Thursday the 16th of May, 5.15pm
G.07 Meadows Lecture Theatre, Medical School,
Dr Jamie Reid-Baxter: "Francophiles and Franco-Scots in Jacobean Scotland: an illustrated talk on the writings of Esther Inglis and James Melville"
Edinburgh Early Modern Network
Dr Jamie Reid-Baxter, editor of the poetry of Elizabeth Melville, Lady Culross, will look at the links between the dazzling work of the calligrapher and poet Esther Inglis (1571-1624), daughter of Huguenot refugees in Edinburgh, and the poetry produced by the 'spiritual community' that flourished in Fife around the Rev. James Melville (1554-1614). Melville was a national figure, a leading spokesman for the presbyterian wing of the Kirk, and shared the francophilia of his celebrated uncle Andrew Melville (1545-1622), a noted Latin poet. James Melville's involvement with French protestant culture extended to making a substantial and highly politicised poetic paraphrase of a Latin sylva by the great Genevan theologian Theodore Beza (1519-1605), on the David and Bersheba story and the origins of Psalm 51. Andrew Melville was a great admirer of the work and spirituality of Esther Inglis, and Dr Reid-Baxter has now identified a direct link between Inglis and James Melville. Currently known only as a (superb) calligrapher, Inglis also wrote vers, in both French and Anglo-Scots, including paraphrases of the astonishing Cinquante Octonaires sur la vanité du monde published in 1583 by the pastor Antoine de la Roche Chandieu. Jacobean presbyterian 'high culture" is proving to be far richer than anyone imagined twenty years ago.
After this talk please join us in the McMillan Room to continue the discussion over a wine reception, generously funded by the CMRS. Following this reception we will be moving onto a (to be decided) pub to toast the first year of the Edinburgh Early Modern Network,