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GEMS – Group for Early Modern Studies – is an interdisciplinary research centre, based at the Faculty of Arts of Ghent University. Its members share a common interest in the cultural history of the early modern period, which they study from a wide range of disciplinary perspectives: the history of literature and art, of architecture, of science, of religion and politics.
The research carried out in the Group for Early Modern Studies is marked by its focus on the early modern period, by its interdisciplinary engagements, and by a shared concern for methodological reflection. Central in this respect is the historical tension that we perceive between the early modern phenomena that we study and the late-modern framework guiding our research questions and methodologies. The historical relationship between the past and the way we address it is one of the central concerns of GEMS. We welcome senior and junior scholars at Ghent University and from other institutions. Junior researchers play an important role both in shaping the group’s direction and by participating in its activities.
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Agenda

  • Wed
    07
    May
    2025
    Fri
    09
    May
    2025

    Conference: Women in the History of Political Thought

    Het Rustpunt, Burgstraat 110-16, Ghent

    More and more exciting research is being produced by scholars of political theory and related fields––such as political science, history, and political philosophy––exploring the contributions of women to the history of political thought. This three-day WHPT conference is an important step towards bringing these scholars together, with the aim of fostering new intersections and inspiring future research.

    Find the full conference program below.

    This conference is organized by Torrey Shanks (University of Toronto), Mary Jo MacDonald (University of Jyväskylä), and Geertje Bol (Ghent University). It is generously funded by Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Strategic Institutions Partnerships grant from Ghent University, the University of Toronto Scarborough Campus, and the Gender in Renaissance and Early Modern Philosophy project at the University of Jyväskylä.

    Visit the website for more information.

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  • Wed
    07
    May
    2025

    Talk: New Research Perspectives on Italian Vernacular Rhetorics of the 16th Century by Dr. Elena Bilancia

    17:00Camelot (Room 3.30, Blandijnberg 2)

    GEMS is organising a talk by Dr. Elena Bilancia on ‘New Research Perspectives on Italian Vernacular Rhetorics of the 16th Century’.

    The development of vernacular rhetorical theory played a key role in the intellectual culture of the Italian and European Renaissance. During the 16th century, the growing need to establish an autonomous set of rhetorical principles, crafted by (and for) literary professionals rather than university professors, extended beyond humanistic pedagogy and the formation of the ideal vir bonus dicendi peritus. It also addressed the changing role of intellectuals and their evolving relationship with cultural, political, and religious institutions, especially in the turbulent period between the end of the Italian Wars and the onset of the Counter-Reformation. Italian intellectuals made an original contribution to rhetorical theory not only through their exegetical work on ancient texts but also by exploring the potential of the vernacular language in the extra-university cultural circuits. It was particularly within the Infiammati Academy of Padua that a defence of the practical and civic function of elocutio was elaborated. The objective of Elena Bilancia’s research is therefore to identify the specific cultural projects that contributed to the foundation of an Italian vernacular rhetoric within the complex framework of European humanisms.

    Elena Bilancia obtained her PhD in Philology and in Italian Studies from the universities of Naples Federico II and Paris 8 Vincennes – Saint-Denis. She is currently a research fellow at the Scuola Superiore Meridionale and a contract lecturer in Italian Literature at the Department of Humanities at Federico II. Her research interests focus on vernacular dialogue production and Renaissance lyric poetry. She has worked on authors such as Boccaccio, Machiavelli, and Torquato Tasso. In 2024, she published the monograph Il dialogo in volgare. Forme dell’argomentazione retorica nel XVI secolo with Bit&s.

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  • Mon
    26
    May
    2025

    Talk: Debating Private Censorship and Family Networks from Florence to Flanders: Lodovico Guicciardini’s Letters and the Publication of Francesco Guicciardini’s “Ricordi” by Dr. Jonathan Schiesaro

    17:00Camelot (Room 3.30, Blandijnberg 2)

    GEMS is organising a talk by Dr. Jonathan Schiesaro onDebating Private Censorship and Family Networks from Florence to Flanders: Lodovico Guicciardini’s Letters and the Publication of Francesco Guicciardini’s "Ricordi"’.

    This talk explores the epistolary and editorial activity of Lodovico Guicciardini (1521-1589) between the events surrounding the publication of the first edition of Francesco Guicciardini’s History of Italy (1561), edited by Lodovico's cousin Agnolo di Girolamo (1525-1581), and the Antwerp edition of the Ricordi (1585). Through a close reading of his correspondence and early printed materials within the Flemish context, the talk examines how private censorship and family networks shaped the reception of Italian historical culture and political thought on the periphery of the Counter-Reformation.

    Jonathan Schiesaro (PhD, University of Zurich) is a research fellow of the Irish Research Council at Trinity College Dublin, where he works on a project focused on the transmission and manipulation of documentary heritage within Florentine patrician families (including the Vasari, Bandinelli, Buonarroti, Machiavelli, Guicciardini, and Ammirato) under the early Grand Dukes of Tuscany. His main research interests include Renaissance art treatises, memory writing, and historiography. He published the monograph Baccio Bandinelli e le anatomie degli scartafacci: il "Libro del disegno", l'archivio di famiglia e la questione del "Memoriale" (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2023).

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