Tudor Books and Readers: 1485-1603

Project Faculty and Staff

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            A. Co-Directors:
            John King and Mark Rankin have collaborated on a variety of projects including several co-written articles that build upon their expertise in Tudor print culture. They have also collaborated in co-editing a collection of essays entitled Henry VIII and His Afterlives: Literature, Politics, and Art (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009).      

            John N. King, Distinguished University Professor Emeritus and Humanities Distinguished Professor Emeritus of English and of Religious Studies, The Ohio State University. This seminar draws upon his long-term engagement, in teaching and research, with the literary, intellectual, and cultural history of Tudor England. His many books, articles, and chapters are related directly to this seminar, including his most recent book, Tudor Books and Readers: Materiality and the Construction of Meaning (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010), and his book-in-progress, entitled The Reformation of the Book: 1450-1650. After teaching for a number of years at Bates College, a small liberal arts college in Maine, he accepted appointment in the Department of English at The Ohio State University, which conducts one of the largest, if not the largest, undergraduate and graduate programs of its kind in the nation. There he served as editor of Reformation and also edited Voices of the English Reformation: A Sourcebook (Philadelphia, 2004), which grew out of a collection of readings that he assembled for four NEH Summer Seminars that he directed at OSU concerning “The English Reformation: Literature, History, and Art.” In addition, he co-directed an NEH Summer Seminar on John Foxe’s Book of Martyrs and two NEH Summer Seminars on “The Reformation of the Book: 1450-1650.”           

           Mark Rankin, Assistant Professor of English, James Madison University. A specialist in the book history of the English Renaissance and Reformation, he regularly teaches undergraduate and graduate courses which correspond to this seminar. A 2011 research fellowship at the Folger Shakespeare Library enabled him to advance his book-in-progress, entitled Henry VIII, Print Culture, and the Language of Polemic in Early Modern England. He is the author of Religious Orthodoxy and Dissent in Early Modern England (Columbus, OH: OSU Libraries, 2005) and of a comprehensive analysis of the woodcut illustrations in John Foxe’s Book of Martyrs for The American Theological Library Association. He has recently received permission from Lambeth Palace Library to prepare a critical edition of its manuscript of a controversial book written by the mid-Tudor dramatist and scholar John Bale against the royal chaplain James Cancellar. Dr. Rankin has collaborated with JMU rare book librarians to acquire a substantial teaching collection in Tudor and continental books. He oversaw logistics for two NEH Summer Seminars on “The Reformation of the Book: 1450-1650.”           

            B. Project Assistant:
           Aaron Pratt, PhD candidate, Yale University. A specialist in book history during the Tudor and Stuart eras, he has co-authored chapters on the materiality of English printed Bibles (1525-1611) and on the materiality of Raphael Holinshed’s Chronicles (1577, 1587). He has participated in research seminars at the Folger Shakespeare Library, including a recent seminar on “The History of the Stationers’ Company 1557–1710.”          

            C. Consultants:
            Professor Guido Latré. He is Professor of Literary Studies, Faculty of Arts, Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium. A specialist in early printing in Antwerp, his research expertise includes the production and distribution of clandestine English and Dutch Bibles and other books. In addition to delivering a lecture on Antwerp and the Tudor book, he will conduct us on a guided tour of the old city. 

            Dr. Gergely Juhász. An instructor at Lessius College, Antwerp, he specializes in Bible translation and sixteenth-century print culture. His book on William Tyndale, Translating Resurrection, has recently been accepted for publication by Brill for its series Studies in the History of Christian Traditions. He plans to provide a lecture on William Tyndale’s activities in Antwerp.

            David Vaisey, M.A.. He is Librarian Emeritus of the Bodleian Library at Oxford University. He plans to provide an introduction to the Bodleian Library and its history and to conduct us on a guided tour of the Library.

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