EDITORIAL
This Issue
When we began putting together this issue of the Journal last autumn, we
were struck by the number of exhibitions of Renaissance art then on in
London.
The National Gallery’s Renaissance Autumn—with its
Masaccio and Pisanello exhibitions—was in full swing. So, too, was the
British Museum’s The Print in Italy 1520-1620.
New directions in the study of English Renaissance art also
dominated the exhibitions on display in the capital last autumn.
November, rather excitingly, witnessed the opening of the V&A’s
refurbished British Galleries as well as the reinstallation of the collection
at Tate Britain. To celebrate these developments, we thought it would be
appropriate to dedicate this issue’s discussion of ‘Renaissance Research
Centres’ to an analysis of the new installations at the V&A and at Tate
Britain.
Beginning on page seven, Professor Maurice Howard of the
University of Sussex discusses the V&A’s new British Galleries. As
Senior Subject Specialist for the Tudor-Stuart Galleries, Professor
Howard illuminates the general themes found throughout these galleries,
as well as the intellectual concerns underpinning specific displays. His
article is immediately followed by a contribution from Ms Karen Hearn,
curator of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century painting at Tate Britain.
Ms Hearn’s piece leads the reader through the newly re-hung TudorStuart galleries, explaining the scholarly rationale behind the selection of
items for display, both with regard to items in Tate Britain’s possession
and with regard to those borrowed from other collections.
This issue’s focus on London’s recent and current exhibitions of
Renaissance art extends to the book reviews as well. Dr Fabrizio Nevola,
a Research Fellow at the Centre for the Study of the Renaissance, has
contributed a review of the catalogue accompanying the National
Gallery’s exhibition, Pisanello: Painter to the Renaissance Court.
The Research Projects
Europa Triumphans
Much of this issue is also devoted to a discussion of current and future
Europa Triumphans publications. An insert in the centre of the Journal
provides a table of contents for what is to be the first Europa Triumphans
publication, a collection of essays entitled Court Festivals of the
European Renaissance: Art, Politics and Performance. The product of a
very fruitful conference held in Tuscany in September 2000, this volume
has been jointly edited by Professor Ronnie Mulryne and Dr Elizabeth
Goldring and features contributions from a distinguished international
group of scholars. The book is currently at press and we anticipate that it
will appear in print in the summer of 2002. Should readers of this journal
wish to place their orders early, we are certain that Ashgate would only
be too delighted to process your request!
Following closely on the heels of the book of essays will be the
two-volume collection of festival texts. This massive work, which has
been a collaborative endeavour shared between more than forty
contributors, is due to be sent to Ashgate this spring. It will appear in
print in 2003 under the title Europa Triumphans: Court Festivals of the
European Renaissance. Its General Editors are Professors Ronnie
Mulryne and Helen Watanabe-O’Kelly and Dr Margaret Shewring.
As faithful readers of this journal will know, the two-volume
collection is divided into eight ‘clusters’. Each of these contains a series
of essays and a group of festival texts (reproduced both in the original
language and in English translation) pertaining to festivals produced in a
particular area (e.g., Poland-Lithuania, Scandinavia, the Netherlands, and
the New World), occasioned by a specific event (e.g., The Protestant
Union, The Fall of La Rochelle), or centring around a specific individual
(e.g., Henri III). Past issues of the Journal have highlighted the work
undertaken in individual ‘clusters’. In this issue, we focus on the ‘Genoa’
cluster of texts, the last of the collection’s eight clusters to be so featured
in this publication.
Also highlighted in this issue is the work-in-progress of Dr Karin
Friedrich of the SSEES and Dr Sara Smart of the University of Exeter, a
book at present entitled The Cultivation of Monarchy and the Rise of
Berlin: Brandenburg-Prussia, 1700-1701 (forthcoming from Ashgate,
2005). As Drs Friedrich and Smart explain, this work will offer valuable
insights into a key stage in the political and cultural history of
Brandenburg-Prussia, the consequences of which exercised a crucial
impact on the development of Germany and the history of Europe. It
will also shed light on the hitherto neglected area of the office of the court
poet—in this case, Johann von Besser—with particular emphasis on his
contribution to the maintenance of the fabric of the absolutist court.
