Medieval, Renaissance experts to speak at UNL

The Medieval and Renaissance Studies Program at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln will host lectures by two visiting scholars this fall.

Medieval literary critic Derek Pearsall will speak at 2:30 p.m. Oct. 27 and Renaissance studies expert Carla Zecher will speak at 5 p.m. Nov. 17. Both lectures will be in Bailey Library, 228 Andrews Hall, 14th and T streets. The events are free and open to the public.

An internationally renowned medievalist, Pearsall is Gurney professor of English emeritus, at Harvard University. He is also co-founder and director emeritus of the Centre for Medieval Studies at the University of York in England, and a founding director of the Early Book Society. He writes and publishes widely on Middle English poetry and poets and on medieval history and culture. His "Life of Geoffrey Chaucer" is the standard text in the field.

Pearsall's talk is titled, "I am myn owen womman, wel at ese: Chaucer's Criseyde and Shakespeare's Cressida." A reception and book signing will follow Pearsall's talk. The event is co-sponsored by UNL's Medieval and Renaissance Studies Program and English Department.

Zecher will speak on "Soundscapes in 16th-Century French Travel Writing: Descriptions of Music Making in Lands to the East and the West." She is the director of Renaissance Studies at the Newberry Library in Chicago, and author of "Sounding Objects: Musical Instruments, Poetry and Art in Renaissance France."