Mapping the early modern city

Urban History ◽  
1996 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 145-170 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helen Hills
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Early Modern Period ◽  
Spanish Empire ◽  
Patron Saint ◽  
Modern Period ◽  
Internal Politics ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The City

This paper analyses in their political context the festival decorations created by Paolo Amato, architect to the Senate of Palermo, in 1686 for the festival of the patron saint of that city. One of these decorations, that of the main altar in the cathedral, is of particular interest in that it represents a map of the city itself. An analysis of this map in relation to other seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century maps of Palermo reveals its political and social aim and biases, but also shows that it was unusually up to date and accurate as a representation of the city at that date. Such a representation not only marks a striking cul-de-sac in the history of the development of cartography, but sheds light on the relationship between forging politically acceptable identities for a city and their representation in the early modern period. The map in particular, but all the decorations, or apparati, in general are interpreted in the context of the weakened Spanish empire (to which Sicily belonged) and of the internal politics of the island and of Palermo.

College Communities Abroad

2017 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Social Economic ◽  
Early Modern Period ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Migrant Communities ◽  
Modern Period ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of

In the early modern period, Catholic communities in Protestant jurisdictions were impelled to establish colleges for the education and formation of students in more hospitable Catholic territories. The Irish, English and Scots Colleges founded in France, Flanders, the Iberian peninsula, Rome and elsewhere are the best known, but the phenomenon extended to Dutch and Scandinavian foundations in southern Flanders and the German lands. Similarly colleges were established in Rome for various national communities, among whom the Maronites are a striking example. The first colleges were founded in the mid-sixteenth century and tens of thousands of students passed through them until their closure in late eighteenth century. Only a handful survived the disruption of the French Revolutionary wars to re-emerge in the nineteenth century. Historians have long argued that these exile colleges played a prominent role in maintaining Catholic structures by supplying educated clergy equipped to deal with the challenges of their domestic churches. This has ensured that the Irish, English and Scots colleges in particular have a rich historiography laid out in the pages of Archivium Hibernicum, the Records of the Scots Colleges or the volumes published under the aegis of the Catholic Record Society in England. Until recently, however, their histories were considered in isolating confessional and national frameworks, with surprisingly little attempt to examine commonalities or connections. Recent research has begun to open up the topic by investigating the social, economic, cultural and material histories of the colleges. Meanwhile renewed interest in the history of early modern migration has encouraged historians to place the colleges within the vibrant migrant communities of Irish, English, Scots and others on the continent. The Introduction begins with a survey of the colleges. It assesses their historiographies, paying particular attention to the research of the last three decades. The introduction argues that an obvious next step is to examine the colleges in transnational and comparative perspectives. Finally, it introduces the volume's essays on Irish, English, Scots, Dutch, German and Maronite colleges, which provide up-to-date research by leading historians in the field and point to the possibilities for future research on this exciting topic.

The Naturalized Female Intellect

1992 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 209-235 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lorraine Daston
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Early Modern Period ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
Natural Laws ◽  
Modern Period ◽  
Differences Of Opinion ◽  
Actual Content ◽  
History Of ◽  
Late Nineteenth

The ArgumentNaturalization confers authority on beliefs, conventions, and claims, but what kind of authority? Because the meaning of nature has a history, so does that of naturalization:naturalization is not the same tactic when marshaled in, say, eighteenth-century France and in late nineteenth-century Britain. Although the authority of nature may be invoked in both cases, the import of that authority depends crucially on whether nature is understood normatively or descriptively, within the framework of the natural laws of jurisprudence or within that of the natural laws of mechanics. During the early modern period, the denotative center of gravity of the word “nature” shifted dramatically. Writings about the female intellect are particularly well suited to reflect and focus these changes for three reasons: first, as with so many aspects of gender identity, what was distinctively female about women's way of thinking was usually alleged to be part and parcel of their “nature”; second, thepolitical and social implications of the female intellect were debated heatedly and in unprecedented detail, particularly in France; and third, the actual content of beliefs about what traits sex the intellect as female remained relatively constant during this period, despite sharp differences of opinion over their putative “natural” causes. The female intellect was naturalized not once but repeatedly, and therein lies its value for a history of naturalization.

scholarly journals Introduction

2014 ◽  
Vol 47 (2) ◽  
pp. 221-244
Author(s):  
Eli Rubin
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Early Modern Period ◽  
Ice Age ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Open Spaces ◽  
Modern Period ◽  
History Of ◽  
Last Ice Age ◽  
The City

