Karin Sprang

Karin Sprang is a PhD candidate at the Centre for the Study of the Renaissance, supervised by Prof Ingrid De Smet and Prof David Lines, and funded by Midlands4Cities (AHRC). Her doctoral project focuses on the use and production of northern-European alba amicorum in early modern Italy. This highly interdisciplinary study combines approaches and topics from art history, book history, cultural history, and early modern mobility studies in order to map out the networks of travellers, artists, and artisans in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. This research has so far taken her to libraries and archives across the UK, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, and Italy.

Previously, Karin has completed MAs in Culture of the European Renaissance (University of Warwick) and Curating Art & Cultures (University of Amsterdam), as well as a year-long placement as curator-in-training at the Mauritshuis in The Hague.

Contact: karin.sprang@warwick.ac.uk

Conferences & seminars:

· Conference: ‘Trading Friendship: Transalpine Encounters in the Album Amicorum of Joachim Weyermann (1606-1613)’, Objects and Spaces of Encounter in Renaissance Italy (Istituto Storico Italo-Germanico, Fondazione Bruno Kessler, Trento, IT – 15-17 April 2024).

· Conference: ‘Dressed in Friendship: Illustrating Rome and Romans in Sixteenth-Century Alba Amicorum’, Gernsheim Study Days: Exploring Rome Through Drawing in the 16^th Century (Bibliotheca Hertziana – Max Planck Institute for Art History, Rome, IT – 6-8 March 2024).

· Seminar: ‘Tracing Early Modern Italy in the Alba Amicorum of the Herzogin Anna Amalia Bibliothek’, Klassik Stiftung Weimar Forschungskolloquium (Klassik Stiftung Weimar, Weimar, GE – 27 February 2024).

· Seminar: ‘Rare Bird & Fast Friends: Interpreting Illustrations in Early Modern Alba Amicorum’, PhD Work in Progress Seminar Series (University of Warwick, Centre for the Study of the Renaissance, Coventry, UK – 7 December 2023).

· Conference: ‘Transalpine Travellers and Friendly Affairs: Alba Amicorum in Early Modern Italy, ca. 1550-1700’, SKILLNET: Digital Approaches to the Republic of Letters: Network Research, Text Mining, and Infrastructures: (University of Utrecht, Utrecht, NL – 17-18 November 2022).

Fellowships & awards:

· Weimar Fellowship, Klassik Stiftung Weimar: Jan-Feb 2024.

· Research Scholarship for (R)MA Students, Royal Netherlands Institute in Rome (KNIR): Mar 2022.

· Martin Lowry Award for Best Overall Achievement, University of Warwick, Centre for the Study of the Renaissance: Dec 2020.

Other activities:

· Co-founder and co-organiser CSR PGR Work in Progress Seminar (Oct 2023-present).

· Academic lead Warwick Renaissance Society (Nov 2024-present).

· CSR Student-Staff Liaison Committee PGR co-representative (24/25 academic year).