Ira Katznelson
- Published in print:
- 1993
- Published Online:
- January 2005
- ISBN:
- 9780198279242
- eISBN:
- 9780191601910
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198279248.003.0005
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
One area where Marxism has dealt with the city is the transition from feudalism to capitalism, although this discussion has been satisfactory only in part, since too much is compressed in the very ...
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One area where Marxism has dealt with the city is the transition from feudalism to capitalism, although this discussion has been satisfactory only in part, since too much is compressed in the very idea of this epochal transformation. Marxism's conception of feudalism has been too narrow: it has treated some 500 years of history in terms of a single direction of change, and it has flattened the dimensions and varieties of transition. Further, Marxism's insistence on parallel treatment as modes of production for feudalism (which fused sovereignty and property), and for capitalism (which did not), is misplaced. Yet even if Marxism's discussion of the transition has been flawed, it is here that some of the most important attempts to make cities a constitutive part of a key historical and theoretical problem are found. This chapter broadens and shifts the terms of this engagement of Marxism with the city – by so doing, it is possible to shed some light on the impact cities had on large‐scale change in early modern Europe, and, in turn, on the ways cities as places were altered by the demise of feudalism.Less
One area where Marxism has dealt with the city is the transition from feudalism to capitalism, although this discussion has been satisfactory only in part, since too much is compressed in the very idea of this epochal transformation. Marxism's conception of feudalism has been too narrow: it has treated some 500 years of history in terms of a single direction of change, and it has flattened the dimensions and varieties of transition. Further, Marxism's insistence on parallel treatment as modes of production for feudalism (which fused sovereignty and property), and for capitalism (which did not), is misplaced. Yet even if Marxism's discussion of the transition has been flawed, it is here that some of the most important attempts to make cities a constitutive part of a key historical and theoretical problem are found. This chapter broadens and shifts the terms of this engagement of Marxism with the city – by so doing, it is possible to shed some light on the impact cities had on large‐scale change in early modern Europe, and, in turn, on the ways cities as places were altered by the demise of feudalism.
Pamela H. Smith
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691159096
- eISBN:
- 9781400849895
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691159096.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, World Modern History
This chapter focuses on “itineraries of matter,” or objects as traveling carriers of cultural practices and meanings, in the early modern world. It examines the role of red in the transmission of ...
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This chapter focuses on “itineraries of matter,” or objects as traveling carriers of cultural practices and meanings, in the early modern world. It examines the role of red in the transmission of knowledge back and forth among European vernacular practitioners and text-oriented scholars in their production and reproduction of knowledge about natural things. To this end, the chapter takes us to the heat and dangers of vermillion production in early modern Europe: the hours of firing, stirring, stoking, hammering, chemical manipulation, and anxious waiting that produced the red pigments highly valued by painters and illuminators to bring blood to life. Vermillion production was dangerous and exacting, and yet its underlying techniques traveled rapidly across early modern Europe (and beyond) together with the webs of interlinked homologies—an entourage of lizards, blood, gold, alchemical formulas, and vernacular knowledge—which formed the foundations of early modern science.Less
This chapter focuses on “itineraries of matter,” or objects as traveling carriers of cultural practices and meanings, in the early modern world. It examines the role of red in the transmission of knowledge back and forth among European vernacular practitioners and text-oriented scholars in their production and reproduction of knowledge about natural things. To this end, the chapter takes us to the heat and dangers of vermillion production in early modern Europe: the hours of firing, stirring, stoking, hammering, chemical manipulation, and anxious waiting that produced the red pigments highly valued by painters and illuminators to bring blood to life. Vermillion production was dangerous and exacting, and yet its underlying techniques traveled rapidly across early modern Europe (and beyond) together with the webs of interlinked homologies—an entourage of lizards, blood, gold, alchemical formulas, and vernacular knowledge—which formed the foundations of early modern science.
Stefania Tutino
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199740536
- eISBN:
- 9780199894765
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199740536.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Philosophy of Religion
Robert Bellarmine was one of the pillars of post-Reformation Catholicism: he was a celebrated Jesuit theologian, a highly ranked member of the Congregations of the Inquisition and of the Index, the ...
