Status Quo Ante Bellum

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Howard Hotson
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Intellectual History ◽  
Holy Roman Empire ◽  
Educational Institutions ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
The Face ◽  
History Of ◽  
Common Learning ◽  
Student Demand ◽  
Previous Volume

Since this book is a sequel to Commonplace Learning, it begins with a synopsis of the previous volume. Ramism before 1620 was most deeply rooted in the fragmented political and confessional geography of the northwestern corner of the Holy Roman Empire. Its function was to provide small polities with the means to transmit the maximum amount of useful learning with a minimum of time, effort, and expense. The appeal of this pedagogy to magistrates, rulers, parents, and students generated a motive force capable of spreading Ramism horizontally from one gymnasium to another and then vertically through gymnasia illustria to full universities, even in the face of opposition by humanists and theologians. Student demand then forced the universities to adapt begin expounding traditional Aristotelian philosophical substance in quasi-Ramist pedagogical form. Once Bartholomäus Keckermann (c. 1572–1608) had emancipated philosophical instruction from the text of Aristotle in this way, bolder men like the young Johann Heinrich Alsted (1588–1638) began using Keckermann’s systematic method to assemble increasingly eclectic doctrinal mixtures. The stage was set to deploy similar pedagogical methods to ease the assimilation of the bold new philosophies of the era of Descartes into university instruction as well. But before that happened, however, the outbreak of the Thirty Years War destroyed the network of German Reformed educational institutions which had sustained this tradition and scattered its students and teachers in all directions. The Reformation of Common Learning narrates some of the consequences of that diaspora for the intellectual history of the mid-seventeenth century.

Summary, Conclusions, and Prospects

2020 ◽  
pp. 406-430
Author(s):  
Howard Hotson
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Intellectual History ◽  
Holy Roman Empire ◽  
Pedagogical Innovation ◽  
Philosophical School ◽  
The Social ◽  
Catchment Areas ◽  
Common Learning ◽  
Student Demand ◽  
Conclusion Section

The first part of this conclusion (section 12.i) surveys the development of the Ramist and post-Ramist tradition in Reformed central Europe before 1630 (narrated in Commonplace Learning), the scattering of that tradition during the Thirty Years War (1618–48), and its further development in relation to figures such as Descartes, Bacon, Comenius, and Leibniz (recounted in The Reformation of Common Learning). The second part (section 12.ii) reviews the argument of this pair of studies from a thematic perspective. Ramism is approached, not as a philosophical school, but as a pedagogical tradition, the most dynamic, innovative, disruptive, and influential to arise in the Protestant world between the Renaissance and the Enlightenment. Its trajectory, in both the Holy Roman Empire and the Dutch Republic, parallels the graphs of new educational foundations and the growth of their student bodies and catchment areas. Its motive power is student demand, fuelled by the social, political, and confessional circumstances of the era and channelled most effectively through relatively modest institutions responsive to student needs. This explains why this tradition of pedagogical innovation emerged in such fragmented landscapes, why Ramist methods and institutions served as channels thorough which mercantile and artisanal impulses percolated into the academic world, and how they could generate the power to overthrow seemingly superior cultural forces, such as the prestigious humanist educational ideals of the era and entrenched confessional commitments. The book closes with the prospect of complementing traditional top-down intellectual history with a bottom-up approach which can contextualize leading works and thinkers within whole landscapes of digitally analysable data.

The Reformation of Common Learning

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Howard Hotson
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Holy Roman Empire ◽  
Educational Institutions ◽  
Mechanical Philosophy ◽  
Reform Programme ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
Intellectual Context ◽  
Modern Knowledge ◽  
Common Learning ◽  
Post War

Howard Hotson’s previous contribution to this series, Commonplace Learning, explored how a fragmented political and confessional landscape turned the northwestern corner of the Holy Roman Empire into the pedagogical laboratory of post-Reformation Protestant Europe. This sequel traces the further evolution of that tradition after that region’s leading educational institutions were destroyed by the Thirty Years War (1618–1648) and their students and teachers scattered in all directions. Transplanted to the Dutch Republic, the post-Ramist tradition provided ideas, values, and methods which helped to formulate the mechanical philosophy of Descartes and institutionalize it within a network of thriving universities. Within the international diaspora of Protestant intellectuals documented in the archive of Samuel Hartlib, post-Ramist encyclopaedism provided much of the framework for the pansophic programme of Comenius, which assisted the initial spread of Baconianism and related aspirations both in England and abroad. In post-war central Europe, another branch of the tradition helped inspire Leibniz’s life-long vision of a revised combinatorial encyclopaedia as the centrepiece of a wide-ranging reform programme. But as the underlying political, confessional, educational, and intellectual context shifted after 1648, the ancient conception of the encyclopaedia as a cycle of disciplines to be mastered by every scholar exploded into a potentially infinite number of discrete topics organized alphabetically within a mere work of reference. This book weaves together many new lines of inquiry against a huge geographical and thematic canvas to contribute fresh perspectives on the fraught middle years of the seventeenth century in particular and the shape of modern knowledge more generally.

