Art and Power in Habsburg Spain October 2, 2002
Renowned historian Sir John Elliott (Regius Professor Emeritus of Modern History, University of Oxford) discusses the ways the Spanish Habsburgs of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries saw themselves and their mission, and examines the development of an artistic and architectural tradition that reflected their view of themselves and their world. He will illustrate his lecture with slides. Co-sponsored by CMRS, the Center for 17th- & 18th-Century Studies, the Camino de Santiago Initiative, the Maurice Amado Chair in Sephardic Studies, Professor Anthony Pagden (Political Science and History), and the Departments of Art History, Comparative Literature, History, and Spanish & Portuguese.
The Arabic Maqama and the Rise of the Modern Novel
October 8, 2002 In this lecture, CMRS Visiting Professor James T. Monroe (Comparative Literature, UC Berkeley) defines the nature of the Arabic maqama genre in terms of its structure, while investigating the cultural and historical factors that brought it into existence. He relates the maqama to other genres of Arabic literature and to the Spanish picaresque tradition and discusses theories of possible influence. He will also examine the similarities and differences between the maqama and the modern novel that begins with the Spanish writer Cervantes (1547-1616).
CMRS Faculty Roundtable: "The Four Great Temples of Seventh-Century Japan"
October 9, 2002
Although there is some evidence for Buddhist practice in Japan by the
middle of the sixth century, it was not until the end of that century that the
Soga clan began building the first full-scale temple, Asukadera. This temple was more or less completed by 625. In the course of the rest of the seventh century, three other "Great Temples" - Kudara Odera, Kawaradera, and Yakushiji - were built sequentially, roughly one for every quarter century. These temples were by far the most important Buddhist institutions of this period, a fact that has not been generally recognized because of the focus on other, better preserved temples such as Horyuji. Don McCallum's discussion will aim at placing the "Four Great Temples" in the appropriate historical and religious framework. CMRS faculty, associates, graduate students, and friends are invited to attend. Bring your lunch! The Center will provide soft drinks and coffee.
CMRS Opening Reception
October 10, 2002
The Center invites faculty and graduate students with an interest in Medieval and Renaissance Studies to attend a reception to mark the opening of the new academic year. Meet the Center's staff and find out about the programs, awards, and fellowships available to students from CMRS. As a special bonus, there will be a small used book sale featuring items of interest to scholars of Medieval and Renaissance Studies. Drop by and see us!
Renaissance Princely Costumes at the Dresden Armory
October 17, 2002***EVENT CANCELLED!!!***The Costume Collection of the Dresden Armory, State Art Collections Dresden, includes original men's and women's garments which were among the possessions of the Electors of Saxony and their families. In this lecture, Dr. Jutta Charlotte Bäumel (Senior Curator at the Dresden Armory) gives an illustrated overview of these spectacular examples of princely dress and accessories from the middle of the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries.
CMRS Faculty Roundtable, "Richard Hakluyt and the Improbable Journey of David Ingram: Truth and Lies in Elizabethan England"
October 23, 2002 Professor Peter Mancall (History, USC) will explore how Richard Hakluyt, a leading promoter
of overseas colonization, wrestled with a travel account written by a sailor named David Ingram, who claimed to have walked 1,200 miles through
eastern North America. Ingram's tale included remarkable claims, including
details of an encounter with an indigenous devil. Hakluyt, who never saw the
Americas, had to figure out if Ingram told the truth. This was no easy task
in the 1590s, especially for a man who believed that the fate of English
expansion rested on his ability to tell the difference between legitimate
travelers' tales and the fabulous products of an over-eager imagination.
CMRS faculty, associates, graduate students, and friends are invited to
attend. Bring your lunch! The Center will provide soft drinks and coffee.
