Watch Professor Jardine's inaugural lecture, "Temptation in the Archives", given at UCL in November 2012:
For the early modern archival scholar, collections of documents in libraries and records offices promise a rich store of clues and confirmations to support their historical researches. The question is: how do we assess such evidence, and responsibly integrate it into the broader historical account? The temptation is particularly to value the colourful anecdote or surprising tidbits of information, as they are set alongside more familiar resources from manuscript and printed sources. In this lecture Professor Jardine tells some of those tempting stories, and tries to assess their real importance and significance.