Proceedings of the British Academy Volume 181, 2010-2011 Lectures

This volume collects together lectures by distinguished scholars. Julia Smith examines medieval religious relics, focusing on what they actually comprised and asking how these paltry items came to be so highly valued. Gruffydd Aled Williams takes the authentic medieval Welsh literary corpus associated with Owain Glyndwr, consisting in the main of bardic eulogies rather than prophecies, and examines them in their historical context. Christopher Tilmouth's lecture on Alexander Pope asks what part Shaftesbury's polite wit, Mandeville's cynicism, and Augustan sentimentalism played in the poetry of England's greatest satirist. What, too, can Pope teach us about the relationship between literature and ethics? Isobel Armstrong focuses on the Romantic poets' fascination with the lens-made and projected images that the modern world has come to think of as the virtual image. Their questioning of the simulacra around them and their daring experiments with a language of reflection and refraction is the theme of the lecture. Bonnie Blackburn examines the choices made by young musicians in Renaissance Italy. Was it a smart career move to become a musician? Why did some musicians decide to follow alternative careers as artists or diplomats? Could a gentleman be a musician? Hsueh-Man Shen's lecture examines how the paradoxical doctrine of "the one and the multiple" was translated into visual language in Chinese Buddhist art. In some cases, groups related to certain numbers bearing metaphorical significances; while in others, objects were simply replicated in large numbers to create a sense of awe. Nicholas Canny explores the way the natural history of the Americas was exported to 16th-century northern European scientists and how they reacted intellectually and politically.