Professor Nerida Newbigin

BA PhD FAHA
Professor of Italian Studies
Room 724, Brennan MacCallum Building (A18)
nerida.newbigin@usyd.edu.au
Telephone number: +61 2 9351 3584
Fax number: +61 2 9036 7852

Nerida Newbigin’s research interests are philological and historical: the history of theatre and performance in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, late medieval lay piety, and the editing and interpretation of theatrical texts and archival material.

She was elected to the Australian Academy of the Humanities in 1995, and appointed to a personal chair in Italian Studies in 2001. She has been Pro-Dean of the Faculty of Arts since July 2006.

• Philology and textual editing
• Theatre history
• Late medieval and renaissance lay piety
• Florentine social history
• Translation

• ARC Discovery Grant, 2005-8: Festival, Spectacle and Plays in Renaissance Florence
• ARC Research Network for Early European Research, based at the University of Western Australia and made up of fifty established researchers throughout Australia. Panels: social fabric: social structures in early Europe, and their relationship to contemporary issues, especially poverty; families and gender; war, peace and conflict; religion and spirituality: the diversity of religious practice, thought and spirituality that shape European identity.

Books

• Nuovo Corpus di sacre rappresentazioni fiorentine. Bologna: Commissione per i Testi di Lingua, 1983.
• Feste d'Oltrarno: Plays in Churches in Fifteenth-Century Florence. Florence: Olschki, 1996.
• ACCADEMIA DEGLI INTRONATI. The Deceived. Translated with an introduction, notes and bibliography. In Ariosto’s The Supposes, Machiavelli’s The Mandrake, Intronati’s The Deceived: Three Italian Renaissance Comedies. Ed. Christopher Cairns. Lewiston-Queenston-Lampeter: Mellen, 1996. Introduction, pp. 249-318; translation, pp. 319-439 (i.e., 190 pages). ISBN 0773488219
• CASTELLANO CASTELLANI. Rappresentazione di San Venanzio martire devotissimo. Edition with introduction and parallel English translation. XXI + 95 pp. Camerino: Università degli Studi di Camerino/Centro Linguistico di Ateneo, 2000. Tempi di Spettacolo, 7.
• I Giornali di Ser Giusto Giusti (1437-1482) (critical edition), in Letteratura italiana antica 3 (2002): 41-246.
• ACCADEMIA DEGLI INTRONATI. I prigioni di Plauto tradotti da l’Intronati di Siena (critical edition). Siena: Accademia Senese degli Intronati, 2006. Monografie di Storia e Letteratura Senese, XIV. ISBN 8889073063