Additional Europa Triumphans publications are also in the
pipeline. These include a book devoted to the 1606 visit to England of
King Christian IV of Denmark and a volume concerning the 1623 journey
to Madrid (via Paris) of the future Charles I and the Duke of
Buckingham. Future issues of the Journal will feature articles on these
and other forthcoming Europa Triumphans publications.
Italian Elites
An Italian Elites Study Day will be held at Warwick’s Centre for the
Study of the Renaissance on Friday, 22nd February 2002. The topic for
the day’s proceedings is ‘Genoa and Venice: Two Maritime Powers of
the Renaissance’. Speakers will include Dr Christine Shaw, Senior
Research Fellow at the Centre, Dr Luca Molà (Warwick), Dr Ingonda
Hanneschlaeger (University of Salzburg/Bibliotheca Hertziana) and Dr
Stella Fletcher. Enquiries concerning the day may be directed to Mrs
Marie Lucas, the Centre’s secretary. For those unable to attend, a report
on the day’s proceedings will appear in the June issue of the Journal.
The June issue will also feature reviews of recent books by two of our
Research Fellows: Dr Shaw’s The Politics of Exile in Renaissance Italy
(Cambridge, 2000) and Dr Jonathan Davies’ Florence and its University
during the Early Renaissance (Leiden, 1998).
John Nichols
There will be a symposium on Elizabethan entertainments held at
Warwick’s Centre for the Study of the Renaissance on Tuesday, 12 th
February 2002 from 2pm to 5pm. A second symposium, on Jacobean
entertainments, will be held at the Centre on Tuesday, 26th February,
again from 2pm to 5pm. Speakers will include Professor Ronnie
Mulryne, Dr Margaret Shewring and Dr Jayne Archer. Although these
occasions are primarily intended to supplement the coursework of the
students pursuing Warwick’s M.A. in ‘The Culture of the European
Renaissance’, visitors are welcome. Further details of either symposium
may be obtained from Mrs Marie Lucas, the Centre’s secretary.
It should also be noted that plans are afoot for a major academic
conference on English Renaissance entertainments. Further details will
appear in the June issue of the Journal.
The AHRB Centre for the Study of Renaissance Elites and Court
Cultures
Collaboration between members of the three research projects affiliated
with the Centre continues to flourish. The Wednesday lunch-time
research seminars, which were inaugurated in January 2001, continue this
year, again expertly chaired by Dr Christine Shaw. These seminars bring
together contributors from the three research projects, as well as members
of the wider Warwick community. A report by Dr Shaw on the autumn
term’s seminars, together with the line-up for the spring term’s seminars,
may be found in this issue.
The success of the lunch-time seminars has led us to think about
other ways in which the Centre’s three research projects might join
forces. There is talk of a book of essays, to be edited by Dr Shaw, that
would bring together contributions from the Research Fellows and others
associated with the Europa Triumphans, Italian Elites, and John Nichols
projects. The idea at the moment is that a theme such as ‘Ritual and the
Renaissance City’ would link in rather nicely with the research interests
of all concerned.
The Centre for the Study of the Renaissance
This issue features more prominently than prior issues the work of Ph.D.
candidates at Warwick’s Centre for the Study of the Renaissance. Ms
Jane Rickard and Mr Ben Spiller have each reviewed a book for this
issue. In addition, Ben has contributed an article on Henry VI Part I
arising from his M.A. work in the Centre. A further contribution from
the Ph.D. students comes in the form of Mr Takashi Kozuka’s report on
the conference that he organized last autumn in Stratford-upon-Avon:
‘New Directions in Biographies of Marlowe, Shakespeare and Jonson’.
The future of the Journal
As has become our custom, this Editorial concludes with an earnest plea
for subscriptions! Although the number of subscribers to the Journal has
risen steadily since the first issue was launched two years ago, we do still
need additional subscriptions if the Journal is to continue and, more
importantly, to expand. A subscription form may be found tucked inside
this issue.
ELIZABETH GOLDRING
RONNIE MULRYNE