Monograph
Early Modern Merchants and their Books
Vine A (2025) Early Modern Merchants and their Books. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://global.oup.com/academic/product/early-modern-merchants-and-their-books-9780198881636?cc=gb&lang=en&#
About me
MA (Hons), MPhil, PhD (Cantab); PGCertHE (Sussex); FSA, FRHistS
I took my BA, MA, MPhil and PhD at Trinity College, Cambridge, and I also hold a PGCertHE from the University of Sussex. I was Research Associate on The Oxford Francis Project at the University of Cambridge (2005-2008), Senior Research Research Associate on the Scriptorium: Medieval and Early Modern Manuscripts Project at the University of Cambridge (2008-2009), and Preceptor and Director of Studies in English at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge (2008-2009). From 2009-2011, I was lecturer in early modern literature at the University of Sussex. I joined the University of Stirling in October 2011. I have held a visiting fellowship at the Folger Shakespeare Library (2010), have been a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy since 2012, and in 2019 was elected a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. In 2023, I was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London.
My research focuses on early modern cultural and intellectual history. Areas of expertise include book history, material culture, the history of science, and editing. Particular areas of interest include the works of Francis Bacon (1561-1626), manuscript culture, mercantile culture, and antiquarianism. I also have interests in the history of education (early modern to the present day), humanism, Shakespeare studies, the history and practice of note-taking, and the organization of knowledge.
My first monograph, In Defiance of Time: Antiquarian Writing in Early Modern England (OUP; 2010), was a study of the antiquarian imagination in early modern Britain. My second book was Miscellaneous Order: Manuscript Culture and the Early Modern Organization of Knowledge (OUP; 2019). My most recent book is the forthcoming Early Modern Merchants and Their Books (OUP).
I have edited two collections of essays - (with Katie Halsey), Shakespeare and Authority: Citations, Conceptions and Constructions (Palgrave Macmillan; 2018); and (with Abigail Shinn), The Copious Text: Encyclopaedic Books in Early Modern England (2014; special issue of Renaissance Studies). I have also published numerous essays and articles on various aspects of early modern culture, including chorography, epigraphy, church notes, the works of the poet Michael Drayton (1563-1631), Scottish Neo-Latin poetry, myth and legend, etymology, pyramidography, early modern theories of the winds, and digital archives and editions.
I am the chair of the British Academy-funded Oxford Francis Bacon Project (https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/projects/academy-research-projects-francis-bacon-project/), and also sit on the editorial board and am a contributing editor for The Oxford Francis Bacon (http://www.oxfordfrancisbacon.com/). I also sit on the editorial board and am a volume editor of The Oxford Traherne (https://oxfordtraherne.org/). I also sat on the advisory boards of the Horizon 2020 funded ATRA - The Atlas of Renaissance Antiquarianism project (https://www.unive.it/pag/33168), and the AHRC funded MPESE - Manuscript Pamphleteering in Early Stuart England project (https://mpese.ac.uk/).
In 2013-2015, I held a British Academy/Leverhulme SRG for the project 'Manuscripts, Miscellanies and the Organization of Knowledge', and in 2010 I held a short-term fellowship at the Folger Shakespeare Library for the project 'Manuscripts, Merchants and Miscellanea' (https://folgerpedia.folger.edu/Angus_Vine). I was also co-investigator on the JSPS (Japan Society for the Promotion of Science) funded project 'Antiquarianism in 17th-Century England' (PI: Professor Michiyo Takano). In 2014, I chaired the organizing committee of the British Shakespeare Association (BSA) Conference held at the University of Stirling (part of the 'Shakespeare at 450' project at Stirling) (http://www.shakespeare.stir.ac.uk/).
In 2020, I was awarded a British Academy Mid-Career Fellowship for my new research project 'Mercantile Humanism: Knowledge-Making in Early Modern Britain' (https://www.stir.ac.uk/news/2020/09/new-study-on-the-literary-and-cultural-lives-of-merchants-in-early-modern-britain/). This project ran from 2021 to 2022, and involved collaborations with London Metropolitan Archives, the Guildhall Library (London), and Edward's Boys. The major output of the project is my forthcoming book Early Modern Merchants and Their Books.
