scholarly journals Reading alchemically: guides to ‘philosophical’ practice in early modern England

BJHS Themes ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 57-74
Author(s):  
Jennifer M. Rampling
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Early Modern England ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Actual Practice ◽  
Philosophical Practice ◽  
Late Fifteenth

AbstractDozens of early modern treatises claim to offer straightforward instructions on the theory and practice of alchemy, including all the steps necessary to produce the philosophers’ stone and a range of medicinal elixirs. Yet the resulting works often seem to obfuscate more than they explain: omitting vital information, disguising ingredients and practices behind cover names, and describing outcomes that seem, to modern eyes, impossible. Were such ‘instruction manuals’ ever intended to offer guides for actual practice, or did they serve other ends – from attracting patrons to persuading sceptics of the truth of alchemy? Drawing upon alchemical dialogues written, compiled and annotated by English alchemists in the late fifteenth and the sixteenth centuries, I argue that these works of ‘philosophical’ alchemy could indeed serve as technical manuals, although not always of the kind we might expect. Such writings offer advice not only on practical techniques, but also on the process of reading alchemically: guiding readers through the exegetical minefield of alchemical writing, in order both to extract meaningful chemical recipes from obscure texts, and to craft the practitioner's own persona as an alchemical philosopher.

INTOXICANTS AND SOCIETY IN EARLY MODERN ENGLAND

2011 ◽  
Vol 54 (3) ◽  
pp. 631-657 ◽  
Author(s):  
PHIL WITHINGTON
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
Social Identity ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
Early Modern England ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Cultural Contexts ◽  
Civilizing Process ◽  
The Poor

ABSTRACTThe article considers the rapid increase in the English market for alcohol and tobacco in the 1620s and the set of concurrent influences shaping their consumption. It suggests that intoxicants were not merely a source of solace for ‘the poor’ or the lubricant of traditional community, as historians often imply. Rather, the growth in the market for beer, wine, and tobacco was driven by those affluent social groups regarded as the legitimate governors of the English commonwealth. For men of a certain disposition and means, the consumption of intoxicants became a legitimate – indeed valorized and artful – aspect of their social identity: an identity encapsulated by the Renaissance concept of ‘wit’. These new styles of drinking were also implicated in the proliferation (in theory and practice) of ‘societies’ and ‘companies’, by which contemporaries meant voluntary and purposeful association. These arguments are made by unpacking the economic, social, and cultural contexts informing the humorous dialogue Wine, beere, ale and tobacco. Contending for superiority. What follows demonstrates that the ostensibly frivolous subject of male drinking casts new light on the nature of early modern social change, in particular the nature of the ‘civilizing process’.

‘Love ye therefore the strangers’: immigration and the criminal law in early modern England

2014 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 349-371 ◽  
Author(s):  
MATTHEW LOCKWOOD
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Criminal Law ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Early Modern England ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Political Crises ◽  
Comprehensive Examination ◽  
English Law ◽  
The Relationship

ABSTRACTThis article offers a comprehensive examination of the relationship between foreign residents and the criminal law in early modern England, as well as an investigation of trials ‘de medietate lingue’, trials with half-English and half-foreign juries, in theory and practice. Because England witnessed both a series of foreign migrations and a series of geo-political crises in the years between 1674 and 1750, the article charts patterns of foreign prosecutions across the period in order to place them in their proper historical context. The article concludes that the protections offered by English law to foreign residents were real and significant and that these protections were especially important at points of geo-political stress.

Making Murder Public

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
K.J. Kesselring
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Twelfth Century ◽  
Early Modern Period ◽  
Early Modern England ◽  
The Public ◽  
Modern Period ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Late Fifteenth ◽  
Formal Distinction

