Staff profile

I read French and German at Wadham College, Oxford (1961-64), then after a brief spell as Junior Lecturer at Magdalen College (1965-66) I was offered a Lectureship in Durham in 1966 and have been here ever since, as Lecturer, Senior Lecturer, Reader, Professor, and now Emeritus Professor.

My principal fields of research are: (a) 17th-century intellectual history, particularly the international scholarly interchanges of the République des Lettres: I am currently engaged in the major project of editing the extensive correspondence of the French scholar, poet, and man of letters Gilles Ménage (1613-1692), for which I was awarded a Leverhulme Emeritus Research Fellowship; (b) more specifically French literature, especially poetry, drama, and prose fiction; and (c) interdisciplinary 17th-century studies.

I am the founder (1985) and General Editor of the interdisciplinary journal The Seventeenth Century, now on Volume 34. The journal is currently published by Taylor & Francis Ltd. See: www.tandfonline.com/rsev .

I have supervised PhD and research MA students on a very wide range of subject-areas within the 17th century: on studies of French theatre, poetry, and correspondences, but also on topics as diverse as heraldic imagery in English poetry, English translations of French poetry, women in Jacobean drama, Algernon Sidney’s political thought, English radical theology, ghost-beliefs in early-modern England, and the marketing of English portrait prints in the later 17th century. In addition, I supervised and directed the work of c.90 students on the interdisciplinary taught MA in 17c Studies. In the past 10 years I have examined PhD/DPhil and MPhil theses at the universities of Aberdeen, Cambridge, Copenhagen, Durham, Nottingham, Oxford, and Zimbabwe. 

I am a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society; Committee member of the Thomas Harriot Seminar (early modern science and intellectual history); member of the Editorial Board of the North American Society for Seventeenth-Century French Literature (NASSCFL); and member of the Équipe, CORECOL, (Université de Versailles-Saint-Quentin / Institut de France). I was Honorary Secretary of the Society for Early Modern French Studies (SEMFS), 2006-2018. I was a founding member of the Conseil d'administration, and founding Vice-Président of the Centre International de Rencontres sur le 17e Siècle (1990), and in 2012 directed their Colloque International, 'La France et l'Europe du nord au XVIIe siècle', in Durham Castle.

In 2007 I was Visiting Professor at the University of Kansas, Lawrence.  

I have organized and directed a total of 27 international conferences: in the French Department, as Director of the University’s interdisciplinary Centre for 17th-Century Studies 1989-2009, and as Secretary of SEMFS 2006-2018.

Within the University, I am a committee member of the Friends of Palace Green Library, and Editor of the Friends’ publication The New Durham Philobiblon. 

My other research interests include: i) the international diffusion of medieval travel literature: with my wife, Angela Tregoning, I have published a comparative study of the early Latin, Italian, French, German, and English versions of the voyage to China (c. 1316-1330) of Odoric of Pordenone; ii) the Diary of the Victorian curate Francis Kilvert (1840-1879), one of the most delightful and best-loved of all English diaries: I have published, also with Angela Tregoning, the first complete edition of one of only three surviving original notebooks, which is preserved in Durham University Library Special Collections; iii) Cornish language and literature, particularly of the Late Cornish period: I have published a study of the prosody and dating of a 17th-century englyn, and also a discovery of a 17th-century manuscript comparing versions of the Lord’s Prayer and Creed in Cornish, Welsh, and Breton.

• 17th-century French literature and intellectual history
• International learned correspondences in the 17th century
• Interdisciplinary 17th-century studies
• Medieval travel literature
• Francis Kilvert's diary
• Celtic languages and literatures (middle and late Cornish)

• The Seventeenth Century
• The Society for Seventeenth-Century French Studies
• The Thomas Harriot Seminar

• 2008: Committee Member: since 1985, of the Thomas Harriot Seminar: early modern science and intellectual history.
• 2008: General Editor of the journal The Seventeenth Century since 1985:
• 2007: Fellow of the Royal Historical Society:
• 2007: Member of the Editorial Board of the North American Society for Seventeenth-Century French Literature (NASSCFL):
• 2007: Visiting Professor at the University of Kansas, Lawrence:
• 2006: Honorary Secretary of the Society for 17th-Century French Studies:
• 1990: Founding Member: of the Conseil d'administration, and founding Vice-Président, Centre International de Rencontres sur le 17e Siècle. ; 2012: Director of the CIR 17 Colloque International, 'La France et l'Europe du nord au XVIIe siècle', Durham Castle

Authored book

• Maber, Richard G. (2005). Publishing in the Republic of Letters: The Ménage-Graevius-Wetstein Correspondence 1679-1692. Amsterdam/New York: Rodopi.

