Roanoke Colonies Research Newsletter
Volume 5.1 (November 1997)

Thomas Harriot Seminar Meets, Publishes New Papers

The Durham Thomas Harriot Seminar, the Roanoke Colonies Research Office’s sister organization in Great Britain, met at Homerton College, Cambridge, from September 15-17, 1997. Dr. E. Thomson Shields, Jr., director of the Roanoke Colonies Research Office, attended, marking the seminar’s first official “visitor from Roanoke Island,” an important place in the history of Renaissance scientist Thomas Harriot’s career.

Papers in different areas connected with Harriot and his times were presented: A. D. Burnett, “Bacon’s Instauratio magna: The Engraved Title Page, an Icon and Paradigm of Science and Its Wider Implications”; A. E. L. Davis, “Kepler, the Ultimate Aristotelian”; Ivor Grattan-Guinness, “The Harriot-Descartes Rule of Signs: Background and Influence”; Peter Nockolds, “Echoes of Roanoke in Shakespeare”; Shields, “Conquistadors and Englishmen: Tragedy and Apology in Spanish and English Exploration Narratives of North America”; B. J. Sokol, “Cornelius Drebble, Jamestown and The Tempest”; Alan Stewart, “The Collaborations of Francis Bacon”; G. E’L Turner, “Queen Elizabeth’s Instrument Makers”; and Jenny Wilson, “Ralegh’s History of the World: Its Purpose and Political Significance.”

In addition, several new works in the Harriot Seminar’s series of occasional papers were released, including ones on John Dee and alchemy, Thomas Cavendish and the 1585 voyage to colonize Roanoke Island, and Thomas Harriot’s connection to Sir Walter Raleigh’s 1595 voyage to Guiana. A complete list of papers published by the Harriot Seminar is available from the seminar or from the Roanoke Colonies Research Office.

The Harriot Seminar will meet next from December 14-16 at St. John’s College of the University of Durham on December 16-18. For information about the meeting or about the occasional papers, contact Professor G. R. Batho, School of Education, University of Durham, Leazes Road, Durham DH1 1TA, United Kingdom; telephone (0191) 374-3497/8; or fax (0191) 374-3506; e-mail G.R.Batho@durham.ac.uk.

Top
Contents Page