The essays in this special issue all focus on the city of Berlin, in particular, its relationship with its margins and borders over thelongue dureé. The authors—Kristin Poling, Marion Gray, Barry Jackisch, and Eli Rubin—all consider the history of Berlin over the last two centuries, with special emphasis on how Berlin expanded over this time and how it encountered the open spaces surrounding it and within it—the “green fields” (grüne Wiesen) referred to in the theme title. Each of them explores a different period in Berlin's history, and so together, the essays form a long dureé history of Berlin, although each of the essays in its own way explores the roots of Berlin's history in deeper time scales, from the early modern period, to the Middle Ages, and even to the very end of the last ice age, more than 10,000 years ago.

scholarly journals Introduction: The Material Worlds of Food in Early Modern Europe

2020 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melissa Calaresu
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Social History ◽  
Early Modern Period ◽  
Source Material ◽  
Early Modern Europe ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Modern Period ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract All of the articles in this special issue show the necessity of having to combine different kinds of sources—texts with images, images with objects, and objects with absences—to build an integrated history of the material worlds of food in the early modern period. They also reflect newer approaches to materiality which are sensitive to the relationship between matter and the senses and consider the haptic, visual, olfactory, and even aural aspects of cooking and eating alongside taste. In turn, the tastes of collectors and the fragility and absence of source material also need to be taken into consideration in order to write a meaningful cultural and social history of food. Despite the ephemeral nature of eating and cooking, this special issue shows that the sources studied by historians of material culture of the early modern period are remarkably rich, and their analysis fruitful.

Impotence and the Natural Explanation of Bewitchment: Wolfgang Reichart’s Medical Case Report on the Loss of “potentia coeundi”

2020 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 273-295
Author(s):  
Giovanni Rubeis ◽  
Frank Ursin ◽  
Florian Steger
Keyword(s):  
Case Report ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
History Of Science ◽  
Early Modern Period ◽  
Natural Explanation ◽  
Modern Period ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Medical Case Report ◽  
Natural Means

Abstract Wolfgang Reichart (1486-c. 1547) was a humanist and a town physician of Ulm. His work consists of a largely unpublished collection of nearly 600 texts. So far, it has been claimed that this compilation only consists of letters and poems. However, we have found a medical treatise, wherein Reichart discusses a case of impotence, its pathophysiology and therapy. One of the crucial aspects in this text is the relationship it describes between witchcraft and medicine. The patient claims that his condition is the result of bewitchment. Reichart accepts witchcraft as a possible aetiological explanation, but claims that since the processes triggered by witchcraft are still natural, the patient can be cured by natural means. Thus, Reichart’s approach is an important contribution to the history of medicine and to the history of science of the early modern period. We provide the first edition, translation, and commentary of the text.

Surat

2019 ◽  
pp. 218-238
Author(s):  
Martha Chaiklin
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Indian Ocean ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Early Modern Period ◽  
Port City ◽  
Modern Period ◽  
The World ◽  
The Indian Ocean ◽  
Indian Ocean World ◽  
The City

In the eighteenth century, Surat was perhaps the single most important port city of the Moghul empire, if not the world. Dutch, English, French, and Portuguese ships were called from Africa and Brazil to obtain Gujarati textiles, side by side with dhows from the throughout the Indian Ocean. This textile trade was underpinned by ivory, large amounts of which poured in the city both by caravan and by sea. Even though Surat, or even Gujarat, was not elephant habitat in the early modern period, Surat became a significant port for the import of ivory into India. The need for tusks of an appropriate size for bangles created symbiosis of trade between Gujarati textiles and ivory that directly affected the prosperity of Surat. The chapter thus links Surat to the Indian Ocean World through ivory and demonstrate the interconnected nature of ivory and textiles in the Gujarat region.

