Early Modern Times
Early Modern Times is a blog that will seek to enlighten and entertain you with news, events, and general insight into the inner workings of the Early Modern Studies Program, or to choose an apposite metaphor, the internal mechanism which makes EMSP’s clock tick.
Early Modern Times is written by Dr. Simon Kow, Director of the Early Modern Studies Program.
Dear readers, You may recall that I devoted an issue of Early Modern Times last month to the vainglorious Queen-Pine, on the occasion of a pineapple being grown in the Halifax Public Gardens. Global News Halifax has finally caught up to Early Modern Times, and reported Thursday on the 'Tropical fruit on display in downtown…
Dear readers, This past week, the now-former UK Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt declared the Iranian seizure of a British-flagged tanker an act of 'state piracy'. The idea, however, that piracy could be committed by a state runs counter to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (1982), which defines piracy as 'illegal…
Dear readers, In celebration of the 50th anniversary of the moon landing, let us consider voyages to our beloved yet bashful satellite (since Luna only ever shows us half of its surface) and to outer space in early modern literature. As Dr. Kathryn Morris teaches her students in the EMSP course 'The Origins of Science…
Dear readers, If you've ever wondered where italics come from, this recent article examines its origins in the context of early modern Venice's publishing industry. A local bookbinder, Paolo Olbi, is seeking to 'restore the glory of Venetian publishing and bring artisanal bookmaking back to Venice.' Indeed, although the 'birthplace of publishing' is thought to…
Dear readers, During a stroll in the Halifax Public Gardens this past Canada Day, I was pleasantly surprised to see a growing pineapple. It recalled to my mind a corner fresco of a gardener proudly displaying a pineapple in the 'Belaria', or summer residence, of the Schwarzenbergs in the Český Krumlov castle in Bohemia. As…
Dear readers, CBC Radio listeners were reminded last week that it has been 50 years since the 'Three Days of Peace and Music' at the Woodstock Music and Arts Festival, 'one of the most pivotal events of the last century'. It has also been 350 years since what one might well call the 'Three Centuries…
Dear readers, Welcome to the start of summer! It not only marks 50 years since the 'best days of my life', according to Bryan Adams, but the steamy days of summer might also remind us of the 250th anniversary of the steamer of 1769: i.e., James Watt's patent for the modern steam engine, which is…
Dear readers, Congratulations to the Toronto Raptors, the first Canadian team to win the NBA championship to the hoop-las and Raptorous applause of their fans! One wonders if at the End of Time, they might remake itself into a group of those who will be taken up into Basketball Heaven while the rest of us…
Dear readers, Now that the HBO TV series adaptation of Game of Thrones is over, let us consider its early modern cousin. As this 2015 Guardian article and TED video on Game of Thrones explain, George R.R. Martin--the author of the fantasy series upon which the television show is based--was inspired by, among other events,…