The Annual Rebecca D. Catz Lecture, "Fernão Mendes Pinto and Fernando Pessoa: The Great Travellers"
October 24, 2002 Dr. José Blanco (Director of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation), a scholar and aficionado of the works of the Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa, will present the inaugural lecture in an annual lecture series established in memory of Dr. Rebecca D. Catz, a long-time CMRS Associate. She was an authority on sixteenth-century Portuguese literature, and the author of numerous books and articles on the writings of Portuguese navigator and adventurer Fernão Mendes Pinto. The series is made possible through the generosity of Dr. Boris Catz, Rebecca's husband.
Romans versus Foreigners: The Fluidity of Ethnic Identity in Byzantium
October 25, 2002 A lecture by Evangelos Chrysos (Professor of Byzantine History,
University of Athens, Greece, Director of the Institute for Byzantine Research, and Director of the Hellenic Research Foundation in Athens). Sponsored by the Alexander S. Onassis Public Benefit Foundation, and co-sponsored by the UCLA Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies.
California Medieval History Seminar
November 2, 2002
The California Medieval History Seminar meets at the Huntington Library to discuss four, pre-distributed research papers (two by faculty members, two by graduate students or recent Ph.D. recipients). Presenters and paper titles will be announced by e-mail approximately 6-8 weeks before the meeting. Participants are expected to have read the papers in advance and come prepared to discuss them. To promote an active discussion, attendance is limited.
In 2001-2002, the California Medieval History Seminar was supported by: the UCLA Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies; the California Institute of Technology; the University of Southern California, Department of History; the UCLA, Department of History; the UC Davis Medieval Research Consortium; the UCLA Dean of Social Sciences; the Huntington Library; and the Huntington-Caltech Committee for the Humanities. The program has received a generous grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for the next three years, beginning Fall 2002.
CMRS Faculty Roundtable, "The Siete Partidas of Alfonso el Sabio: A New English Edition"
November 6, 2002 The thirteenth-century crusader king of Castile, Alfonso X, "the Learned," patron of the arts, sciences and Arabic and Jewish learning, produced a massive code of the new Roman law, Siete Partidas. Professor Emeritus Robert Burns, S.J. (History, UCLA) will discuss his new 5-volume English edition of this work. The code eventually enjoyed "the widest territorial force ever, by any law book." It is still a force in U.S. law today, and specifically in Los Angeles. It is at once a Book of Wisdom and a vast encyclopedia of medieval life. It
incorporates treatises on university and student life, on military tactics and castle strategy, on how to act as a king, on crimes and prisons and torture, on friendship, on diplomatics, and on the environment and common resources. It touches every sort of legal lore and lifestyle, from pilgrims and slaves to notions of women's rights. CMRS faculty, associates, graduate students, and friends are invited to attend. Bring your lunch! The Center will provide soft drinks and coffee.
CMRS Faculty Roundtable,"Shakespeare and Christian Violence"
November 20, 2002
Shakespeare's treatment of violence has been considered, if at all,
mainly in relation to revenge and the plays of Seneca, and has been focused on Titus Andronicus above all. Professor Emeritus Reginald Foakes (English, UCLA) will
present a case for thinking that Shakespeare's plays show a continuing deep
concern with the problem of human violence in the context of the violence of
his own time, the violence shown in biblical stories (notably that of Cain and
Abel), and in the context of the long wars with Spain and the debates of his
age about the idea of a just war. CMRS faculty, associates, graduate students, and friends are invited to attend. Bring your lunch! The
Center will provide soft drinks and coffee.
The Annual Hammer Foundation Lecture, "Holy Persons, Human Passions: Saints and Sexuality in Spain and Latin America"
December 4, 2002 Professor Charlene Villaseñor Black (Art History, UCLA) is the featured speaker for this year's Hammer Foundation Lecture. Her illustrated presentation will explore how saints' images were marshalled as models of behavior to define norms of gender, sexuality, and family in early modern Spain and colonial Latin America. Among the topics she will consider are social histories of gender and the Holy Family, incest subtexts in female saints' cults, and artistic responses to Inquisition censorship of nudity using as a case in point, depictions of the Christ Child, and the Catholic Church's seemingly prescient concerns about child molestation.
