scholarly journals Women Negotiating the Boundaries of Justice in Britain, 1300–1700: An Introduction

2019 ◽  
Vol 58 (4) ◽  
pp. 677-683
Author(s):  
Alexandra Shepard ◽  
Tim Stretton
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Access To Justice ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Late Medieval ◽  
Early Modern Women ◽  
Recent Scholarship ◽  
Marital Property ◽  
The Many ◽  
Women's Appearance ◽  
Women And The Law

AbstractThis introduction places the articles featured in this special issue of the Journal of British Studies within the context of recent scholarship on late medieval and early modern women and the law. It is designed to highlight the many boundaries that structured women's legal agency in Britain, including the procedural boundaries that filtered their voices through male advisers and officials, the jurisdictional boundaries that shaped litigation strategies, the constraints surrounding women's appearance as witnesses in court, the gendered differentiation of rights determined by primogeniture and marital property law, and the boundaries between legal and extralegal activity. Emphasizing the importance of a nuanced approach, it rejects the construction of women's litigation simply as a form of resistance to patriarchal norms and also urges caution against overestimating or oversimplifying the choices available to women in legal disputes or their latitude to operate as autonomous individuals. Gender intersected in British courts with locality, resources, jurisdiction, social status, and familial, religious, and political affiliations to inform different women's access to justice, which involved negotiations between unequal actors within various constraints and in complex alignment with multiple and often competing interests.

scholarly journals Jesuit Sanctity: Hypothesizing the Continuity of a Hagiographic Narrative of the Modern Age

2022 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Franco Motta ◽  
Eleonora Rai
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Society Of Jesus ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Medieval Period ◽  
Late Medieval ◽  
Late Medieval Period ◽  
Modern Age ◽  
Political Implications ◽  
History Of

Abstract The introduction to this special issue provides some considerations on early modern sanctity as a historical object. It firstly presents the major shifts in the developing idea of sanctity between the late medieval period and the nineteenth century, passing through the early modern construction of sanctity and its cultural, social, and political implications. Secondly, it provides an overview of the main sources that allow historians to retrace early modern sanctity, especially canonization records and hagiographies. Thirdly, it offers an overview of the ingenious role of the Society of Jesus in the construction of early modern sanctity, by highlighting its ability to employ, create, and play with hagiographical models. The main Jesuit models of sanctity are then presented (i.e., the theologian, the missionary, the martyr, the living saint), and an important reflection is reserved for the specific martyrial character of Jesuit sanctity. The introduction assesses the continuity of the Jesuit hagiographical discourse throughout the long history of the order, from the origins to the suppression and restoration.

scholarly journals Women, Marriage, Property and Law: Contextualizing The Witch of Edmonton

Early Theatre ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tim Stretton
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Early Modern England ◽  
Economic Relations ◽  
Recent Scholarship ◽  
Personal Relations ◽  
Marital Property ◽  
The Witch

Changes in marital property and marriage negotiations, the economy, and personal relations in early modern England form the backdrop for key elements of The Witch of Edmonton. This essay draws on recent scholarship surrounding these changes to provide historical context for analyzing the play. It argues that the commercialization of economic relations and the emergence of trusts facilitated a shift away from customary arrangements (such as dower) towards more contractual ones (such as jointures). Meanwhile, increased reliance on credit and legal instruments, such as bonds, produced record levels of litigation, contributing to legalistic thinking and cynicism about legal agreements. 

scholarly journals Shakespeare and the Demonization of Fairies

Text Matters ◽  
2017 ◽  
pp. 194-213
Author(s):  
Piotr Spyra
Keyword(s):  
William Shakespeare ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Thomas Hobbes ◽  
Midsummer Night's Dream ◽  
The Tempest ◽  
Recent Scholarship ◽  
A Midsummer Night's Dream ◽  
The Many ◽  
Historical Reflection

The article investigates the canonical plays of William Shakespeare - Hamlet, Macbeth, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Tempest - in an attempt to determine the nature of Shakespeare’s position on the early modern tendency to demonize fairy belief and to view fairies as merely a form of demonic manifestation. Fairy belief left its mark on all four plays, to a greater or lesser extent, and intertwined with the religious concerns of the period, it provides an important perspective on the problem of religion in Shakespeare’s works. The article will attempt to establish whether Shakespeare subscribed to the tendency of viewing fairies as demonic agents, as epitomized by the Daemonologie of King James, or opposed it. Special emphasis will also be put on the conflation of fairies and Catholicism that one finds best exemplified in Thomas Hobbes’ Leviathan. The article draws on a wealth of recent scholarship on early modern fairies, bringing together historical reflection on the changing perception of the fairy figure, research into Shakespeare’s attitude towards Catholicism and analyses of the many facets of anti-Catholic polemic emerging from early modern Protestant discourse.

