Richard Hakluyt and the Renaissance Discovery of the World

Date / time: 24 November - 25 November, 12:00 am

Richard Hakluyt and the Renaissance Discovery of the World

This two-day conference, organised by Dan Carey (NUI Galway), Claire Jowitt (UEA) and Anthony Payne (Hakluyt Society), marks the 400th anniversary of the death of Richard Hakluyt in November 1616. It is being held in Oxford at the Bodleian Library and Christ Church, Hakluyt’s old college. Registration is via the Christ Church website: https://chch.digitickets.co.uk/event/1592271?catID=6761 .

Programme:

Thursday 24 November 2016, Bodleian Library

Hakluyt, Oxford, and Centres of Power: Prof. Sebastian Sobecki (University of Groningen): ‘Hakluyt and the Libelle of Englyshe Polycye’: Prof. David Harris Sacks (Reed College): ‘Learning to Know: The Educations of Richard Hakluyt and Thomas Harriot’: Anthony Payne (Hakluyt Society): ‘Hakluyt and Aristotle at Oxford’.

‘the three corners of the world’ (Shakespeare, King John). Prof. Nandini Das (University of Liverpool): ‘Hakluyt and India’; Dr Felicity Stout (University of Sheffield): ‘Hakluyt and Russia’; Prof. Bernhard Klein (University of Kent): ‘Hakluyt and West Africa’.

Encounters & Communication.  Prof. Karen Ordahl Kupperman (New York University): ‘Communicating without Words in Hakluyt’s Voyages’; Prof. Michael Leroy Oberg (SUNY Geneseo): ‘Hakluyt and Ethnography’; Prof. Ladan Niayesh (Paris Diderot): ‘ “In their own tongue”: What the Muscovy Company Agents’ Information Tells Us about Their Informants’.

Keynote Lecture: Prof. Joyce E. Chaplin (Harvard): ‘ “No Land Unhabitable, Nor Sea Innavigable”: Hakluyt’s Argument from Design’.

This day will conclude with an evening drinks reception for registered conference attendees in the Upper Library at Christ Church.

Friday 25 November 2016, Christ Church

Telling Tales. Prof. Mary Fuller (MIT): ‘Consent and Dissent at High Latitudes: The Voyages of John Davis’.Prof. Claire Jowitt (University of East Anglia); ‘Heroic Hakluyt?’.Prof. Joyce Lorimer (Wilfred Laurier University): ‘Editing Ralegh and Keymis’.

Influences & Legacy. Dr Heather Dalton (University of Melbourne): ‘Hakluyt and the Cabots’.Prof. Michiel van Groesen (University of Leiden);  ‘Hakluyt and De Bry’.Dr John Hemming (Hakluyt Society): ‘Clements Markham’s Half-century for the Hakluyt Society’.

Theatres of War, Near & Far. Prof. Carla Rahn Phillips (University of Minnesota): ‘Sarmiento’s Voyage to the South Atlantic and Early 1580s International Politics’; Prof. Michael Brennan (University of Leeds): ‘Hakluyt, Howard of Effingham, and Naval Warfare’.

Rival Ambitions. Prof. Joan-Pau Rubiés (Catalan Institute for Advanced Research): ‘Imperial Emulation and the Making of the Principal Navigations’; Prof. Daniel Carey (NUI Galway) ‘Hakluyt and the Clothworkers: Long Distance Trade and English Commercial Development’.

After the conclusion of the conference the broadcaster and historian Michael Wood will give his free public lecture, ‘Voyages, Traffiques, Discoveries’, at the Examination Schools, High Street, Oxford.

OTHER EVENTS

During autumn 2016 there will be two exhibitions in Oxford of books by or relating to Hakluyt. At Christ Church, ‘Hakluyt and Geography in Oxford 1550–1650’, will be launched on Friday 14 October with a symposium on Renaissance scientific instruments conducted by Prof. Jim Bennett, Dr Stephen Johnston (Museum of the History of Science) and Judith Curthoys (Archivist, Christ Church). At the Bodleian, ‘Hakluyt: The World in a Book’, will be launched with a lecture by Dr William Poole (New College) on Friday 28 October.