Professor Jerry Brotton, BA (Sussex) MA (Essex) PhD (QMUL)
Professor of Renaissance Studies

email: j.r.brotton@qmul.ac.uk

Jerry Brotton studied at Sussex, Essex, and Queen Mary, and held positions at Leeds and Royal Holloway before returning to the English Department as a Lecturer in 2003. He was appointed Professor in 2007. He is the author of Trading Territories: Mapping the Early Modern World (1997), Global Interests: Renaissance Art between East and West (2000, co-written with Lisa Jardine), The Renaissance Bazaar: from the Silk Road to Michelangelo (2002), The Sale of the Late King’s Goods (2006), The Renaissance: A Very Short Introduction (2006), and A History of the World in Twelve Maps (2012). His works have been translated into twelve languages, funded by the AHRC and the Leverhulme Trust, and he has been shortlisted for various prizes (including the Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction in 2006 and the THES Young Academic of the Year in 2007). He is a regular broadcaster, critic and feature writer, presenting BBC4’s three-part TV series, ‘Maps: Power, Plunder and Possession’ (2010), BBC Radio 3’s ‘Courting the East’ (2007), and co-curating as well as editing the catalogue of ‘Penelope’s Labour: Weaving Words and Images’, an exhibition at the Venice Biennale of 2011. He is internationally recognised as an expert in the history of cartography and east-west cultural exchange in the early modern period.

He recently completed presenting a television documentary for BBC Northern Ireland entitled ‘Mapping Ulster’, and is currently writing a book on Shakespeare and Islam. He is currently undertaking research into the history of discovery in the early modern period.

Research interests:

Renaissance intellectual and cultural history
Early modern literature
History of cartography
East-west cultural exchange
History of discovery

Postgraduate supervision:

Jerry would welcome enquiries from potential doctoral students interested in any of the areas of his research.

He has recently supervised the following successful PhD project:

Colette Gordon, 'The Play of Credit in Shakespearean Comedy' (2009)
Katherine Diamond, 'The production, transmission and reception of "The Principal Navigations"' (2013)

Publications:

Selected Publications:

A History of the World in Twelve Maps (London: Allen Lane, 2012)

with A. Lowe, eds, Penelope's Labour: Weaving Words and Images (Madrid: Factum Arte, 2011)

The Sale of the Late King's Goods: Charles I and his Art Collection (London: Macmillan, 2006)

The Renaissance: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006)

The Renaissance Bazaar: from Silk Road to Michelangelo (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002)

Undergraduate teaching:

In the current academic year, Jerry contributes to undergraduate teaching on:

ESH366: Shakespeare: The Play, the Word and the Book

Postgraduate teaching:

In the current academic year, Jerry contributes to postgraduate teaching on:

Professor Jerry Brotton, BA (Sussex) MA (Essex) PhD (QMUL) Professor of Renaissance Studies