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Robert Bellarmine was one of the pillars of post-Reformation Catholicism: he was a celebrated Jesuit theologian, a highly ranked member of the Congregations of the Inquisition and of the Index, the censor in charge of the Galileo affair. Bellarmine was also one of the most original political theorists of his time, and he participated directly in many of the political conflicts that agitated Europe between the end of the sixteenth and the beginning of the seventeenth century. This book offers the first full-length study of the impact of Bellarmine’s theory of the potestas indirecta in early modern Europe. Following the reactions to Bellarmine’s theory across national and confessional boundaries, this book explores some of the most crucial political and theological knots in the history of post-Reformation Europe, from the controversy over the Oath of Allegiance to the battle over the Interdetto in Venice. The book sets those political and religious controversies against the background of the theological and institutional developments of the post-Tridentine Catholic Church. By examining the violent and at times surprising controversies originated by Bellarmine’s theory, this book challenges some of the traditional assumptions regarding the theological shape of post-Tridentine Catholicism; it offers a fresh perspective on the centrality of the links between confessional affiliation and political allegiance in the formation of the modern nation-states; and it contributes to our understanding of the development of “modern” notions of power and authority.Less
Robert Bellarmine was one of the pillars of post-Reformation Catholicism: he was a celebrated Jesuit theologian, a highly ranked member of the Congregations of the Inquisition and of the Index, the censor in charge of the Galileo affair. Bellarmine was also one of the most original political theorists of his time, and he participated directly in many of the political conflicts that agitated Europe between the end of the sixteenth and the beginning of the seventeenth century. This book offers the first full-length study of the impact of Bellarmine’s theory of the potestas indirecta in early modern Europe. Following the reactions to Bellarmine’s theory across national and confessional boundaries, this book explores some of the most crucial political and theological knots in the history of post-Reformation Europe, from the controversy over the Oath of Allegiance to the battle over the Interdetto in Venice. The book sets those political and religious controversies against the background of the theological and institutional developments of the post-Tridentine Catholic Church. By examining the violent and at times surprising controversies originated by Bellarmine’s theory, this book challenges some of the traditional assumptions regarding the theological shape of post-Tridentine Catholicism; it offers a fresh perspective on the centrality of the links between confessional affiliation and political allegiance in the formation of the modern nation-states; and it contributes to our understanding of the development of “modern” notions of power and authority.
Stuart Clark
- Published in print:
- 1999
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198208082
- eISBN:
- 9780191677915
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198208082.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, European Early Modern History, Social History
This is a work of fundamental importance for our understanding of the intellectual and cultural history of early modern Europe. This book offers a new interpretation of the witchcraft beliefs of ...
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This is a work of fundamental importance for our understanding of the intellectual and cultural history of early modern Europe. This book offers a new interpretation of the witchcraft beliefs of European intellectuals based on their publications in the field of demonology, and shows how these beliefs fitted rationally with many other views current in Europe between the 15th and 18th centuries. The book explores the appeal of demonology to early modern intellectuals by looking at the books they published on the subject during this period. After examining the linguistic foundations of their writings, the book shows how the writers' ideas about witchcraft (and about magic) complemented their other intellectual commitments — in particular, their conceptions of nature, history, religion, and politics. The result is much more than a history of demonology. It is a survey of wider intellectual and ideological purposes, and underlines just how far the nature of rationality is dependent on its historical context.Less
This is a work of fundamental importance for our understanding of the intellectual and cultural history of early modern Europe. This book offers a new interpretation of the witchcraft beliefs of European intellectuals based on their publications in the field of demonology, and shows how these beliefs fitted rationally with many other views current in Europe between the 15th and 18th centuries. The book explores the appeal of demonology to early modern intellectuals by looking at the books they published on the subject during this period. After examining the linguistic foundations of their writings, the book shows how the writers' ideas about witchcraft (and about magic) complemented their other intellectual commitments — in particular, their conceptions of nature, history, religion, and politics. The result is much more than a history of demonology. It is a survey of wider intellectual and ideological purposes, and underlines just how far the nature of rationality is dependent on its historical context.
Anne Jacobson Schutte
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780801449772
- eISBN:
- 9780801463174
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9780801449772.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, European Medieval History
An unwilling, desperate nun trapped in the cloister, unable to gain release: such is the image that endures today of monastic life in early modern Europe. This book demonstrates that this and other ...
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An unwilling, desperate nun trapped in the cloister, unable to gain release: such is the image that endures today of monastic life in early modern Europe. This book demonstrates that this and other common stereotypes of involuntary consignment to religious houses—shaped by literary sources such as Manzoni’s The Betrothed—are badly off the mark. Drawing on records of the Congregation of the Council, held in the Vatican, the book examines nearly one thousand petitions for annulment of monastic vows submitted to the Pope and adjudicated by the Council during a 125-year period, from 1668 to 1793. It considers petitions from Roman Catholic regions across Europe and a few from Latin America and finds that, in about half these cases, the congregation reached a decision. Many women and a smaller proportion of men got what they asked for: decrees nullifying their monastic profession and releasing them from religious houses. It also reaches important conclusions about relations between elders and offspring in early modern families. Contrary to the picture historians have painted of increasingly less patriarchal and more egalitarian families, the book finds numerous instances of fathers, mothers, and other relatives (including older siblings) employing physical violence and psychological pressure to compel adolescents into “entering religion.” Dramatic tales from the archives show that many victims of such violence remained so intimidated that they dared not petition the pope until the agents of force and fear had died, by which time they themselves were middle-aged.Less
An unwilling, desperate nun trapped in the cloister, unable to gain release: such is the image that endures today of monastic life in early modern Europe. This book demonstrates that this and other common stereotypes of involuntary consignment to religious houses—shaped by literary sources such as Manzoni’s The Betrothed—are badly off the mark. Drawing on records of the Congregation of the Council, held in the Vatican, the book examines nearly one thousand petitions for annulment of monastic vows submitted to the Pope and adjudicated by the Council during a 125-year period, from 1668 to 1793. It considers petitions from Roman Catholic regions across Europe and a few from Latin America and finds that, in about half these cases, the congregation reached a decision. Many women and a smaller proportion of men got what they asked for: decrees nullifying their monastic profession and releasing them from religious houses. It also reaches important conclusions about relations between elders and offspring in early modern families. Contrary to the picture historians have painted of increasingly less patriarchal and more egalitarian families, the book finds numerous instances of fathers, mothers, and other relatives (including older siblings) employing physical violence and psychological pressure to compel adolescents into “entering religion.” Dramatic tales from the archives show that many victims of such violence remained so intimidated that they dared not petition the pope until the agents of force and fear had died, by which time they themselves were middle-aged.