Book Chapters and Contributions

• “Le sacre rappresentazioni nella Firenze laurenziana.” Esperienze dello spettacolo religioso nell’Europa del Quattrocento. Ed. Myriam Chiabò and Federico Doglio. Rome: Centro Studi sul Teatro Medioevale e Rinascimentale, 1993, pp. 101-120.
• “Piety and Politics in the feste of Lorenzo’s Florence.” Lorenzo il Magnifico e il Suo Mondo. Ed. Gian Carlo Garfagnini. Florence: Olschki, 1994, pp. 17-41.
• CHARTERIS, Richard. Giovanni Gabrieli (c. 1555-1612): A Thematic Catalogue of his Music with a Guide to the Source Materials and Translations of his Vocal Texts by Nerida Newbigin and Frances Muecke. Stuyvesant, New York: Pendragon Press, 1996
• “Research in Languages other than English.” Creative Investigations: Redefining Research in the Arts and Humanities. Ed. Margaret Mahony Stoljar. Canberra, Australian Academy of the Humanities, 1996, pp. 87-98.
• “Politics in the Sacre rappresentazioni of Lorenzo’s Florence.” Lorenzo the Magnificent: Culture and Politics. Ed. Michael Mallett and Nicholas Mann. London: The Warburg Institute and University of London, 1996, pp. 116-130.
• MONTEVERDI, CLAUDIO. Third Book of Madrigals for viol consort. Sex Chordae Consort of Viols. John Dornenburg, director. Centaur, CRC 2482. 2000. Sleevenote translations by Nerida Newbigin.. ISBN 0945193661.
• MONTEVERDI, Claudio. The Third Book of Madrigals for Five Voices. Ed. Richard Charteris, with translations by Nerida Newbigin. Albany, California: PRB Productions, 2000. Viol Consort Series no. 34. ISBN 1-56571-153-X. pp. xii-xviii.
• “The Decorum of the Passion: The Gonfalone Plays in the Colosseum, 1490 to 1539.” In Confraternities and the Visual Arts in the Italian Renaissance: Ritual, Spectacle, Image, pp. 173-202. Ed. Diane Cole Ahl and Barbara Wisch. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000.
• “Le feste.” Storia della civiltà toscana: Il Rinascimento, pp. 579-596. Ed. Michele Ciliberto. Florence: Le Monnier, 2001.
• “La Compagnia romana del Gonfalone e le sue rappresentazioni per gli Anni Santi del 1500 e del 1525.’ Il Cristianesimo: fonte perenne d’ispirazione per le arti, ed. Franco Carlo Ricci. Viterbo, Edizioni Scientifiche Italiane, 2004, pp. 161-182.
• “Docere delectando: Confraternal Drama Studies.” In Early Modern Confraternities in Europe and the Americas: International and Interdisciplinary Perspectives. Ed. Christopher Black and Pamela Gravestock. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2006, pp. 226-242.
• “The Middle Ages.” In Cambridge History of Italian Theatre. Ed. Joseph Farrell and Paolo Puppa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006, pp. 9-27.
• “Una commedia per la visita di Carlo V? I prigioni tradotti dagl’Intronati di Siena.” In Les Années trente du XVIe siècle italien. Ed. Danielle Boillet and Michel Plaisance. Paris: Centre de Recherche Culture et Société en Italie aux XVe, XVIe et XVIIe siècles, 2007, pp. 99-107.
• “Playing in the Piazza: Peter, Paul and Santa Maria del Carmine.” In The Brancacci Chapel: Form, Function and Setting. Ed. Nicholas Eckstein. Florence: Olschki, 2007, pp. 139-155. ISBN 978 88 222 5650 8
• “Directing the Gaze: Expository Modes in Late Medieval Italian Plays.” In The Narrator, the Expositor, and the Prompter in European Medieval Theatre. Ed. Philip Butterworth. Turnhout: Brepols, 2007; Medieval Texts and Cultures of Northern Europe, 17, pp. 69-91. ISBN 978-2-2503-52579-2.

Articles

• “The Ascension Plays of Fifteenth-Century Florence: Some Problems of Terminology and Reconstruction.” Altro Polo: Italian Studies in Memory of Frederick May. Ed. Suzanne Kiernan. Sydney: Frederick May Foundation for Italian Studies, 1996, pp. 53-82.
• “Rubrics and Didascalia: Observations on the ‘Stage Directions’ in Fifteenth-Century Florentine sacre rappresentazioni.” Parergon 13 (1996): 93-107.
• “Art and Drama in Fifteenth-Century Florence.” The Early Drama, Art, and Music Review 19 (1996): 1-22.
• “Agata, Apollonia, and other Martyred Virgins: Did Florentines really see these plays performed?” European Medieval Drama 1 (1997): 77-100.
• “Judas and the Jews in the Easter Plays of the Roman Confraternity of the Gonfalone.’ European Medieval Drama 3 (1999): 19-39.
• “Armies of God: Processions and Pageants in Florentine Religious Drama.” European Medieval Drama 4 (2000): 91-108.
• “Playing a Role: Confraternities, Drama and the Academy.’ Arts: The Journal of the Sydney University Arts Association 24 (2002): 103-115.
• “Giuliano Dati, Stazione, indulgenzie e reliquie: Quadragesimale de l’alma città di Roma.” Letteratura italiana antica 5 (2004): 227-257.
• “‘Del grasso di Lorenzo un’ampollecta’: Relics and Representations in the Quest for Forgiveness in Renaissance Rome.’ Journal of Religious History 28 (2004): 50-63.
• “Mass Media: Visualising the Last Supper in Late Medieval Italian Plays.” Mediaevalia 27:1 (2006): 185-205.
• “Quattro postille sulle sacre rappresentazioni fiorentine.” Letteratura italiana antica 8 (2007): 293-297.
• “L’occhio si dice ch’è la prima porta: Seeing with Words in the Florentine sacra rappresentazione.” Mediaevalia 28:1 (2007): 1-22.
• “Greasing the Wheels of Heaven: Recycling, Innovation and the Question of ‘Brunelleschi’s’ Stage Machinery.” I Tatti Studies 11 (2007): 201-241.

