Edited by Erdağ Göknar (NHC Fellow, 2007–08; 2022–23), Grant Parker, and Miriam Cooke The Mediterranean is the meeting point of three continents–Asia, Africa, and Europe–as well as three major monotheistic religions–Islam, Judaism, and Christianity. Focusing on global networks and cultural exchanges, Mediterranean Passages collects writings from across 3,000 years to provide a pan-Mediterranean perspective of the cultural, … Continued
By Nicholas of CusaTranslated by Jasper Hopkins (NHC Fellow, 1983–84) Nicholas of Cusa (1401-1464), sometimes misleadingly referred to as the first "modern" philosopher, was born in Kues, Germany (today Bernkastel-Kues). He became a canon lawyer and a cardinal. His two best-known works are De Docta Ignorantia (On Learned Ignorance) and De Visione Dei (On the Vision of God).
By Matthew Giancarlo (NHC Fellow, 2004–05) Parliament and Literature in Late Medieval England investigates the relationship between the development of parliament and the practice of English poetry in the later fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries. During this period, the bureaucratic political culture of parliamentarians, clerks, and scribes overlapped with the artistic practice of major poets … Continued
By Robert R. Edwards (NHC Fellow, 1985–86) Edwards examines the complex relations of literary theory and practice in the Middle Ages. Analyzing medieval arts of poetry, he shows that literary theory is not merely prescriptive nor does it describe the poet's craft; rather, it is part of poetic discourse and becomes a source of poetic … Continued
By Hermione de Almeida (NHC Fellow, 1982–83) Using original research in scientific treatises, philosophical manuscripts, and political documents, this pioneering study describes the neglected era of revolutionary medicine in Europe through the writings of the English poet and physician, John Keats. De Almeida explores the four primary concerns of Romantic medicine–the physician's task, the meaning … Continued
By Blake Wilson (NHC Fellow, 2016–17) A primary mode for the creation and dissemination of poetry in Renaissance Italy was the oral practice of singing and improvising verse to the accompaniment of a stringed instrument. Singing to the Lyre is the first comprehensive study of this ubiquitous practice, which was cultivated by performers ranging from … Continued
By Robert A. Ferguson (NHC Fellow, 1994–95) This literary history of the American Revolution captures both the competition and the correspondences of religious and political conviction in the new nation. Robert Ferguson’s trenchant interpretation of Enlightenment thought reveals a forgotten tension in early republican writing, and the result is a new understanding of a pivotal but … Continued
By Andrew Delbanco (Trustee; NHC Fellow, 1990–91; 2002–03) In a spiritual biography of America, Delbanco shows how writers of the past 3 centuries have depicted evil and how they have tried to defy and subdue it. He shows the strategies by which writers such as Cotton Mather, Jefferson and Lincoln, Emerson and Melville, Thoreau and … Continued
By Bertram Wyatt-Brown (NHC Fellow, 1989–90; 1998–99) The novels of Walker Percy–The Moviegoer, Lancelot, The Second Coming, and The Thanatos Syndrome to name a few–have left a permanent mark on twentieth-century Southern fiction; yet the history of the Percy family in America matches anything, perhaps, that he could have created. Two centuries of wealth, literary accomplishment, political leadership, depression, … Continued
By George Mills Harper (NHC Fellow, 1981–82) Quoting copiously from the Script, Harper has traced in two volumes these incredible experiments day by day as the Yeatses moved about England, Ireland, and America. He has also cited hundreds of parallel explanatory passages from many workbooks, notebooks, and the concordance arranged like a card index in … Continued