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Papers by Allison Steenson

Cahiers Élisabéthains, Oct 31, 2023

The Library

This article centres on a connection between the manuscript reading marks of the Italian humanist... more This article centres on a connection between the manuscript reading marks of the Italian humanist Niccolò Leonico Tomeo (Venice 1456-Padua 1531), in the form of curved branches with sprouting leaves, and printed marginal notes found in early editions of his works printed in Venice and Paris. Known generally as a Greek scholar of Aristotle active at the University of Padua, Leonico had also an important role in contemporary intellectual and political debate, especially in relation to his many close English acquaintances. This article examines the occurrences of these unique marginal annotations in manuscript and print, and connects Leonico’s printed works to the printing and intellectual environment in Padua and Venice.

Jam Berton et Sabrina Juillet Garzón (eds.), Freedom as Resistance in Scotland. Besançon: Presses Universitaires de Franche-Comté., 2022

In this essay, I am going to offer a brief summary of the close literary connection between Scotl... more In this essay, I am going to offer a brief summary of the close literary connection between Scotland and Europe during one of the most significant moments in the cultural development of Scotland: the early reign of James VI and the period immediately preceding the Union of the Crowns and the rise of the idea of a Great Britain. This essay will offer a brief sketch of the literary panorama at James’ court in Edinburgh, and a quick overview of the many links that tied the Scottish courtly poets to their Continental colleagues. I will focus on the role of translation from European vernaculars and of creative imitation from Continental authors at the Edinburgh court, and point out how these processes played a pivotal role in the contemporary attempt at renovating Scottish literary culture in a European sense.

In: Kingsley-Smith, J., Rampone Jr., W.R. (eds), Shakespeare’s Global Sonnets. Translation, Appropriation, Performance, Cham, Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 53-70, 2023

Renaissance Studies, Dec 22, 2022

Literature & History, 2021

This paper considers four sonnets written by the Scottish poet Alexander Montgomerie (early 1550s... more This paper considers four sonnets written by the Scottish poet Alexander Montgomerie (early 1550s? - 1598) praising James VI and I’s poetic work the Essayes of a Prentise in the Art of Poesie (Edinburgh, 1584).

The research detailed in this thesis explores the largely uncharted territory represented by the ... more The research detailed in this thesis explores the largely uncharted territory represented by the Hawthornden manuscripts (Edinburgh, National Library of Scotland, MSS 2063-67) of William Fowler, Scottish courtier in Edinburgh and London and attached to the court of Queen Anna of Denmark between 1590 and 1612. The research has focused on material evidence of scribal culture, with the aim of clarifying issues of localization of specific texts and typologies of texts in relation to their social, literary and more broadly cultural background. Based on the fragmentary evidence in the Hawthornden manuscript, this project engages in the exploration of one of the “cultural places of the European Renaissance”, focusing on the early Stuart courtly establishment in the first decade of the seventeenth century. The aim is, on the one hand, to close a series of scholarly gaps in the field of manuscript-based studies of the Scottish Jacobean Renaissance, and on the other, to increase our knowledge...

This article takes its cue from a renewed interest in Petrarchan sonneteering in the sixteenth an... more This article takes its cue from a renewed interest in Petrarchan sonneteering in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries as related to the definition of insular identity. I will suggest that the process of negotiation connected to James’s accession to the throne of England in 1603 left its mark on the formal choices made by British sonnet authors, and that consequently it is possible to investigate sonnet production in the period with an eye to the national allegiances that those formal choices may foreshadow, and/or to the nationalistic ideas they may imply. This paper considers the sonnet rhyme schemes preferred by those Scottish sonneteers working around the political cœsura represented by 1603 and the Union of the Crowns. In particular, it will focus on William Alexander and Alexander Craig, two of the Scottish courtiers who followed the king to London and produced substantial sonnet corpora.

Cahiers Élisabéthains, Oct 31, 2023

The Library

This article centres on a connection between the manuscript reading marks of the Italian humanist... more This article centres on a connection between the manuscript reading marks of the Italian humanist Niccolò Leonico Tomeo (Venice 1456-Padua 1531), in the form of curved branches with sprouting leaves, and printed marginal notes found in early editions of his works printed in Venice and Paris. Known generally as a Greek scholar of Aristotle active at the University of Padua, Leonico had also an important role in contemporary intellectual and political debate, especially in relation to his many close English acquaintances. This article examines the occurrences of these unique marginal annotations in manuscript and print, and connects Leonico’s printed works to the printing and intellectual environment in Padua and Venice.

Jam Berton et Sabrina Juillet Garzón (eds.), Freedom as Resistance in Scotland. Besançon: Presses Universitaires de Franche-Comté., 2022

In this essay, I am going to offer a brief summary of the close literary connection between Scotl... more In this essay, I am going to offer a brief summary of the close literary connection between Scotland and Europe during one of the most significant moments in the cultural development of Scotland: the early reign of James VI and the period immediately preceding the Union of the Crowns and the rise of the idea of a Great Britain. This essay will offer a brief sketch of the literary panorama at James’ court in Edinburgh, and a quick overview of the many links that tied the Scottish courtly poets to their Continental colleagues. I will focus on the role of translation from European vernaculars and of creative imitation from Continental authors at the Edinburgh court, and point out how these processes played a pivotal role in the contemporary attempt at renovating Scottish literary culture in a European sense.

In: Kingsley-Smith, J., Rampone Jr., W.R. (eds), Shakespeare’s Global Sonnets. Translation, Appropriation, Performance, Cham, Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 53-70, 2023

Renaissance Studies, Dec 22, 2022

Literature & History, 2021

This paper considers four sonnets written by the Scottish poet Alexander Montgomerie (early 1550s... more This paper considers four sonnets written by the Scottish poet Alexander Montgomerie (early 1550s? - 1598) praising James VI and I’s poetic work the Essayes of a Prentise in the Art of Poesie (Edinburgh, 1584).

The research detailed in this thesis explores the largely uncharted territory represented by the ... more The research detailed in this thesis explores the largely uncharted territory represented by the Hawthornden manuscripts (Edinburgh, National Library of Scotland, MSS 2063-67) of William Fowler, Scottish courtier in Edinburgh and London and attached to the court of Queen Anna of Denmark between 1590 and 1612. The research has focused on material evidence of scribal culture, with the aim of clarifying issues of localization of specific texts and typologies of texts in relation to their social, literary and more broadly cultural background. Based on the fragmentary evidence in the Hawthornden manuscript, this project engages in the exploration of one of the “cultural places of the European Renaissance”, focusing on the early Stuart courtly establishment in the first decade of the seventeenth century. The aim is, on the one hand, to close a series of scholarly gaps in the field of manuscript-based studies of the Scottish Jacobean Renaissance, and on the other, to increase our knowledge...

This article takes its cue from a renewed interest in Petrarchan sonneteering in the sixteenth an... more This article takes its cue from a renewed interest in Petrarchan sonneteering in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries as related to the definition of insular identity. I will suggest that the process of negotiation connected to James’s accession to the throne of England in 1603 left its mark on the formal choices made by British sonnet authors, and that consequently it is possible to investigate sonnet production in the period with an eye to the national allegiances that those formal choices may foreshadow, and/or to the nationalistic ideas they may imply. This paper considers the sonnet rhyme schemes preferred by those Scottish sonneteers working around the political cœsura represented by 1603 and the Union of the Crowns. In particular, it will focus on William Alexander and Alexander Craig, two of the Scottish courtiers who followed the king to London and produced substantial sonnet corpora.