Research
Kathleen M. Comerford, Professor of History, Georgia Southern University
Current Projects:
Database comparing several European Jesuit libraries. I plan several studies on this subject. For updates, check the following sites: https://www.flickr.com/people/142229640@N08/, https://www.instagram.com/jesuitprovenance/, https://www.facebook.com/EuropeanJesuitLibraries/?modal=admin_todo_tour, and https://jesuit-libraries.com
The Medici Grand Duchesses
Further information is available via Digital Commons, at https://works.bepress.com/kathleen_comerford/
Selected Publications:
“Did the Jesuits Introduce ‘Global Studies’?” Solicited contribution for Embodiment, Identity, and Gender in the Early Modern Age, ed. David Whitford and Amy Leonard (Routledge, 2021) , 197–209.
“Corresponding Consorts: Letters between Medici (Grand) Duchesses and Jesuits, 1540s–1620s,” Early Modern Women: An Interdisciplinary Journal 14/2 (2020): 33-54.
“The Augsburg Interim and the Council of Trent,” solicited contribution for John Calvin in Context, ed. Ward Holder (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2020), 190-197. This book was awarded the Sixteenth Century Society and Conference 2020 Roland H. Bainton Prize for a Work of Reference.
“Ignatius of Loyola,” and “Leo X de’ Medici, Pope,” in Encyclopedia of Martin Luther and the Reformation, ed. Mark A. Lamport et al. (Rowman & Littlefield, 2017), 362-64, 428-30.
From Rome to Zurich, from Ignatius to Vermigli: Essays in Honor of J. Patrick Donnelly, S.J. (Brill, 2017). Co-editor, with Torrance Kirby (McGill University) and Gary Jenkins (Roanoake University).
Jesuit Foundations and Medici Power, 1532-1621 (Brill, 2017)
“The Historiography of the Jesuits in the Italian Peninsula and Islands before the Suppression,” Jesuit Historiography Online, http://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/jesuit-historiography-online/the-historiography-of-jesuits-in-the-italian-peninsula-and-islands-before-the-suppression-COM_192580?s.num=1.
Special issue of Journal of Jesuit Studies: Jesuits and Their Books around the World, 1541-2013: editor and contributor. Issue 2.2, 2015.
Facets of the Reformation: Essays on Church and State, Calvinism and the Family in Memory of Robert M. Kingdon. Co-editor, with Amy Burnett (University of Nebraska) and Karin Maag (Calvin College), and contributor. Geneva: Droz, 2014; article, “Cosimo I dei Medici’s Cooperation with the Jesuits in Creating a Christian Realm in His Expanding State,” 95-118
“Tuscan Libraries of the 1560s and 1570s: Bibliotheca not-yet Selecta,” Archivum Historicum Societatis Iesu 162 (2013): 515-531.
“‘I can’t imagine it won’t bear fruit’: Jesuits, Politics and Heretics in Siena, Montepulciano and Lucca,” in Defining Community in Early Modern Europe, edited by Michael Halvorson and Karen Spierling, Burlington: Ashgate, 2008.
Reforming Priests and Parishes: Tuscan Diocesan Seminaries to 1700. Leiden: Brill, 2006.
“Post-Tridentine Tuscan Seminaries: Collaboration between City-State and Church?” Paedagogia Historica, 43 (2007): 347-364.
“The care of souls is a very grave burden for [the pastor]:” Professionalization of Clergy in Early Modern Florence, Lucca, and Arezzo,” Dutch Review of Church History (2005): 368-87.
“Chierici e seminari nei primi decenni post-tridentini in Toscana,” Per il Cinquecento Religioso Italiano: Clero Cultura Società, Convegno internazionale di studi. Florence: Leo S. Olschki, 2003.
“Teaching Priests to be Pastors: Comparing Jesuit Schools and Diocesan Seminaries in Seventeenth-Century Italy.” Archivum Historicum Societatis Iesu, 72 (2003): 297-322.
Early Modern Catholicism: Essays in Honour of John O’Malley, S. J.: Co-editor with Hilmar M. Pabel (Simon Fraser University, BC, Canada), and contributor. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2001. Simultaneous paper and cloth editions.
Ordaining the Catholic Reformation: Priests and Seminary Pedagogy in Fiesole, 1575-1675. Florence: Leo S. Olschki, 2001.
“The Influence of the Jesuits on the Seminary Curriculum of Fiesole, 1635-1646.” Catholic Historical Review 89 (1998): 662-680.
“Italian Tridentine Diocesan Seminaries: A Historiographical Study.” Sixteenth Century Journal 29 (1998): 997-1020.
