CEMS ANU Work in Progress Morning, Semester 2, 2021

CEMS ANU Work in Progress Morning, Semester 2, 2021

by Centre for Early Modern Studies

In November 2021 CEMS ANU members, including two HDR candidates, spoke to their most recent research in progress. Chaired by Senior Lecturer Kate Flaherty, the first panellists spoke on ‘Double-take: Revisionary Readings of Early Modern Texts.’ Centre Director Ros Smith chaired the second panel themed ‘Unusual Agency: Faith, Reform, and Mobility.’

Papers ranged from an investigation of the racialized-feminine in Hildegard von Bingen’s Scivias 12th century manuscript (Dr karo Moret-Miranda) to the intersection of science, religion and political philosophy with practical and popular politics during the Age of Revolution, up to the early 19th century (Dr Alex Cook). For details of the other papers on staging witchcraft in Shakespeare, women and monastic reform in the Medieval West, the political interventions of touring actresses, and published Mother’s legacies in seventeenth century England see the abstracts and full program here.

Historian of cartography Chet Van Duzer will host this CEMS workshop on studying early modern maps slowly.

When: Tuesday 14 October, 2025

Where: ANU Campus (location TBA)

Regstration: Registrations open soon

Abstract

Maps are incredibly rich documents that only reveal some of their secrets after slow and deliberate study, and it is precisely this aspect of maps that we will explore in this two-hour workshop. Chet Van Duzer will analyze several early modern maps and provide examples of important characteristics of them that can only be appreciated and understood through slow looking. He will also supply advice on how to study maps slowly, and workshop participants will consult historic maps to begin to practice looking slowly at them, with plenty of time for examining the maps together and asking questions. The goal of the workshop is that participants will gain experience and tools for engaging more fully with maps in the future.

About the Speaker

Chet Van Duzer is a historian of cartography and a board member of the Lazarus Project at the University of Rochester, which brings multispectral imaging (a technology for recovering information from damaged manuscripts) to cultural institutions around the world. He has published extensively on medieval and Renaissance maps; his recent books include Henricus Martellus’s World Map at Yale (c. 1491): Multispectral Imaging, Sources, and Influence, published by Springer in 2019, and Martin Waldseemüller’s Carta marina of 1516: Study and Transcription of the Long Legends, published by Springer in 2020. His book Frames that Speak: Cartouches on Early Modern Maps was published by Brill in Open Access in 2023. His current projects are books about self-portraits by cartographers that appear on maps and the historical cartography of the Indian Ocean.