Focus of this section
The term ‘early modern’ is commonly used for the period following the Middle Ages and preceding the full-scale emergence of modern industrial society, a period marked all over Europe by religious, political, and social conflicts. The printed word plays a vital role in these developments and hence the section is concerned both with the history of the book and with literature in a broad sense of the term, including not only poetry, drama, and fiction, but philosophical and religious writing, in English and in other European languages (including Latin).
Section chair
Professor Ingrid de Smet FBA
Professor of French and Neo-Latin Studies, University of Warwick
