Dr Ariel Hessayon

Staff details

Dr Ariel Hessayon

Position

Co-Head of the Department

Department

History

Email

a.hessayon (@gold.ac.uk)

Reader in early modern history

Dr Ariel Hessayon is primarily an early modern historian, although he occasionally ranges outside that chronological boundary. He has written extensively on a variety of topics including antiscripturism, anti-Trinitarianism, anticlericalism, ball games, book burning, communism, environmentalism, esotericism, extra-canonical texts, heresy, crypto-Jews, Judaizing, millenarianism, monstrous births, mysticism, prophecy and religious radicalism.

His work is based on extensive research and quite often utilises sources unknown to other historians since it draws upon a great many archival discoveries. Consequently, Dr Hessayon tends to offer very detailed accounts coupled with original observations based on engagement with these recovered sources.

Academic qualifications

  • BA History, Trinity College, Oxford University 1990
  • PhD History, Selwyn College, Cambridge University 1996

Teaching and supervision

  • London's History through Literature
  • Early Modern European philosophy
  • Introduction to the late medieval and early modern European world
  • Heresy, the Occult and the Apocalypse in Early Modern Europe
  • Radicalism during the English Revolution, 1641–60

Research interests

Dr Hessayon's current research consists of several aspects.

Firstly, a monograph on the reception of Jacob Boehme's writings in the English-speaking world during the seventeenth century. This is under contract with Brill and scheduled for publication towards the end of 2022.

Secondly, a major project entitled 'Providence, Mission, Race and Settlement in the Atlantic World, c.1580-c.1690. This is being undertaken with the collaboration of Luís Filipe Silvério Lima.

Thirdly, a book-length study on Enoch and the books of Enoch in the British Isles and beyond, c.1450-c.1850.

Fourthly, a book aimed at general readers on The history of football in the British Isles, c.1250-c.1900.

Finally, a study of Radicalism and the occult during the English Revolution, 1641-1660.

Grants and awards

2022: Visiting fellowship at Escola de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas/ EFLCH / UNIFESP, Guarulhos, Brazil
Awarded by Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

2014: ‘“All in All”: the prophetic thought and legacies of Jacob Boehme and Jane Lead’
Grant of £225,000 from the Panacea Society as principal investigator on a four year research project

2008: University of London Research Fellowship at School of Advanced Study
Grant for teaching replacement to enable research on ‘Jews and secret Jews in sixteenth and seventeenth century England’

Publications and research outputs

Book

Hessayon, Ariel. 2007. ‘Gold Tried in the Fire’: The prophet TheaurauJohn Tany and the English Revolution. Aldershot: Ashgate. ISBN 978-0-7546-5597-8

Edited Book

Hessayon, Ariel; Reed, Annette Yoshiko and Boccaccini, Gabriele, eds. 2023. Rediscovering Enoch? The Antediluvian Past from the Fifteenth to Nineteenth Centuries. Leiden: Brill. ISBN 9789004529793

Hessayon, Ariel and Laborie, Lionel, eds. 2020. Early Modern Prophecies in Transnational, National and Regional Contexts, vol. 1: Continental Europe. Leiden: Brill. ISBN 9789004443631

Hessayon, Ariel and Laborie, Lionel, eds. 2020. Early Modern Prophecies in Transnational, National and Regional Contexts, vol. 3: The British Isles. Leiden: Brill. ISBN 9789004443631

Edited Journal

Hessayon, Ariel; Corns, Thomas and Hughes, Ann, eds. 2014. Gerrard Winstanley: Theology, Rhetoric, Politics, Prose Studies, 36(1). 0144-0357

Book Section

Hessayon, Ariel. 2024. The tasks of the translators: social networks and the publication of continental European writings during the English Revolution, 1641–1660. In: Gaby Mahlberg and Thomas Munck, eds. Ideas Across Borders. Translating Visions of Authority and Civil Society in Europe c.1600–1840. Abingdon: Routledge, pp. 65-82. ISBN 9781032343679

Hessayon, Ariel. 2023. ‘To make such things known in my Native Language’: acquiring, translating and disseminating Boehme’s writings in England and Wales. In: Lucinda Martin and Cecilia Muratori, eds. Jacob Böhme in Three Worlds: The Reception in Central-Eastern Europe, the Netherlands, and Britain. Berlin: De Gruyter, pp. 301-322. ISBN 9783110720495

Hessayon, Ariel. 2023. James Bruce and his Copies of Ethiopic Enoch. In: Ariel Hessayon; Annette Yoshiko Reed and Gabriele Boccaccini, eds. Rediscovering Enoch? The Antediluvian Past from the Fifteenth to Nineteenth Centuries. Leiden: Brill, pp. 209-257. ISBN 9789004529793

Article

Hessayon, Ariel. 2023. The Diggers’ song. Notes & Queries, 70(3), pp. 189-193. ISSN 0029-3970

Hessayon, Ariel and Lucci, Diego. 2022. The Supposed Burning of the Racovian Catechism in 1614: A Historiographical Myth Exposed. History: The Journal of the Historical Association, 107(374), pp. 25-50. ISSN 0018-2648

Hessayon, Ariel. 2020. ‘Teutonicus': Knowledge of Boehme among English Speakers before the English Civil War’. Daphnis, 48, pp. 247-269. ISSN 0300-693X

Research projects

'Providence, Mission, Race and Settlement in the Atlantic World, c.1580-c.1690
In collaboration with Luís Filipe Silvério Lima

Media engagements

2018: ‘What might Hell look or sound like?’
Broadcast on BBC Ideas

2017: 'Why Football is the World’s Game’
Broadcast on BBC World Service

2012: ‘Roundhead or Cavalier: Which one are you?’
Broadcast on BBC Four

Fellowships

Fellow of the Royal Historical Society (since 2009)
University of London Research Fellowship at School of Advanced Study (2008)
Leverhulme Special Research Fellowship at Royal Holloway, University of London (1998–2000)
New Hall, Cambridge University, Research Fellowship (1995–1998)