Award
British Academy Mid-Career Fellowship
I have been awarded a British Academy Mid-Career Fellowship for 2020/21 for the project 'Mercantile Humanism: Knowledge-Making in Early Modern Britain'.
Fellow of the Royal Historical Society (FRHistS)
I was elected a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society (FRHistS) in 2019 in recognition of my original contribution to historical scholarship.
Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London (FSA)
In 2023, I was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London (founded in 1707). Fellowships are awarded in recognition of achievements in a particular field of antiquarian activity ( i.e. ‘excelling in the knowledge of the antiquities and history of this and other countries', as specified in the Society's Charter).
Event / Presentation
“The Eloquentest that was born in this Isle”: Francis Bacon and the Circulation of his Speeches
Accepted paper, Renaissance Society of America annual meeting (online), April 2021
Bacon and the Merchants
Accepted paper, A New New Atlantis Roundtable, Renaissance Society of America Annual Meeting, Boston (March 2025)
Camden and Church Monuments
Invited paper at the William Camden and his World conference, Society of Antiquaries, London (July 2023)
Lives and Ledgers: Early Modern Merchants and their Books
Document viewing and exhibition, London Metropolitan Archives, London (November 2021)
Marmaduke Rawdon, Merchant Antiquary
Invited paper at the Book History Seminar, University of Oslo (October 2022)
Michael Drayton’s Poly-Olbion: Britain’s First Antiquarian Epic
Accepted paper, 95th ELSJ (English Literary Society of Japan) Conference, Kanto Gakuin University, Yokohama (May 2023)
Of Windmills and Sailing-Boats: Francis Bacon and the Mastery of the Winds
Invited paper at The Representation of Natural Disasters in Early Modern Literature Digital Roundtable, Université Clermont-Auvergne (October 2020)
Scenes from the City: A Civic Education
Stage show produced in collaboration with Edward’s Boys Theatre Company (https://edwardsboys.org.uk), and performed in London (The Old Operating Theatre Museum & Herb Garret), Oxford (University Church of St Mary the Virgin), and Stratford-upon-Avon (Levi Fox Hall) (October 2022)
The Library at Boston Manor
Invited heritage talk at Boston Manor House (February 2024)
The Mercantile Vade-Mecum: Portable Knowledge in the Early Modern World
Invited paper at the History of Material Texts Seminar, University of Cambridge (February 2021)
The Merchant's Two Cultures
Public lecture at Guildhall Library, London (November 2021)
The Rawdons of Rawdon: A Seventeenth-Century Merchant Antiquarian Family
Invited paper at Antiquarianism in 17th-Century England workshop, Yamanashi Prefectural University, Kofu
External Examiners and Validations
External Examining
PhD External Examining: Université Clermont-Auvergne (2019); University of Cambridge (2023);
MRes External Examining: University of Glasgow (2017)
Mentor
A Career in Academia: Insights from BA Mid-Career Fellows
Speaker at online mentoring/CPD event for early career researchers, organised by the British Academy (November 2022)
Other Academic Activities
Short-Term Fellowship, Folger Shakespeare Library
Visiting Fellowship at the Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, DC
Other Project
MPESE - Manuscript Pamphleteering in Early Stuart England
Advisory Board member for AHRC-funded project (PI: Dr Noah Millstone, University of Birmingham; CI: Dr Sebastiaan Verweij, University of Bristol)
ATRA - Atlas of Renaissance Antiquarianism
Advisory Board member for Horizon 2020 funded project (PI: Dr Damiano Acciarino, Università Ca' Foscari Venezia).
The Oxford Traherne
Editorial and advisory board member for ongoing collaborative project to edit the works of the seventeenth-century poet and divine, Thomas Traherne (c.1637–1674) (general editor, Dr Julia Smith, University of Oxford) (https://oxfordtraherne.web.ox.ac.uk).