Kasper von Greyerz
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195327656
- eISBN:
- 9780199851478
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195327656.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
In the pre-industrial societies of early modern Europe, religion was a vessel of fundamental importance in making sense of personal and collective social, cultural, and spiritual exercises. ...
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In the pre-industrial societies of early modern Europe, religion was a vessel of fundamental importance in making sense of personal and collective social, cultural, and spiritual exercises. Developments in this era had immediate impact on these societies, many of which resonate to the present day. This book gives an overview and interpretation of the religions and cultures of early modern Europe. The author approaches his subject matter with the concerns of a social anthropologist, rejecting the conventional dichotomy between popular and elite religion to focus instead on religion in its everyday cultural contexts. Concentrating primarily on Central and Western Europe, the author analyzes the dynamic strengths of early modern religion in three parts. First, he identifies the changes in religious life resulting from the Protestant Reformation and Catholic Counter-Reformation. He then reveals how the dynamic religious climate triggered various radical and separatist movements, such as the Anabaptists, Puritans, and Quakers, and how the newfound emphasis on collective religious identity contributed to the marginalization of non-Christians and outsiders. Last, the author investigates the broad and still much-divided field of research on secularization during the period covered. While many large-scale historical approaches to early modern religion have concentrated on institutional aspects, this study consciously neglects these elements to provide new insights. The resulting work delves into the many distinguishing marks of the period: religious reform and renewal, the hotly debated issue of “confessionalism,” social inclusion and exclusion, and the increasing fragmentation of early modern religiosity in the context of the Enlightenment.Less
In the pre-industrial societies of early modern Europe, religion was a vessel of fundamental importance in making sense of personal and collective social, cultural, and spiritual exercises. Developments in this era had immediate impact on these societies, many of which resonate to the present day. This book gives an overview and interpretation of the religions and cultures of early modern Europe. The author approaches his subject matter with the concerns of a social anthropologist, rejecting the conventional dichotomy between popular and elite religion to focus instead on religion in its everyday cultural contexts. Concentrating primarily on Central and Western Europe, the author analyzes the dynamic strengths of early modern religion in three parts. First, he identifies the changes in religious life resulting from the Protestant Reformation and Catholic Counter-Reformation. He then reveals how the dynamic religious climate triggered various radical and separatist movements, such as the Anabaptists, Puritans, and Quakers, and how the newfound emphasis on collective religious identity contributed to the marginalization of non-Christians and outsiders. Last, the author investigates the broad and still much-divided field of research on secularization during the period covered. While many large-scale historical approaches to early modern religion have concentrated on institutional aspects, this study consciously neglects these elements to provide new insights. The resulting work delves into the many distinguishing marks of the period: religious reform and renewal, the hotly debated issue of “confessionalism,” social inclusion and exclusion, and the increasing fragmentation of early modern religiosity in the context of the Enlightenment.
Yaacov Deutsch
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199756537
- eISBN:
- 9780199950201
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199756537.003.0006
- Subject:
- Religion, Judaism
This book sought to present the content and extract the meanings from the ethnographic accounts of Judaism from early modern Europe. In analyzing these texts, the book focused on several contexts: ...
