Abstract Pedro de Ayala served as a diplomat for King Ferdinand II of Aragon and Queen Isabella I of Castile at the courts of Henry VII, King of England, and James IV, King of Scots. In July 1498, he wrote a letter, partly in cipher, to report to his king and queen on such matters as Spain's interests in international diplomacy; the characters and activities of Henry VII and James IV; the geography, economy, politics, and culture of Scotland; marriage prospects for Spanish Infantas and the English princess Margaret Tudor; and the voyages of John Cabot to North America. Here is presented for the first time a new cipher key, a complete transcription of the letter, and a translation of the full letter into English.

ABSTRACT Scholarly approaches to understanding freedom in Milton's prose tend to connect Milton's ideas to either liberalism or republicanism. Neither of these approaches is sufficient because freedom, for Milton, was not a single concept. Milton explored political and religious freedom very differently. Rather than focus on an abstract definition of freedom, Milton's prose tracts address practical policies for bringing about the conditions necessary for freedom; in doing so, these works separate religious freedom from political freedom based on the role of state power. In religious freedom, the state could not interfere with a Christian's conscience, whereas in political freedom, coercion and authoritarianism were essential in Milton's prose. This difference between religious and political freedom is clearest in Milton's discussions of the army and Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell. Milton praised the army for both freely exploring new religious ideas in its search for truth and staging coups against regimes that reflected popular sovereignty. He also encouraged Cromwell to follow the example of the army in pursuing both religious and political freedom.

T he relationship between drawings and prints is a problem encountered by every scholar of works on paper.Yet, it has never been the explicit focus of a major exhibition and scholarly catalogue.Lines of Connection: Drawing and Printmaking 1400-1850, organized by curators Edina Adam (

Abstract In the late fifteenth century, the Hungarian royal court at Buda was home to a cosmopolitan community of humanists. In early modern historiography, this cultural milieu has often been interpreted as one of the new, emergent ‘centres’ of the Renaissance in East Central Europe. This article responds to this framework by shedding light on a more peripheral figure: the Bohemian poet Bohuslaus of Hassenstein. Focusing on his Ecloga sive Idyllion Budae (1503), I follow Hassenstein’s journey from the Hungarian court at Buda to his homeland of Bohemia, where he used the resources of the pastoral tradition, both classical and Italian, to transplant and cultivate the values of Latin humanism. In addition to Virgil, I examine Hassenstein in dialogue with Mantuan, who published a bestselling collection of Latin eclogues, the Adolescentia, in 1498. As a case study in the popular Renaissance genre of the neo‐Latin eclogue, this article shows how the pastoral tradition empowered poets like Hassenstein to transform the cultural peripheries in which they found themselves into new centres.

Abstract This article examines the cloud‐gazing scenes in Antony and Cleopatra and Hamlet through the lens of early modern artistic theory and material practices, particularly the art of limning. Building upon existing philosophical and poetic interpretations of Shakespearean clouds as metaphors for ephemerality and memory, the essay argues that the two plays mobilize contrasting artistic vocabularies – Antony and Cleopatra through the translucent textures of watercolour limnings, and Hamlet through the heavy, ink‐like density of fretted engravings. Drawing on treatises by Nicholas Hilliard and Edward Norgate, as well as visual analyses of works by Dürer and Hilliard, the study foregrounds Shakespeare’s use of highly specific technical lexicons to render the materiality of clouds and ghosts. These “painterly” elements illuminate the plays’ broader concerns with mimesis, memory, and the instability of signs. By attending to the distinct textures and techniques evoked in each play, the article reveals how Shakespeare’s dramatic poetics intersect with contemporary visual culture, offering arresting, spectral images that suspend time and challenge the viewer’s perception of presence and representation.

Abstract This article reframes Antonio da Sangallo the Younger's oft‐overlooked cappella Cesi nave façade in Santa Maria della Pace not as an isolated design deviation but as part of a broader architectural and artistic conversation among major players in early sixteenth‐century Rome. It situates Sangallo's project both within the larger discourses of exterior façade design, ornament, and artistic collaboration in the period. It thus argues for a reappraisal of the Cesi chapel to explore how it participates in the wider language of façade‐making and artistic collaboration in Renaissance Rome.

Abstract Due to their prolonged and multicultural nature, councils functioned historically as hubs for the exchange of ideas, discourse, diplomacy and rhetoric, reflecting broader cultural trends. In the Middle Ages, no international forums were comparable to ecumenical councils, where diverse and influential groups from various regions convened to address shared concerns. This article examines the diffusion of Italian humanism during the Council of Constance (1414–1418). Many prominent humanists participated in Constance, either as part of papal delegations or as representatives of political figures. Diego de Anaya (1357–1437), president of the Castilian delegation, established contact with figures such as Bartolomeo della Capra, Archbishop of Milan and Uberto Decembrio, a renowned copyist, and father of the humanist Pier Candido Decembrio. These interactions enabled him to exchange ideas and manuscripts, playing a crucial role in introducing new texts and pedagogical approaches in Salamanca, which fostered, in the following decades, a shift from medieval scholasticism toward an education aligned with Renaissance ideals.

by Nil . Palabyk is a valuable addition to the fields of transcultural intellectual history and studies of the relationship between Christendom and the Ottoman empire.In five chronologically arranged chapters, Palabyk takes us through the narrative of the emergence of Turkish linguistic studies in Europe, from the relatively intellectually humble (and, in Palabyk's view, overstated in their importance) 1540s beginnings of Bartholomew Georgievits and Guillaume Postel through the new methods of Scaliger and the first printed Turkish grammars of Hieronymus Megiser and Andr Du Ryer to the paradigm shift towards a more systematic study of Turkish in Leiden in the 1630s, spearheaded by figures such as Anton Deusing and Jacob Anton Golius.The focus, as the author explains, is on Paris, German university towns, and Leiden, bypassing Venice, Rome, and Vienna, all important centres for oriental learning in early modern Christendom.This focus allows Palabyk to illuminate a particular network of historical actors who influenced each other (3).Palabyk provides a historiographical overview of the recent studies into Venice and Vienna to further contextualise Silent Teachers.Silent Teachers offers new arguments, frameworks and methods for the study of the subject at hand.First and foremost, the book demonstrates that European intellectuals were interested in the study of Turkish, both as an aid for better understanding of Arabic, and as an intellectual pursuit in its own right.It is important to highlight this latter argument, as the significance of learning Turkish as a goal in itself is not undisputed among scholars of early modern intellectual history.Silent Teachers makes several conceptual contributions.It emphasises the (sometimes involuntary, in cases of plagiarism) collaborative nature of early modern epistemology, and cautions against a hagiographical 'Great Men' approach to the subject.This argument is the direct result of Palabyk's methodological framework.She focuses on manuscript in addition, and often above and beyond, print, and argues that the Ottoman manuscripts collected by European scholars extended far greater influence than language teachers, assistants and printed media.Consequently, Turkish study in Christian Europe was shaped by the work of Ottoman lexicographers and followed 'the changing scholarly culture and learned practices of the Ottoman Empire' (209).Palabyk's work with printed sources focuses on marginalia and differences between specific individual copies of books.This methodological reimagining of learning Turkish in Christian Europe leads to specific challenges to existing