CALL FOR PAPERS

Friendship in Early Modern Europe
(1300-1700)

An interdisciplinary colloquium at the
Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies
Victoria College, University of Toronto
14-15 October 2011

In the past decade, there has been a virtual explosion of interest on
friendship in early modern Europe. A rich array of monographs, articles,
and collections has inquired into the idea and practice of friendship in
pre-modern European society. In particular, friendship has been seen as
a fundamental element of humanist intellectual discussion, as a figure
for more intimate same-sex relationships, as a bond that united
individuals who shared similar interests or living arrangements, as an
alternative to marriage and as marriage itself, as an important element
of knowledge networks, professional associations, personal
relationships. In short, it seems that friendship could serve to signify
fellowship, companionship, accord, unity, brotherhood, association,
alliance, harmony, and many other crucial elements of human existence.
The vast amount of correspondence produced in early modern Europe points
clearly to the emotional, intellectual, or spiritual bonds that joined
individuals in friendship, but so also do the art, literature, court
records, and even funerary monuments of the time. The friendship that
joined individuals such as Montaigne and La Boétie, Sir Philip Sydney
and Fulke Greville, Marguerite de Navarre and Anne de
Montmorency, Niccolò Machiavelli and Francesco Vettori, Vittoria Colonna
and Michelangelo, Sir William Neville and Sir John Clanvowe, clearly
points to the rich variety and assorted nuances present in the term
"friend".

This interdisciplinary colloquium will continue this examination of
early modern friendship in its all its diversity of forms and
multiplicity of meanings.

Papers are invited that analyse the idea and the practice of friendship
in early modern Europe and in the European expansion into the Americas,
Africa, and Asia. We welcome a variety of perspectives including, for
example: the rhetoric of friendship; anxieties surrounding friendship;
friendship in marriage; friendship among colleagues; companionship; sex;
gender; politics; religion; spirituality; visual and literary
representations;legal, political, religious repercussions; ambivalent
friendships; etc. We also welcome proposals for complete sessions and/or
round-table discussions.

Proposals should be sent by email to Prof. Konrad Eisenbichler at
[log in to unmask] and should contain the following:

- your name and academic affiliation
- your mailing address
- the title and the abstract of your presentation (100-150 words maximum)
- your brief c.v. (one page)

Deadline for submission: 30 April 2011.