In this blog series, we introduce you to the people who bring the Warburg to life. From library staff to lecturers, find out more about the people working at the Warburg Institute.
In this interview, we talked with Lecturer in Languages and Palaeography, Matthew Coneys. Read on to discover more about his career, the courses he teaches at the Warburg Institute, his wider research, and what it's like to study at the Institute.
Could you tell us a bit about your background and career?
My first degree was in French and Italian at the University of Cambridge. I studied for a masters in Medieval and Renaissance Studies at UCL before moving to the University of Warwick, where my doctoral research explored the Italian reception of the Book of John Mandeville, a fantastical medieval travel account. After completing my PhD, I held research fellowships at the Institute for Modern Languages Research (now the Institute of Languages, Cultures and Societies), St Andrews and Newcastle University. I taught at the University of Oxford before coming to the Warburg.
What led you to teaching Renaissance Italian at the Warburg?
I first became acquainted with the Warburg when I was a postgraduate student. In the time since I’ve worked across the humanities, but I’ve always been drawn to places where scholars from different disciplines and backgrounds can share and discuss their ideas. When the opportunity to teach at the Warburg came up, I didn’t hesitate to apply. There is nowhere quite like it – it was ‘interdisciplinary’ before such a word existed.
Could you tell us more about the courses you teach at the Warburg?
I teach Italian for research at all levels, working with students who are completely new to the language and others who are ready to take on the most challenging Renaissance texts. I also run courses in English and Italian palaeography; and I contribute to the ‘World of the Book’ option module, which offers our MA students a wide-ranging introduction to the book culture of Renaissance Europe.
What can someone expect from a course with yourself?
Plenty of technical training, whether in navigating intricate humanist syntax or deciphering the peculiarities of Tudor secretary hand. I’m always keen to introduce students to a wide range of source texts and to be led by their interests and curiosity. Above all, I try to ensure that courses provide practical preparation for real-world research.
How do the language courses you teach help postgraduate students at the Warburg?
Renaissance vernaculars are very different to their modern counterparts, with significant variation across regional and social contexts. There is generally no such thing as ‘correct’ spelling, and even individual scribes are often wildly inconsistent. Shakespeare famously spelt his own name at least six different ways! Beginner students might not be ready to dive straight into unedited Renaissance sources, but the style and register of Italian academic writing will often feel very unfamiliar. Warburg students tend to be very adept at responding to these challenges, opening the door to an entire world of scholarship and primary sources.
How does your work at the Warburg inform your wider research interests?
My research focuses on the writing and reading cultures associated with travel in fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Italy. Travel accounts were never the preserve of a single social group but were written and consumed by many different kinds of people. Nor did they exist in a merely ‘textual’ sphere: they were intimately wrapped up with visual and material culture, commerce, diplomacy, religious devotion… Working at the Warburg means I am constantly pushed to reconsider how diverse impulses shaped these works and their reception.
Do you have a particular favourite moment whilst working at the Institute?
It is always thrilling to see MA students use their linguistic and palaeographical skills to make exciting new finds in the course of their dissertation research.
What do you value most about the Warburg?
It really is a privilege to teach such creative, inquiring students and to work alongside such committed and generous colleagues. The library isn’t bad, either!
