Lecture: Intellectual Freedom in Early Modern Women’s Spiritual Writings: Practice, Methods, and Identities

Dr. Carme Font-Paz, Associate Professor of English Literature at Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and director of WINK (Women’s Invisible Ink), is giving a lecture where she’ll be presenting the WINK project and her paper on ‘Intellectual Freedom in Early Modern Women’s Spiritual Writings: Practice, Methods, and Identities’.

April 15, 2024 at 11:30
Blandijn Lokaal 1.14
Contact: Elizabeth.Amann@UGent.be

The essence and manifestation of God’s love has been a major concern for men and women of faith over the centuries, and the object of mystical, fictional and analytical approaches to understanding the relationship between human and divine nature. This presentation will briefly examine the methodological challenges posed by narratives of faith and grace that seek to represent subjective reality as an experience of universal truth.

By paying special attention to four seventeenth-century women writers from different Christian backgrounds, we shall see in what ways their notion of intellectual freedom was constructed and invoked as the primary reason for writing and speaking in public against pastoral misconduct, social ills and domestic abuse within their congregations and communities of faith. Their arguments point at their own freedom of conscience, as well as the “hypocrisie” and superficiality of the alleged “liberty of conscience and freedom” of their own communities. They claim to be intellectually freer in their obedience to God.

This paper will bring to light Maria Jesus de Ágreda manuscript Leyes de la esposa (1637) for the first time, Arcangela Tarabotti’s La semplicità ingannata (1654), Susanna Parr’s Apologie against the Elders (1659), and Anne Wentworth’s A Vindication (1670). We will look at the discourse of divine love and personal conscience as a common feature of female spirituality and intellectuality within a European context, markedly influenced by Teresa de Ávila’s program for mental prayer. We shall discuss the relationship between literary genre and theological tradition, the limits of reason and the imagination as sources of knowledge, and the faint borderlines between obedience and freedom of conscience as paths for intellectual inquiry.

Dr. Carme Font-Paz is Associate Professor of English Literature at Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. She is also an ICREA Academia fellow and director of the European ERC Starting Grant project WINK “Women’s Invisible Ink: Trans-Genre Writing and the Gendering of Intellectual Value in Early Modernity”. A specialist in prophetic genres and early modern women’s writing, her latest books are Women’s Prophetic Writings in Seventeenth-Century Britain (Routledge, 2017) and, with Nina Geerdink, Economic Imperatives for Women’s Writing in Early Modern Europe (Brill, 2018). She is now preparing her forthcoming monograph Women Writing on Social Change in Early Modern Europe (Brepols).

Exhibition. Vers uit de tuin. Petrus Hondius’ dichterlijke wegwijzer door het zeventiende-eeuwse landschap.

From the 12th of April until the 29th of June 2024 you can visit an exhibition co-curated by GEMS-members Kornee van der Haven and Caroline Baetens in collaboration with Piet de Blaeij from Museum Het Warenhuis. The exhibition centres around the early modern Dutch poem Dapes inemptae, of de Moufe-Schans (1621) in which Petrus Hondius celebrates his life in the garden the ‘Moffenschans’. You can explore the seventeenth-century garden life in this exhibition through Hondius’ verses. You walk through the garden and the poetry to get a unique picture of garden life in the seventeenth century. The garden comes to life as a place of pleasant gatherings, of plant science, of experimenting with nature and landscape, but also as a place where you can indulge in gardening.

Vers uit de tuin. Petrus Hondius’ dichterlijke wegwijzer door het zeventiende-eeuwse landschap.

Tentoonstelling UGent & Museum Het Warenhuis (Axel), 12 april – 29 juni 2024

Bij verse oogst uit de tuin denk je waarschijnlijk in de eerste plaats aan wortels of komkommer. In de zeventiende eeuw oogstten tuinbezitters niet alleen groenten, maar ook dichterlijke verzen uit de Zeeuws-Vlaamse grond! Die gedichten geven een inkijkje in hoe het rijke tuinleven in de zeventiende eeuw werd ervaren. Een van de eersten die over dat leven in de tuin dichtte, was predikant Petrus Hondius. In 1621 bezingt hij in zijn dichtwerk, Dapes Inemptae, of De Moufe-schans, alles wat er te beleven valt in zijn tuin bij Terneuzen (de Moffenschans): van maaltijden met groenten van eigen bodem, tot de kweek van zeldzame bloemen en uitstapjes door de omliggende velden.

