Home

Italian Voices was a research project funded by the European Research Council under the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) / ERC Grant Agreement no. 269460. It was led by Professor Brian Richardson in the School of Languages, Cultures and Societies at the University of Leeds. The aim of the research programme (June 2011-November 2015) was to advance understanding of the use of speech and song in the textual culture of early modern Italy. The research team studied the relationship between the voice and written culture, both scribal and printed, with a focus on four areas: public and private entertainments, from the piazza to courts, private households and academies; religion, especially sermons; political oratory and poems about contemporary affairs; and linguistic variety within performance, especially of comedies.

In order to involve other researchers, to learn from them and to share our work with them as it progresses, the research team organised a series of six seminars in the UK and Italy and a conference in Leeds: see Events and Conference. The team is publishing the results of the research in the form of monographs, articles, and volumes of selected papers from the seminars and conference: see Publications.