Professional qualification
Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
I was made Fellow of the Higher Education Academy in 2012 (recognition number 49071).
University Contribution
Excellence in Teaching in the Faculty of Arts and Humanities, RATE Awards 2017
I was the winner of the Excellence in Teaching in the Faculty of Arts and Humanities (RATE) Awards 2017.
Research projects (4)
The Francis Bacon Project
PI: Professor Angus Vine
Funded by: The British Academy
–
Mercantile Humanism: Knowledge-Making in Early Modern England, 1560-1660
PI: Professor Angus Vine
Funded by: The British Academy
–
Manuscripts, Miscellanies and the Organization of Knowledge
PI: Professor Angus Vine
Funded by: The British Academy
–
Shakespeare at 450: Text, Power, Authority
PI: Professor Katherine Halsey
Funded by: Delegates - Short Courses
–
Outputs (38)
Book Chapter
Taking Note and the Technologies of Trust in Ben Jonson’s Volpone
Vine A (2025) Taking Note and the Technologies of Trust in Ben Jonson’s Volpone. In: Sterret J, Findlay A & Wilcox H (eds.) Early Modern Bonds of Trust: From Shakespeare to Milton. 1st ed. London: Bloomsbury/Arden Shakespeare, pp. 211-29. https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/early-modern-bonds-of-trust-9781350462007/
Book Chapter
"History from Marble": Church Notes and Epigraphy in Early Modern England
Vine A (2024) "History from Marble": Church Notes and Epigraphy in Early Modern England. In: Johnsen EN & Stovner IL (eds.) Early Modern Genres of History. Early Modern Themes. London and New York: Routledge, pp. 54-77. https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003331971-5/history-marble-angus-vine?context=ubx&refId=1385b578-fa2f-4a89-9025-8b200a4ea854
Book Chapter
Miscellanies, Commonplace Books, and the Essay
Vine A (2024) Miscellanies, Commonplace Books, and the Essay. In: Gigante D & Childs J (eds.) The Cambridge History of the British Essay. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 32-47.
Article
Vine A (2024) The Books at Boston Manor. Brentford & Chiswick Local History Journal, 33, pp. 9-14. https://brentfordandchiswicklhs.org.uk/journal-33-2024/
Conference Paper (published)
Michael Drayton’s Poly-Olbion: Britain’s First Antiquarian Epic
Vine A (2023) Michael Drayton’s Poly-Olbion: Britain’s First Antiquarian Epic. In: volume 95. The 95th General Meeting of the English Literary Society of Japan, Yokohama, 20.05.2023-21.05.2023. The English Literary Society of Japan. https://www.elsj.org/meeting/Proceedings/95.html
Book Chapter
Francis Bacon and the Mastery of the Winds
Vine A (2022) Francis Bacon and the Mastery of the Winds. In: Chiari S (ed.) The Experience of Disaster in Early Modern English Literature. Routledge Studies in World Literature and the Environment. New York and Abingdon: Routledge, pp. 86-103. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003273134
Website Content
Vine A (2022) London's Literary Merchants. London Metropolitan Archives [Online newsletter] 12.08.2022. https://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/things-to-do/history-and-heritage/london-metropolitan-archives/collections/londons-literary-merchants?utm_source=mailchimp&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter&utm_term=2022-03
Book Chapter
Note-Taking and the Organization of Knowledge
Vine A (2020) Note-Taking and the Organization of Knowledge. In: Jalobeanu D & Wolfe CT (eds.) Encyclopedia of Early Modern Philosophy and the Sciences. Living Edition ed. Cham, Switzerland: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-20791-9_260-1
Book Chapter
Vine A (2020) Drayton's Copious Chorography. In: McRae A & Schwyzer P (eds.) Poly-Olbion: New Perspectives. Studies in Renaissance Literature, 38. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, pp. 19-38. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781787448919.003
Book Review
Review of Harriet Archer, Unperfect Histories: The Mirror for Magistrates, 1559-1610
