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Early Modern Circle

@earlymoderncircle.bsky.social

Account for the Early Modern Circle at the University of Melbourne ✨ https://arts.unimelb.edu.au/ancient-medieval-and-early-modern-studies/seminars-reading-groups/early-modern-circle (acct run by@paigedonaghy.bsky.social)

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Early Modern Circle @earlymoderncircle.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Join us next Wednesday 20 May for our next Early Modern Circle Seminar! Visiting Prof Claudio Passera will be presenting "Florentine Stagecraft Masters and their Conquest of Fifteenth-Century Italian Courts" 🌟 Details below ⬇️

A poster presenting information about the seminar, including a photograph of a man in a grey suit.

The text reads :
from the republic to the streets of
celebration: florentine stagecraft
masters and their conquest of
fifteenth-century italian courts
Wednesday 20 May: 6.15pm
Room 553, Level 5, Arts West Building

Numerous primary sources — including urban chronicles,
encomiastic poems, and the correspondence of humanists,
ambassadors, and princes visiting Florence during its principal
festivities — attest to the high regard for Florentine craftsmen
specialized in staging spectacles during the Renaissance.
However, less is known about how these artists adapted theatrical
mechanisms—such as the clouds and angels used in the pageants
for the Patronal procession of Saint John the Baptist — to suit the
celebratory aims of different patrons.
This paper investigates how, by the second half of the fifteenth
century, the presence of Florentine-style performances became a
distinguishing and prestigious feature of the Italian princely
festivals, facilitating the export of Florentine expertise in
stagecraft and pyrotechnics.
Aristocratic patronage, artistic diplomacy, and the initiative of the
artists themselves thus transformed stagecraft — originally
designed for the civic education and political communication of
the Florentine Republic — into a tool for celebrating princely
authority. The various strategies of this transformation are
analyzed here through a comparative approach to the
performance traditions of Italian Renaissance cities, trying to
shed new light on their visual and urban culture.
Claudio Passera is an Assistant Professor (RTD-A) in Theatre History at
Sapienza University of Rome.

Early Modern Circle @earlymoderncircle.bsky.social · 4mo ago

🎉The Melbourne EMC is excited to present the full list of speakers for the 2026 seminar series 🎉 All Melbourne staff/students welcome! See schedule here or DM for details ⬇️

Text of poster reads:
The Early Modern Circle is an interdisciplinary seminar open to students, academics
and researchers. The Circle meets on the third Wednesday of the month during
semester at 6.15pm. The meetings will be in person at a location to be confirmed at a
later date.
Wednesday 15 April: Two PhD Candidates Showcase their Research Projects
Jenny Smith (Monash University): Seeing the future in 1590s English popular print:
mirrors in conjuring and mirrors of conscience
Isabelle Moss (University of Melbourne): Witchcraft Belief in Fifteenth-Century
Zurich: Intersections Between Learned and Popular Demonologies
Wednesday 20 May: Dr Claudio Passera (Sapienza University of Rome)
From the Republic to the Streets of Celebration: Florentine Stagecraft Masters and their
Conquest of Fifteenth-Century Italian Courts
Wednesday 19 August: Professor Dolly Mackinnon (University of Queensland)
Material Culture, Scottish Eighteenth-century Music, and its Transmission by both
Enslaved and Free people
Wednesday 16 September: Dr Volodymyr Mezentsev (Canadian Institute of Ukrainian
Studies )
History and Culture of Baturyn, the Capital of the Cossack State in Early Modern Ukraine
Wednesday 21 October: Dr Jessica O’Leary (Monash University)
Echoes of Women in Early Colonial Brazil

Early Modern Circle @earlymoderncircle.bsky.social · 4mo ago

We are delighted to share the first seminar in the 2026 Early Modern Circle series! Two wonderful PhD candidates from Melbourne surrounds, Jenny Smith and Isabelle Moss, will present their research 💫 When: April 15, 6.15pm, UniMelb Campus DM for details or see poster below ⬇️ #earlymodern #emhist

Presenter 1:Jenny Smith
Seeing the future in 1590s English popular print: mirrors in conjuring and mirrors of conscience
The future was hard to see in 1590s England, clouded by an imminent succession crisis, religious war, and widespread famine, and subject to the intervention of providence. Speculation and prognostication were outlawed, and ‘conjuring’ including scrying was also condemned on theological grounds, by Puritan preachers and popular playwrights alike. But mirrors retained authority as way to engage with the future in popular texts. News from Europe was reported as a mirror of what might happen at home.
Jenny Smith is a PhD student at Monash University, writing a history of the mirror as a metaphor in sixteenth-century England.
Presenter 2: Isabelle Moss
Witchcraft Belief in Fifteenth-Century Zurich: Intersections Between Learned and Popular Demonologies
This paper explores the richness and plurality of fifteenth-century witchcraft belief in the early modern city of Zurich. It examines community accusations of flying wolves, magical milking, bewitching, weather magic, and yet, this paper will argue that it is the sexual activity of witches with their demonic accomplices which proves most concerning for the Council. This exploration is used to consider the ways in which both the Zurich Council and the wider community processed the emerging threat of witchcraft in the city. In doing so, it complicates existing expectations of demonological belief and the role of demonic copulation in early witchcraft prosecutions.
Isabelle Moss is a PhD candidate in History at the University of Melbourne. Her research examines witchcraft in early modern Zurich, focused on the ways in which demonic copulation was conceptualised and its implications for trial proceedings.

