Daniel Fried

daniel fried2
DPhil Candidate
New College

Thesis title: John Milton (1608-74) and the Uses of Ancient Learning

 

Supervisor: Dr William Poole

 

Doctoral research: We know very much about John Milton’s classical sources, allusions, and formal archetypes. But humanism did not only entail the imitation of ancient literature—and we know less about Milton’s engagement with the broader intellectual culture of late humanistic classical scholarship. My thesis therefore attempts to look over the shoulder of Milton the Scholar at work. I discuss the wide uses to which Milton put ancient learning throughout his life--in his patristic scholarship; his educational writings and practice; his methodologies for encountering and accommodating ancient wisdom; and the structure of his epic universe.

 

 

 

Teaching: I am very excited about teaching, and am able to cover FHS papers 1, 3, and 4, as well as the Epic link paper. I would also be delighted to supervise undergraduate dissertations on Milton, as well as those which take an interdisciplinary approach.

Other research: Much of my research is focused on the intersections of early modern literature with the broad classical tradition and the studia humanitatis. I also have related interests in bibliography, intellectual history, and the history of science. I am a member of the Oxford Centre for Intellectual History; I also served as Treasurer of the Oxford Bibliographical Society (2020-23), and remain on its council. Some current research projects include:

  • The uses of Hellenistic cosmographical textbooks in early modern universities
  • The early modern reception of the Timurids (especially the astronomical works of Ulugh Beg)
  • The life and times of Robert Sharrock (1630-84), sometime editor of Robert Boyle
  • The libertas philosophandi in England and continental Europe

Publications:

  • ‘Robert Burton, Lucretius, and the Savilian Professors’, Notes and Queries, 67 (2020), 361-5
  • (with William Poole), ‘Stephen Standish and the Provenance of the New College Astronomicum Cæsareum (1540)’, New College Notes, 12 (2019), article 5

Public exhibition: With Nicholas Kontovas and Prof Eric SchluesseI, I am co-curating a major exhibition at the Bodleian Library (2029), entitled 'Beyond Tamerlane'. This exhibition seeks to challenge the still prevalent stereotype that the Eurasian nomadic empires were simply vicious warmongers, by showcasing the Bodleian's rich collection of scientific, literary, and artistic works from Central Asia. 

Conference/seminar papers/public talks:

  • '“The harmony of his unexpected observations”: the western discovery of the star tables of Ulugh Beg', Bodleian Library (March 2026) (https://youtu.be/nEELI_FXv-M?si=4kG1gY5favkmeqbj)
  • 'John Milton's Of Education: training the vir civilis', All Souls Seminar in Early Modern Intellectual History (February 2026)
  • Conference co-organiser (with Dr Sarah Cusk), 'Bibliography's Past, Present, and Future', Oxford (approx. 20 speakers & 130 attendees) (September 2022)
  • ‘Robert Sharrock (1630-84): the varying institutional commitments of Robert Boyle’s editor’, at ‘The mind is its own place? Early modern intellectual history in an institutional context’, Oxford (April 2022)
  • ‘Thomas James: catalogues, chronology, and anti-Catholicism’, at ‘Bodley’s first librarian, Thomas James: his career and legacy’, Bodleian Libraries Centre for the Study of the Book, Oxford (September 2020; postponed due to Covid)
  • ‘The Royal Society Library in the seventeenth century’, at ‘Provenance in the Royal Society early book collection’, Royal Society of London (March 2020)

Grants/fellowships:

  • 'Friends of the Princeton University Library Research Grant', Princeton University Library Special Collections (2024)
  • Research fellowship, The Huntington Library, California (2023)
  • Minor Grant from The Bibliographical Society of London. Project title: ‘The annotations of G.J. (1577-1649) and Isaac Vossius (1618-89) to their copies of Lucretius held at Leiden’ (2021)