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This introductory chapter explains how medieval philosophy has hardly made an appearance before in this series of philosophy lectures, and why the author decided on a theme that brings together thinkers from the Middle Ages and the early modern period. It then briefly summarizes the arguments of the three main chapters and of the responses to them.

The conclusion uses Isabella Whitney’s poetry to illustrate some of the themes of this book, and highlights the theme of women’s agency, and women’s role in maintaining the social order of early modern London.

This chapter posits Leon Modena's writing practices within the context of early modern Venice, capital of Hebrew printing and center of manuscript production. The circumstances of Modena's life as well as the cultural world of early modern Venice offer some context for why Ari Nohem (The Roaring Lion, 1840) did not appear in print in the seventeenth century. As a work of criticism, Ari Nohem reflected upon the transmission of Jewish tradition, particularly the transmission of esoteric information and the principles of Jewish law. Modena argued that the printing of legal and kabbalistic books had effected a radical change in the transmission of Jewish tradition, a change that he decried in no uncertain terms at several points. Ari Nohem polemicized against one medium, print, in the form of another, manuscript.

This chapter looks at the ‘his genitive’ in earlier stages of English. It is concluded that except for a brief period in Early Modern English, there is no evidence for a possessor doubling construction parallel to those found in many Germanic languages. The possessor doubling construction found in Early Modern English appears to have arisen as a re-analysis of the phrase-final -s genitive.

This concluding chapter considers the possibility of approaching early modern women's writing without falling into either a monolithic notion of fixed identity or, alternatively, an overwhelming sense of inchoate and inconnected texts. It questions whether early modern women's writing is simply a heuristic category. The answer varies depending on the context of both time and the nature of the writers, but it is certainly true to say that in the course of the 17th century more and more women saw themselves as ‘women writers’. As scholars try to unravel increasing manuscript material, early modern women's writing was proven to have a wide range of projected and actual readers, from immediate family members to powerful women.

Deals with three main topics: the nature and origins of social trust and its importance in society; trends in social trust in Western societies (with some comparisons with less developed societies); and the relations between social and political trust, and their implications for theories of politics and society. In terms of the main concepts and measures of the book, and as outlined in the introductory chapter, social trust is a feature of the most basic level of community, while political trust refers primarily to attitudes about political institutions and leaders. The general assumption seems to be that social and political trust are closely linked, perhaps different sides of the same coin—social trust is regarded as a strong determinant of, or influence upon, political support of various kinds, including support for the political community, confidence in institutions, and trust in political leaders. As a result it is believed that the accumulation of social capital, in the form of social trust, will also result in the accumulation of political capital. Presents theory and evidence questioning these assumptions; it includes evidence comparing social trust in communal and modern societies, and of political trust in early modern and contemporary democracies.

This chapter proposes counterpoint as a metaphor for the historical critique of colonial musical cultures in the early modern world. It explains how Edward W. Said's technique of “contrapuntal analysis” can be borrowed from literary studies and used in the interpretation of colonial historiography. As Manila was the final link in the network of worldwide trade routes that were established in the late sixteenth century, this chapter suggests that an examination of musical exchanges at this crucial geocultural crossroads of mercantile, political, and religious enterprises can reveal much about the early modern origins and development of music globalization. Finally, it provides an outline of the book and an overview of the primary source materials that are relevant to this study.

Four hundred years ago, scholars enjoyed much higher esteem than they do now. Rulers competed for their services and their work was assumed to be of crucial importance to everyone. This chapter reflects on the life of learning in early modern England to shed some light on the very different position of those who lead that life today. It asks what led these men to devote their energies to editing texts and investigating forgotten antiquities. But the main concern is their role in the society of their day. The chapter seeks to view them, as it were, ethnographically, to consider the relationship between their lives of learning and the larger world in which they lived, and to contrast it with the position of their modern counterparts. The focus is on scholars who were engaged in the recovery and interpretation of the past, and not on those who were concerned with mathematics, philosophy, or the nature of the physical world.

The concept of real, as opposed to nominal or conventional, income inequality reveals pronounced inequality movements, because relative prices happened to move very differently for the poor and the rich before 1914. Between 1500 and 1790 to 1815, the prices of staple foods rose much more than the prices of what the rich consumed. This greatly magnified the rise in real-income inequality. The opposite happened between 1815 and 1914. Looking at life expectancy, rather than at annual income or consumption, we again find a widening of inequality in the eighteenth century, at least within the countries of Western Europe.

The introduction sets the forthcoming chapters in the broader context of musical life in Early Modern France and Italy, with reference to existing scholarship on the subject. The occasions and locations in which musical performance took place are outlined, and the scope of the book is defined, stressing the close connections between France and Italy. A growing number of studies of secular music-making consider the social and ideological framework for performance, but usually without serious consideration of architectural settings. Yet these were crucial to the acoustic quality of the performance, for both players and listeners. The chapter therefore underlines the need for an interdisciplinary approach, to establish the background for the study of the emergence of the permanent theatre.

This chapter addresses the question: what opportunities did ordinary women enjoy for recreation in early modern England, and what forms might it take? It considers the role of religion in women's lives. It cites the importance of mutual support in women's lives, which remains the clearest evidence for a distinctively female subculture.

This chapter examines the traces of Petrarchism in England during the early modern period. It discusses Roger Ascham's attack on Petrarch, Elizabeth Tudor's translation of the first ninety lines of Petrarch's Trionfo dell'Eternità, and Arundel Harrington's rewriting of the Vita Solitaria. It suggests that it was Petrarch's versatility and elusiveness that allowed so many different versions of him to circulate in the early modern period.