So much going on at once...

Happy August, everyone.

My semester of teaching starts on the 11th, so my "summer" is already over as I prepare for classes. However, I'm still squeezing in some EJLPP work.

Thanks to the generous support of the CHASE/London Renaissance Seminar (i.e., Consortium for the Humanities and the Arts South-East England, a collaborative research group consisting of nine institutions), scholars who were unable to travel for research in archives and libraries were able to access information anyway: two assistants were made available for remote research assistance, supported by CHASE. I learned of this most welcome offer via the listserv associated with the Society for the Study of Early Modern Women & Gender. Co-convenor Professor Sue Wiseman of Birkbeck University of London introduced me to current graduate student Michael Powell-Davies, who then went to the British Library and photographed the books identified in the online catalogue as having Jesuit provenance. I do not have permission to post the images, but I am grateful to have them in my collection. They add important details to my spreadsheet.

I asked Michael to submit a bio and photograph, and you can find that on the About Us page. It's always been important to me that the contributors, particularly the students, are credited for their work. It's not just that everyone who works should be acknowledged--which of course they should. It's about honoring the provenance of that work in a project dedicated to provenance. In this case, it's also about the quality of the work: Mr. Powell-Davies is an excellent photographer, unlike me, and he tracked down digital editions of the books I requested when I was unaware of them. This has been a real help to me. I hope that someday soon, I can resume research in Europe, but 'Rona is teaching us all to appreciate not only the things we have at hand--being stuck at home has meant that I used all of my research time for this continuing digital project--but also of the importance of the international community of scholars which is sustained through listservs, emails, and other forms of electronic communication. It is, to borrow a phrase, the best of times and the worst of times.

Soon, I will be posting about the contributions of another individual, and will introduce you to another institutional partner. It's been quite a year for the EJLPP, and I'm very fortunate to have the support of colleagues in the US and Europe.