John Donne's Sermons Preached at St Paul's Cathedral, 1626-7 (The Oxford Edition of the Sermons of John Donne, vol. 13)

This project will produce a critical edition of thirteen sermons by the poet and preacher John Donne (1572-1631) as Dean of St Paul's Cathedral in 1626-7, a fertile and highly politically charged period in his career. This will be published as Vol. 13 of The Oxford Edition of the Sermons of John Donne (16 vols, general ed. Peter McCullough, 2013- ); Vol. 12, on 1626 at St Paul's, has been edited by the fellow. This landmark edition presents all of Donne's sermons in original spelling and for the first time provides full annotations on the texts, along with extensive textual apparatus and full collation of manuscript and print sources. The defining characteristic of the edition is its organisation by place of preaching. This marks a major change from the previous edition by George R. Potter and Evelyn M. Simpson (1953-62), in which sermons are ordered chronologically and without annotation. The new edition allows the reader to observe how Donne's rhetoric is geared towards his different congregations and reveals the continuities between sermons preached at the same venue. The sermons in Vol. 13 illuminate the vital role that sermons played in public discourse during the seventeenth century: religious conformity, the political threat posed by foreign Catholics and native non-conformists, and the English church's self definition are all major preoccupations in Donne's cathedral preaching during this period, and show his intervention in heated debates of the mid-1620s. The volume reveals how far Donne's pattern of preaching went beyond the dean's duty as stipulated by cathedral ordinances, demonstrating him to be a clergyman with a strongly pulpit-centred piety who actively advanced sermon provision in London.
The research project will provide a full commentary on each sermon, for the first time documenting all of Donne's sources, glossing difficult vocabulary and idioms, explaining allusions to contemporary events and person, and translating quotations from the ancient languages (Latin, Greek, Hebrew). The fellow's work on Vol. 12 has already uncovered a large number of unacknowledged sources in Donne's St Paul's sermons; the project will extend this work to demonstrate the often-complex ways in which Donne drew on material to frame his own readings of Biblical passages. Six of the sermons in Vol. 13 are undated in their original, posthumous publication (1640), and five of them unplaced. This project will date them with confidence to the years 1626-7, based on a wealth of internal evidence and comparisons with other sermons preached at St Paul's at the same period. It thus enriches our picture of Donne's activities during these years and advances scholarship on the cathedral in the early modern period.
The project's associated leadership activities will build on the fellow's experience of editing two volumes of Donne's sermons in order to develop shared reflection on, and heighten awareness of, the process of scholarly editing. A series of audio interviews will be recorded with academics currently engaged in a range of early modern scholarly editing projects, and with the senior commissioning editor for literature at Oxford UP who oversees major early modern editions. These interviews will be available on a free online resource that documents the techniques, processes and challenges of scholarly editing. This resource is designed in particular to inspire and assist early careers researchers to pursue editing, and will address the subject of how the activity can fit into one's academic career and the skills that editors must develop. This topic will also be central to the PhD and early careers training workshop run as part of the leadership activity. The interviews will draw on the large number and diverse range of current and recent editorial projects under contract, many of them funded by the AHRC, providing a point of intersection between them and a site to explore ideas, while encouraging new collaborative editorial work.

The groups who might benefit from this research beyond the academic community include archives, local community and church groups, and the wider public. My work on John Donne's sermons at St Paul's Cathedral will shed important new light on cathedral worship in the early modern period and the religious life of the capital. The London Metropolitan Archives holds the archives of St Paul's, and interactions with staff during my research on Donne will enhance our collective understanding of these internationally important papers. The LMA has a wide range of visitors pursuing personal interests in family and local history, and runs a wide programme of talks, exhibitions and events. My evening event agreed for 2016 will allow LMA visitors direct access to important manuscripts on the cathedral and enable them to learn about John Donne's life and work as it appears in the collections. It will give practical tips on using archives and tracing lives from this period, which is of special interest to genealogists. I am in discussion with the LMA about how my research can contribute towards other outputs, including a planned exhibition on London authors.
My research will turn a spotlight on the role of the cathedral in public life, a topic that is timely nationally and locally. Interest in the religious and cultural role of cathedrals within cities is high: in 2014 alone, three popular documentary series ('Cathedrals' (BBC4), 'The Minster' (BBC1/2), and 'Canterbury Cathedral' (BBC2)) have represented the work that goes into running a cathedral and the varied clerical and lay roles within it. My interest in showing how Donne's sermons fit into the busy and wide-ranging activities of the cathedral community should serve as an enlightening comparison with the present day. I have arranged an evening discussion event with the Dean of Leicester (with whom I have already worked on Richard III) to be held at Leicester Cathedral in late 2016. This will enable me to open my research to a public outside London, and discuss the changing role of the cathedral since the Reformation with someone who occupies the same position as Donne. Since Leicester is a recent cathedral (1927) in a strongly multi-faith setting, comparison with an ancient foundation will be rewarding as a way of considering their heritage status.
Donne's reputation as a poet is undimmed. In 2009 he was ranked second in the BBC's 'Nation's Favourite Poet', behind T. S. Eliot, the writer who did the most to restore public interest in Donne in the early twentieth century. Awareness of his sermons is on the increase. The Globe's project with Southwark Cathedral, 'The Heard Word: Pulpit vs. Playhouse' (2011), featured a range of events on these rival performance places and the texts they generated, including Donne's. More recently, the Virtual Paul's Cross Project's recreation of Donne's Gunpowder sermon of 5 November 1622, through a meticulous digital visualisation and auralisation of the sermon as delivered at Paul's Cross, has provided innovative and accessible public engagement with Donne's sermon style, reflected in media coverage by national newspapers. These demonstrate a current public appetite to explore early modern preaching and Donne's works, especially in the context of performance spaces, and the edition is dedicated to generating a readership for Donne's sermons among the general public as well as scholars. Public dissemination of my research is embedded within my time plan, and my media experience will allow me to pitch ideas and communicate them effectively. I have recently had accepted an 1800-word feature article for the Church Times on John Donne as preacher, to be published in January 2015 to mark the 400th anniversary of his ordination. I will continue to explore similar opportunities to engage with the public, locally and nationally. I am confident that the outreach work I have done and the contacts I have built up will enable me to do so effectively.