Year II (already??)

Here I am at the end of my first PhD year and the very beginning of the second. This blog opened 365 days ago and at this time last year I started formulating questions about the Vespucci and their role as art patrons in Florence.

I feel I came a long way since I started and, at the same time, I have the impression I have not moved at all. On one side I learned a lot about Renaissance art & culture and all the readings have been extremely useful and interesting. I also attempted to advance some hypotheses on Venus and Mars and its relation with the Vespucci but lot of work still need to be done. On the other side I am aware I have no answers.

I reckon part of this 'uneasy' feeling is due to the fact that my research is archive-based. Readings are certainly important but, after a while, the first real step into the (scary) archive world needs to be done. And that moment has indeed arrived for me.

The exciting news I was referring to in my previous post has all to do with archival research. I am planning a 3 month trip around the globe to hunt down Vespucci related documents. Off to Washington DC soon (can't wait to step in the Library of Congress!) and Florence afterwards. Hopefully this time will be really valuable and productive! Regular updates will be on this page.

PS. Oh yes, I have passed my 1st year PhD review last week ;)

Summer research break

Oohh, just realized I have not blogged for a while! But I have good reasons (or excuses?) for it.

Spent all August writing a 10.000 words doc to sum up the outcomes of my 1st year research. It was really interesting to go back and revise all the material collected. Did not realize I had SO much references! At that point, I was so grateful to all those people (Steve in particular, big thank you) who recommended to use a reference manager at the beginning of my PhD (and thank you to Cristiano for setting it up). Although writing that paper was an unbelievably painful process, pulling material/thoughts together was extremely useful to recap where I was and figure out which direction I wanted my project to take.

I also made use of August to start learning some paleography basics. As I am soon going to do some Vespucci document hunting in archives, I thought it was about time to engage with fifteenth century documents and get use to the language and the writing stlyle. As soon as I started I felt the need of crying! Things are slowly getting better now although I am still far from reading an entire document by myself. My supervisor Jill Burke gave me tips and support and it was really helpful (and less depressing) to get through that material with someone who knows her stuff.  After all that hard work I treated myself to two weeks holiday in lovely Malta, so good to escape Edinburgh rain & wind (and insane festival tourists!).

Here I am now, ready to give a 30mins presentation on Wed 21st at uni for my 1st year PhD Review. I will go back to my research after that and start from where I left. Lots of exciting news and trips coming up in Autumn/Winter time, will soon blog about them all.

If you can, keep your fingers crossed on Wed :)