Recent Publications
The Dimensions of Colour: Robert Grosseteste’s De colore
Greti Dinkova-Bruun, Giles E. M. Gasper, Michael Huxable, Tom C. B. McLeish, Cecilia Panti and Hannah Smithson, 2013
Robert Grosseteste’s treatise De colore is presented here in an authoritative new critical edition, with translation, commentary on its context, and a functional analysis from the perspective of modern science. The volume emanates from a series of interdisciplinary meetings, involving medieval specialists (from his- tory, literary studies, history of philosophy, and palaeography) and modern sci- entists (from psychology and physics). This unique combination of insights allows new and deeper appreciation of Grosseteste’s treatise and the signifi- cance of his methods and observations. Grosseteste builds a coherent mathe- matical model in his exploration of what colour is and how it is to be described. What he articulates is a three-dimensional model for the operation of colour, depending on three factors, the amount of light, its quality, and the quality of the medium in which light is incorporated. The importance of the De colore within Grosseteste’s scientific canon can be better established as a result of these investigations, as well as the enduring sense of the richness of the encounter between medieval and modern science.
For more information see here. To purchase a copy, priced £14.99 please contact Dr Giles Gasper or Mrs Jacky Pankhurst.
Women and Gender in Twentieth-Century China
Professor Paul Bailey, 2012
Paul Bailey's new book, Women and Gender in Twentieth-Century China, is published by Palgrave Macmillan on August 29 2012. It is the first analytical study in English of Chinese women's experiences in the twentieth century, utilising the latest specialised research and drawing on Chinese cinema and autobiographical memoirs. For more information see here.
Pluralism and the Idea of the Republic in France
Edited by Julian Wright and H. S. Jones, 2012
Modern French citizens tell powerful stories about their Republic. The idea of the centralized State has played a powerful role in shaping French republicanism since the French Revolution. But for two hundred years, many have tried to find other ways of being French and Republican. Alternative models of the Republic have been advanced from the centre, the centre-left and the far left. Whether inspired by Proudhon and the tradition of 'federal' socialism, or the liberals of the 1820s, these alternative models have mounted a sustained challenge to what is sometimes called 'Jacobinism' in France. But, as Pierre Rosanvallon has pointed out, the dominant narrative remains fixed in the minds of many. These essays, bringing together new work from leading scholars of French politics and ideas suggest a major new interpretation of French republicanism, pointing out that historians have an important job to do in reshaping these traditional accounts.
The book was published by Palgrave Macmillan on 12 June 2012. For full details see here.
The Shaping of German Identity: Authority and Change 1245-1414
Dr Len Scales, 2012
German identity began to take shape in the late Middle Ages during a period of political weakness and fragmentation for the Holy Roman Empire, the monarchy under which most Germans lived. Between the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries, the idea that there existed a single German people, with its own lands, language and character, became increasingly widespread, as was expressed in written works of the period. This book - the first on its subject in any language - poses a challenge to some dominant assumptions of current historical scholarship: that early European nation-making inevitably took place within the developing structures of the institutional state; and that, in the absence of such structural growth, the idea of a German nation was uniquely, radically and fatally retarded. In recounting the formation of German identity in the late Middle Ages, this book offers an important new perspective both on German history and on European nation-making.
Published by Cambridge University Press on 26 April 2012. For more details, and to read an extract, go here.
Our Man in Rome: Henry VIII and his Italian Ambassador
Dr Catherine Fletcher, 2012
Our Man in Rome is set in the six-year period of Henry VIII’s divorce from Catherine of Aragon. It's the story of Gregorio Casali, Henry VIII’s ambassador in Rome from 1525 to 1533, but also the first book-length account of the diplomatic intrigues behind the divorce for several decades.
Drawing on hundreds of hitherto-unknown archive documents, Our Man in Rome reconstructs his tumultuous life among the great and powerful at this turning point for European history. From the besieged Castel Sant’Angelo in Rome to the splendours of Greenwich Palace, we follow his trail in the service of Henry VIII. Lavish ceremony and glamorous parties stand in contrast to the daily strains of embassy life, as Casali pawns family silver to pay the bills, fights off rapacious in-laws and defends himself in the face of Anne Boleyn’s wrath. This stunning book will make you think anew about Tudor history.
Our Man in Rome was published by Bodley Head on 2 February 2012. The US edition will be published by Palgrave Macmillan later in the year. For more details, please see Dr Fletcher's website.
The Ottoman World
Edited by Christine Woodhead, 2011
The Ottoman empire as a political entity comprised most of the present Middle East (with the principal exception of Iran), north Africa and south-eastern Europe. For over 500 years, until its disintegration during World War I, it encompassed a diverse range of ethnic, religious and linguistic communities with varying political and cultural backgrounds. Yet, was there such a thing as an ‘Ottoman world’ beyond the principle of sultanic rule from Istanbul? Ottoman authority might have been established largely by military conquest, but how was it maintained for so long, over such distances and so many disparate societies? How did provincial regions relate to the imperial centre and what role was played in this by local elites? What did it mean in practice, for ordinary people, to be part of an ‘Ottoman world’?
Arranged in five thematic sections, with contributions from thirty specialist historians, The Ottoman World addresses these questions, examining aspects of the social and socio-ideological composition of this major pre-modern empire, and offers a combination of broad synthesis and detailed investigation that is both informative and intended to raise points for future debate.
The book will appear in Turkish.
In the Shadow of Death: Saint Boniface and the Conversion of Hessia, 721-54
John Clay, 2011
In the year 721 the Anglo-Saxon missionary St Boniface came with his followers to Hessia, a small but turbulent province on the borders of the expanding Frankish kingdom. This book is the first dedicated interdisciplinary study of Boniface's thirty-three-year mission among the Hessians. This innovative study brings history and archaeology into communication with the landscape, both real and imagined, in order to reconstruct a crucial moment in the conversion of Europe. Dr Clay was awarded the Josef Leinweber Prize 2009 by the Fulda Faculty of Theology.