The English & American Institute of the University of Potsdam, Germany, invites to
a Conference on English Republican Ideas and Networks in C17th and C18th Europe in Celebration of James Harrington's 400th Birthday.
Where?
Institut für Anglistik und Amerikanistik, Universität Potsdam
30.06.2011-02.07.2011, Potsdam, Universität Potsdam, Campus Am Neuen Palais, Am Neuen Palais 10, Haus 8, Foyer des Audimax
(1611-1677) is a key figure in 17th-century English
republican thought. His economic interpretation of political change
influenced politicians and thinkers of his own time as well as the
Neo-Harringtonians of the next generation. Harrington's ideas had their
place in the American and French Revolutions and beyond, while the study
of his work has contributed to a boom in republican scholarship over the
past thirty to forty years. This conference focuses on the much
neglected European dimension of English republican thought, in
particular the personal networks that contributed to the dissemination
of English republican ideas on the Continent.
Scholars from different countries and disciplines will engage among
others with the following questions. How did ideas travel in early
modern Europe? What was the role of personal friendships, or political
and business connections in the transmission of ideas? How did ideas
circulate in letters or in manuscript form? Which role did printers,
publishers and booksellers play in the process? And how were works
adapted and transformed when they crossed national boundaries?
The Programme for the Conference:Thursday, 30 June13.00-14.00 - Coffee and Registration
14.00-15.00 - Welcome: Prof Dr Dirk Wiemann (Potsdam) and Dr Gaby
Mahlberg (Northumbria)
Keynote: Prof Blair Worden (Royal Holloway): 'Liberty for Export: The
English Republican Tradition'
15.00-16.30 - Harrington and English Republicanism in Europe
Dr Rachel Hammersley (Newcastle): 'The Harringtonian Legacy in Britain
and France'
Prof Dr Iwan d'Aprile (Potsdam), 'Prussian republicanism? The reception
of James Harrington by Friedrich Buchholz'
Dr Agnieszka Pufelska (Potsdam), 'British influences on Eighteenth
Century Polish Republicanism'
16.30-17.00 - Coffee
17.00-18.30 - The Vansleb Manuscript
Dr Gaby Mahlberg (Northumbria), 'Vansleb's Harrington, or "The
Fundations & Modell of a Perfect Commonwealth"'
Dr Stefano Villani (Pisa), 'A "Republican" Englishman in Leghorn:
Charles Longland'
Dr Thérèse-Marie Jallais (Poitiers), '17th century English Republicanism
in Catholic countries? Changing perspectives'
18.30- Conference Warming, Buffet Dinner
Friday, 1 July9.00-10.30 - Regicide, Republicanism, and Absolutism
Prof Dirk Wiemann (Potsdam), 'Satanic Crime and Godly Punishment:
Responses to the Regicide in the German Countries'
Dr Rachel Foxley (Reading), 'Marchamont Nedham and mystery of state'
Dr Cesare Cuttica (Sussex), 'Anti-republican cries under Cromwell: the
vehement attacks of Robert Filmer against republican practice and
republican theory in the early 1650s.'
10.30-11.00 - Coffee
11.00-12.00 - The Netherlands
Dr Arthur Weststeijn (Groningen), 'Why the Dutch didn't read Harrington
and the English did read De la Court. Anglo-Dutch Republican Exchanges,
ca. 1650-1700'
Prof Hans Blom (Rotterdam), 'Popular government before democracy'
12.00-13.00 - Harrington and Grotius
Dr Marco Barducci (Florence), 'James Harrington, Hugo Grotius, and the
Hebrew republic'
Dr Mark Somos (Sussex), 'Harrington beyond premature secularisation: the
germination and first fruits of Dutch seeds in 1650s' English
republicanism'
13.00-14.30 - Lunch
14.30-15.30 - Keynote: Prof J.C. Davis (East Anglia), 'The Prose Romance
of the 1650s as a context for Oceana.'
15.30-16.30 - Harringtonian Religion
Prof Justin Champion (Royal Holloway), 'Toland's Harrington and the
Concept of "Priestcraft"'
Prof Luc Borot (Oxford), 'Religion in Harrington's Political System. The
Central Concepts and Methods of Harrington's Religious Solutions'
16.30-17.00 - Coffee
17.00-18.00 - Neo-Harringtonians and the Monarchical Republic
Dr Peter Schröder (UCL), 'Ancient Prudence and Early Modern Conflicts -
The Political Theories of James Harrington and Andrew Fletcher
regarding Inter-state Relations of the 17th Century'
Dr Ted Vallance (Roehampton), 'Putting the Monarchy back in the
Monarchical Republic - Petitioning and Addressing the Crown in Theory
and Practice in late seventeenth-century England'
18.00-19.00 - Republicanism as Performance and the Body Politic
Prof Anette Pankratz (Bochum), 'Performing Republics: Negotiations of
Political Discourse in Restoration Plays'
PD Dr Gerold Sedlmayr (Passau), 'The Fatal Contagiousness of French
Republicanism: Edmund Burke and the Body Politic'
20.00 - Conference Dinner in Potsdam
Saturday, 2 July9.00-10.30 - Milton and Vane
Prof Dr Dirk Vanderbeke (Jena), '"None can love freedom heartily but
good men": Milton's religious republicanism'
Prof Martin Dzelzainis (Leicester), 'Vane and Milton'
Kai-Philipp Marx, MA (Potsdam), 'Heroic fools and foolish heroes in
Milton'
10.30-11.00 - Coffee
11.00-12.00 - Sidney
Prof Pierre Lurbe (Montpellier), 'The reception and translation of
Algernon Sidney's Discourses concerning Government in 18th century
France'
Prof Günther Lottes (Potsdam), 'Language and Content. The Political
Thought of Algernon Sidney between Republicanismus and Enlightenment'
12.00-13.00 - War, Peace, and Friendship
Dr Ian Campbell (UCD), 'The monarchical republic and the barbarian:
English commonwealth principles at war in early modern Ireland'
Dr Sami Savonius-Wroth (Helsinki), 'Civic friendship and the republican
tradition in seventeenth-century England'
13.00-14.30 - Lunch
14.30-15.00 - Summary and Conclusion
Prof Dr Dirk Wiemann (Potsdam) and Dr Gaby Mahlberg (Northumbria)
15.00-16.00 - Coffee, Networking and Departure
In the description it is mentioned as industrious work and it so corresponds with what I'm reading currently in Amanda Vickery's book 'The Gentleman's Daughter', which stars on it's cover Mrs. Catherine Swindell painted by Wright.