A Key Institution for Writing the Economic and Political History of Ottoman Muslims in the Early Modern Period

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Y. Spyropoulos
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Political History ◽  
Geographical Area ◽  
Early Modern Period ◽  
Political Movements ◽  
Modern Period ◽  
History Of ◽  
Muslim Communities

Abstract This articles main argument is that in the course of the eighteenth century, the Janissary corps evolved into a powerful platform for the exchange of people, goods, and ideas between different localities covering a vast geographical area. By elaborating on this idea this paper maintains that the Janissaries should be treated as a key institutionfor the examination of Muslim economic and political history in the Ottoman periphery.We claim thatthe studyof their networkshas the potential to drastically redefine our current perception of the sociopolitical and financial role of Muslims in the early modern Ottoman Empire.Such a research can help us create a more balanced and less Eurocentric picture of the trading operations of Muslims in the regionand better understandthe dissemination of ideas and political movements between a number of Muslim communities where the Janissaries had a strong presence.Аннотация Главныи тезис статьи то, что на протяжении XVIII века, корпус янычар эволюционировал в мощную платформу перемещения людеи, товаров и идеи между различными регионами обширного географического пространства. Обосновывая эту идею, автор статьи подчеркивает, что янычары как институт являются своеобразным ключом к исследованию экономическои и политическои истории исламских общин на периферии Османскои империи. На взгляд автора, исследование этих сетеи взаимодеиствия позволяет радикально пересмотреть нынешнее восприятие социополитическои и финансовои роли мусульман в Османскои империи раннего Нового времени. Подобные исследования дают возможность выработать более сбалансированную и менее евроцентричную картину мусульманских торговых операции в регионе, и лучше понять распространение идеи и политических движении среди различных исламских общин в тех регионах, где присутствие янычар было значимым.

The Rise of Natural Law in the Early Modern Period

2016 ◽  
pp. 624-641
Author(s):  
Robert von Friedeburg
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Natural Law ◽  
Early Modern Period ◽  
Sovereign State ◽  
Modern Period ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Will ◽  
Civil Authority

This article traces the history of the rise of natural law from the classical and medieval periods to the eighteenth century, considering the publications and debates that began to mushroom from the Reformation, and how the works of Grotius, Hobbes, Locke, and von Pufendorf transformed the political philosophy and learned architecture of Latin Europe. It examines how confessional revelation theology on the will of God, as revealed in scripture, was marginalized by jurists and philosophers and goes on to discuss the role of civil authority as obligating agency within each sovereign state; natural law’s emphasis on rights and obligations; and the arguments of Aristotle and Cicero. It explores three interrelated developments seen as responsible for the rise of natural law during the early modern period, and concludes with an analysis of its further development in relation to the philosophical scene and political environment in each polity during the eighteenth century.

India and the Reshaping of the French Colonial Policy (1759-1789)

Itinerario ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 25-43 ◽  
Author(s):  
François-Joseph Ruggiu
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Early Modern Period ◽  
Colonial Policy ◽  
Trading Posts ◽  
Modern Period ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
French Colonial ◽  
French India

It is well-known that in 1763 the French presence in India was reduced by the treaty of Paris to five trading posts, or comptoirs, whose names—Pondichéry, Yanaon, Karikal, Mahé and Chandernagor—were erstwhile learned by heart by the French schoolchildren. French India lasted until 1954 and sparked a wide scientific interest in France at least until the beginning of the 1970s. Since that time, along with the history of French colonial policy during the early modern period as a whole, the study of French India has largely gone out of fashion. The last decades of the Ancien Regime have especially been concerned by this disaffection. The best current French specialists of these parts of the world, like Philippe Haudrère, have focused on the activities of the Compagnie françaises des Indes, which was suspended in 1769, or, like Jacques Weber, devoted themselves to the history of the French presence in India during the nineteenth or twentieth centuries. Even if the period of Dupleix is more studied, the history of French India during the eighteenth century does not seem to tempt many researchers nowadays.

Sources for the History of Women in Eighteenth-Century Ireland: The Case of Dorothea Herberts Retrospections

2014 ◽  
Vol 90 (2) ◽  
pp. 127-142 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jane Maxwell
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Early Modern Period ◽  
Primary Sources ◽  
Grand Narrative ◽  
Poor Survival ◽  
Evidential Value ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Modern Period ◽  
History Of

The poor survival rate of primary sources for the history of Irish women in the early modern period is mitigated by the sophistication with which extant sources are now being analysed. When re-examined without reference to the demands of the traditional historical grand narrative, when each text itself is permitted to guide its own interrogation, previously undervalued texts are revealed to be insightful of individual existential experience. The memoir of eighteenth-century Dorothea Herbert, hitherto much ignored due to the authors mental illness, is becoming increasingly respected not just for its historic evidential value but for the revelations it contains of a distressed individuals use of literature to manage her circumstances. The interpretive tools deployed on such a text by different research specialisms necessarily lead to divergent conclusions; this in turn may lead to creative re-imagining of history although they cannot all equally reflect what was likely to have been the lived reality of the original author.

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