About

Biblant was an ERC-funded project based at CRASSH from 2012 until 2017.

This project sought to investigate the interface between the study of the bible and the study of antiquity in the nineteenth century. These two areas – the bible and classics – are central to the intellectual world of the nineteenth century, a source of knowledge, contention, and authority both as discrete topics, and, more importantly, in relation to and in competition with one another. It is impossible to understand Victorian society without appreciating the intellectual, social and institutional force of these concerns with the past. Yet modern disciplinary formation has not only separated them in the academy, but also marginalized both subject areas – which has deeply attenuated comprehension of this foundational era. This project brought together scholars working on a range of fields including classics, history of education, cultural history, art history, literary history in order to bring back into view a fundamental but deeply misunderstood and under explored aspect of the nineteenth century, which continues to have a significant impact on the contemporary world.


ERC logo and EU flagThis project was funded by the European Research Council under the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013)/ ERC Grant Agreement no. 295463).

People

Directors

Professor Simon Goldhill, PI (CRASSH/Classics, University of Cambridge)
Professor James Secord (HPS, University of Cambridge)
Professor Janet Soskice (Divinity, University of Cambridge)
Dr Scott Mandelbrote (History, University of Cambridge)
Dr Michael Ledger-­Lomas (Theology and Religious Studies, KCL)
Revd Dr Jeremy Morris (Trinity Hall, Cambridge)

Post-Doctoral Research Fellows

Dr Gareth Atkins
Dr Jocelyn Paul Betts
Dr Shinjini Das
Dr Theodor Dunkelgrün
Dr Ruth Jackson
Dr Alison Knight

Alumni of the Project

Dr Brian Murray, King’s College London
Dr Kate Nichols, University of Birmingham

Events

2017

Reframing Stained Glass in Nineteenth-Century Britain: Culture, Aesthetics, Contexts 11-12 May 2017

Bible and Antiquity – Conference 3-5 April 2017

Theologies of Reading in the Nineteenth Century 23 February 2017

Philology in the 19th century: ideals, traditions, methods 10 January 2017

2016

An Evening in the Victorian Parlour: the Bible and Antiquity at Home 8 June 2016

A Passion for Things 7 June 2016

A Passion for Manuscripts 31 May 2016

A Passion for Travel: Victorian Collectors, Travellers and Tourists 17 May 2016

Bible and Antiquity in 19th-Century Political Thought 10 March 2016

Orientalism and its Institutions in the Nineteenth Century 18 February 2016

2015

Solomon Schechter’s Life and Legacy: A Jewish Scholar in Victorian England (1882 – 1901) 22 November 2015

Herodotus and the 19th Century 8 September 2015

Hebrew Melodies: Music and the Bible in 19th Century Europe 25 June 2015

The Victorians and Classical Form 21 May 2015

Exhibiting Belief: Materiality and religous display in the 19th Century 7 May 2015

The Discipline of Theology in the 19th Century 4 March 2015

2014

Stabilising the Sacred Texts in Judaism, Christianity and Islam: c.750-c.1000 5 December 2014

Fictions of Antiquity: the biblical and classical past of the 19th century novel 6 November 2014

Chosen Peoples, Promised Lands 14 July 2014

Persistence of the Past in 19th Century Scholarship 19 June 2014

Collecting Greece in the 19th Century: text, image, object, knowledge 13 February 2014

2013

Visualising the Bible in the 19th Century 13 June 2013

Anthropology and Religion in the 19th Century 14 March 2013

The Camera and the Critic: Photography, Antiquity, and 19th Century Scholarship 3 June 2013

CENTRE FOR RESEARCH IN THE ARTS, SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES

Tel: +44 1223 766886
Email enquiries@crassh.cam.ac.uk