MARTIN, John J. 1951-
(John Jeffries Martin)

PERSONAL:

Born August 1, 1951, in Boston, MA; son of Junius (an Episcopal minister) and Dorothy (an antiques dealer) Martin; married Mary Ellen Ross (a professor of religion), May 31, 1987; children: Margaret Julia, Junius. Education: Harvard University, A.B., 1975, Ph.D., 1982. Hobbies and other interests: Film, travel.

ADDRESSES:

Home—San Antonio, TX. Office—Trinity University, 1 Trinity Pl., San Antonio, TX 78212. E-mail—jmartin@trinity.edu.

CAREER:

Trinity University, San Antonio, TX, professor and department chair, 1982—.

MEMBER:

American Historical Association, Renaissance Society of America.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Herbert Baxter Adams Prize, American Historical Association, 1994, for Venice's Hidden Enemies: Italian Heretics in a Renaissance City; Guggenheim fellow, 1995.

WRITINGS:

Venice's Hidden Enemies: Italian Heretics in a Renaissance City, University of California Press (Berkeley, CA), 1993.

(Editor, with Dennis Romano) Venice Reconsidered: The History and Civilization of an Italian City State, Johns Hopkins University Press (Baltimore, MD), 2000.

(Editor) The Renaissance: Italy and Abroad, Routledge (New York, NY), 2002.

Myths of Renaissance Individualism, Palgrave (New York, NY), 2004.

Contributor to periodicals, including American Historical Review, Journal of Modern History, Journal of Social History, Quaderni storici, Rethinking History, Academe, and Chronicle of Higher Education.

SIDELIGHTS:

John J. Martin told CA: "I am often surprised by writing. The traditional research activity of the historian who examines archival traces and printed books suddenly takes on an unexpected life once one begins to write. Recently, while working on a book on sincerity, I found that I was writing about art and silence in the south of Italy in the seventeenth century. For someone who had begun his argument with deliberate reflections on Luther in Germany and Calvin in Geneva, this startled me, and it continues to startle as I explore the theme in opera and modern political culture—subjects the topic and integrity of writing seem to demand. The wonder is that not all of this was planned.

"We historians have not done as well as we might have in writing for a larger public. To be sure, many scholars have this talent. I am still struggling to find the way to connect and to matter to readers, whether young college students or mature adults interested in visiting the past. It takes time and many drafts. It requires reading, but this is the most pleasant preparation of all.

"Finally I have been fortunate to find in my teaching the much-desired time to reflect on history and writing and the meaning of it all."