Van 12 april tot 29 juni 2024 kun je in Museum Het Warenhuis te Axel via Hondius’ wandelpaden zelf het zeventiende-eeuwse tuinleven verkennen in de expositie. Je bewandelt de gangen van de tuin via het dichtwerk en krijgt zo een uniek beeld van het tuinleven in de zeventiende eeuw. De tuin komt tot leven als een plek van gezellige samenkomsten, van plantwetenschap, van experiment met natuur en landschap, maar ook als een plaats waar je je kunt uitleven in het tuinieren. Wie weet herken je je eigen ervaringen wel in Hondius’ verzen of leiden zijn wandelpaden je tot nieuwe inzichten over de hedendaagse tuin!

Veel idealen uit Hondius’ poëzie zijn herkenbaar voor een hedendaagse lezer. Net zoals stedelingen vandaag aan de drukte trachten te ontsnappen in een tuin of park, zochten diegenen die daar de mogelijkheid toe hadden ook in de zeventiende eeuw de rust van het platteland op. De Terneuzense predikant geeft dan ook uitdrukking aan die herkenbare drang naar ontsnapping in een groen decor. Ook hedendaagse idealen van zelfvoorzienendheid of lokaal shoppen lijken al vroeg in die literatuur vorm te krijgen, want ook Hondius streeft naar ‘Ongekochte spijs’ of groenten van eigen bodem. Zijn verhaal schetst niet alleen een uniek beeld van het rijke tuinleven in de zeventiende eeuw, maar biedt dus ook een leidraad voor reflectie op onze bedrijvigheid in de tuin vandaag.

Als je het museum uit stapt, kun je de wandeling verderzetten en met een nieuwe blik het landschap rondom verkennen. Op een boogscheut van het museum vind je een laatnegentiende-eeuws landhuis dat nog steeds de naam ‘Moffenschans’ draagt, naar Hondius’ tuin die zich daar eeuwen eerder bevond. Te voet, te paard of te vloot bereist Hondius vandaaruit de polders, schorren, duinen en rivieren rondom zijn tuin. Hij treedt buiten de omheining en legt een breder beeld van het Zeeuws-Vlaamse landschap vast in woord. In de expositie leer je dus iets nieuws over de zeventiende-eeuwse beleving van de directe omgeving van de tuin en het hedendaagse museum.

Ontdek wat het Zeeuws-Vlaamse tuinleven in de zeventiende eeuw zo uniek en toch zo universeel maakt, van 12 april tot 29 juni 2024 in Museum Het Warenhuis (Markt 2, 4571 BG Axel).

Dit project is een samenwerking tussen Museum Het Warenhuis en de Vakgroep letterkunde aan de Universiteit Gent. De expositie kwam tot stand met de steun van de Faculteit Letteren en Wijsbegeerte van de Universiteit Gent, het Maatschappelijk Valorisatiefonds van de Universiteit Gent, het Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek – Vlaanderen en het Scheldemondfonds.

JUST OUT: Renaissance Studies Special Issue on Paratexts, Dissemination and the Book Market in Early Modern Venice (1500-1650)

The Journal of the Society for Renaissance Studies presents a special issue on Paratexts, Dissemination and the Book Market in Early Modern Venice (1500-1650), with articles from GEMS members Ruben Celani, Claudia Crocco, Teodoro Katinis, Eleonora Serra and Lies Verbaere. This collaboration consists of research across literature and linguistics.

Visit the website for more information.

Featured articles

• Gazing at the Venetian hub from a paratextual lens: An introduction
  Claudia Crocco and Teodoro Katinis
• Advertising grammars and dictionaries in the Venetian printing market: A linguistic analysis of title pages
  Eleonora Serra
• ‘L’arte in prattica’: Reconstructing Orazio Toscanella’s language ideology
  Claudia Crocco and Eleonora Serra
• ‘Come parto imperfetto’: Paratexts and organization in a sixteenth-century book of secrets
  Ruben Celani
• The vernacularization of Paduan medicine and philosophy in the seventeenth century: Troilo Lancetta’s Raccolta medica, et astrologica
  Craig Martin
• ‘Materie piacevolissime da leggere e utili da essequire’: The introductory letters in Leonardo Fioravanti’s Capricci medicinali
  Teodoro Katinis
• ‘By consultation of elevated minds’: The role of paratexts in Giovanni Battista Calderari’s comedies
  Lies Verbaere
• Advertising doubt in early modern Italy: Doubt and ignorance in early modern paratexts
  Marco Faini