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This book sought to present the content and extract the meanings from the ethnographic accounts of Judaism from early modern Europe. In analyzing these texts, the book focused on several contexts: relations between Christians and Jews; the phenomenon of religious conversion; ethnographic writing in the early modern period; and Christian Hebraism. The shared emphasis on these topics has allowed for a better understanding of the corpus at hand. In the various chapters of this work, ideas have been raised and conclusions reached that touch upon manifold issues; but given the book's focus on three case studies, it was not always possible to “connect the dots.” This chapter attempts to weave together the ideas and arguments that were broached in the previous chapters and presents several general conclusions on the corpus at hand. It takes stock of the historical reality in which these works were produced to decipher the links between the texts' authors, the circumstances under which they labored, the genre's overall development, and the historical significance of these accounts.Less
This book sought to present the content and extract the meanings from the ethnographic accounts of Judaism from early modern Europe. In analyzing these texts, the book focused on several contexts: relations between Christians and Jews; the phenomenon of religious conversion; ethnographic writing in the early modern period; and Christian Hebraism. The shared emphasis on these topics has allowed for a better understanding of the corpus at hand. In the various chapters of this work, ideas have been raised and conclusions reached that touch upon manifold issues; but given the book's focus on three case studies, it was not always possible to “connect the dots.” This chapter attempts to weave together the ideas and arguments that were broached in the previous chapters and presents several general conclusions on the corpus at hand. It takes stock of the historical reality in which these works were produced to decipher the links between the texts' authors, the circumstances under which they labored, the genre's overall development, and the historical significance of these accounts.
Helen Kraus
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199600786
- eISBN:
- 9780191731563
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199600786.003.0008
- Subject:
- Religion, Biblical Studies, Church History
Chapter Extract: Early Modern Europe saw a rapidly increasing interest in and an unprecedented pursuit of the sensus literalis of the Hebrew Bible. His exile in Europe, due to his ...
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Chapter Extract: Early Modern Europe saw a rapidly increasing interest in and an unprecedented pursuit of the sensus literalis of the Hebrew Bible. His exile in Europe, due to his translation of the New Testament that so angered Thomas More, exposed Tyndale to this revival of interest. His importance to this study is the extent to which his English translation found its way into the Authorized Version, bequeathing us a truly idiomatic vernacular Bible. The Authorized Version itself, by contrast, owes everything to the Hebrew text. Careful comparison with Tyndale' translation reveals a return from occasional paraphrase to a rendering that is as literal as can be. In Genesis 3:16, for example, we see a return to the Hebrew allusion to the woman' desire for her husband. Where Tyndale gives us an English Bible, the Authorised Version translators' offering is a Hebrew Bible — in English.Less
Chapter Extract: Early Modern Europe saw a rapidly increasing interest in and an unprecedented pursuit of the sensus literalis of the Hebrew Bible. His exile in Europe, due to his translation of the New Testament that so angered Thomas More, exposed Tyndale to this revival of interest. His importance to this study is the extent to which his English translation found its way into the Authorized Version, bequeathing us a truly idiomatic vernacular Bible. The Authorized Version itself, by contrast, owes everything to the Hebrew text. Careful comparison with Tyndale' translation reveals a return from occasional paraphrase to a rendering that is as literal as can be. In Genesis 3:16, for example, we see a return to the Hebrew allusion to the woman' desire for her husband. Where Tyndale gives us an English Bible, the Authorised Version translators' offering is a Hebrew Bible — in English.
Yaacov Deutsch
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199756537
- eISBN:
- 9780199950201
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199756537.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Judaism
This book examines Christian ethnographic writing about the Jews in early modern Europe, offering a systematic historical analysis of this literary genre and arguing its importance for better ...
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This book examines Christian ethnographic writing about the Jews in early modern Europe, offering a systematic historical analysis of this literary genre and arguing its importance for better understanding both the period in general and Jewish–Christian relations in particular. The book focuses on nearly eighty texts from Western Europe (mostly Germany) that describe the customs and ceremonies of the contemporary Jews, containing both descriptions and illustrations of their subjects. It examines books in which Christian authors describe Jewish life and provides new interpretations of Christian perceptions of Jews, Christian Hebraism, and the attention paid by the Hebraist to contemporary Jews and Judaism. Since many of the authors were converts, studying their books offers new insights into conversion during the period. Their work presents new perspectives on the study of religion, developments in the field of anthropology and ethnography, and internal Christian debates that arose from the portrayal of Jewish life. Despite the lack of attention by modern scholars, some of these books were extremely popular in their time and represent one of the important ways by which Jews were perceived during the period. The key claim of the study is that, although almost all of the descriptions of Jewish customs are accurate, the authors chose to concentrate mainly on details that show the Jewish ceremonies as anti-Christian, superstitious, and ridiculous; these details also reveal the deviation of Judaism from the Biblical law. The book suggests that these ethnographic descriptions are better defined as polemical ethnographies and argues that the texts, despite their polemical tendency, represent a shift from writing about Judaism as a religion to writing about Jews, and from a mode of writing based on stereotypes to one based on direct contact and observation.Less
This book examines Christian ethnographic writing about the Jews in early modern Europe, offering a systematic historical analysis of this literary genre and arguing its importance for better understanding both the period in general and Jewish–Christian relations in particular. The book focuses on nearly eighty texts from Western Europe (mostly Germany) that describe the customs and ceremonies of the contemporary Jews, containing both descriptions and illustrations of their subjects. It examines books in which Christian authors describe Jewish life and provides new interpretations of Christian perceptions of Jews, Christian Hebraism, and the attention paid by the Hebraist to contemporary Jews and Judaism. Since many of the authors were converts, studying their books offers new insights into conversion during the period. Their work presents new perspectives on the study of religion, developments in the field of anthropology and ethnography, and internal Christian debates that arose from the portrayal of Jewish life. Despite the lack of attention by modern scholars, some of these books were extremely popular in their time and represent one of the important ways by which Jews were perceived during the period. The key claim of the study is that, although almost all of the descriptions of Jewish customs are accurate, the authors chose to concentrate mainly on details that show the Jewish ceremonies as anti-Christian, superstitious, and ridiculous; these details also reveal the deviation of Judaism from the Biblical law. The book suggests that these ethnographic descriptions are better defined as polemical ethnographies and argues that the texts, despite their polemical tendency, represent a shift from writing about Judaism as a religion to writing about Jews, and from a mode of writing based on stereotypes to one based on direct contact and observation.
