Thanks to John Tweeddale at the Conventicle for tipping us off to several sites celebrating Barzun's 100th birthday.

Just back after a dizzying trip to Miami and back. No sightings of Horatio Cane - which is a good thing because that would signal that I'm more delusional than I think I am or it would signal that someone was murdered near me. I was in Miami to give a paper (on Olevianus' commentaries on some of the Pauline epistles) to a session of the Renaissance Society of America.

Ours was a session connected with a forthcoming collection of essays on the Reception of Paul in the 16th Century (Leiden: Brill, forthcoming). The panel was put together by Ward Holder (St Anselm College; to the right) who is editing the volume. Ward is  also the author of John Calvin and the Grounding of Interpretation: Calvin's First Commentaries. Studies in the History of Christian Tradition vol. 127 (Leiden: Brill, 2006). Rady Roldan-Figueroa (Baylor University) chaired the session. The first paper was by Irena Backus (University of Geneva), on "Lefevre d'Etaples and Paul: A Humanist Portrayal of the Apostle?" It was great to see Ward again and to meet Rady but the biggest thrill was to meet Prof. Backus. She is one of the best writers in Reformation studies. She wrote her Oxford D.Phil thesis, "Influence of Theodore Beza on the English New Testament," published as The Reformed Roots of the English New Testament: The Influence of Theodore Beza on the English New Testament (Pittsburgh: Pickwick Press, 1980). She has written on Martin  Bucer, (and has edited volume 2 of his Latin works), on religious dissent in the 16th and 17th centuries, Polish anti-trinitarians, on Zwingli, on 16th-century interpretations of the Apocalypse, on the reception of the church fathers in the West (2 vols), on historical method and confessional identity in the era of the Reformation 1378-1615. She is a remarkable scholar and it was a joy to meet her.

About one-half of the twenty conributors have submitted their essays. The volume should appear in the next couple of years. Thanks to Ward for taking on and managing this project.