English Literary Renaissance

Although #earlymodern ads are never boring, I must admit I am glad my 1,162 ad transcribing marathon it over! 🤓🍾 💃

The last was this beautifully illustrated Mineral Water ad from Daily Post, June 6, 1730.

A few weeks ago, I received news that Shakespeare Unlearned made the shortlist for the RSA book award - a needed ray of light - and also received news that I had not won. I tried to feel bad about that but couldn't. Click through to see the winners and, as I like to think of us, the short winners.

Title page of The Devil Is An Ass: A COMEDIE ACTED IN THE YEARE, 1616. BY HIS MAIESTIES SERVANTS. The Author BEN: IONSON.

A reminder for REP members: tonight’s reading of The Devil Is An Ass begins at the earlier time of 7pm (because Ben Jonson).

A photograph of a character in a play. A man wearing sparkly black trousers and a long black jacket with sparkly bits, over a bare chest. He has quite long hair and a short beard; he's got green eyeshadow all around his eyes. He's looking up out of frame and gesturing with his right hand.

Helena: I can't help it! *runs after Demetrius* Oberon: I will HELP her! #MoonMad #SlowShakespeare
www.english.cam.ac.uk/research/slo...
Oberon (Jo Stone-Fewings) in the 2011 @the-rsc.bsky.social Dream, dir. Nancy Meckler. He's on Helena's side.

Green-blue-grey blocky soundwaves on background. Centred in black serif lettering “Sonance”, with “journal of early modern sound studies” underneath.

👀 Over the last few months, I’ve been working with the terrific triumvirate @spparkle.bsky.social, @emiliekmmurphy.bsky.social & Hannah Yip to set up “Sonance: A Journal of Early Modern Sound Studies”, a diamond open access journal dedicated to historic sounds in all their wondrous & eclectic forms.

For those who have missed it and are interested, my talk is now available online.

On Monday, at 1 PM, we welcome Casey Schmitt to our Ships & Seafaring Talk, where she will present her book "The Predatory Sea", a full-length study of the entangled history of captivity and colonialism using Spanish, French and English archives. Sign up here: www.eventbrite.com/e/ships-seaf...

Years ago I found a note in the parish register of Glenfield in Leicestershire which instantly became one of my favourite Civil War commentaries:

'Churchwardens, not any; because
distractions many; & distructions mightie'.

I've returned to that document, explored other pages nearby, and found...

#earlymodern

Project MUSE - Early Theatre: A Journal associated with the Records of Early English Drama This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website. Without cookies your experience may not be seamless.

🎉📖 Greetings, Bluesky!
Our latest edition (28.2) is now live!

This issue is fully open access and free to read via Project MUSE’s Subscribe to Open Access initiative.

Start exploring here: muse.jhu.edu/journal/687

Follow us in the next few days to learn more about what's inside!

#EarlyTheatre

Black headline text on a purple background with information about an article in a recent issue of The Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America, with an image of the cover of the book reviewed situated on a black field.

Black text on a purple background. Quote from the book review with information about the reviewer at the bottom.

📝Reviewed in PBSA: Michelle O’Callaghan's book, Crafting Poetry Anthologies in Renaissance England: Early Modern Cultures of Recreation 📖

Read Daniel Traister's full review in the December 2025 issue of PBSA. Link in Bio 🔗

🔎 DOI: https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/738703

Textile Shakespeare | Hester Lees-Jeffries | London Review Bookshop Textile Shakespeare argues for the vital presence of the 'textile imagination' in the works of Shakespeare and his contemporaries, as it explores the economic, cultural,…

@londonreviewbookshop.co.uk I am in you and it is the coolest thing🥰
www.londonreviewbookshop.co.uk/stock/textil...

I’m Nobody! Who are you?
Are you – Nobody – too?
Then there’s a pair of us!
Don't tell! they'd advertise – you know!

How dreary – to be – Somebody!
How public – like a Frog –
To tell one’s name – the livelong June –
To an admiring Bog!

Have I just stumbled upon my new FAVOURITE PRINTER'S MARK? #chicken #singingchicken?