Robert Launay
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780226575254
- eISBN:
- 9780226575421
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226575421.003.0001
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Anthropology, Theory and Practice
This chapter establishes the importance of a comparative perspective in early modern European thought about others. It critically examines different approaches to understanding these ...
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This chapter establishes the importance of a comparative perspective in early modern European thought about others. It critically examines different approaches to understanding these conceptualizations in historical perspective. Progressive disciplinary histories, evaluating authors from prior eras in terms of their contributions to contemporary agendas, are invariably anachronistic, as well as approaches which look for the roots of modern ideas. Postcolonial thought, in the wake of the publication of Edward Said’s critique of Orientalism, similarly if less optimistically projects contemporary preoccupations onto past writers. The chapter suggests an approach that treats past authors, not as ancestors, but as interlocutors whose ideas need to be understood in terms of the very different projects they were attempting to formulate, in their own terms rather than in ours.Less
This chapter establishes the importance of a comparative perspective in early modern European thought about others. It critically examines different approaches to understanding these conceptualizations in historical perspective. Progressive disciplinary histories, evaluating authors from prior eras in terms of their contributions to contemporary agendas, are invariably anachronistic, as well as approaches which look for the roots of modern ideas. Postcolonial thought, in the wake of the publication of Edward Said’s critique of Orientalism, similarly if less optimistically projects contemporary preoccupations onto past writers. The chapter suggests an approach that treats past authors, not as ancestors, but as interlocutors whose ideas need to be understood in terms of the very different projects they were attempting to formulate, in their own terms rather than in ours.
Ann Moss
- Published in print:
- 1996
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198159087
- eISBN:
- 9780191673474
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198159087.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 16th-century and Renaissance Literature
This is a study of the Renaissance commonplace-book. Commonplace-books were the information-organizers of Early Modern Europe, notebooks of quotations methodically arranged for easy retrieval. From ...
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This is a study of the Renaissance commonplace-book. Commonplace-books were the information-organizers of Early Modern Europe, notebooks of quotations methodically arranged for easy retrieval. From their first introduction to the rudiments of Latin to the specialized studies of leisure reading of their later years, the pupils of humanist schools were trained to use commonplace-books, which formed an immensely important element of Renaissance education. The common-place book mapped and resourced Renaissance culture's moral thinking, its accepted strategies of argumentation, its rhetoric, and its deployment of knowledge. This book investigates the commonplace-book's medieval antecedents, its methodology and use as promulgated by its humanist advocates, its varieties as exemplified in its printed manifestations, and the reasons for its gradual decline in the 17th century. The book covers the Latin culture of Early Modern Europe and its vernacular counterparts and continuations, particularly in France.Less
This is a study of the Renaissance commonplace-book. Commonplace-books were the information-organizers of Early Modern Europe, notebooks of quotations methodically arranged for easy retrieval. From their first introduction to the rudiments of Latin to the specialized studies of leisure reading of their later years, the pupils of humanist schools were trained to use commonplace-books, which formed an immensely important element of Renaissance education. The common-place book mapped and resourced Renaissance culture's moral thinking, its accepted strategies of argumentation, its rhetoric, and its deployment of knowledge. This book investigates the commonplace-book's medieval antecedents, its methodology and use as promulgated by its humanist advocates, its varieties as exemplified in its printed manifestations, and the reasons for its gradual decline in the 17th century. The book covers the Latin culture of Early Modern Europe and its vernacular counterparts and continuations, particularly in France.
David B. Ruderman
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780801451829
- eISBN:
- 9780801471056
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9780801451829.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, Historiography
This chapter discusses how the study of Jewish culture in early modern Europe has flourished with an outburst of books and essays. Most of this scholarship, however, is exclusively focused on a ...
