D r. M a r k  C r a n e

Seminar Instructor and Member of the Graduate Faculty

Department of History, Nipissing University, North Bay, Ontario P1B 8L7

Office: H315; Tel: (705)474-3450 ext. 4181

Email: markc@nipissingu.ca

Office Hours: Tues. 3:30-4:20; Wed. 2:30-3:20

My main research interests lie at the intersection of the development of early print culture, changing perspectives on education, and currents of religious reform in the late-fifteenth and early-sixteenth centuries. My doctoral thesis on the Paris printer/scholar Josse Bade (defended in June 2005) argued that while the humanist scholarship of the Renaissance had a strong impact on the intellectual life of Paris it neither dislodged nor replaced the medieval traditions developed there since the twelfth century. The persistence of medieval intellectual and pedagogical traditions in Renaissance Paris also formed the basis of Conservative Catholic responses to the Reformation challenge.

Although the circumstances were vastly different when printing was in its infancy, studying how people and institutions used and exploited this technology helps to give a broad perspective on the transformations brought about by communications media, most recently the internet, in contemporary culture. History is not a perfect mirror, nor a set of patterns or cycles that repeat themselves endlessly. However, understanding how people in the past dealt with similar problems can make the complexities and challenges of our own times more understandable.

Though my research interests are quite specific, I am also interested in broader questions and problems of historical method. What do professional historians do? What is history? Why does it matter? These are some of the big questions we'll tackle in History and Historians. I am also interested in all types of Latin literature, and welcome any chance to share my Latin skills with students.

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