ANNOUNCEMENTS ~

Summer School in Rome:
Instruments of Truth: Devotional Art, Literature and Culture in Early-Modern Italy

This summer (27/06/2010 – 05/07/2010) the Faculty of Arts of the University of Groningen organizes the interdisciplinary summer school “Instruments of Truth: Devotional Art, Literature and Culture in Early-Modern Italy”, hosted by the Royal Netherlands Institute in Rome (KNIR). Check out our website: www.rug.nl/let/summerschool.

Through interactive lectures, excursions in Rome and assembling a portfolio the participant will research the period starting from the Sacco di Rome in 1527 till the end of the Council of Trent in 1563.

Until recently, this period has been perceived as an intermittent phase in between two era’s of harmony and order (High Renaissance and Counter Reformation respectively) and consequently as a time of disintegration and subsequent reintegration. Nowadays scholars have come to reconsider this perception and see the period as an entity in itself. They have recognized that in it, established cultural codes, canons and orthodoxies were energetically researched and (con)tested and (potential) freedom and connectedness were possible. They have pointed to the remarkable growing of interest in spiritual matters and the variety of literary, artistic and cultural forms this took on.

Starting from these premises, the following questionnaire will be tackled.

• How can we analyze the mechanisms of cultural dynamics in the 1520-40s in pre Counter-Reformation Italy?
• How can we describe the interactions between innovative experimentations both in the area of the fine arts and the literary field?
• What is the exact relationship between a growing interest in spiritual matters in both art and literature and its repercussion on the stability of aesthetical norm in society?
• How to describe the alternation between model, anti-model and renewed model in a two-decades area?

During the week participants will attend the excursions, lectures given by professor Philiep Bossier (Groningen), professor Van Veen (Groningen) and professor Treffers (Rome), as well as a masterclass led by professor Nagel (Toronto). A thorough preparation is essential to all participants of this Summerschool. In advance, participants will receive a syllabus with the relevant literature and are expected to have read this as well as to have thought about a subject extensively before arriving in Rome. During the actual Summer School, then, there will be time to attend the lectures, the excursions and discuss with the researchers at hand. Also, participants are expected to do more research in the library of the KNIR and other institutes, so as to work out their subject and collect all this information in a portfolio. At the end of the week participants are to present their research and hand in their portfolio. This document - together with comments from the researchers - forms the foundation of an article, to write afterwards.

This summer school is open to students and scholars who are currently enrolled in a graduate programme (Masters), Honours programme (Bachelors or (Research-) Masters) or a Ph.D. programme. All participants will be granted 5 ETCS and a certificate issued by the University of Groningen. For detailed information about the lectures, programme and online application, visit our website at www.rug.nl/let/summerschool.

Deadline to apply: 15 April 2010.

Call for Manuscripts:
Changing Perspectives on Early Modern Europe

The University of Rochester Press welcomes manuscripts in its series: Changing Perspectives on Early Modern Europe. With a number of titles already in print, this series has become one of the leading outlets for publishing monographs on early modern European history. Books in the series include Megan C. Armstrong's The Politics of Piety: Franciscan Preachers During the Wars of Religion, 1560-1600, J. B. Owens’s "By My Absolute Royal Authority": Justice and the Castilian Commonwealth at the Beginning of the First Global Age, and Civic Christianity in Renaissance Italy: The Hospital of Treviso, 1400-1530, by David M. D'Andrea; The King's Bench, by Zoe Schneider; Expansion and Crisis in Louis XIV's France by Darryl Dee; and Scourge of Demons: Possession, Lust, and Witchcraft in a Seventeenth-Century Italian Convent by Jeffrey Watt.

The editors of the series are James B. Collins, Professor of History at Georgetown University, and Mack P. Holt, Professor of History at George Mason University. They are assisted by a panel of distinguished scholars from a variety of institutions. The editorial board is seeking a mix of titles and formats, normally monographs by a single author. Our current plan is to release 2-4 new works each year.

Changing Perspectives on Early Modern Europe brings forward the latest research on Europe during the transformation from the medieval to the modern world. The series seeks to publish innovative scholarship on the full range of topical and geographic fields. Moving beyond the religious focus of some existing series, Changing Perspectives will include monographs on cultural, economic, intellectual, political, religious, and social history. Chronologically, the series will focus on the period 1400-1750. Geographically, it will include Western Continental Europe, Central and East Central Europe, Mediterranean Europe, and northern Europe. In an effort to avoid overlap with existing series, it will not publish works on the British Isles or on Russia.

Anyone interested in making a submission for consideration is requested to send a project proposal or prospectus. The project proposal should include: 1) a brief but detailed synopsis of the work, outlining its intended contribution to the existing literature; 2) an abstract of 300 words or less, summarizing the work's content; 3) a complete Table of Contents; 4) one sample chapter.

All scholars with an interest in submitting their work for consideration should contact the Editors:
      James B. Collins, Georgetown University — collinja@georgetown.edu
      Mack P. Holt, George Mason University — mholt@gmu.edu

Editorial Board:
Marc C. Forster (Connecticut College), Karin Friedrich (University of Aberdeen, Scotland), Robert Frost (University of Aberdeen, Scotland), Martha Howell (Columbia University), Sara T. Nalle (William Patterson University), Denis Romano (Syracuse
University)

Send proposals to:
      Suzanne Guiod, Editorial Director,
      University of Rochester Press
      668 Mt. Hope Avenue, Rochester, New York 14620