From Costantino Marmo

Shona on my mind

Today (July 20, 2013) a really weird and moving thing happend to me.

I was thinking of Shona, as often happens, and suddenly the name of a friend of her, Ashley, came to my mind, a friend to whom Shona introduced me many years ago, here in Bologna. At that time she was finding her way in the world of music as singer. Shona, later on, gave me also some tapes of her second album - that I can’t find anymore, by the way -    and I could appreciate her wonderful voice and beautiful songs.
“What did happen to her?” I was wondering and so decided to google “Ashley + Shona Kelly”: one of the result was simply astonishing. The link led me to a page of a small music store on line (http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/amaher), where The Blessed Rain, a CD released in 1998 by Ashley Maher (that was finally her family name!), was reviewed by Shona: her voice (in my mind) told me that she loved this CD “The beauty and complexity of Ashley's music is astounding. I never tire of the rich poety of her lyrics sung with her honeyed voice and intricate rhythms. The deep emotions, intelligence, and diversity of her music on this cd are so satisfying. It's why we want music in our lives.” I could not believe it, was almost in tears. I finally downloaded all the CDs by Ahsley and got in touch with her on FB.

Listening to her songs I could still share something precious with Shona.

From Bruce C. Brasington

I shall never forget meeting Shona at one of the earliest meetings of the Texas Medieval Association. Her work on Bologna was outstanding, its excellence rivaled only by her enthusiasm and willingness to share her research. She gladly sent me all sorts of materials to use in my Medieval and Ren/Ref. courses, and 20 years of students here have benefitted from her intelligence, hard work, and kindness. Unforgettable. And missed.

From Frances Andrews

I did not know Shona well, but enjoyed the few occasions when I did meet her, including the memorable session at the Renaissance Society of America conference in Venice, where the venue (the vast and magnificent refectory of San Giorgio) did justice to the papers even if the audience didn't! Today I was reading about the 1321 exodus of students from Bologna and found myself needing to check some details, turning automatically to her book. I have been thinking about her and her family ever since I heard the news on the day after she died, but it still brought me up short to realise that this would not be followed by other work from the same pen. It will remain as a testament (no pun intended) to her clarity of thought and mastery of the history of Bologna and its university but how I wish there could have been more, and that she too could have enjoyed the long years of the testators whose lives she studied.

From Randy Wray

SHONA and Me

We met in Rome in August 1986 at a gathering of all Fulbrighters to Italy; as we were the only two located in Bologna it was inevitable that we’d become acquaintances. She was the Italy enthusiast, and having already lived in the country a year she was well-connected and fluent. Other than a stint teaching elementary and high school in Mexico City, I’d never been anywhere. I had just struggled through a last-ditch effort at a year of Italian at Washington University (with Hyman Minsky sitting in the class—at least he made me look good by comparison!) after I found out that Jan Kregel had moved to Bo from the Netherlands. I’d been forced to watch Fellini films in college and knew second or third generation Italians in California and had no interest in spending a year there. So I was disappointed, and wanted to bail-out of the Fulbright—but Minsky told me I MUST GO! Minsky insisted that Italy is paradise and I reluctantly packed—prepared for the worst.

I was wrong, of course.

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From Chris Carlsmith

Shona and I shared a common interest in the history of the University of Bologna, and particularly in the lives of the faculty and students resident at the Alma Mater Studiorum. Her work focused on the medieval period, while my interests ran to the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, but we were often using similar sources and archives. We saw each other at conferences, including the RSA, the New College conference in Sarasota, and (most recently) a wonderful event in Bologna in June 2011 where we were on the same panel. We also saw each other at Villa I Tatti, where Shona had been enjoying this year just as I had enjoyed a Fellowship year in 2009-10. Shona assisted me on several occasions when I was trying to locate a specific source in Bologna, and we regularly shared tips about whom to contact in the scholarly world.  Her recent work on “faculty families” was rigorous and important, but also entertaining—a perfect reflection of her own personality.

Beyond academia, Shona’s kindness and her humanity were evident to all. I looked forward to seeing Shona in the archives, and at conferences, because I knew that we would share stories both about our academic pursuits and about our personal lives. Her children were older than mine, of course, and so she was facing different issues, but it was always a comfort to hear how she balanced her work and her personal life. Last year she and I had talked about the challenges of bringing a family to I Tatti, and that sometimes it doesn't work out. I was impressed by her wisdom in that discussion, and her obvious affection for her immediate family.

I will miss her cheerfulness, her laughter, and her scholarly insights.

-Chris Carlsmith