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This chapter discusses how the study of Jewish culture in early modern Europe has flourished with an outburst of books and essays. Most of this scholarship, however, is exclusively focused on a particular locality, seemingly denying the possibility that a distinct early modern Jewish cultural experience can be described. The chapter argues that such a description is attainable without eliminating the specificities of the Jewish subcultures other historians have carefully described. Instead, it proposes a perspective that emphasizes connections, contacts, and conversations over time and across specific localities. A central theme in this description of a transregional Jewish culture is the knowledge explosion triggered by the printing of Hebrew, Yiddish, and Ladino books. The chapter maintains that the movement of books and the activities of their publishers played a key role in creating a connected history of early modern regional Jewish communities.Less
This chapter discusses how the study of Jewish culture in early modern Europe has flourished with an outburst of books and essays. Most of this scholarship, however, is exclusively focused on a particular locality, seemingly denying the possibility that a distinct early modern Jewish cultural experience can be described. The chapter argues that such a description is attainable without eliminating the specificities of the Jewish subcultures other historians have carefully described. Instead, it proposes a perspective that emphasizes connections, contacts, and conversations over time and across specific localities. A central theme in this description of a transregional Jewish culture is the knowledge explosion triggered by the printing of Hebrew, Yiddish, and Ladino books. The chapter maintains that the movement of books and the activities of their publishers played a key role in creating a connected history of early modern regional Jewish communities.
Ann Moss
- Published in print:
- 1996
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198159087
- eISBN:
- 9780191673474
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198159087.003.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 16th-century and Renaissance Literature
This book is concerned with commonplace-books during the Renaissance in Early Modern Europe. While it is certainly be part of the book's brief to point to factors which explain the eventual disgrace ...
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This book is concerned with commonplace-books during the Renaissance in Early Modern Europe. While it is certainly be part of the book's brief to point to factors which explain the eventual disgrace of the commonplace, its understanding of the commonplace encompasses the understanding of those who compiled, promoted, and employed commonplace-books before the great change in ideas about knowledge and verbal expression took them off the cultural map. The use of the word will, therefore, be the ancient and the archaic use, and our sense of the commonplace anything but trivial. The rest of the book describes the wide variety of the senses of the word ‘commonplace’ (or simply ‘place’) which were already available at the beginning of the 16th century and the potential for future development which its already long history had built into it.Less
This book is concerned with commonplace-books during the Renaissance in Early Modern Europe. While it is certainly be part of the book's brief to point to factors which explain the eventual disgrace of the commonplace, its understanding of the commonplace encompasses the understanding of those who compiled, promoted, and employed commonplace-books before the great change in ideas about knowledge and verbal expression took them off the cultural map. The use of the word will, therefore, be the ancient and the archaic use, and our sense of the commonplace anything but trivial. The rest of the book describes the wide variety of the senses of the word ‘commonplace’ (or simply ‘place’) which were already available at the beginning of the 16th century and the potential for future development which its already long history had built into it.
Chris Briggs
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197264416
- eISBN:
- 9780191734342
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197264416.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History
Exploring the role of credit is vital to understanding any economy. In the past two decades historians of many European regions have become increasingly aware that medieval credit, far from being the ...
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Exploring the role of credit is vital to understanding any economy. In the past two decades historians of many European regions have become increasingly aware that medieval credit, far from being the preserve of merchants, bankers, or monarchs, was actually of basic importance to the ordinary villagers who made up most of the population. This study is devoted to credit in rural England in the middle ages. Focusing in particular on seven well-documented villages, it examines in detail some of the many thousands of village credit transactions of this period, identifies the people who performed them, and explores the social relationships brought about by involvement in credit. The evidence comes primarily from inter-peasant debt litigation recorded in the proceedings of manor courts, which were the private legal jurisdictions of landlords. A comparative study that discusses the English evidence alongside findings from other parts of medieval and early modern Europe, the book argues that the prevailing view of medieval English credit as a marker of poverty and crisis is inadequate. In fact, the credit networks of the English countryside were surprisingly resilient in the face of the fourteenth-century crises associated with plague, famine, and economic depression.Less
Exploring the role of credit is vital to understanding any economy. In the past two decades historians of many European regions have become increasingly aware that medieval credit, far from being the preserve of merchants, bankers, or monarchs, was actually of basic importance to the ordinary villagers who made up most of the population. This study is devoted to credit in rural England in the middle ages. Focusing in particular on seven well-documented villages, it examines in detail some of the many thousands of village credit transactions of this period, identifies the people who performed them, and explores the social relationships brought about by involvement in credit. The evidence comes primarily from inter-peasant debt litigation recorded in the proceedings of manor courts, which were the private legal jurisdictions of landlords. A comparative study that discusses the English evidence alongside findings from other parts of medieval and early modern Europe, the book argues that the prevailing view of medieval English credit as a marker of poverty and crisis is inadequate. In fact, the credit networks of the English countryside were surprisingly resilient in the face of the fourteenth-century crises associated with plague, famine, and economic depression.
Jon Snyder
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520228191
- eISBN:
- 9780520944442
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520228191.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, European Early Modern History
“Larvatus prodeo,” announced René Descartes at the beginning of the seventeenth century: “I come forward, masked.” Deliberately disguising or silencing their most intimate thoughts and emotions, many ...
