Handbook edited by Merton Professor wins 2017 Roland Bainton Prize

The Oxford Handbook of English Law and Literature, 1500-1700, edited by Professor Lorna Hutson, has been selected as the winner of the Roland Bainton Prize for the best reference book published in 2017 in the field of early modern studies.

The prize, named in honour of Roland H Bainton who was Titus Street Professor of Ecclesiastical History at Yale Divinity School for over 40 years, has been awarded annually since 2002 by the Sixteenth Century Society, and presented at their Conference, which this year took place from 1 to 4 November in Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA.

The Oxford Handbook of English Law and Literature, 1500-1700 was published by Oxford University Press in June 2017, and contains 38 chapters and an introduction by Professor Hutson, the current Merton Professor of English Literature, which together 'triangulate the disciplines of history, legal history, and literature to produce a new, interdisciplinary framework for the study of early modern England.'

In the words of the award citation, “This substantive interdisciplinary collection … opens the way to fresh insights and stimulating interpretations of English legal and literary culture … and to a much more nuanced understanding of English cultural and legal history that will serve as points of reference for future research on the English Renaissance for years to come.”