Chapter in book

• Maber, Richard (Forthcoming). ‘Sustainability and reciprocity in nature and the state: early modern French perspectives’. In Environment, Identity and History. Mukherjee, Ayesha Routledge.
• Maber, Richard (Forthcoming). ‘La correspondance d’Antoine Galland dans le contexte des réseaux d’information internationaux’. In Antoine Galland, 1646-1715, Mémoires de l’Association pour la Promotion de l’Histoire et de l’Archéologie Orientales. Bauden, Frédéric & Waller, Richard Peeters.
• Maber, Richard (Forthcoming). ‘Gilles Ménage et les origines de l’affaire Pierre de Montmaur’. In L’affaire Pierre de Montmaur. Barbafieri, Carine & Civardi, Jean-Marc Presses Universitaires de Paris Sorbonne.
• Maber, Richard (2019). ‘« Les hommes inspirés ont droit d’aller par tout » esthétique de la « poésie morale » chez Pierre Le Moyne’. In Morales du poème à l’âge classique. Génetiot, Alain Paris: Classiques Garnier. 231-248.
• Maber, Richard (2019). ‘« Sans estre bien malheureux, on ne peut estre qu’un Héros [ou une Héroïne] fort médiocre » les femmes fortes du Père Le Moyne et l’idéal de l’héroïsme dans la souffrance’. In Héroïsme féminin, héroïnes et femmes illustres, XVIe et XVIIe siècles Une représentation sans fiction. Schrenk, Gilbert, Spica, Anne-Élisabeth & Thouvenin, Pascale Paris: Classiques Garnier. 193-203.
• Maber, Richard (2018). ‘Guiding Light: the early modern lighthouse as image and emblem’. In From the Lighthouse: Interdisciplinary Reflections on Light. Strang, Veronica, Edensor, Tim & Puckering, Joanna London and New York: Routledge. 54-58.
• Maber, Richard (2017). ‘Les érudits français et l’Allemagne au XVIIe siècle’. In La France et l’Europe du nord au XVIIe siècle. Maber, Richard Tubingen: Gunter Narr. 77-86.
• Maber, Richard G. (2017). Time: for amendment of life, or gathering rosebuds? A Jesuit moralist and the paradoxes of mortality. In Managing Time: Literature and Devotion in Early Modern France. Maber, Richard G. & Barker, Joanna Oxford: Peter Lang. 207-226.
• Maber, Richard G. (2017). Friendship and Rivalry in Science and Scholarship: Pierre-Daniel Huet and the Académies de Caen. In Text, Knowledge and Wonder in Early Modern France: Studies in Hoour of Stephen Bamforth, Special Issue of Nottingham French Studies. Kenny, Neil 56:3: 323-335.
• Maber, Richard (2012). ‘No Miracles Please, We’re English’ [on 16-17c accounts of Thomas More’s death]. In Evocations of Eloquence: rhetoric, literature and religion in early modern France. Essays in honour of Peter Bayley. Hammond, Nicholas & Moriarty, Michael Oxford: Peter Lang. 147-160.
• Maber, Richard G. (2011). The Sun King and his subjects: reciprocity in a commonplace of power. In Authority & Persuasion: The Role of Commonplaces in Western Europe (c1450-c1800), II: Consolidation of Godgiven Power. Banks, Kathryn & Bossier, Philiep Peeters Publishers. 40: XX + 211.
• Maber, Richard G. (2010). Texts, Travel and Flying Machines: The Lost World of 17th-Century Scholarship. In Collaboration and Interdisciplinarity in the Republic of Letters: Essays in Honour of Richard G. Maber. Scott, Paul Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press. 227-248.
• Maber, Richard G. & Tregoning, Angela. (2008). Conveying the Unimaginable: Odoric of Pordenone's Travels and their Vernacular Translations. In Travels and Travelogues in the Middle Ages. Kosta-Théfaine, J.-F. New York: AMS Press. 95-134.
• Maber, Richard G. (2008). The Fruits of Exile: Anglican Scholars and their French Books. In NASSCFL Acta, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2007. Carr, Thomas & Ganim, Russell Gunter Narr Verlag. 141-151.
• Maber, Richard G. (2007). 'Il faut écrire à la moderne.': practical criticism and literary controversy after the death of Malherbe. In Theatre, Fiction, and Poetry in the French Long Seventeenth Century / Le Théâtre, le roman, et la poésie à l'âge classique. Brooks, William & Zaiser, Rainer Oxford/Bern: Peter Lang. 2: 199-214.
• Maber, Richard G. (2007). Kilvert's Diary. In Treasures of Durham University Library. Gameson, Richard London: Third Millennium Publishing. 132-133.
• Maber, Richard G. (2007). John Cosin's French Library. In Treasures of Durham University Library. Gameson, Richard London: Third Millennium Publishing. 108-109.

Edited book

• Maber, Richard (Forthcoming). La Correspondance complète de Gilles Ménage: édition critique par Richard Maber [6 vols]. Paris: Honoré Champion.
• Maber, Richard G. & Barker, Joanna (2017). Managing Time: Literature and Devotion in Early Modern France. Peter Lang.
• Maber, Richard (2016). La France et l'Europe du nord au XVIIe siècle. Tubingen: Gunter Narr.
• Maber, Richard (2012). Pierre Le Moyne, Entretiens et lettres poétiques, édition critique par Richard Maber. Paris: Classiques Garnier.
• Maber, Richard G. (2009). Malherbe, Théophile de Viau, & Saint-Amant a selection. Manchester: Manchester University Press.

Journal Article

• Maber, Richard (2015). ‘La correspondance de Gilles Ménage: une ressource révélatrice et méconnue’. Littératures classiques: Gilles Ménage un homme de langue dans la République des Lettres, éd. Isabelle Trivisani-Moreau 88: 35-46.
• Maber, Richard (2015). ‘Les réseaux de communication érudits et les pouvoirs de l’État en France au XVIIe siècle: indépendance et interpénétration’. XVIIe Siècle: Savoirs et pouvoirs à l’âge de l’humanisme tardif 67:1(266): 17-29.
• Maber, Richard G. (2010). Les Entretiens et lettres poétiques, point culminant de l'évolution poétique du Père Le Moyne. Œuvres et Critiques 35(2): 55-68.
• Maber, Richard G. (2010). Re-Gendering Intellectual Life: Gilles Ménage and his Histoire des femmes philosophes. Seventeenth-Century French Studies 32(1): 45-60.
• Maber, Richard G. (2007). La ballade de Vadius. Le Nouveau Moliériste 6: 103-113.
• Maber, Richard G. (2007). Knowledge as Commodity in the Republic of Letters, 1675-1700. Seventeenth-Century French Studies 27: 197-208.