Selected Conference Presentations:
“Reading English and Italian Pre-Suppression Jesuit Libraries: Comparisons and Contexts,” Renaissance Society of America Conference, online, 2020
“Letters between the Jesuits and the Medici Grand Duchesses,” Sixteenth Century Society and Conference, Albuquerque, NM, 2018
“Jesuits as Global Citizens: Geography and World History in European Jesuit Libraries,” Renaissance Society of America Conference, New Orleans, LA 2018
“Serenissima Signora: Letters to Maria Maddalena from Muzio Vitelleschi,” Sixteenth Century Studies Conference, Bruges, Belgium, 2016
“European Jesuit Libraries in the 16th and 17th Centuries,” Sixteenth Century Studies Conference, Vancouver, BC, 2015
“Jesuit Colleges in the Early 17th Century,” Renaissance Society of America Conference, Berlin, Germany, 2015
“What Is a Jesuit Library?” Sixteenth Century Studies Conference, New Orleans, LA 2014
“Jesuit Colleges in the Early 17th Century,” Renaissance Society of America Conference, Berlin, Germany, 2015
“Jesuits and their Libraries,” invited speaker for the 400th anniversary of the founding of Heythrop College, London, 2014
“The First Tuscan Jesuits,” Renaissance Society of America Conference, New York, NY 2014
“Jesuit Tuscan Libraries: Bibliotheca not-yet Selecta,” Sixteenth Century Studies Conference, Montreal, Canada, 2010
“Mutual Conquests: Jesuit and Medici Strategies for the Control of Tuscany, 1550s-1650s,” Renaissance Society of America Conference, Venice, Italy, 2010
“Early Jesuit Foundations and their Libraries in Tuscany,”Sixteenth Century Studies Conference, St. Louis, 2008
“Jesuit Teaching and Medici Power in Florence, 1540s-1590s,” Renaissance Society of America Conference, Chicago, 2008
“‘I can’t imagine it won’t bear fruit’: Jesuits, Politics and Heretics in Siena and Neighboring Regions,” Sixteenth Century Studies Conference, Salt Lake City, UT, October 2006
“A Generation Comes of Age: The New Histories of Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century Catholicism in Italy,” Storia Internazionale e Politiche Estere [International History and Foreign Policies]”), Genoa, Italy, October 2004
“‘The Cure of Souls is Burdensome for [the pastor]’ or: We Didn’t Invent the Mission Statement in the 20th Century.” Sixteenth Century Studies Conference in Toronto, October 2004
“Seminaries and Tuscan Communes in the Seventeenth Century,” Sixteenth Century Studies Conference, October 2002
“Seminaries Between City-State and Church,” New College Biennial Conference on Medieval-Renaissance Studies, Sarasota, Florida, March 2002
“Confessionalizing the Contado: Rural Tuscan Parishes in the Baroque Era,” American Catholic Historical Association Conference, January 2000
“The Best-Laid Plans: Urban and Administrative Issues in Fiesole's Catholic Reformation From Above,” American Catholic Historical Association Spring Conference, April 1998 (also session organizer)
“Creating a New Clerical Elite? The Impact of Seminary Education on the Diocese of Fiesole,” Renaissance Society of America Conference, April 1996
“Jesuit Influences on the Curriculum of the Diocesan Seminary of Fiesole,” American Catholic Historical Association Conference, April 1995
“Justification through Education: Confession as a Teaching Tool in the Renaissance and Reformation,” Newberry Library Graduate Student Conference, June 1993.
Awards/Honors:
Princeton University Libraries Short-Term Fellowship, June 2018; PI ($3,395)
Yale University Beinecke Library Visiting Research Fellowship, October-November 2016; PI ($4,000)
Newberry Library Short-Term Fellowship, July 2013; PI ($2,000)
Georgia Southern University CLASS Faculty Seed Grant, Nov. 2010-May 2011
Folger Shakespeare Library Mascioli Short-Term Fellowship, Summer 2010
Center for Excellence in Teaching Grant for Professional Travel, April 2010
Georgia Southern University College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences Award for Excellence in Research, 2008
Georgia Southern University Faculty Research Grant, 2005
Ranked alternate, Solmsen Institute for Research in the Humanities, University of Wisconsin, 2004-2005
Renaissance Society of America/Istituto Nazionale di Studi sul Rinascimento Grant, 2002
Georgia Southern University Faculty Research Stipend, 2000
Georgia Southern University Faculty Research Grant, 2000
Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Grant for study in the Vatican Film Library, St. Louis University, 1998
Bernadotte E. Schmitt Grant from the American Historical Association, 1997
University of Wisconsin-Madison Friends of the Library Grant-in-Aid, 1996
Memberships:
Society for the History of Authorship, Readership, and Publishing (SHARP), 2017-
American Association of University Professors, 2010-
American Historical Association, 1993-1999, 2003-2004, 2015-
Renaissance Society of America, 1997-
American Catholic Historical Association, 1992-
Nominated for Nominating Committee, 2001
Executive Council, 2002-2005
Sixteenth-Century Studies Conference/Scholars of Early Modern Studies, 1991-
Council, 2004-2007
Chair, Ad Hoc Committee on Prizes, 2007-09
Vice President, 2017
President, 2018
Phi Alpha Theta History Honor Society, 1988-
Languages:
Reading and speaking, Italian, including sixteenth and seventeenth-century paleography; reading, French, Latin, and Spanish; basic competency reading, Portuguese, Catalan, and German. Currently developing Dutch.