Nicholas Scott Baker
@renhistorian
Historian of Renaissance Italy and other things; latest book: In Fortune's Theater: Financial Risk and the Future in Renaissance Italy; Australian football tragic.
Psst, my article on gambling on papal elections is the cover story for the June issue of History Today!
Doodle of a bespectacled, rather goat-like bishop made by a Spanish notary in 1539.
2026's hot cross buns are out of the oven. I still haven't mastered a standard size, but they look good!
You’ve been kidnapped. The characters from the last TV show you watched are trying to rescue you. Who’s coming to save you? Hmm, either of them could probably get it done to be honest, but it wouldn't be pretty.
Just published from ARC Humanities Press: Trust and Mistrust in Premodern Europe and the Mediterranean. Contributions range from 13th c. Tunis to my own contribution on "Trust and Time in Sixteenth-Century Italian Mediterranean Commerce," and include two great conceptual essays by the editors.
RSA 2026 in San Francisco. As History discipline rep, I still looking for the following: 1 paper on animal/interspecies history (to run two panels) 1 paper on economic cultures 1-2 papers on microhistory in a global era See www.rsa.org/page/RSAAnnu... for details #earlymodern #renaissance
Giovanni Bellini, The Ecstasy of Saint Francis, oil and tempera on panel, ca. 1480, New York: Frick Collection.
A day late (no time for baking yesterday) and a couple are under-sized, but this year‘s Hot Cross Buns are looking good.
Looking for something else, I came across this, a posthumous article by Natalie Zemon Davis that is a lesson for our times: a reflection on intellectual & moral courage and resilience in the face of censorship and persecution.
My latest article places betting on papal elections in the contexts of sixteenth-century Italian commerce and of the development of European capitalism. It also fulfills an ambition to publish in the Journal of Modern History. Contact me if you don't have institutional access.
Come up join us on Friday at the RSA Annual Meeting to learn all about meanness in the Renaissance!
An insight into how badly managed Aust universities are: we moved into a brand new building two or three years ago. I am currently packing up my office b/c the admin has changed its mind about how to use the space. So we’re on the move again.
Paperbacks have landed! Use the code HIST3823 to get 20% off through the Cambridge UP website: www.cambridge.org/9781108826945
Very pleased to announce that In Fortune's Theater: Financial Risk and the Future in Renaissance Italy is now available in paperback. So, people can actually afford it. Even better, if you use the code on this flyer you can 20% off, making it even cheaper!