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“Larvatus prodeo,” announced René Descartes at the beginning of the seventeenth century: “I come forward, masked.” Deliberately disguising or silencing their most intimate thoughts and emotions, many early modern Europeans besides Descartes—princes, courtiers, aristocrats and commoners alike—chose to practice the shadowy art of dissimulation. For men and women who could not risk revealing their inner lives to those around them, this art of incommunicativity was crucial, both personally and politically. Many writers and intellectuals sought to explain, expose, justify, or condemn the emergence of this new culture of secrecy, and from Naples to the Netherlands controversy swirled for two centuries around the powers and limits of dissimulation, whether in affairs of state or affairs of the heart. This work crisscrosses Europe, with a special focus on Italy, to explore attitudes toward the art of dissimulation in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Discussing many canonical and lesser-known works, the book examines the treatment of dissimulation in early modern treatises and writings on the court, civility, moral philosophy, political theory, and in the visual arts.Less
“Larvatus prodeo,” announced René Descartes at the beginning of the seventeenth century: “I come forward, masked.” Deliberately disguising or silencing their most intimate thoughts and emotions, many early modern Europeans besides Descartes—princes, courtiers, aristocrats and commoners alike—chose to practice the shadowy art of dissimulation. For men and women who could not risk revealing their inner lives to those around them, this art of incommunicativity was crucial, both personally and politically. Many writers and intellectuals sought to explain, expose, justify, or condemn the emergence of this new culture of secrecy, and from Naples to the Netherlands controversy swirled for two centuries around the powers and limits of dissimulation, whether in affairs of state or affairs of the heart. This work crisscrosses Europe, with a special focus on Italy, to explore attitudes toward the art of dissimulation in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Discussing many canonical and lesser-known works, the book examines the treatment of dissimulation in early modern treatises and writings on the court, civility, moral philosophy, political theory, and in the visual arts.
Simon Ditchfield and Helen Smith
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780719099151
- eISBN:
- 9781526121059
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719099151.003.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, European Literature
The introduction explores existing scholarship on conversion and on the interrelationships between gender and religious experience in early modern Europe. It argues for the need to consider masculine ...
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The introduction explores existing scholarship on conversion and on the interrelationships between gender and religious experience in early modern Europe. It argues for the need to consider masculine as well as feminine modes of selfhood as malleable in the light of changing religious affiliations, and considers questions of performativity, language, materiality and orientation. Briefly outlining the contents of the collection as a whole, the introduction also points forward to important possibilities for further research and scholarship.Less
The introduction explores existing scholarship on conversion and on the interrelationships between gender and religious experience in early modern Europe. It argues for the need to consider masculine as well as feminine modes of selfhood as malleable in the light of changing religious affiliations, and considers questions of performativity, language, materiality and orientation. Briefly outlining the contents of the collection as a whole, the introduction also points forward to important possibilities for further research and scholarship.
Karl Toepfer
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780813040257
- eISBN:
- 9780813043869
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813040257.003.0005
- Subject:
- Music, Dance
Modern dance in Europe established itself as a distinctive aesthetic experience in the early twentieth century through solo dancing by a lone woman in a program of dances designed to reveal the power ...
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Modern dance in Europe established itself as a distinctive aesthetic experience in the early twentieth century through solo dancing by a lone woman in a program of dances designed to reveal the power of movement to define and amplify her unique personality. To be modern was to be alone and free of social contexts. The dancer was allowed by audiences of the day to appear on stage in sensual and seductive ways. The door was open to expressionist dance. Nine dancers are presented: Mata Hari, Olga Desmond, Anna Pavlova, Gertrud Leistikow, Lavinia Schulz, Edith von Schrenk, Niddy Impekoven, Oda Schottmüller, and Ella Ilbak.Less
Modern dance in Europe established itself as a distinctive aesthetic experience in the early twentieth century through solo dancing by a lone woman in a program of dances designed to reveal the power of movement to define and amplify her unique personality. To be modern was to be alone and free of social contexts. The dancer was allowed by audiences of the day to appear on stage in sensual and seductive ways. The door was open to expressionist dance. Nine dancers are presented: Mata Hari, Olga Desmond, Anna Pavlova, Gertrud Leistikow, Lavinia Schulz, Edith von Schrenk, Niddy Impekoven, Oda Schottmüller, and Ella Ilbak.
Warren Boutcher
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- April 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780198739661
- eISBN:
- 9780191831126
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198739661.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, European Literature, 16th-century and Renaissance Literature
This major two-volume study offers an interdisciplinary analysis of Montaigne’s Essais and their fortunes in early modern Europe and the modern Western university. Volume 1 focuses on contexts from ...
