For the uninitiated, that’s the state motto of New Hampshire, where Maria and I spent the Columbus Day weekend hiking, leaf-peeping, and eating as much diner food as possible. (The Littleton Diner in Littleton, NH gets high marks!) We took a bunch of photos out in the woods around Mount Washington; have a look, and [...]
One of the pleasures of my new job as Assistant Director of Undergraduate Studies is that I now have a good excuse for reading widely beyond my own field–since most of our undergraduates specialize in modern American and international history, I have good reason to explore those fields and make sure that I’m current with [...]
October will be a busy month for me, as I’ll be presenting papers at two conferences. The weekend of 19-21 October I’ll be in Philadelphia for the Patristic, Medieval, and Renaissance Studies Conference at Villanova; then, the weekend of 24-28 October, I’ll be in Minneapolis for the Sixteenth Century Studies Conference. In both cases, I’ll [...]
Antonio Agust??n (1517-1586), bishop of Tarragona, was one of sixteeenth-century Spain’s most famous antiquarian scholars. Like his contemporaries Ambrosio de Morales (1513-1591), Benito Arias Montano (1527-1598), and Juan Fern?°ndez Franco (ca. 1520-1601), Agust??n was skilled in epigraphy and numismatics, and profoundly interested in applying the information that could be had from material remains to writing [...]
I was recently forwarded a link to the blog written by Mar??a Amelia L??pez of Mux??a, near A Coru?±a, in Galicia, Spain. In many ways, it’s a perfectly ordinary blog–do?±a Mar??a writes about her daily life, including (by her own admission) “anything that comes to mind” (todo lo que se le pasa por la cabeza). [...]
As the lone Hispanist in my history department, I’m often asked for references to Spanish history texts. I frequently answer these queries by turning to one of the most valuable resources for early modern Spanish history on the web: Jim Amelang‘s copious and au courant bibliographies, hosted on his website at the Universidad Aut??noma de [...]
My friend and Fulbright colleague Matt Crawford (see his website here) has just published his first article, on the basis of research he’s done in Madrid and Seville for his dissertation on the production of quinine in the Spanish empire in the eighteenth century: Matthew James Crawford, “‘Para desterrar las dudas y adulteraciones’: Scientific Expertise [...]
My wife has posted an assortment of her favorite photos from our Fulbright year in Spain (2005-2006); feel free to go have a look! We’ll probably post a few more as we get around to it. Though we lived in the center of Madrid, one or both of us also made it to: London, Segovia, [...]
It’s just come to my attention that my friend Mar??a Tausiet will be presenting her latest book, Abracadabra Omnipotens: Magia urbana en Zaragoza en la Edad Moderna (Siglo XXI de Espa?±a Editores, 2007) on 8 June in Zaragoza. Mar??a is one of the finest Spanish historians of religion, magic, and witchcraft around, and I’m sure [...]
In 1848, while on a grand tour of the Iberian Peninsula, the French traveler Antoine de Latour passed through Seville. Among the many sites that caught his attention was the so-called “Casa de Pilatos,” or “Pilate’s House,” a rambling, whitewashed palace near the center of town long associated with the noble Enr??quez de Ribera family, [...]