Homicide can seem timeless, somehow, determined by unchanging human failings. But a moment’s reflection shows this is not true: homicide has a history. In early modern England, that history saw two especially notable developments: one, the emergence in the sixteenth century of a formal distinction between murder and manslaughter, made meaningful through a lighter punishment than death for the latter in most cases, and two, a significant reduction in the rates of homicides individuals perpetrated on each other. This book explores connections between these two changes. It demonstrates the value in distinguishing between murder and manslaughter, or at least in seeing how that distinction came to matter in a period which also witnessed dramatic drops in the occurrence of homicidal violence. Focused on the ‘politics of murder’, the book examines how homicide became more effectively criminalized from c. 1480 to 1680, with chapters devoted to coroners’ inquests, appeals and private compensation, duels and private vengeance, and print and public punishment. The English had begun moving away from treating homicide as an offence subject to private settlements or vengeance long before other Europeans, at least from the twelfth century. What happened in the early modern period was, in some ways, a continuation of processes long underway, but intensified and refocused by developments from the late fifteenth to late seventeenth centuries. Exploring the links between law, crime, and politics, bringing together both the legal and social histories of the subject of homicide, the book argues that homicide became more fully ‘public’ in these years, with killings seen to violate a ‘king’s peace’ that people increasingly conflated with or subordinated to the ‘public peace’ or ‘public justice’.

scholarly journals Astrological Medicine and the Popular Press in Early Modern England

2005 ◽  
Vol 09 (01) ◽  
pp. 73-93
Author(s):  
Louise Curth
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Early Modern England ◽  
Beliefs And Practices ◽  
University Curriculum ◽  
Late Fifteenth ◽  
The University ◽  
Huge Variety

For many centuries the study of the stars was considered to be a science in western Europe. In the middle ages both astrology and astronomy, thought be the practical and theoretical parts of the scientific study of the celestial heavens, were taught as part of the university curriculum. The advent of printing in the late fifteenth century resulted in a huge variety of publications that provided the general public with access to this knowledge. This essay will examine the major role that almanacs, which were cheap, mass-produced astrological publications, played in disseminating information about astrological medical beliefs and practices to a national audience.

Printed Musical Propaganda in Early Modern England

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph Arthur Mann
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Civil Wars ◽  
Early Modern England ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Social Boundaries ◽  
Government Officials ◽  
Broadside Ballads ◽  
Musical Propaganda ◽  
Hearts And Minds ◽  
The Church

Printed Musical Propaganda in Early Modern England exposes a relationship between music and propaganda that crossed generations and genres, revealing how consistently music, in theory and practice, was used as propaganda in a variety of printed genres that included or discussed music from the English Civil Wars through the reign of William and Mary. These bawdy broadside ballads, pamphlets paid for by Parliament, sermons advertising the Church of England’s love of music, catch-all music collections, music treatises addressed to monarchs, and masque and opera texts, when connected in a contextual mosaic, reveal a new picture of not just individual propaganda pieces, but multi-work propaganda campaigns with contributions that cross social boundaries. Musicians, Royalists, Parliamentarians, government officials, propagandists, clergymen, academics, and music printers worked together setting musical traps to catch the hearts and minds of their audiences and readers. Printed Musical Propaganda proves that the influential power of music was not merely an academic matter for the early modern English, but rather a practical benefit that many sought to exploit for their own gain.

Coroners and Communities

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew Lockwood
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Legal System ◽  
Early Modern England ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Elected Officials ◽  
Election Process ◽  
Justices Of The Peace ◽  
Personal Violence

If we are to fully understand the process through which a monopoly of violence was established in early modern England, it is first crucial to understand the nature of the office that was created for the express purpose of detecting and investigating inter-personal violence. As such, chapter 1 examines the parameters of the office of the coroner in both theory and practice. Using legal treatises and office holding manuals as well as a variety of local records, the chapter explores the duties and responsibilities of the coroner both legally and in reality, before moving to a discussion of the various jurisdictions within which coroners operated. As coroners were elected officials, chapter 2 also examines the election process and argues that the position of coroner was eagerly sought and the election of coroners contested and often contentious. If violence was to be effectively regulated, it was crucial that coroners interacted productively and efficiently with the communities they policed as well as the officers and courts of the legal system more generally. In order to properly situate the coroner in this dynamic apparatus, this chapter will examine both the process of a coroner’s inquest—from discovery, to inquest, to trial—and the coroner’s role in and interactions with communities, constables, justices of the peace and the local and central courts

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