24th-26th June, 2010

Magdalen College, Oxford

In association with: the Centre for Early Modern Studies, Oxford, and the Centre for the Study of the Book at the Bodleian.

This will be the first major international conference on John Selden (1584-1654), to celebrate the 400th anniversary of his first publications. 

For full details see: http://www.cems.ox.ac.uk/selden/

John Selden, 'the monarch in letters' (Jonson) and England's 'chief of learned men' (Milton) was Britain's leading scholar, antiquary and jurist.  He was a key figure in the advance of Oriental learning in the West: his achievements in Hebraic studies were unparalleled, and he promoted the study of Arabic and Islamic culture.  He was a renowned theorist of international law (with his Mare Clausum) and of natural law (with his De Iure Naturali & Gentium). He was also a leading Member of Parliament, especially during the Civil War, and an active member of the Westminster Assembly. His work provoked praise and polemic from scholars, theologians and philosophers. His correspondence ranged throughout the European Republic of Letters and reached to Aleppo in Syria. He was the greatest scholarly book collector in England; more than 8000 volumes of his library were deposited in the Bodleian, where he gave his name to the 'Selden End' of Duke Humfrey's library. This conference aims to build on G.J. Toomer's recent magnum opus, John Selden: A Life in Scholarship (OUP, 2009), to return Selden to the centre of the intellectual culture of his age.

Keynote speakers:

• G.J. Toomer,
• Mordechai Feingold,
• Peter Miller,
• Jason Rosenblatt,
• Richard Tuck

Speakers:

• Sharon Achinstein,
• Sir John Baker,
• Mark Bland,
• Hans Blom,
• Elizabethanne Boran,
• Christopher Brooks,
• Alan Coates,
• Theodor Dunkelgrün,
• Anthony Grafton,
• Simon Keynes,
• Vivienne Larminie,
• Jan Loop,
• Scott Mandelbrote,
• Anthony Milton,
• Sarah Mortimer,
• Martin Mulsow,
• Eric Nelson,
• Paul Nelles,
• Graham Parry,
• Annabel Patterson,
• Jean-Louis Quantin,
• Julian Roberts,
• Richard Sharpe,
• Harvey Shoolman,
• Colin Tite,
• Chad van Dixhoorn,
• Dirk van Miert,
• Joanna Weinberg

Sponsored by:

• The British Academy;
• The John Fell OUP Research Fund;
• The Cultures of Knowledge Project;
• The Royal Historical Society;
• The English Faculty, University of Oxford

For full details and to register see: