Hanna Sinclair
Research Topic
Dynastic Marriages and Cultural Interaction Between Sixteenth-Century Italy and France
Supervisors: Professor David Parrott, Professor Filippo de Vivo
My research interests concern the cultural history of Renaissance and Early Modern Italy, and Europe more broadly. I am particularly interested in the creation, promulgation, and material manifestations of authority; court culture; rituals and spectacle; persecutions of minorities and illicit sexuality; and material culture.
My DPhil thesis will investigate the dynastic marriages between France, Ferrara, and Florence in the sixteenth-century, which united political interests and ensured dynastic continuity, with a particular concentration on the wedding of Maria de' Medici and Henry IV of France. I will explore this event as a moment of cultural interaction, however, unlike recent scholarship which has emphasised the positive cultural exchange which took place during such mergers, I will be researching possible antipathy or distrust towards the other party, or stereotypes evident in the accounts of the celebrations, particularly regarding national identity. My hypothesis is that despite the lack of consolidated states, there was a strong concept of national consciousness in both Italian and French courts, especially in regards to the other.
This research is funded by a Doctoral Fellowship from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), and a Graduate Scholarship from Jesus College.
Education and Experience
I completed an MSt in Early Modern History at Oxford, and was awarded the dissertation prize. My BA (Hons) in History and Italian Studies was awarded by McMaster University (Canada), but completed at the University of Warwick.
I am the founder and co-convenor of the Oxford Court Studies group, an interdisciplinary seminar series which which explores the political and cultural aspects of courts. For more information, or to present a paper, please email me.
Publications
- ‘The Italian Peninsula’ and ‘The Papal Monarchy’ in Elena Woodacre, Lucinda H.S. Dean, Simon Lambe and Patrik Pastrnak, Exploring Monarchy in Medieval Europe, 1000-1500 (London: Routledge, forthcoming 2025), with Penelope Nash.
- ‘The Granata Svampante: Alfonso d'Este's Projections of Strength and Prudence'. Emblematica, 5 (2023) pp. 83-139. (peer-reviewed)
- 'Sixteenth-century Renaissance Utopianism: Conceptions of Ideal and Virtuous Governments in Gasparo Contarini’s Treatise on Venice, and Thomas More’s Utopia’. Comitatus: A Journal of Medieval & Renaissance Studies, vol. 51 (2020) pp. 131–156. (peer-reviewed)
- Review of Artisans, Objects, and Everyday Life in Renaissance Italy: The Material Culture of the Middling Classes by Paula Hohti Erichsen. Renaissance and Reformation 44, no. 3 (2021), 291–293.
- Review of A Renaissance Marriage: The Political and Personal Alliance of Isabella d’Este and Francesco Gonzaga, 1490-1519 by Carolyn James. Renaissance and Reformation 43, no. 3 (2020) pp. 319–321.