Vine A (2019) Review of Harriet Archer, Unperfect Histories: The Mirror for Magistrates, 1559-1610. Review of: Harriet Archer, Unperfect Histories: The Mirror for Magistrates, 1559-1610 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017), xii + 203 pp. ISBN 978–0–19–880617–2. The Spenser Review, 49 (2), Art. No.: 17. http://www.english.cam.ac.uk/spenseronline/review/item/49.2.17
Authored Book
Miscellaneous Order: Manuscript Culture and the Early Modern Organisation of Knowledge
Vine A (2019) Miscellaneous Order: Manuscript Culture and the Early Modern Organisation of Knowledge. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Edited Book
Shakespeare and Authority: Citations, Conceptions and Constructions
Halsey K & Vine A (eds.) (2018) Shakespeare and Authority: Citations, Conceptions and Constructions. Palgrave Shakespeare Studies. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. http://www.palgrave.com/gb/book/9781137578525
Book Chapter
'Dressed in a Little Brief Authority': Authority Before, During, and After Shakespeare's Plays
Vine A & Halsey K (2018) 'Dressed in a Little Brief Authority': Authority Before, During, and After Shakespeare's Plays. In: Halsey K & Vine A (eds.) Shakespeare and Authority: Citations, Conceptions and Constructions. Palgrave Shakespeare Studies. London: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 1-27. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-57853-2_1
Book Chapter
'A Trim Reckoning': Accountability and Authority in 1 and 2 Henry IV
Vine A (2018) 'A Trim Reckoning': Accountability and Authority in 1 and 2 Henry IV. In: Halsey K & Vine A (eds.) Shakespeare and Authority: Citations, Conceptions, and Constructions. Palgrave Shakespeare Studies. London: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 157-178. https://www.palgrave.com/gb/book/9781137578525; https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-57853-2_7
Book Chapter
Scriptorium: When to Build a Digital Archive rather than a Digital Edition
Vine A (2018) Scriptorium: When to Build a Digital Archive rather than a Digital Edition. In: Loffman C & Phillips H (eds.) A Handbook of Editing Early Modern Texts. Material Readings in Early Modern Culture. London and New York: Routledge, pp. 188-192. https://www.routledge.com/A-Handbook-of-Editing-Early-Modern-Texts/Loffman-Phillips/p/book/9781472474780
Book Chapter
Vine A (2017) Travel and Chorography. In: Lee J (ed.) A Handbook of English Renaissance Literary Studies. Wiley-Blackwell Critical Theory Handbooks. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, pp. 411-424. https://www.wiley.com/en-gb/A+Handbook+of+English+Renaissance+Literary+Studies-p-9781118458785
Book Review
Review of Kelsey Jackson Williams, The Antiquary: John Aubrey's Historical Scholarship
Vine A (2017) Review of Kelsey Jackson Williams, The Antiquary: John Aubrey's Historical Scholarship. Review of: The Antiquary: John Aubrey’s Historical Scholarship, by Kelsey Jackson Williams, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2016, xiv + 191 pp. ISBN 978–0–19–878429–6. Seventeenth Century, 33 (1), pp. 114-117. https://doi.org/10.1080/0268117X.2017.1347384
Article
Search and retrieval in seventeenth-century manuscripts: the case of Joseph Hall's miscellany
Vine A (2017) Search and retrieval in seventeenth-century manuscripts: the case of Joseph Hall's miscellany. Huntington Library Quarterly, 80 (2), pp. 325-343. https://doi.org/10.1353/hlq.2017.0019
Book Review
Review of The Shakespearean Archive: Experiments in New Media from the Renaissance to Postmodernity
Vine A (2016) Review of The Shakespearean Archive: Experiments in New Media from the Renaissance to Postmodernity. Review of: Alan Galey, The Shakespearean Archive: Experiments in New Media from the Renaissance to Postmodernity (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014), xv, 346 pp., 978-1-107-04064-9. Shakespeare Jahrbuch, 152, pp. 19-21. http://shakespeare-gesellschaft.de/en/jahrbuch/volume-152-2016/contents.html