Another from the vault: @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social chat with Sara Petrosillo about Hawking #Women: #Falconry, #Gender, and Control in #Medieval Literary Culture @ohiostatepress.bsky.social #skystorians #medievalist

newbooksnetwork.com/hawking-women

Wooden board (with iron handle for hanging) inscribed in ink with lines 468-473 from Book I of Homer's Iliad. Cultures/periods Late Roman Production date 400-500 Findspot Excavated/Findspot: Egypt Africa: Egypt Materials wood iron Dimensions Length: 40.64 centimetres Inscriptions Inscription type: inscription Inscription language: Greek Inscription subject educational literary Curator's comments TM 61042; Mertens-Pack 00611.000 Journal of Hellenic Studies (JHS) 29 (1909), p. 39 (Kenyon, Frederic G.); Chronique d‘Égypte (CdE) 68 (1993), p. 145-154 (Cribiore, Raffaella); Allen, Sutton, and West 2001: 131; Debut 1986: 260, no. 161; Cauderlier 1992: 90, no. 272. Bibliographic references Cribiore 1993 / A Homeric exercise from the Byzantine schoolroom (pp. 145-154) Location On display (G69/dc7) Exhibition history Exhibited: 2019-2020 21 Nov-8 Mar, London, BM, SEG, Troy Associated names Associated with: Homer Acquisition name Donated by: British School of Archaeology, Egypt Acquisition date 1906 Department Greek and Roman Registration number 1906,1020.2 Additional IDs Miscellaneous number: TM 61042 (Trismegistos) Conservation treatment: 24.4.19 British Museum

Me: I don’t allow AI in my classroom, but I do let them bring their tablets.

The Tablet:

(Late antique wooden board inscribed in ink with lines 468-473 from Book I of Homer's Iliad now at the BM)

Heads up #bookhistory people! This looks incredible!

Is it a book or is it a box? Should we, could we, would we know?

"Splendid & Lovely" If ELR had pet cats these would be their names. New issue out now...

'Beyond the book: recycling print in early modern England' is out in splendid & lovely English Literary Renaissance.

50 free downloads, warm & ready to go, at www.journals.uchicago.edu/eprint/Q2MMD...

(pcis: Bodleian coffret lined w. Horace & Virgil; damasked pages in Worcester College deed box)

Next month we are hosting a two-day conference about ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ and ‘The Winter’s Tale’, the two texts we recently published in variorum format on our website.

What a great group of speakers we’ll be hearing from!

[[Text in screenshot]] Tickling Shylock, the Laughing Animal MAGGIE VINTER 381 “Make you merry”: Forced Laughter and Other Epilogic Failures in Henry IV, Part 2 BEATRICE BRADLEY 401 index 421

[[Text in screenshot]] SPECIAL ISSUE: COMIC EPISTEMOLOGIES Guest Editors: Laura Kolb and Jessica Rosenberg contents Editorial Notices iii Introduction: Comic Epistemologies LAURA KOLB AND JESSICA ROSENBERG 291 Making up People in Measure for Measure BENEDICT S. ROBINSON 305 Tricks and the (Tragi)comic Art of Survival EMILY SHORTSLEF 324 The Witty Episteme: Suspicion, Misogyny, and Knowingness in Jonson’s Epicoene HANNAH BREDAR 341 How to Know the Witch: Trivial Domestication, Tragicomedy, and Race in The Witch of Edmonton YUNAH KAE 360

English Literary Renaissance | Vol 55, No 3

We have been remiss, absent, and not here, but, for your belated consideration: Our last issue of 2025 was a special issue guest edited by @laurakolb.bsky.social and Jessica Rosenberg entitled "Comic Epistemologies." Go read! (And see TOC in next posts). www.journals.uchicago.edu/toc/elr/curr...

Renaissance Society of America 365 Fifth AvenueRoom 5405New York, NY 10016 • USA

I'm looking for a paper or two to round out a panel on Time and Money ( #earlymodern economic cultures) for @rsaorg.bsky.social's 2026 conference in S.F: papers exploring the values, meanings, understandings of eco. exchange. Send me your proposal asap!
See: www.rsa.org/forms/FormRe... for details.

CONFERENCE: Medieval & Early Modern Students Association (MEMSA) Conference 2025 | MEMOs The medieval and early modern world was marked by a desire to understand the world and humanity’s place in it.

CONFERENCE: Medieval & Early Modern Students Association (MEMSA) Conference 2025
#earlymodern #earlymodernevents #medieval
#durhamcastle #natureinfocus

memorients.com/events/confe...

This is tomorrow! Join us at Guildhall Library and Archive to hear Lydia discussing the amazing new research she's doing on identity in Civic Performance!

Call For Papers: International Margaret Cavendish Society Conference 2026 17-19 June, Fredericton, Canada Cavendish Conference PosterDownload Join us at the University of New Brunswick in Fredericton, Canada!

We are very excited to share the CFP for the Margaret Cavendish Society Conference which will be held at the University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, Canada, 17-19 June 2026!

Trilingual dictionary, Psalter, and Hebrew grammar. Add MS 89788

We’ve acquired a remarkable group of rare medieval manuscripts that reveal new insights into life in Britain & Ireland during the Middle Ages – from religious dialogue to daily urban life.

Items include…