British Academy: The UK's National Academy for the Humanities and Social Sciences

Petrarch (1304-1374)
Translations, Interpretations and Appropriations through the Ages

Sponsored bythe Italian Institute, Modern Humanities Research Association, Modern Languages Faculty at Oxford University, the Society for Italian Studies, and the Society for Renaissance Studies*

Friday 26 and Saturday 27 November 2004

The British Academy, 10 Carlton House Terrace, London SW1

2004 marks the seven-hundredth anniversary of Petrarch’s birth. It is being celebrated by events in Italy and other countries where Petrarch has enjoyed an influence from the Renaissance to the present. Not to be left out, and to bring to the foreground the rich and complex relationship between Petrarch and the United Kingdom, modern Petrarchists from the UK and Ireland are holding a two-day symposium at the end of November, 2004. The venue will be the British Academy, London, though there will be other events, in particular exhibitions of manuscripts and early printed books at the British Library, London, and the Bodleian Library, Oxford.

The symposium will take advantage of the anniversary to explore how Petrarch has been appropriated and interpreted through the ages this side of the channel. It will look at Petrarch from the perspectives of literary history, iconography, epistolography, musicology, and gender issues; and consider both Petrarch the humanist as well as Petrarch the poet.

The programme has been designed to mix lectures with panels of four or five short papers grouped thematically when possible, and hopes to attract a wide academic and non-academic public.

* These institutions/departments have each made a grant available for post-graduate students who wish to attend this conference. The grant will cover the registration fee of £20 and all reasonable travel expenses. For further details on this grant, please contact events@britac.ac.uk