Book Chapter
Bibliophily in Baldwin's Mirror
Vine A (2016) Bibliophily in Baldwin's Mirror. In: Archer H & Hadfield A (eds.) 'A Mirror for Magistrates' in Context: Literature, History and Politics in Early Modern England. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 89-106. http://www.cambridge.org/ro/academic/subjects/literature/renaissance-and-early-modern-literature/mirror-magistrates-context-literature-history-and-politics-early-modern-england?format=HB
Book Review
English Women, Religion, and Textual Production, 1500-1625. Edited by Micheline White
Vine A (2014) English Women, Religion, and Textual Production, 1500-1625. Edited by Micheline White. Review of: Micheline White (ed.), English Women, Religion, and Textual Production, 1500-1625 (Farnham: Ashgate, 2011). Literature and Theology, 28 (3), pp. 354-357. https://doi.org/10.1093/litthe/fru004
Book Chapter
Vine A (2014) Myth and Legend. In: Hadfield A, Dimmock M M & Shinn A (eds.) The Ashgate Research Companion to Popular Culture in Early Modern England. Ashgate Research Companions. Farnham: Ashgate, pp. 103-118. http://www.ashgate.com/isbn/9781409436843
Article
Shinn A & Vine A (2014) Theorizing Copiousness. Renaissance Studies, 28 (2), pp. 167-182. https://doi.org/10.1111/rest.12048
Article
Copiousness, conjecture and collaboration in William Camden's Britannia
Vine A (2014) Copiousness, conjecture and collaboration in William Camden's Britannia. Renaissance Studies, 28 (2), pp. 225-41. https://doi.org/10.1111/rest.12051
Other
The Copious Text: Encyclopaedic Books in Early Modern England, special issue of Renaissance Studies
Shinn A (Editor) & Vine A (Editor) (2014) The Copious Text: Encyclopaedic Books in Early Modern England, special issue of Renaissance Studies. Renaissance Studies, 28 (2). http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/rest.2014.28.issue-2/issuetoc
Book Chapter
'His Lordships First, and Last, CHAPLEINE': William Rawley and Francis Bacon
Vine A (2013) 'His Lordships First, and Last, CHAPLEINE': William Rawley and Francis Bacon. In: Adlington H, Lockwood G & Wright G (eds.) Chaplains in early modern England: Patronage, literature and religion. Politics, Culture and Society in Early Modern Britain. Manchester: Manchester University Press. http://www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/cgi-bin/indexer?product=9780719088346
Book Chapter
Digitizing Non-Linear Texts in TEI P5: The Case of the Early Modern Reversed Manuscript
Vine A & Verweij S (2012) Digitizing Non-Linear Texts in TEI P5: The Case of the Early Modern Reversed Manuscript. In: Nelson B & Terras M (eds.) Digitizing Medieval and Early Modern Material Culture. 978-0866984744 ed. New Technologies in Medieval and Renaissance Studies. Tempe, Arizona, USA: Arizona Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, p. 113–136.
Book Chapter
Spectacles from Scotland: Camden, Johnston, and the Urbes Britanniae
Vine A (2012) Spectacles from Scotland: Camden, Johnston, and the Urbes Britanniae. In: Houghton L & Manuwald G (eds.) Neo-Latin Poetry in the British Isles. London: Bristol Classical Press, pp. 173-189.
Book Chapter
Commercial Commonplacing: Francis Bacon, the Waste-Book, and the Ledger
Vine A (2011) Commercial Commonplacing: Francis Bacon, the Waste-Book, and the Ledger. In: Beadle R, Beal P, Burrow C & Edwards A (eds.) Manuscript Miscellanies 1450-1700. English Manuscript Studies 1100-1700, 16. London: The British Library, pp. 197-218. http://publishing.bl.uk/book/manuscript-miscellanies-1450-1700
Book Review
Vine A (2011) Publishing on a Kingly Scale. Review of: Graham Rees and Maria Wakely, Publishing, Politics, and Culture: The King's Printers in the Reign of James I and VI, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2010, xv + 280 pages; ISBN: 9780199576319. Huntington Library Quarterly, 74 (2), pp. 362-66.
