Tom PertLink opens in a new window is pleased to announce the publication of his first monograph The Palatine Family and the Thirty Years' War: Experiences of Exile in Early Modern Europe, 1632-1648 by Oxford University Press on 1 July 2023. Dr Pert's book examines the experiences of exiled royal and noble dynasties during the early modern period through a study of the rulers of the Electorate of the Palatinate during the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648). By drawing on a wide range of archival source materials, ranging from financial records, printed manifestos, and considerable quantities of diplomatic and personal correspondence, it investigates the resources available to the exiled 'Palatine Family' as well as their attempts to recover the lands and titles lost by Elector Frederick V - the son-in-law of King James VI and I of England and Scotland - in the opening stages of the Thirty Years' War. For more information see: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-palatine-family-and-the-thirty-years-war-9780198875406?cc=gb&lang=en"

“A Long Way to a New Cosmology: Theories of Tides in Pre-Modern Thought”. This project offers the first comprehensive study of pre-modern engagement with the relatively neglected yet highly problematic natural phenomenon of tides. It argues that the flow and ebb effect was an essential component of cosmological discussions in premodern Europe and attracted the attention of all major scholars whom we currently associate with the so-called Scientific Revolution.

The competition amongst prominent thinkers involved in the study of astronomy and mathematics left its mark on a considerable number of works on tides, while the contesting solutions were believed to constitute a valid argument in favor of the respective cosmological theories. This also implies that the issue of determining the flow and ebb of water formed part of a larger discourse that went beyond strict mathematization of natural knowledge and reflected, on a more general level, a peculiar understanding of the cosmos and all it contains. Furthermore, the project makes an addition to a field of study that has been burgeoning in past years considering the current climate crisis. Several studies have recently devoted attention to pre-modern reflections on nature, especially with regard to various types of calamities. Despite not being considered a disaster because of their recurring and predictable character, tides were nonetheless seen as potentially devastating if not controlled and properly understood. Although inevitably put in relation with a discourse of the Flood, tidal accounts were largely devoid of metaphysical features, instead seeking out plausible mechanistic interpretations of the motion of water. At the same time, contrary to what has been suggested in scholarship, establishing the origin of tides was never regarded as a mere physico-mathematical exercise, but generally presented a matter of environmental concern. Thus, this project provides a synthetic account of pre-modern discourses of tides in their cosmological and environmental dimensions.

He will start on 1 July 2023, right after his stay at I Tatti where he is an Andrew W Mellon Fellow, and it will run for 24 months.