Other

• “Quale lingua? Perché studiare la lingua italiana all’università?” Italiano e scuola 7 (ottobre 2002): 29-30.
  
  “Bit Part or Leading Role? Confraternal Drama Studies in the Academy.” Confraternitas 14 (2003): 5-12 (text of Renaissance Society of America Plenary paper).
• “Frederick May.” In Australian Dictionary of Biography, Supplement 1580-1980. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 2005, 267-268.
• NERBANO, MARA. “Play and Record: Ser Tommaso di Silvestro and the Theatre of Medieval and Early Modern Orvieto.” European Medieval Drama, 8 (2004): 127-171. (Translation)
• L’amorosa Ero: Eighteen Italian Madrigals for four viols, voices or recorders. Ed. Richard Charteris. Albany, CA: PRB Productions, 2006 [Translation by Nerida Newbigin of dedicatory letter and madrigals, pp. vii-viii.]
• MONTEVERDI, CLAUDIO. Third Book of Madrigals for Viol Consort. Sex Chordae Consort of Viols. John Dornenburg, director. Centaur, CRC 2482. 2000. Sleevenote translations by Nerida Newbigin.
• SCARLATTI, ALESSANDRO. Venere, Adone e Amore. Serentas and Cantatas. Performed by Rosalind Haltan and Chacona. ABC Classics, 2007. 476 6170 [Translation of texts for 3 CDS; 96 tracks; sleeve-book, 32 pp.]

Radio broadcast

• Giovanni Frescobaldi’s La Palla al Calcio. Radio program broadcast SBS, October 14 2003, on occasion of Terza settimana della Lingua Italiana nel Mondo and Rugby World Cup.

Reviews

• Review of Material Culture & Medieval Drama. Ed. Clifford Davidson. Kalamazoo, Michigan: Medieval Institute Publications, 1999. (Early Drama, Art, and Music Monograph Series, 25) Parergon 17 (2000): 196-197.
• Review of Confraternities and Catholic Reform in Italy, France, and Spain. Ed. Patrick J. Donnelly and Michael W. Maher. Kirksville, Mo.: Thomas Jefferson University Press, 1999. (Sixteenth Century Essays and Studies, 44) Journal of Religious History 25:1 (2001).
• Review of Giordano BRUNO. Candlebearer. Trans. and introd. Gino Moliterno. Ottawa: Dove-house, 2000. Sixteenth Century Journal 32 (2001): 515-516.
• Review of The Politics of Ritual Kinship. Ed. Nicholas Terpstra. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000. Parergon 18 (2001): 225-228.
• Review of Sydney Higgins, ed. European Medieval Drama, 1-3 (1997-99). Turnhout: Brepols, 1997-1999. The Early Drama, Art, and Music Review 24 (2002): 177-181.
• Review article of Giorgio Vasari, 1511-1574. Vasari On Theatre. Trans. by Thomas A. Pallen. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1999. In Australasian Drama Studies, 40 (2002): 136-139.
• Review of Elissa B. Weaver. Convent Theatre in Early Modern Italy: Spiritual Fun and Learning for Women. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002. Cambridge Studies in Italian History and Culture. European Medieval Drama 7 (2003):162-163.
• Review of L'Oratorio del Gonfalone a Roma. Il ciclo cinquecentesco della Passione di Cristo. Ed. Maria Grazia Bernardini. In Confraternitas, 14:1 (Spring 2003).
• Review of Aldo Castellani. Nuovi canti carnascialeschi di Firenze: Le “canzone” e mascherate di Alfonso de’ Pazzi. Florence: Olschki, 2006. Forthcoming in Renaissance Quarterly, 60, 4 (2007).

