Upcoming Events
Check here for upcoming events from the Medieval and Early Modern Studies Program
Fall 2022
Sammelband Scientia: Collecting Dürer's Books and Printing Instructions
Seventeenth Kenneth Karmiole Lecture on the History of the Book Trade
~Lecture given by Suzanne Karr Schmidt (Newberry Library)
Albrecht Dürer’s three books on perspective, fortifications, and anatomy for artists and craftsmen were often bound together from the sixteenth century onwards, meriting closer inspection of the audiences and eventually, antiquarian markets for these personalized ‘Sammelbände’. This talk will explore Dürer and his contemporary artists’ obsession with perspective, construction of paper instruments, and their other proto-scientific pursuits alongside the evolution of Dürer’s genius for printing and his posthumous fame.
Dr. Suzanne Karr Schmidt is the George Amos Poole III Curator of Rare Books and Manuscripts at Chicago’s Newberry Library. She works on the materiality and use of prints and books, notably her monograph Interactive and Sculptural Printmaking in the Renaissance (2018), and exhibition catalogue Altered and Adorned: Using Renaissance Prints in Daily Life (Art Institute of Chicago, 2011). Recent and forthcoming exhibitions at the Newberry that engaged with her interest in the history of science and in paper engineering respectively include Renaissance Invention: Stradanus’s Nova Reperta, co-curated with Lia Markey (Director of the Center for Renaissance Studes) in 2020, and Pop-Up Books Through the Ages in 2023.
The inaugural presentation of the "Kenneth Karmiole Lecture Series on the History of the Book Trade" was delivered by Robert Darnton in fall of 2005. Established by Kenneth Karmiole, a Santa Monica antiquarian bookseller who provided a generous endowment, this annual lecture focuses on the book trade in England and Europe during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The Clark’s growing collection of materials relating to the collecting, publishing, and dissemination of books in the early modern period make this series particularly appropriate.
This lecture is free of charge. It will be held in person at the Clark Library and livestreamed on the Center’s YouTube Channel. To attend the lecture in person, you must reserve your space by submitting the booking form on our website. Bookings close on Wednesday, October 26, 2022 at 5:00 p.m. No registration is needed to watch the livestream.
Thursday, October 27, 2022 from 4:00-5:30pm PDT
Race and Representation in Romance
A Race in Dialogue Conversation
This conversation between romance writer and Professor Emerita Margo Hendricks and Dr. Yasmine Hachimi examines race and representation in historical and contemporary romance novels– including the formative role that Margo has played in putting premodern race in conversation with the romance genre.
Tuesday November 15th from 12:00-1:00 CDT via Zoom | Margo Hendricks (University of California- Riverside) in conversation with Dr. Yasmine Hachimi (Newberry Library)
Past Events
Fall 2022
In Between Sea and Sky: an Oecologies Reading Group
The Middle Air, an "airy something," and How Air Matters in the Early Modern Era
A virtual discussion of the ecological and historical dimensions of this insubstantial element. In addition to the three assigned philosophical and critical essays, feel free also to bring a favorite example from an early modern text wherein character or entity passes through, inhabits, or questions this domain betwixt heaven and earth, one neither terrestrial nor aquatic.
Saturday October 15th from 10:30-12:00 PDT via Zoom | Led by Tiffany Jo Werth
Fall 2020
Pandemic in Premodernity: A Panel Discussion
In the aftermath of Covid-19, media, scholars, and leaders have used terms such as “unprecedented” to describe the events unfolding in 2020. However, epidemics are not a new phenomenon, and humans have grappled with contagious disease for millennia. How did premodern societies manage disease, and what might we learn from their experiences? Join the UC Davis Medieval and Early Modern Studies program for a panel discussion that will bring together Suman Seth (Cornell University), Nükhet Varlik (University of South Carolina/Rutgers University, Newark), and Susan Burns (University of Chicago) experts on epidemics in premodern Europe, East Asia, and the Middle East as they discuss how contagious diseases have been managed around the world.