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This major two-volume study offers an interdisciplinary analysis of Montaigne’s Essais and their fortunes in early modern Europe and the modern Western university. Volume 1 focuses on contexts from within Montaigne’s own milieu, and on the ways in which his book made him a patron-author or instant classic in the eyes of his editor Marie de Gournay and his promoter Justus Lipsius. Volume 2 focuses on the reader-writers across Europe who used the Essais to make their own works, from corrected editions and translations in print, to life-writing and personal records in manuscript. The two volumes work together to offer a new picture of the book’s significance in literary and intellectual history. The school of Montaigne potentially included everyone in early modern Europe with occasion and means to read and write for themselves and for their friends and family, unconstrained by an official function or scholastic institution. The Essais were shaped by the post-Reformation battle to regulate the educated individual’s judgement in reading and acting upon the two books bequeathed by God to man. The book of scriptures and the book of nature were becoming more accessible through print and manuscript cultures. But at the same time that access was being mediated more intensively by teachers such as clerics and humanists, by censors and institutions, by learned authors of past and present, and by commentaries and glosses upon those authors. Montaigne enfranchised the unofficial reader-writer with liberties of judgement offered and taken in the specific historical conditions of his era.Less
This major two-volume study offers an interdisciplinary analysis of Montaigne’s Essais and their fortunes in early modern Europe and the modern Western university. Volume 1 focuses on contexts from within Montaigne’s own milieu, and on the ways in which his book made him a patron-author or instant classic in the eyes of his editor Marie de Gournay and his promoter Justus Lipsius. Volume 2 focuses on the reader-writers across Europe who used the Essais to make their own works, from corrected editions and translations in print, to life-writing and personal records in manuscript. The two volumes work together to offer a new picture of the book’s significance in literary and intellectual history. The school of Montaigne potentially included everyone in early modern Europe with occasion and means to read and write for themselves and for their friends and family, unconstrained by an official function or scholastic institution. The Essais were shaped by the post-Reformation battle to regulate the educated individual’s judgement in reading and acting upon the two books bequeathed by God to man. The book of scriptures and the book of nature were becoming more accessible through print and manuscript cultures. But at the same time that access was being mediated more intensively by teachers such as clerics and humanists, by censors and institutions, by learned authors of past and present, and by commentaries and glosses upon those authors. Montaigne enfranchised the unofficial reader-writer with liberties of judgement offered and taken in the specific historical conditions of his era.
Jonathan I. Israel
- Published in print:
- 1985
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780198219286
- eISBN:
- 9780191678332
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198219286.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, European Early Modern History, History of Religion
This is the first survey history of Jewish life and culture in early modern Europe to concentrate on the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries as a radically new phase in Jewish history. The book ...
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This is the first survey history of Jewish life and culture in early modern Europe to concentrate on the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries as a radically new phase in Jewish history. The book argues that the rapidly expanding Jewish role in political and economic spheres in much of Europe from the 1570s was the first fundamental emancipation of European Jewry.Less
This is the first survey history of Jewish life and culture in early modern Europe to concentrate on the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries as a radically new phase in Jewish history. The book argues that the rapidly expanding Jewish role in political and economic spheres in much of Europe from the 1570s was the first fundamental emancipation of European Jewry.
Luke Glanville
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- May 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780226076898
- eISBN:
- 9780226077086
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226077086.003.0003
- Subject:
- Political Science, International Relations and Politics
This chapter examines the emergence of sovereignty in early modern Europe. It argues that, from its earliest articulations by political theorists such as Bodin and Hobbes, the idea of “absolute” ...
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This chapter examines the emergence of sovereignty in early modern Europe. It argues that, from its earliest articulations by political theorists such as Bodin and Hobbes, the idea of “absolute” sovereign authority was conceived to entail responsibilities. Sovereigns may not have been responsible to the people but they were certainly responsible for the people and answerable to God. Moreover, rulers were also understood to be accountable to neighbouring princes for the performance of sovereign responsibilities. Grotius was one of many theorists who justified war to hold to account sovereign princes who violated natural law by acting tyrannically and oppressing their own people. It was in this period also that an international society of states began to tentatively emerge. The chapter argues that, at important moments such as the Peace of Westphalia, mutual recognition of authority claims paved the way for the construction of not only rights but responsibilities of legitimate statehood, including responsibilities for the toleration of religious minorities.Less
This chapter examines the emergence of sovereignty in early modern Europe. It argues that, from its earliest articulations by political theorists such as Bodin and Hobbes, the idea of “absolute” sovereign authority was conceived to entail responsibilities. Sovereigns may not have been responsible to the people but they were certainly responsible for the people and answerable to God. Moreover, rulers were also understood to be accountable to neighbouring princes for the performance of sovereign responsibilities. Grotius was one of many theorists who justified war to hold to account sovereign princes who violated natural law by acting tyrannically and oppressing their own people. It was in this period also that an international society of states began to tentatively emerge. The chapter argues that, at important moments such as the Peace of Westphalia, mutual recognition of authority claims paved the way for the construction of not only rights but responsibilities of legitimate statehood, including responsibilities for the toleration of religious minorities.