Book presentation: Repertoires of Slavery. Dutch Theater Between Abolitionism and Colonial Subjection, 1770-1810

Join GEMS on the 22th of February for a Book Presentation by dr. Sarah J. Adams. She will present her new book Repertoires of Slavery: Dutch Theater Between Abolitionism and Colonial Subjection, 1770-1810 (University Press Amsterdam, 2023). Through the lens of a hitherto unstudied repertoire of Dutch abolitionist theatre productions, Repertoires of Slavery prises open the conflicting ideological functions of antislavery discourse within and outside the walls of the theatre and examines the ways in which abolitionist protesters wielded the strife-ridden question of slavery to negotiate the meanings of human rights, subjecthood, and subjection. 

For more information and to order the book, you can follow this link: https://www.aup.nl/en/book/9789463726863/repertoires-of-slavery

Please let us know if you can attend by the 16th of February through the following link: https://forms.gle/kuPeG66SofhWZjaSA

Lecture: “Transvestism and Blackface in Italian Renaissance Theater” by Lies Verbaere

Renaissance authors tended to fall back on classical literary models, which they wanted to equal or even surpass. In the case of theater, Terence’s Eunuchus was one of the most popular model texts. In the city of Vicenza, near Venice, Giovanni Battista Calderari began to translate this comedy into Italian, but not only that: he also began to rework it. The result is a fascinating rewrite, in which, for example, the secondary character of the ‘Other’ becomes a Moorish woman. In this lecture we place Calderari’s text next to the original, and highlight current issues such as gender, ethnicity and performance in a play text from the Renaissance – which is not so far removed from our own time.

Tuesday January 23, 2024, 7:30 PM
Followed by reception
Rozier Building, Classroom 2.1 Rozier 44 – 9000 Ghent

Call for Papers Yearbook for Dutch Book History 32 (2025)

The Yearbook for Dutch Book History publishes Open Access articles in the Dutch and English language on all aspects of the book history of the Low Countries. For the 32nd edition of 2025, they particularly welcome contributions within the theme of “Books across borders.”

American thrillers, Japanese manga and Kenyan novels: our current book world often transcends national and linguistic borders. Likewise, throughout history the Dutch book trade has always been connected – enthusiastically or reluctantly – with the world at large. With its 2025 thematic issue, “books across borders,” the Yearbook for Dutch Book History invites you to explore beyond the usual boundaries. Examples of topics include, but are not limited to, printed matter that highlights (or conversely, covers up) ties to colonial territories, pictographic, logographic or abugida scripts printed in the Low Countries, or books created in supranational cooperation.

They welcome articles related to:

• (Post-)colonial books, their production and reception
• Dutch printed matter produced elsewhere
• Illustrations or techniques from other parts of the world, applied in the Low Countries
• Different types of (non-Latin) typography, printed in the Low Countries
• Multilingual publications
• Supranational collaborations and transnational perspectives.

Please submit your proposal or abstract to the editors before April 1, 2024 (jaarboeknbv@gmail.com or via one of their editors). The deadline for submitting full articles is November 1, 2024.

Book presentation: Marketing Violence. The Affective Economy of Violent Imageries in the Dutch Republic

Book presentation

Marketing Violence: The Affective Economy of Violent Imageries in the Dutch Republic

Tuesday 23 January 2024

14:30 – 17:00

NIAS Conference Room – B3.02, Oost-Indish Huis in Amsterdam

Registration is required before 22nd of January via email (free): secretariaatnl-lab@huc.knaw.nl

specify “Book presentation Marketing Violence” in the subject line

Marketing Violence was published by Cambridge University Press as part of the Elements in Histories of Emotions and the Senses series and written as part of the NWO & FWO funded project Imagineering Violence: Techniques of Early Modern Performativity in the Northern and Southern Netherlands 1630-1690.

Frans-Willem Korsten, Inger Leemans, Cornelis van der Haven and Karel Vanhaesebrouck invite you to join them for the presentation of their recently published book Marketing Violence on Tuesday 23 January in the NIAS conference room.

Marketing Violence is available through open access: https://www.cambridge.org/core/elements/marketing-violence/2156DA0F35E440BE3F23E730FD1FA663.