Early Modern Circle @earlymoderncircle.bsky.social · 11mo ago

Our next EMC seminar takes place on Tuesday 16 September, with Dr Richard Tait, who is discussing physicians in Renaissance Italy 🩺

this poster describes Richard Tait's seminar on physicians in Renaissance Italy. It contains a painting of Renaissance physicians and a photograph of Richard, who is wearing a black blazer and glasses.

Early Modern Circle @earlymoderncircle.bsky.social · 12mo ago

The next seminar in the Early Modern Circle is on Tuesday 19 August at 6pm at UniMelb ✨ Professor Timothy McCall from Villanova University will be presenting on the topic ‘Fighting for Anghiari’s Standards: Leonardo da Vinci and the Material Culture of War’ ⚔️ We hope to see you there!

Early Modern Circle @earlymoderncircle.bsky.social · 12mo ago

Early Modern Circle @earlymoderncircle.bsky.social · last yr.

Tomorrow we have Kristie Patricia Flannery joining us to discuss "Maritime Violence and Empire in the Early Modern Pacific" 🌟 Please come along Melbourne folks - Tuesday 20 May, 6.15pm

This image is a poster advertising the next seminar in the EMC series. There is an image of an artistic depiction of violence and an image which is a photograph of the speaker, a blonde woman wearing glasses.
The poster includes an abstract and biography of the speaker which can be screen read here: https://arts.unimelb.edu.au/ancient-medieval-and-early-modern-studies/seminars-reading-groups/early-modern-circle

IMEMS Durham @imems.bsky.social · last yr.

Our garden tidy-up is complete, but one important job remains: our IMEMS gargoyle needs a name. Suggestions welcome:👇

Sarah Bendall @sarahabendall.bsky.social · last yr.

Looking forward to presenting some research from my forthcoming book in a couple of weeks! Melbourne people, please come along!

Early Modern Circle@earlymoderncircle.bsky.social · last yr.

Our first EMC seminar for the year takes place on Tuesday 15 April with Dr Sarah Bendall (@sarahabendall.bsky.social) ✨ Sarah is presenting “Celebrity, Scandal and Friendship: The social and business networks of female milliners in late 17th century London” 👒 All Melbourne-based folks welcome!

This image is a poster advertising the upcoming Early Modern Circle seminar by Sarah Bendall. It states that the talk will take place at the Chisholm Theatrette at the University of Melbourne on 16 April at 6.15pm

ANZAMEMS @anzamems.bsky.social · last yr.

ANZAMEMS Seminar: Documenting Medieval and Early Modern Women #medieval #earlymodern www.anzamems.org/?p=...

CPF for Documenting Medieval and Early Modern Women seminar, hosted by ANZAMEMS. For text details, see our website: https://www.anzamems.org/?p=13593

Early Modern Circle @earlymoderncircle.bsky.social · last yr.

CEMS KCL @cemskcl.bsky.social · last yr.

Call for Papers for our Annual CEMS Colloquium! This year's theme is early modern war narratives. Organised by @emilyrowe1.bsky.social. We're looking for 15-minute papers. Deadline for abstracts is 11 April. Full details below. kingsearlymodern.co.uk/events/lamen... @kingsartshums.bsky.social

Early Modern War Narratives - Annual CEMS Colloquium — CEMS KCL Blog

Join CEMS for our annual colloquium. This year's theme is early modern war narratives. CfP deadline: 11th April.

kingsearlymodern.co.uk

Mikki Brock @mikkibrock.bsky.social · last yr.

In exciting news, The Routledge History of the Devil is up and available to preview (and ask your libraries to consider preordering). It will be out in May. I am sorry to report that, though it comes in at nearly 600 pages, we couldn't *quite* stretch it to 666: www.routledge.com/.../Raiswe.....

The Routledge History of the Devil in the Western Tradition

Covering a period of 2000 years, this book offers an interdisciplinary exploration of the devil's role in the Western tradition and draws from history, religion, art, literature, media studies, and an...

routledge.com

Early Modern Circle @earlymoderncircle.bsky.social · last yr.

🌟 We are delighted to announce the Early Modern Circle seminar programme for 2025 🌟 First in the line-up is the fabulous Dr Sarah Bendall (@sarahabendall.bsky.social) presenting research on her female milliners in 17th ce London 👒🎩 Students and researchers in Melbourne all welcome to attend!

The image is a poster for the Melbourne University Early Modern seminar series. This is available for screen reading at https://arts.unimelb.edu.au/ancient-medieval-and-early-modern-studies/seminars-reading-groups/early-modern-circle