Thesis title: 'John Milton (1608-74) and the Uses of Ancient Learning'
Supervisor: Dr William Poole
Doctoral research: We know very much about John Milton's classical sources, allusions, and formal archetypes. But humanism did not only entail the imitation of ancient literature-and we know less about Milton's place in the much broader intellectual culture of late humanistic classical scholarship. Amongst other things, I discuss contemporary methodologies for encountering and accommodating ancient wisdom; Milton's confessionalised erudition, including his patristic scholarship; and the uses of ancient cosmography, physics, and astronomy in Paradise Lost.
Other research: I have wider interests in intellectual history and bibliography. I served as Hon. Treasurer of the Oxford Bibliographical Society (2020-23), and remain on its council. Some current research projects include:
- The reception of the ancient astronomical writings of Aratus and Geminus of Rhodes in early modern Europe
- The life and times of Robert Sharrock (1630-84), the sometime editor of Robert Boyle
- The libertas philosophandi in England and continental Europe
- A co-edited revised edition of Paul Morgan, Oxford Libraries Outside the Bodleian (Oxford, 1973)
Publications:
- 'Robert Burton, Lucretius, and the Savilian Professors', Notes and Queries, 67 (2020), 361-5
- (with William Poole), 'Stephen Standish and the Provenance of the New College Astronomicum Cæsareum (1540)', New College Notes, 12 (2019), article 5
Conference papers:
- Co-convenor (with Dr Sarah Cusk), 'Bibliography's Past, Present, and Future: the OBS Centenary Colloquium' (approx. 20 speakers & 130 attendees) (September 2022)
- 'Robert Sharrock (1630-84): the varying institutional commitments of Robert Boyle's editor', at 'The mind is its own place? Early modern intellectual history in an institutional context', Oxford (April 2022)
- 'Thomas James: catalogues and chronology', at 'Bodley's first librarian, Thomas James: his career and legacy', Bodleian Libraries Centre for the Study of the Book, Oxford (September 2020; postponed due to Covid)
- 'The Royal Society Library in the seventeenth century', at 'Provenance in the Royal Society early book collection', Royal Society of London (March 2020)
Grants/fellowships:
- 'Friends of the Princeton University Library Research Grant', Princeton University Library Special Collections (four weeks, 2024)
- Research fellowship, The Huntington Library, California (four weeks, 2023)
- Minor Grant from The Bibliographical Society of London. Project title: 'The annotations of G.J. (1577-1649) and Isaac Vossius (1618-89) to their copies of Lucretius held at Leiden' (2021)