Program:

14:30 Walk-in

15:00 -15:15 Introduction by dr. Yolanda Rodríguez Pérez

15:15 -15:25 Prof. Dr. Frans-Willem Korsten’s reflections on the collaborative process of Marketing Violence

15:25 – 15:35 Prof. Dr. Kornee van der Haven on the History of Emotions

15:35 – 15:55 Dr. Ayşenur Korkmaz on representations of violence from the perspective of genocide studies

15:55 – 16:20 Dr. Matthias van Rossum on colonialism and the History of Emotions

16:20 -17:00 Drinks!

Find the invitation and more information via this link: Invitation book presentation Marketing Violence

Introducing the GEMS Reading Group: Machiavelli’s The Mandrake

Group for Early Modern Studies (GEMS) is convening a new Reading Group. This group welcomes BA students, MA students, doctoral students, postdocs, and colleagues from any field to read an early modern text together and discuss it. This year, for the very the first edition, we shall be reading Machiavelli’s play The Mandrake (La Mandragola).

We will meet biweekly in the spring semester (i.e. from February to May), most likely from 5-6.30pm on Thursdays. We will read the text aloud, stopping periodically to discuss in depth any aspect of the text participants like––all the while enjoying some drinks and snacks. We read in English and there is absolutely no background or prior knowledge of Machiavelli and/or Italian required.

Indeed, participants are expressly forbidden to do any reading in advance! In other words: this reading group does not require you to do any work or reading beyond what we do together in the sessions. You do not have to attend all sessions: participants will receive an email with what will be read each session, so that you can read up and re-join if you wish.

The GEMS Reading Group is thus a low-stakes, fun way of engaging with early modern texts you might otherwise never read; and of getting to know & learning from colleagues and students from other disciplines with fresh perspectives.

If this appeals to you, please send an email to geertje.bol@ugent.be to be added to the mailing list.

GEMS Presents: Young Researcher’s Day

GEMS is hosting a work-in-progress session for MA students working on early modern (broadly defined) literature and cultural history. We want to create a low threshold and open setting for students to present their work and get feedback on it.

In this session, students will give a poster presentation (in English) on their current research. The presentation aims to help students fine-tune their research and is a great opportunity to get feedback from your peers in the field of early modern cultural history and literature. The presentation can be about a specific chapter or methodology in your research, or an outline of your thesis. We don’t expect your research to be in a finalized stage, feel free to come with drafts and invite your peers to think along with you.

The seminar will take place on Monday 22 April 2024. We aim for seven-minute presentations with ample time for questions. GEMS will finance the print costs for the posters. Refreshments (food and drinks) will be provided.

Please register your interest via this form by the 15th of December: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeQtIe057ca-SrljkXnT28avmA-42RkJuVQQSuHZetL1pSX3g/viewform?usp=sharing

If you have any further questions, please contact Caroline.Baetens@UGent.be, Eru.Fevery@UGent.be, or Zoe.VanCauwenberg@UGent.be

JUST OUT “The Sublime in the Visual Culture of the Seventeenth-Century Dutch Republic”

The Sublime in the Visual Culture of the Seventeenth-Century Dutch Republic written by our colleagues Stijn Bussels and Bram Van Oostveldt is now published by Routledge.

At the end of the month the paper version will be ready. In the meantime, you can find out more and access the book here: The Sublime in the Visual Culture of the Seventeenth-Century Dutch Rep (taylorfrancis.com)

Abstract
Contrary to what Kant believed about the Dutch (and their visual culture) as “being of an orderly and diligent position” and thus having no feeling for the sublime, this book argues that the sublime played an important role in seventeenth-century Dutch visual culture.

This book argues that in seventeenth-century Dutch visual culture the sublime played an important role, thus moving beyond traditional and still widespread views of Dutch art as the ultimate representation of everyday life. It is aimed at readers who want to broaden their view on the world of artists such as Rembrandt and Aelbert Cuyp, architects such as Jacob van Campen, and writers such as Joost van den Vondel and Constantijn Huygens, as well as readers who want to know the early history of the sublime. Dutch humanists’ interest in Longinus’s On the Sublime, which was early and groundbreaking, made the sublime a fertile category for studying the creation and impact of art, architecture, and theater. The Dutch reception of Longinus must be related to neighboring concepts, namely the Ovidian sublimis, le merveilleux, the fear of God, magnificence, terrifying sublimity, and wonder. All of these concepts deal with an overwhelming impact that goes far beyond the ordinary and leads to ecstasy, admiration, and astonishment. By relating these ideas to Dutch representations of extraordinary heights, divine presence, political grandeur, extreme violence, and amazing artifacts, we see how viewers were confronted with contrasting feelings of awe and fear, attraction and repulsion.