«Quel nome pernicioso di nobile»: Uberto Foglietta e la nobiltà di Genova fra tyardo medioevo e prima età moderna

2021 ◽  
pp. 41-55
Author(s):  
Guido Castelnuovo
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Urban Culture ◽  
16Th Century ◽  
Present Contribution ◽  
Late Medieval ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Good Starting Point ◽  
The Many ◽  
The City

The present contribution aims at discussing the many late medieval and early modern interpretations elaborated in urban and (post)communal Italy on nobility. It does so by attentively analysing the first book of the La Repubblica di Genova, written around 1550 by Uberto Foglietta, a Genoese patrician and a future historian of the city. Foglietta’s libello therefore is a good starting point to reinterpret the vexata quaestio of being noble both in 16th century Genoa, and in the broader context of Renaissance Italian urban culture.

scholarly journals Daniel’s Cleopatra and Lady Anne Clifford: From a Jacobean Portrait to Modern Performance

Early Theatre ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yasmin Arshad ◽  
Helen Hackett ◽  
Emma Whipday
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Early Modern Women ◽  
Recent Interest ◽  
Mary Sidney Herbert ◽  
The Many ◽  
A Performance

<p><em>Recent interest in staging so-called ‘closet dramas’ by early modern women has bypassed Samuel Daniel’s </em><em>Cleopatra</em><em>, because of the author’s sex. Yet this play has strong female associations: it was commissioned by Mary Sidney Herbert, and is quoted in a Jacobean portrait of a woman (plausibly Lady Anne Clifford) in role as Cleopatra. We staged a Jacobean-style production of </em><em>Cleopatra </em><em>at Goodenough College, London, then a performance of selected scenes at Knole, Clifford’s home in Kent. This article presents the many insights gained about the dramatic power of the play and its significance in giving voices to women.</em></p>

Bathsua Makin

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fran Teague
Keyword(s):  
Women Writers ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Conduct Books ◽  
Robert Boyle ◽  
Charles I ◽  
Early Modern Women ◽  
Search Terms ◽  
Classical Studies ◽  
Women's Lives ◽  
The Many

Bathsua Makin (b. 1600–d. 1681?) was a child prodigy, writer, and noted educator. Her father Henry Reginald was a schoolmaster. Her first book, Musa Virginea, appeared when she was 16; a second published work on shorthand is undated, but appeared before 1619. She followed her father into education, working as tutor for the Princess Elizabeth, daughter of Charles I, and later for the Countess of Huntingdon and her children. Makin’s specialty was languages, so she taught Princess Elizabeth Latin, Hebrew, Greek, French, and Italian by the time the child was nine, and she taught Latin, Greek, and Hebrew to the Huntingdon family. Finally, An Essay to Revive the Antient Education of Gentlewomen (Essay) is attributed to Makin by many scholars. The Essay says Makin planned to open a school in 1673, though nothing further is heard of the school. It also provides information about education, catalogues learned women, and offers a spirited defense of women’s abilities, as well as an attack on misogyny. Makin’s importance lies in the way she exemplifies the problems of research on early modern women writers, her work as a Latin poet, her essay on education, as well as her reception. Her brother-in-law John Pell once remarked that “she is a woman of great acquaintance.” Pell was one of Samuel Hartlib’s correspondence circle, and Hartlib mentions both Makin and her father in his papers. Surviving letters and the Hartlib papers link her to notable men: Sir Symonds D’Ewes, Carew Ralegh, Robert Boyle, and several prominent London physicians. Around 1640, Anna Maria van Schurman wrote Makin, and they continued corresponding until at least 1645 and possibly until 1648. Makin almost certainly knew other learned Englishwomen, including Rachel Speght, Anne Halkett, Dorothy Moore Dury, and Katherine Jones, Lady Ranelagh, though none of these is listed in her catalogues of learned ladies, perhaps because they demurred. Her influence on later women is less clear. The Countess of Huntingdon’s granddaughter, Lady Elizabeth Hastings, was Mary Astell’s sponsor; another was Lady Catherine Jones, daughter of Katherine Jones, Lady Ranelagh. This article does not include the many anthologies that include passages from the Essay speaking to such concerns as politics, women’s lives, conduct books, religion, classical studies, and so forth. Simply using a search engine like Google to find the search terms “Bathsua Makin” and “anthology” will yield around 9,000 results, and the range of topics is broad and varied.

The Cultural Geography of St Paul’s Precinct

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roze Hentschell
Keyword(s):  
Physical Properties ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Cultural Study ◽  
Cultural Geography ◽  
Criminal Activity ◽  
Business Practices ◽  
Recent Scholarship ◽  
The Many ◽  
Geographical Space

This chapter is a cultural study of St Paul’s Cathedral precinct in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. It discusses the physical properties of Paul’s, including the nave, Paul’s Cross pulpit, the bookshops in the churchyard, and the many and varied uses and occupations of the precinct and church, including sermons, secular business practices, and criminal activity. While recent scholarship has attended to various discreet spaces in and around the cathedral, this chapter discusses the religious and secular space and activities as mutually constitutive rather than distinct. Influenced by studies of cultural geography, the chapter investigates the role of the cathedral precinct in constructing the identity of the early modern Londoner through a discussion of the effects that geographical space has on human behaviour.

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