Centre for Early Modern Studies, University of Aberdeen

31/03/2023

The University of Aberdeen Visiting Scholar Awards are available to researchers of all kinds wishing to make use of our historic collections for innovative research.

The University’s rich and diverse collections consist of over 230,000 rare books, around 5,000 archive collections, and over 300,000 museum artefacts and scientific specimens.

Applications close on the 28th of April.

https://bit.ly/3Ko2qGk

05/04/2022

The London Journal is proud to announce the launch of its new special issue, London as Theatrical Space: Pageantry and Performance in the Early Modern City. The event is being kindly hosted by the Guildhall Library, appropriately enough located in the heart of the historical City of London on Wed 13th April, 6-8 pm.

London as Theatrical Space is an exciting collection of 7 articles from established and emerging scholars. All aspects of London performance outside of the playhouses are considered, from the spectacular Lord Mayor's Show to the theatrical figure of the mountebank and the Pope burning processions of Restoration London.

Guest editors Andrew Gordon and Tracey Hill will set the scene, with brief talks from some of the contributors about their articles. There will be plenty of time for questions and discussion. To bring the topic to life, the Guildhall Library is going to set up a display of early modern pageant books from its large collection.

Refreshments will be available after the talks, giving attendees the chance to chat and mingle.

The introduction to the special issue by Andy Gordon and Tracey Hill, 'Moving London: Pageantry and Performance in the Early Modern City', is available free to view and open access by following this link.

Please note that this event will take place in a hybrid format. If you wish to attend remotely, please select the 'online only' ticket option and a zoom link will be sent before the event.

Registration (online or in person):

Join us as we celebrate the launch of a very special special issue of The London Journal: London as Theatrical Space.

04/03/2021

Professor Jerzy Limon (1950-2021)

It is with great sadness that we have learned of the death from Covid-19 of Professor Jerzy Limon on 3rd March.
Professor Limon was a Shakespearean scholar, a passionate evangelist for theatre, and a great friend to CEMS.
He was a theatre historian whose pioneering archival work brought to light a wealth of material on the networks that connected acting companies of early modern England and the continental mainland.
He was the founder of the Gdansk Shakespeare Festival, and the driving force behind the Gdasnk Shakespeare Theatre. A project which reached fruition in 2014 with the opening of a new theatre space designed by Renato Rizzi inspired by the city's seventeenth century fencing school that hosted theatre performances.
He was a frequent visitor to Aberdeen across a number of years, and CEMS was able to welcome him on several occasions.
He delivered the annual public lecture in 2017, unfolding an archival trail of seventeenth-century espionage involving the sometime principal of Aberdeen's Marischal College. The year before he presented the story of the Gdansk Shakespeare Theatre as part of our 2016 Shakespeare 400 programme of events. He was also generous with his time in support of 'What Country Friends Is This', a Shakespearean project connecting the experiences of Polish migrants with the visit of seventeenth century touring actors to Aberdeen in 1601, (a project which itself drew inspiration from his research and practice). In both his archival research and his fostering of artistic and intellectual networks, he connected communities across borders. He will be remembered with fondness and much missed. Our thoughts go out to his wife Justyna, his daughter Julia, who graduated from Aberdeen in 2020, and to his family and friends.

Andrew Gordon, Co-Director, Centre for Early Modern Studies.