Redmond Barry Fellowship

Archives and Special Collections, within Scholarly Services, in partnership with the State Library of Victoria, are proud partners of the Redmond Barry Fellowship. The Redmond Barry Fellowship is named in honour of Sir Redmond Barry, founder of the University of Melbourne and its longest serving Chancellor, and founder of the State Library of Victoria. He was an influential advocate for the creation of public works throughout Melbourne and held a lifelong interest in philanthropy and contributing to Melbourne’s social and cultural activities. The first Fellowship was awarded in 2004 to commemorate the 150th anniversary of Sir Redmond Barry’s laying of the foundation stones for both institutions on 3 July 1854.

Writers and scholars wanting to use our collection to research a project in any discipline can apply for the Redmond Barry Fellowship. This includes early career researchers.

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2023 Redmond Barry Fellow, Dr Julie Robarts

Dr Julie Robarts's project is a study of the significant collection of editions, translations and adaptations of Ariosto’s romance epic Orlando furioso printed during the long early modern period (the sixteenth to the late eighteenth century) held across the rare book collections of the two institutions. This project will conduct original literary-historical research on the complementary collections of editions, translations, and adaptations of Ludovico Ariosto’s (1475-1533) "Orlando furioso" (Ferrara 1516, 1532) held by University of Melbourne Special Collection and State Library Victoria. It will result in one long academic article (10-12,000 words) published in a Renaissance Studies academic journal. In 2023 Dr Robarts will bring the music and poetry of this exciting and innovative Renaissance work to a new public through a public engagement event, that will transform into an enduring online resource.

Dr Robarts is a historian of Renaissance and Baroque Italy, researching gender in the production and performance of poetry and music. She holds a Ph.D. and MA in Italian Studies from the University of Melbourne where she is and Honorary (Fellow). In January 2024 she takes up a six-month postdoctoral fellowship with Australian and EU funding in the History Department of the European University Institute, Fiesole, researching A history of women's cultural performance in the Italian baroque (1600-1690).