Western Esoteric Traditions In The Rennaisance
The Department of English and Media, together with the Reinventing the Renaissance Research Centre, organized a half-day international colloquium on 'Western Esoteric Traditions in the Renaissance'. The occasion for this successful scholarly event was twofold. On the one hand it marked the Leverhulme Visiting Professorship of György E. Szonyi, whose expertise is Western esotericism in the Renaissance as well as in our postmodern culture. On the other, the colloquium functioned as a prelude to the John Dee interdisciplinary conference, organised by Jennifer Rampling of the History and Philosophy of Science Faculty at Cambridge University. This was held at St John's College and commemorated the quatercentenary of the death of the famous English magus.
The Anglia Ruskin colloquium consisted of two sessions, each with four high-quality and thought-provoking papers. In the first session three literary topics were preceded by an introductory talk by Angela Voss (University of Kent), reviewing the premodern, Platonic cosmology of Ficino, a world picture that was still influential in the Elizabethan Renaissance. We then had two papers by PhD students. Bronnie Johnson (Oxford University) and Lynsey McCulloch (Anglia Ruskin) which both explored English Renaissance drama, especially Robert Greene's Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay, from the viewpoint of hermeticism, magic, and witchcraft. Finally, Sarah Annes Brown (Anglia Ruskin) offered an intriguing talk in which she compared Shakespeare's Falstaff with Marlowe's Faustus - a bold, but convincing juxtaposition.
The second part was devoted to seventeenth-century intellectual history, investigating some representatives of the transition from esoteric natural history to the scientific revolution. First Stanton Linden (Washington State University, USA) revisited Sir Kenelm Digby, the slightly eccentric amateur natural philosopher, and his links with Henry Power, one of the early members of the Royal Society. The next speaker, Andy Szydlo (London) contextualised the English history of the work of a Polish alchemist, Michael Sendivogius, which was published in 1650 by the Oxford alchemist and translator of Henry Cornelius Agrippa, John French. George Gömori (London, formerly of the University of Cambridge) introduced a Hungarian, Johannes Banffy Hunyades, who forged a successful career in England and in the first half of the seventeenth century was the chief chemist of Gresham College, London. The colloquium was closed by György Szonyi's paper, which tried to summarise some facets of early modern English esotericism, offering a typology of attitudes based on contemporary publications.
The event was very well attended, and we were delighted to welcome many delegates from the John Dee Conference, including such major Dee scholars as Nicholas Clulee. The papers were followed by a cordial reception provided by the university. György Szonyi and Rowland Wymer went on to deliver papers at the St John's College conference. A second Anglia Ruskin colloquium, 'Reinventing the Renaissance Occult in Modern and Postmodern Culture', will be held on November 14 2009.
For further information please see the programme below or contact Professor Rowland Wymer.
The Anglia Ruskin colloquium consisted of two sessions, each with four high-quality and thought-provoking papers. In the first session three literary topics were preceded by an introductory talk by Angela Voss (University of Kent), reviewing the premodern, Platonic cosmology of Ficino, a world picture that was still influential in the Elizabethan Renaissance. We then had two papers by PhD students. Bronnie Johnson (Oxford University) and Lynsey McCulloch (Anglia Ruskin) which both explored English Renaissance drama, especially Robert Greene's Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay, from the viewpoint of hermeticism, magic, and witchcraft. Finally, Sarah Annes Brown (Anglia Ruskin) offered an intriguing talk in which she compared Shakespeare's Falstaff with Marlowe's Faustus - a bold, but convincing juxtaposition.
The second part was devoted to seventeenth-century intellectual history, investigating some representatives of the transition from esoteric natural history to the scientific revolution. First Stanton Linden (Washington State University, USA) revisited Sir Kenelm Digby, the slightly eccentric amateur natural philosopher, and his links with Henry Power, one of the early members of the Royal Society. The next speaker, Andy Szydlo (London) contextualised the English history of the work of a Polish alchemist, Michael Sendivogius, which was published in 1650 by the Oxford alchemist and translator of Henry Cornelius Agrippa, John French. George Gömori (London, formerly of the University of Cambridge) introduced a Hungarian, Johannes Banffy Hunyades, who forged a successful career in England and in the first half of the seventeenth century was the chief chemist of Gresham College, London. The colloquium was closed by György Szonyi's paper, which tried to summarise some facets of early modern English esotericism, offering a typology of attitudes based on contemporary publications.
The event was very well attended, and we were delighted to welcome many delegates from the John Dee Conference, including such major Dee scholars as Nicholas Clulee. The papers were followed by a cordial reception provided by the university. György Szonyi and Rowland Wymer went on to deliver papers at the St John's College conference. A second Anglia Ruskin colloquium, 'Reinventing the Renaissance Occult in Modern and Postmodern Culture', will be held on November 14 2009.
For further information please see the programme below or contact Professor Rowland Wymer.
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