I am a historian of political thought. My work explores debate over the relationship between religious and secular authority in the medieval and early modern periods, c. 1350 and 1700, with a particular focus on English and Italian contexts.
My main area of research is seventeenth-century England and Venice, two maritime empires which became focal points for European debate about sovereignty and Church–State relations in the wake of the Reformation. My research into seventeenth-century Anglo-Venetian relations has recently been awarded the Sir John Neale Prize for Early Modern British History (2021) and The Society for Court Studies Essay Prize (2022). Political and intellectual rapport between England and Venice will also be the focus of my first monograph, currently in preparation under the provisional title The Venetian Connection: England, Venice and Stuart Religious Politics, 1603–1714.
I am also interested in medieval political thought, especially the political thought of the fourteenth-century saint and mystic Catherine of Siena and her milieu.
Previous Posts
- College Lecturer and Organising Tutor in History, Pembroke College, University of Oxford (2021–22)
Teaching
-
Political Thought: Plato to Rousseau (convenor and lecturer)
-
Politics 1 – Political Theory, Astrophoria Foundation Year (convenor and lecturer)
-
Theory of Politics, Prelims and FHS
-
Theories of State
-
MPhil in Political Theory
Publications
Book (in preparation)
-
The Venetian Connection: England, Venice and Stuart Religious Politics, 1603–1714
Articles
-
'England’s Lost Renaissance? Anglo-Venetian politics between the household of Prince Henry and the court of James VI & I', The Court Historian (forthcoming) – awarded the Society for Court Studies Essay Prize
-
'The English Sarpi and the Glorious Revolution', L’antipapa: Nuove prospettive su Paolo Sarpi, ed. Vittorio Frajese, Bruniana & Campanelliana 29:1 (2023), pp. 169–179
-
'Beyond the Jesuit College: the Role of Cambridge's ‘Puritan’ Colleges in European Politics and Diplomacy, 1603–1625’, The Mind is its Own Place? Early Modern Intellectual History in an Institutional Context, eds. Alex Beeton, Eli P. Bernstein, Emily Kent and René Winkler, History of Universities 36:2 (2023), pp. 25–46
-
‘Reformed but not converted: Paolo Sarpi, the English mission in Venice and conceptions of religious change’, Historical Research 95:269 (August 2022), pp. 334–347 – awarded the Sir John Neale Prize for Early Modern British History
-
‘Catherine of Siena: a Dominican political thinker in fourteenth-century Italy’, Renaissance Studies 35:2 (April 2021), pp. 237–254
-
‘English Politics and the Blasphemy Act of 1698’, The English Historical Review 135:575 (August 2020), pp. 804–835 – awarded the History of Parliament Trust Dissertation Prize
Chapters
-
'Sarpi, Micanzio and Bedell: a new source for the Anglo-Venetian encounter at Santa Maria dei Servi, 1607-1611', in La chiesa di Santa Maria dei Servi e la comunità veneziana dei Servi di Maria (secoli XIV-XIX), eds. Eveline Baseggio, Tiziana Franco and Luca Molà (Viella, 2023), pp. 349–363
Reviews
-
Religion and Governance in England’s Emerging Colonial Empire, 1601–1698 (Palgrave Macmillan, 2022), by Haig Z. Smith, in The Journal of Ecclesiastical History (forthcoming)
-
Making Italy Anglican: Why the Book of Common Prayer was Translated into Italian (Oxford, 2022), by Stefano Villani, in Renaissance Studies (forthcoming)
-
British Protestant Missions and the Conversion of Europe, 1600–1900 (Routledge, 2020), eds. Simone Maghenzani and Stefano Villani, in History: The Journal of the Historical Association (forthcoming)
-
Counsel and Command in Early Modern English Thought (Cambridge, 2020), by Joanne Paul, in History: The Journal of the Historical Association (forthcoming)
-
Letterati, artisti, mecenati del Seicento e del Settecento: Identità culturali tra Antico e Moderno (Olschki, 2021), ed. Michela di Macco, in Modern Language Review, 118:1 (January 2023), pp. 143-145
-
Forbidden Knowledge: Medicine, Science and Censorship in Early Modern Italy (Chicago, 2020), by Hannah Marcus, in The Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 72:3 (July 2021), pp. 658–660
-
Civil Religion and the Enlightenment in England 1707–1800 (Boydell, 2020), by Ashley Walsh, in The Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 72:2 (April 2021), pp. 439–441
Other
-
'The first prime minister', Engelsberg Ideas, August 2023