DALLAS TWP. — W. Scott Blanchard, a professor of English at Misericordia University, collaborated with Andrea Severi, a research fellow at the University of Bologna, Italy, to edit the academic research book, “Renaissance Encyclopaedism: Studies in Curiosity and Ambition.’’
Published by the Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies at Victoria College in the University of Toronto, the 467-page paperback is a collection of essays co-edited by Blanchard and Severi that examine the historical precursors to the modern encyclopedia. The 11 essays by French, Italian and American academics explore how Renaissance humanists differed from their scholastic predecessors in their attitudes toward knowledge, their practices of compilation and organization, and the goals towards which they oriented their scholarly pursuits.
A resident of Clarks Summit, Blanchard has been a member of the faculty at Misericordia University since 1991. In 1995, he authored the book, “Scholars’ Bedlam: Menippean Satire in the Renaissance,” by Bucknell University Press, a genre study of Menippean satire in the Renaissance. His translation of Francesco Filelfo’s (1398-1481) dialogue, “On Exile,” in 2013 for the I Tatti Renaissance Library Series, by Harvard University Press, was the first complete translation into any modern language of the Italian humanist. Blanchard prepared the translation, while his colleague, Jeroen De Keyser, prepared the Latin text.
A widely published scholar, Blanchard also has made numerous national and international presentations at conferences.
He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Middlebury College in Vermont and a doctoral degree in English from Columbia University in New York.