Stephanie Treloar.
This site was originally designed by Michael Ullyot and is now maintained by Alexandra Guerson. Last updated: 6 October, 2010 |