John J. Martin, Professor

John Jeffries Martin is a historian of early modern Europe, with particular interests in the social, cultural, and intellectual history of Italy in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. He is the author of Venice’s Hidden Enemies: Italian Heretics in a Renaissance City (1993), winner of the Herbert Baxter Adams Prize of the American Historical Association, Myths of Renaissance Individualism (2004), and A Beautiful Ending: The Apocalyptic Imagination and the Making of the Modern World (2022), recipient of the Pelikan Award from Yale University Press, as well as some 50 articles and essays. In addition, he is the editor or co-editor of several volumes: Venice Reconsidered: The History and Civilization of an Italian City State (2002); The Renaissance: Italy and Abroad (2002); Heresy, Culture and Religion in Early Modern Italy: Contexts and Contestations (2006); and The Renaissance World (2007). Martin is currently researching and writing two books: Renaissance, Crisis, and Revolution: The Making of Early Modern Europe, 1450-1792 and Torture and the Law: Francesco Casoni's Struggle for Justice in Sixteenth-Century Italy  – A Microhistory.

Martin has been a fellow of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, twice of the National Endowment of the Humanities, and has received support for his research from the American Philosophical Association, the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, and the Renaissance Society of America. He has lectured, as the Alphonse Dupront Chair, at the University of Paris-Sorbonne and, as Distinguished Visiting Scholar, at Victoria College, the University of Toronto. He also lectures frequently to broader publics.

With Richard Newhauser, Martin is editor of the series Vices & Virtues for Yale University Press.

Martin teaches courses in Italian and European history. His most recent courses include a seminars on Christopher Columbus and on the history of torture in the West, from Antiquity to the present.

Before joining the history faculty at Duke in 2007, Martin taught at Trinity University in San Antonio, where he also served as Chair of the History Department (2004-2007). Martin grew up on St. Simons Island, Georgia, attended St. Paul’s School in Concord, New Hampshire, and received both his undergraduate and graduate degrees from Harvard.

Martin is accepting graduate students with an interest in Renaissance and early modern history, particularly those hoping to work on subjects related to law, religion, and intellectual history in Europe from the fifteenth to the eighteenth century.

Contact Info:

Office Location:	243C Classroom Bldg, Durham, NC 27708
Email Address:

Teaching (Fall 2024):

• HISTORY 117.01, RENAISSANCE & REVOLUTION Synopsis

  Class Bldg 240, MW 10:05 AM-11:20 AM

  (also cross-listed as MEDREN 125.01)

• HISTORY 526S.01, COLUMBUS: A GLOBAL HISTORY Synopsis

  Class Bldg 106, M 06:30 PM-09:00 PM

  (also cross-listed as CULANTH 527S.01, MEDREN 554S.01, RELIGION 524S.01, ROMST 526S.01)

• HISTORY 89S.01, FIRST-YEAR SEMINAR (TOP) Synopsis

  Friedl Bdg 216, TuTh 10:05 AM-11:20 AM

Office Hours:

by appointment -- please contact Ms. Carla Ivey at carla.ivey@duke.edu

Education:

Ph.D.	Harvard University	1982
Ph.D.	Harvard University	1982
BA	Harvard University	1975
A.B.	Harvard University	1975

Specialties:

Medieval and Early Modern History
Legal History
Intellectual History
European and Russia
Global and Comparative

Research Interests:

Current projects: Crossing the Boundaries of Hercules: Knowledge, Faith, and Power in Early Modern Europe, nearing completion.

John Jeffries Martin, Chair of the Department of History, is a historian of early modern Europe, with particular interests in the social, cultural, and intellectual history of Italy in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. He is the author of Venice’s Hidden Enemies: Italian Heretics in a Renaissance City (1993), winner of the Herbert Baxter Adams Prize of the American Historical Association, and Myths of Renaissance Individualism (2004). In addition, he is the editor or co-editor of several volumes: Venice Reconsidered: The History and Civilization of an Italian City State (2002); The Renaissance: Italy and Abroad (2002); Heresy, Culture and Religion in Early Modern Italy: Contexts and Contestations (2006); and The Renaissance World (2007) as well as some fifty articles and essays. He is currently completing Crossing the Boundaries of Hercules: Knowledge, Faith, and Power in Early Modern Europe, a history of Europe from the late fifteenth to the early nineteenth century. Martin’s current research focuses on the history of torture in early modern Italy, a topic he is pursuing through a study of Francesco Casoni, a provincial intellectual, whose writings on evidence and the art of conjecture did much to undermine the need for the use of torture in the courts of Europe in the early modern period. Martin has been a fellow of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, twice of the National Endowment of the Humanities, and has received support for his research from the American Philosophical Association, the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, and the Renaissance Society of America. He has lectured, as the Alphonse Dupront Chair, at the University of Paris-Sorbonne and, as Distinguished Visiting Scholar, at Victoria College, the University of Toronto. He also lectures frequently to broader publics, most recently through a series of presentations on early modern Europe through the Program in the Humanities and Human Values at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. With Richard Newhauser, Martin is editor of the series Vices & Virtues for Yale University Press.

Keywords:

Confession • History • History, Early Modern 1451-1600 • Italy • Muser Mentor • Prayer • Renaissance • Repentance • Self • Sexuality • Sincerity • Torture • venice (italy)--history--1508-1797 • Venice (italy)--history--1508-1797

Bio

Current Ph.D. Students  

• Erasmo Castellani  
• Sean Parrish  

Recent Publications   (More Publications)

1. Martin, JJ; Bragagnolo, M, Physiognomy and Visual Judgment in Medieval and Early Modern Europe, Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies, vol. 54 no. 1 (January, 2024), pp. 1-7 [doi]
2. Martin, JJ, The Art of Conjecture: A Window into the Heart, Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies, vol. 54 no. 1 (January, 2024), pp. 33-56 [doi]
3. Martin, JJ, The Spiritual Globe, New Global Studies, vol. 16 no. 2 (July, 2022), pp. 175-192 [doi]  [abs]
4. Martin, JJ, Montaigne's elusive self: An essay, in Historicizing Life-Writing and Egodocuments in Early Modern Europe (January, 2022), pp. 19-38, ISBN 9783030824822 [doi]  [abs]
5. Martin, JJ, A Beautiful Ending: The Apocalyptic Imagination and the Making of the Modern World (January, 2022), pp. 1-323, ISBN 9780300247329  [abs]