History prize win for Professor Mary Laven

Congratulations to College Fellow Professor Mary Laven on jointly winning the Ronald H. Bainton Prize for History and Theology.

Professor Laven and her collaborators Professor Deborah Howard and Dr Abigail Brundin have been awarded the prize for their co-authored book, The Sacred Home in Renaissance Italy (OUP, 2018).

The Sacred Home was the culmination of a four-year research project, ‘Domestic Devotions: The Place of Piety in the Italian Renaissance Home’, funded by the European Research Council.

Professor Laven commented: “We enjoyed every moment of writing The Sacred Home and are delighted that the value of our collaborative work has been recognised by the award of this prize.”

A team of nine researchers led by Professor Laven, Professor Howard and Dr Brundin investigated religion within early modern Italian family homes. They drew together evidence from books, family records, objects, buildings and paintings to observe the everyday religious practices of ordinary people.

The Roland H. Bainton Book Prizes recognise the best books written in English focused on the period between 1450 to 1660, with categories forArt and Music History, History and Theology, Literature, and Reference Works.