Baroque (c. 1580-c. 1720) is important as the earliest aesthetic - and cultural - movement to have global impact, spread as it was through dynastic ambition, mercantilism, and missionary fervour. Latin, as a supranational language, played a major role in propagating this style. In literature, Baroque was characterized by rhetorical devices, especially through exaggerated forms such as paradoxes, anachronisms, antitheses, and oxymora that roused the emotions and engaged the senses. Interfacing with vernacular literature, the Neo-Latin literature of the 17th century contributed not only to the development of drama, but to the rise of the novel, as well as to the evolution of more traditional forms such as the epic and the epigram. Beyond belles lettres, Latin supplied lyrics to musical compositions of the time and was employed in the visual arts. In politics, Latin served as the language of treatises and contracts; in religion, it furthered the Roman Catholic Counter-Reformation. It became the language of international scientific communication, used to announce and explain new discoveries. The ability to write in the common European language of scholarship was an indicator of educational achievement in an age when rhetorical and grammatical competence was demanded. Because 'Baroque' post-dates the art to which it was applied, coming into familiar use only since the nineteenth century, and because 17th-century culture was seen traditionally as a decline after the flourishing of Renaissance Humanism, this term fell out of fashion in the 1960s and 1970s. However, there has been a renewal of interest in Baroque during the past decade, due to scholarly initiatives that challenge traditional - especially European-centred - historical narratives. The term has become a focus of discussion among art historians, but literary scholars are only beginning to enter the debate. It is urgent now to move the research agenda forward - to expand on the collection of articles edited by Jan Bloemendal and Nigel Smith, Politics and Aesthetics in European Baroque and Classicist Tragedy (2016) - and to uncover aspects of a period in literature that have been forgotten, but also while looking beyond periodization in an attempt to comprehend how literary practice traverses geographic and linguistic borders. A re-examination is required from a broad range of international experts to reinvigorate and challenge past thoughts around the Baroque in literature. Our network will bring together a group of UK and Continental scholars, as well as librarians, to uncover aspects of Baroque that have been lost and to offer new understandings of literary practice and intellectual movements, rather than simply to provide further information for period-based cultural history. Our project will generate fruitful and novel interaction not only by amalgamating ongoing research, but by searching out forgotten texts in order to arrive at a more comprehensive understanding of Baroque writing. Our first objective, through this timely re-examination, is to spin off major, long-term projects, to be determined through confronting major questions relating to Latin writing and the artistic concept of the Baroque, and the use of Latin in the expression of the new ideas of the Baroque era - in politics, commerce, science, and art. By amalgamating the individual research of network participants in our workshops, we will be able to draw up a perceptive and inclusive outline of the issues underlying Baroque Latinity, and thus be able to identify the most promising pathways for long-term projects. Our second objective, through our public engagement activities, is to raise the profile of 17th-century Latin and to signal its importance in the formation of modern society. Latin is often thought of as an antiquated ('dead') language, while its use and influence lasted well into the modern era - indeed, the majority of all surviving Latin texts come from the 17th century.

Over the last decade, the creative industries have been revolutionised by the Internet and the digital economy. The UK, already punching above its weight in the global cultural market, stands at a pivotal moment where it is well placed to build a cultural, business and regulatory infrastructure in which first movers as significant as Google, Facebook, Amazon or iTunes may emerge and flourish, driving new jobs and industry. However, for some creators and rightsholders the transition from analogue to digital has been as problematic as it has been promising. Cultural heritage institutions are also struggling to capitalise upon new revenue streams that digitisation appears to offer, while maintaining their traditional roles. Policymakers are hampered by a lack of consensus across stakeholders and confused by partisan evidence lacking robust foundations. Research in conjunction with industry is needed to address these problems and provide support for legislators. CREATe will tackle this regulatory and business crisis, helping the UK creative industry and arts sectors survive, grow and become global innovation pioneers, with an ambitious programme of research delivered by an interdisciplinary team (law, business, economics, technology, psychology and cultural analysis) across 7 universities. CREATe aims to act as an honest broker, using open and transparent methods throughout to provide robust evidence for policymakers and legislators which can benefit all stakeholders. CREATe will do this by: - focussing on studying and collaborating with SMEs and individual creators as the incubators of innovation; - identifying "good, bad and emergent business models": which business models can survive the transition to the digital?, which cannot?, and which new models can succeed and scale to drive growth and jobs in the creative economy, as well as supporting the public sector in times of recession?; - examining empirically how far copyright in its current form really does incentivise or reward creative work, especially at the SME/micro level, as well as how far innovation may come from "open" business models and the "informal economy"; - monitoring copyright reform initiatives in Europe, at WIPO and other international fora to assess how they impact on the UK and on our work; - using technology as a solution not a problem: by creating pioneering platforms and tools to aid creators and users, using open standards and released under open licences; - examining how to increase and derive revenues from the user contribution to the creative economy in an era of social media, mash-up, data mining and "prosumers"; - assessing the role of online intermediaries such as ISPs, social networks and mobile operators to see if they encourage or discourage the production and distribution of cultural goods, and what role they should play in enforcing copyright. Given the important governing role of these bodies should they be subject to regulation like public bodies, and if so, how?; - consider throughout this work how the public interest and human rights, such as freedom of expression, privacy, and access to knowledge for the socially or physically excluded, may be affected either positively or negatively by new business models and new ways to enforce copyright. To investigate these issues our work will be arranged into seven themes: SMEs and good, bad and emergent business models; Open business models; Regulation and enforcement; Creators and creative practice; Online intermediaries and physical and virtual platforms; User creation, behaviour and norms; and, Human rights and the public interest. Our deliverables across these themes will be drawn together to inform a Research Blueprint for the UK Creative Economy to be launched in October 2016.