Book Review
Vine A (2010) Scott L. Newstok, Quoting Death in Early Modern England: The Poetics of Epitaphs Beyond the Tomb (2009). Review of: Scott L. Newstok, Quoting Death in Early Modern England: The Poetics of Epitaphs Beyond the Tomb (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009). Journal of the Northern Renaissance, 2010. http://www.northernrenaissance.org/scott-l-newstok-quoting-death-in-early-modern-england-the-poetics-of-epitaphs-beyond-the-tomb-palgrave-macmillan-2009/
Authored Book
In Defiance of Time: Antiquarian Writing in Early Modern England
Vine A (2010) In Defiance of Time: Antiquarian Writing in Early Modern England. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Article
Francis Bacon’s Composition Books
Vine A (2008) Francis Bacon’s Composition Books. Transactions of the Cambridge Bibliographical Society, 14 (1), pp. 1-31. www.jstor.org/stable/41155427.
Article
A New Version of Bacon’s Apologie: MS Rawlinson D. 672
Vine A (2008) A New Version of Bacon’s Apologie: MS Rawlinson D. 672. Bodleian Library Record, 21, pp. 118-137.
Article
'Too great a morsell for time to deuoure': Seventeenth-Century Surveys of the Pyramids at Giza
Vine A (2007) 'Too great a morsell for time to deuoure': Seventeenth-Century Surveys of the Pyramids at Giza. Journeys - the International Journal of Travel and Travel Writing, 8 (1-2), pp. 21-40. https://www.berghahnjournals.com/abstract/journals/journeys/8/1/
Book Chapter
Marvels in the Desert: Pyramids and Pyramidography in Early Modern England
Vine A (2007) Marvels in the Desert: Pyramids and Pyramidography in Early Modern England. In: Crone R, Gange D & Jones K (eds.) New Perspectives in British Cultural History. Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, pp. 47-59.
Article
Etymology, names and the search for origins: Deriving the past in early modern England
Vine A (2006) Etymology, names and the search for origins: Deriving the past in early modern England. Seventeenth Century, 21 (1), pp. 1-21. www.ingentaconnect.com/content/manup/tsc/2006/00000021/00000001/art00001.
Teaching
I have been a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy since 2012, and I teach across the whole of the undergraduate programme in English Studies at Stirling. I offer specialist teaching in early modern literature, Shakespeare and early modern drama, tragedy, palaeography, archival culture and book history. I also coordinate the final-year dissertation and the dissertation preparation module.
At taught postgraduate level, I regularly supervise MRes students in Renaissance/early modern studies. I have previously supervised on topics including Renaissance Roman plays, Marlowe and absolutism, apophasis in the early modern theatre, and early modern angelology.
I currently supervise three PhD students: Lorna Wallace, "The Ideals of Duty: Renaissance History Plays and the Politics of Duty" (2017-; AHRC-funded); Emma McCabe, "‘Now thou art an O without a figure’: A Feminine Hermeneutics of Absence and the Early Modern Theatre" (2020-; AHRC-funded); and Francesca Pontini, "Reading the Margins: Investigating Reading Practices in Renaissance Scotland, 1495-1560" (2020-).
I was delighted in 2017 to be awarded the University of Stirling's RATE Award for Excellence in Teaching in the Faculty of Arts and Humanities.
I am currently Programme Director for English Studies (single and joint honours) and Advisor of Studies for English.
Teaching
How to Use Book-Lists and Inventories: A Lesson in Seventeenth-Century Book History
Invited masterclass on book history, delivered to MA students at the University of Oslo (October 2022)