• “Ser Giusto d’Anghiari e i suoi Giornali.” Edited conference paper in: Una battaglia nel mito: la battaglia d’Anghiari, 1440. Ed. Franco Polcri and Antonio Lanza. Città di Castello: Petruzzi; publication delayed.
• Dieci sacre rappresentazioni fiorentine del ’400 e ’500 (379 pp.), to be published in Letteratura Italiana Antica, 9 (2008).
• “Imposing Presence: The Celebration of Corpus Domini in Fifteenth-century Florence.” Invited chapter, to appear in Performance, Drama and Spectacle in the Medieval City. Ed. Adrian Tutor, Catherine Emerson and Mario Longtan. Leuven: Peeters, 2007/2008.
• “Jousting Alone: Scandal and its Uses in Fifteenth-Century Florence.” Invited chapter, to appear in Sociability and its Discontents: Civil Society, Social Capital, and their Alternatives in European and Australian Society, ed. Nicholas Eckstein and Nicholas Terpstra (Turnhout: Brepols).

• With Barbara Wisch. Acting on Faith: The Confraternity of the Gonfalone in Renaissance Rome, nearing completion
  “Laudatio and history: contextualising the Florentine festa of St John the Baptist.” Due December 2007
  Libri di compagnia: a study of confraternal statutes and parodies of them.
  Edition and translation the Gonfalone plays of Lazarus, the Passion, and the Resurrection (1496-1500)
  Edition of the 1531 redaction of the Gonfalone Passion, 1475 lines.
  Edition, translation and essay on the Terze rime in lode di Cosimo (BNCF, MS Magl. VII.1121), 5000 lines in praise Cosimo de’ Medici and the festivities presented in honour of Galeazzo Maria Sforza, the fifteen-year-old son of the Duke of Milan, who visited Florence in 1459.

• Renaissance Florence (ITLN 3675)
  Italian Medieval Drama
  Italian Research Methodologies
  Texts and Performances
• Recently completed PhD theses:
  Maja Ryslavy Mikula, Women in an Earthly Paradise: Girolamo Savonarola and the rhetoric of the female
  Kathleen Olive, Renaissance Self-fashioning: Marco di Bartolomeo Rustici and his Itinerario
  Jennifer Gargiulo, Vivere sul serio: Eduardo De Filippo and the Art of Life

• Speaker at RSA (Current Trends session, Toronto, 2003; Cambridge, 2005)
• 7 July 2007: Network of Early European Researchers, Perth. Networks, Communities, Continuities: Europe 400-1850 Session: Every Thing in its Right Place: Contextualising Art and Performance in Renaissance Italy. Paper: "Laudatio and History: Contextualising the festa of St John the Bapist"
• 2 July 2007: Australasian Association for European History, Sydney. "Taking on the Undertakers: Containing the Cost of funerals in Early Modern Florence
• 12 July 2007: ACIS, Brisbane. "Laudatio and History: Contextualising the festa of St John the Bapist"
• 18 October 2007: St Paul’s College Symposium. "Peter, Paul and Santa Maria del Carmine: Encore (on the Cult of Andrea Corsini)"

• President, Friends of the University Library
  Council member, Australian Academy of the Humanities, 2003-2004
  Trustee and council member, Mandelbaum House
  Dean's nominee, Arts Association