Antiquarianism. The Eighteenth-Century Antiquarian

Description

Allison Ksiazkiewicz  (Department of History and Philosophy of Science, University of Cambridge)

 

 

This seminar will discuss three articles that deal with the role of antiquity in late-Enlightenment Britain.  Using Edward Daniel Clarke’s (1769–1822) travels through Greece and Levant as a case study, the first article considers the meaning of Classical antiquity for an emerging British empire.  The second article addresses antiquarianism and its importance in cultivating national identity in Britain.  This argument develops through a detailed history of the Society of Antiquaries and its role as a public institution.  The final article examines notions of private and public life in eighteenth-century historiography.

Allison has suggested 3 texts to read, which we will promptly send in PDF format if you contact us via Facebook or email (arpf2@cam.ac.uk / wec24@cam.ac.uk). Hard copies will also available by request at CRASSH (gradfac@crassh.cam.ac.uk)

 

Articles

 

• Dolan Brian, Chapter 4: Southern Frontier: Greece and the Levant – The Archaeological Appropriation of the Historical Frontier, in Exploring European Frontiers: British travellers in the Age of Enlightenment (2000), pp.113-203.
• Sweet Rosemary, Chapter 4: The Incorporated Society and its Public Role, in Susan Pearce (ed.), Visions of Antiquity: The Society of Antiquaries of London, 1707–2007, pp. 75–97.
   
• Phillips Mark Salber, Reconsiderations on History and Antiquarianism: Arnaldo Momigliano and the Historiography of Eighteenth-Century Britain, Journal of the History of Ideas, 57.2 (1996): 297-316.
   

 

 

Open to all.  No registration required

Part of the Field Notes: Histories of Archaeology and Anthropology Seminar series.

For more information about the group, please visit the link on the right hand side of this page. 

 

Poster images from Flickr creative commons by d.schille