Biography

Evelien Chayes completed her undergraduate and post-graduate studies in Paris and Amsterdam (cum laude), specialising in medieval and early modern literature. Research at the Amsterdam Institute for Culture and History led to a PhD dissertation on sixteenth-century lapidaries in light of their classical and medieval traditions, which evolved into the book L’Éloquence des Pierres précieuses (Paris, 2010). She taught at the Université Paul Verlaine-Metz, before appointment at the University of Cyprus. Her scholarship concentrates on late medieval and early modern literature, book history and intellectual history in France, Italy and the Low Countries, and most recently, on the Veneto and Neoplatonic academies.

Project Summary

The Incogniti Academy’s 1635 Discorsi is the inspiration for exploration of archival and printed documents testifying to exchanges with Jews and interrelations with Jewish sources. The Discorsi also bear signs of Paduan disputation methods and relate to earlier Neoplatonic Academies.