Although it has been almost universally assumed that the European Renaissance was only introduced to Ireland by Tudor officials during the later sixteenth century, the Ad Fontes project has found significant evidence of sporadic but growing influence in earlier decades, extending back into the late fifteenth century. Dr Harris showed the earliest examples of Renaissance handwriting in Ireland, dating from the 1490s, and discussed the careers of several individuals who adumbrate the emerging engagement of Irishmen with the Renaissance, from Muiris O Fithcheallaigh in Venice and Padua in the 1490s to Duncanus Hibernus in Wittenberg in the 1530.

A lack of institutional support, growing political instability and the conflicting ideology of Tudor imperialism combined to undermine and delay the development of a fully-fledged domestic Renaissance in Ireland. In the process, the educational values of the Renaissance in Ireland were challenged and transformed. Dr Harris asked whether we can learn from this example of the clash of state pragmatism with the Renaissance educational programme in order to inform our own debates about the cultural value of cumulative learning with regard to languages, mathematics, and the sciences.

The breakthrough in Ad Fontes research comes at a time when the Centre for Neo-Latin Studies has been receiving national and international attention for its work on Irish Latin. A lively discussion session after the public lecture focused upon the need to maintain and develop the Centre’s work in the current economic crisis.

Picture:  Dr Jason Harris

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