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.
The main focus of my 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), and I am currently turning my PhD thesis on the topic into a monograph (provisional title: The Venetian Connection: England, Venice and Stuart Religious Politics, 1603–1714).
My postdoctoral research is focussed on unpicking the complexities of early modern ideas of religious conversion. I suggest that ‘conversion’ is a more troublesome concept than has sometimes been recognised. Conceptualising conversion caused early modern people real intellectual difficulty, particularly when the term was applied to inter-confessional transfer (a largely new phenomenon in the wake of the Reformation).
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
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Political Thought: Plato to Rousseau (convenor and lecturer)
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Introduction to the Theory of Politics
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Theory of Politics
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Theories of State
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MPhil in Political Theory
Publications
Articles
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'England’s Lost Renaissance? Interest in Venice 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
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‘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
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‘Catherine of Siena: a Dominican political thinker in fourteenth-century Italy’, Renaissance Studies 35:2 (April 2021), pp. 237–254
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‘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
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'Sarpi, Micanzio and Bedell: a new source for the Anglo-Venetian encounter at Santa Maria dei Servi, 1607-1611', in La chiesa e il convento di Santa Maria dei Servi a Venezia, eds. Eveline Baseggio, Tiziana Franco and Luca Molà (Rome, Viella; forthcoming)
Reviews
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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)
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Making Italy Anglican: Why the Book of Common Prayer was Translated into Italian (Oxford, 2022), by Stefano Villani, in Renaissance Studies (forthcoming)
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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)
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Counsel and Command in Early Modern English Thought (Cambridge, 2020), by Joanne Paul, in History: The Journal of the Historical Association (forthcoming)
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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
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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
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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
Books
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The Venetian Connection: England, Venice and Stuart Religious Politics, 1603–1714 [in progress]