In our inaugural issue, David Thorley (University of Durham) writes about seventeenth-century English philosopher Henry More's approach to melancholy and his personal experience of the disease. In this guest post, David considers the problem of biography in history, and the challenge it presented while researching More. During my doctoral research into seventeenth-century descriptions of personal … Continue reading More and Melancholy: The Problem of Biography
Category: Guest Posts
Laughter in Early Modern Plays
For our inaugural issue, Sarah Hill Antinora (University of California) wrote about the oft-criticized and baffling laughter elicited by Beatrice’s ‘Kill Claudio’ in Shakespeare’s Much Ado about Nothing. In this guest post, Sarah talks about emotional play in early modern drama and the questions that prompted her paper. My favorite early modern plays always have … Continue reading Laughter in Early Modern Plays
Kelly Midgley on ‘Transitions, Fractures, and Fragments’ and the Problem of Periodisation
In a recent blog post, Michael Ovens argued for the continued necessity of delineating our past in order to understand it. On the whole, periodisation does indeed remain a useful tool for historians to deconstruct the transitions, fractures, and fragments that took place throughout history. Nevertheless, it is not an approach which we should rely … Continue reading Kelly Midgley on ‘Transitions, Fractures, and Fragments’ and the Problem of Periodisation
Michael Ovens on the theme ‘Transitions, Fractures, and Fragments’
As a historian first and foremost, the theme for Ceræ’s second issue - ‘Transitions, Fractures, and Fragments’ – has resonated with me on a fundamentally historiographical level. Historiography in the twentieth century has seen the undoing of the great narratives of progress and division, or transition and fracture, that divided history into epochs such as … Continue reading Michael Ovens on the theme ‘Transitions, Fractures, and Fragments’
Remembering Philippa Maddern
Last week, the Cerae Editorial committee was greatly saddened to learn of the death of Professor Philippa Maddern. When Cerae was conceived just over a year ago, Philippa Maddern was one of the first people we contacted for advice, and she very quickly became a staunch and enthusiastic supporter of our endeavors. Over the past … Continue reading Remembering Philippa Maddern
Revisiting Children’s Literature, Childhood Death, and the Emotions 1500-1800
BY KELLY MIDGLEY On December 5-6, 2013, a symposium focusing on the depiction of childhood death in history and in literature took place at the University of Western Australia. Over the course of these two days, several fascinating papers were presented, all of which provided the basis for a lot of intensive discussion and debates … Continue reading Revisiting Children’s Literature, Childhood Death, and the Emotions 1500-1800
Fra Mauro in Canberra: Mapping Our World exhibition
by DARREN SMITH The National Library of Australia is treating us Antipodean folk to a very rare opportunity — namely, to see one of the most outstanding surviving mappae mundi from the Renaissance, Fra Mauro’s richly illuminated map of the world that dates back to 1459. At some two metres in diameter, Fra Mauro’s mappa … Continue reading Fra Mauro in Canberra: Mapping Our World exhibition
Michelle Brown, Public Lecture: ‘The Luttrell Psalter: Imaging England on the Eve of the Black Death’
by KELLY MIDGLEY On the evening of Thursday November 28th, after an intensive day and a half of inspiring around thirty postgraduates and early career researchers in the Postgraduate Advanced Training Seminar, ‘Understanding and Using Medieval and Early Modern Manuscripts’, Professor Michelle Brown opened the CMEMS/PMRG conference with an informative and thoroughly entertaining public lecture: … Continue reading Michelle Brown, Public Lecture: ‘The Luttrell Psalter: Imaging England on the Eve of the Black Death’
Reflections on the CMEMS/PMRG Conference
by ALANA BENNETT This past weekend saw most of the Perth-based Ceræ committee at the CMEMS/PMRG Conference: Textuality, Technology and Materiality in the Medieval and Early Modern World. The conference welcomed both interstate and overseas visitors and offered two days of excellent papers and a friendly atmosphere. The conference opened with a lecture by Professor Michelle … Continue reading Reflections on the CMEMS/PMRG Conference
And now for something completely different…
Compiled by ALANA BENNETT The Ceræ committee in Western Australia is busily preparing for the CMEMS/PMRG Conference to be held later this week so today's (decidedly less formal) post is especially for those who need something amusing to distract themselves from unfinished papers, towers of marking or impending due dates... Got Medieval Amusing marginal illustrations, … Continue reading And now for something completely different…