From Christina Neilson

Dear Maggi,

We had the conference in Shona's memory at the end of last week at the University of Manitoba and it went very well. We had 8 papers from people working in many different fields of Renaissance studies (history of literature, science, and politics, social history, and art and architectural history) and many of us had known Shona from our time with her at I Tatti. Shona came up a lot during the conference. At the beginning of the conference Roisin explained how the event had come about and how Shona had been one of the original organisers, and she went on to talk about Shona's work and how it engaged with many of the issues we would be talking about at the conference. Many people mentioned Shona during their talks and how their interactions with her had affected their thinking (for instance, Filippo de Vivo, one of the other organisers, explained how he had been moved to include a discussion of gender in his consideration of the experience of walking in the Renaissance city because of conversations he had had with Shona). On the final evening we had dinner at Roisin's house and we made a point of remembering Shona together. Roisin began by telling those people who were there and did not know Shona something about her. After that many of us talked about Shona and how she had influenced us or a funny story about an interaction we had had with her. Her droll sense of humour was mentioned more than once.

Something we were all happy about was the quality of the conference papers, which we plan on submitting to I Tatti Studies as a special issue, dedicated to Shona's memory. The high quality of the articles will be a fitting tribute to Shona's own remarkable talents as a scholar.  

I think of Shona often and I, like many, was very sad at the conference that she could not be there. She was very much missed, as she is in my life in general.

From Joelle Rollo Koster

New book dedicated to Shona

Greetings, the new book that Kay Reyerson and I edited, a collection of essays on women and last wills in medieval and early-modern France is out electronically. It is dedicated to Shona. I know that she liked the project, we had discussed it so this is for her. This volume is in an open access format.  You can find more info by following the links below including the address to download the book for free.

http://www.history.ac.uk/news/2012-08-29/new-book-centre-french-history-and-culture-university-st-andrews

http://research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk/handle/10023/3052

all best, Joëlle

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

From Carol Lansing

Shona worked for many years in the Archivio di stato di Bologna, and the staff and scholars have much affection for her and feel the loss deeply. We were unable to attend the memorial at I Tatti, so we decided to join together in the square outside the archive at the same time, to celebrate Shona's longstanding presence in the archive. She combined intellectual rigor and discipline with great warmth and a rare manner we could only describe as gentle.  We invited Melissa Vise, a young Ph.D. student whom Shona had begun to help, to remember her generosity and continuing influence in the field.

Attending were: Carol Lansing, Sarah Blanshei and her husband Jack, Melissa Hamilton-Vise, Francesca Boris, archivist, Alessandra Servadei, custodial assistant, Silvana Cavicchi, custodial assistant, and Silvia Napoli, custodial assistant. Many other archivisits and assistants, who could not be at the Archives at that hour, have expressed their sorrow at losing a scholar and friend who was so admired.

Carol Lansing, Director of Graduate Studies, History Department, University of California, Santa Barbara

From Konrad Eisenbichler

My heart goes out to Shona's family for their sudden loss of such a wonderful person, and to all of us in the academy for our loss of such a great colleague. We will miss her at Sarasota, at RSA, and I will miss her here in Toronto.