Monasticism in Early Modern Germany

2020 ◽  
pp. 461-470
Author(s):  
Edeltraud Klueting
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
French Revolution ◽  
Holy Roman Empire ◽  
Left Bank ◽  
Modern Germany ◽  
The Enlightenment ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
German Speaking ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Right

The chapter addresses the history of monasticism in the German-speaking territories of the Holy Roman Empire from the sixteenth through the nineteenth centuries. Whether the Reformation movement unleashed by Martin Luther represented a continuation of late medieval monastic reforms or, rather, an abrupt departure from them, is a contentious issue. In the Catholic parts of Germany, after the Council of Trent, monasteries became significant agents in the renewal of the Church, especially in the areas of education and social and charitable activity. On the other hand, the Enlightenment, with its narrow conception of utility, called into question the very basis of monastic life, and hence the right of monasteries to exist. The fallout of the French Revolution and the French occupation of the left bank of the Rhine led to a great wave of monastic dissolutions. It was only under the influence of German Romanticism that monasticism experienced another revival.

The Holy Roman Empire: A Very Short Introduction

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joachim Whaley
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Holy Roman Empire ◽  
Short Introduction ◽  
Legal Traditions ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
German Speaking ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Church

The Holy Roman Empire: A Very Short Introduction outlines the fascinating thousand-year history of the Holy Roman Empire from 800 to 1806, and its legacy for the two centuries after its dissolution. Founded on the basis of Charlemagne’s Frankish kingdom, its imperial title went to the German monarchy that became established in the 9th and 10th centuries. They claimed Charlemagne’s legacy, including his role as protector of the papacy and guardian of the Church. Throughout its lifetime, the empire’s growth and history was shaped by the major developments in Europe, from the Reformation to the French revolutionary wars. The legal traditions established by the empire have shaped the history of German-speaking Europe ever since.

Arcana and Ambiguity in Intellectual History

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Knox Peden
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Intellectual History ◽  
Human Heart ◽  
Historical Understanding ◽  
The Past ◽  
Historical Episode ◽  
The Face ◽  
Modern Learning ◽  
History Of

As history became a narrative of contexts as well as of actions, the moral and exemplary character of the actions related was affected … The narrative of action became a narrative of mystery, meaning not only the mystery of random contingency, but the mystery of how decision and action were framed in the face of contingency. Whether action had proved successful or disastrous, that which was exemplary about it was at the same time that which was arcane, formed in the depths of the human heart as it interacted with fortune. The epigraph comes from the “prelude” to the second volume of Barbarism and Religion, J. G. A. Pocock's masterpiece devoted to reconstructing the manifold contexts for understanding Edward Gibbon's History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. In this passage, Pocock is addressing the transformation of historical understanding in the wake of the Pyrrhonian controversy that dominated early modern learning. Reconstruction of contexts, Pocock argued, was one answer to skepticism about our knowledge of the past, but it could not come at the expense of an understanding of action and motivations. For his part, Gibbon sought a neoclassical synthesis designed to generate “narrative at the point where the exemplary became the arcane.” Such is the paradox of historiography as a modern craft. That which gives a historical episode its value (its exemplarity) is typically that which escapes the explanatory frameworks we bring to it (its arcana).

scholarly journals VISUALIZING GERMANNESS THROUGH COSTUMES IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-32
Author(s):  
FREDERICK G. CROFTS
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Holy Roman Empire ◽  
Production Networks ◽  
Continuity And Change ◽  
Political Landscape ◽  
History Of ◽  
Scholarly Discourse ◽  
Material Exchange

ABSTRACT Examining the understudied collection of costume images from Heidelberg Calvinist, lawyer, and church councillor Marcus zum Lamm's (1544–1606) ‘treasury’ of images, the Thesaurus Picturarum, this article intervenes in the historiography on sixteenth-century German national imaginaries, emphasizing the import of costume books and manuscript alba for national self-fashioning. By bringing late sixteenth-century ethnographic costume image collections into scholarly discourse on the variegated ways of conceiving and visualizing Germany and Germanness over the century, this article sheds new light on a complex narrative of continuity and change in the history of German nationhood and identity. Using zum Lamm's images as a case-study, this article stresses the importance of incorporating costume image collections into a nexus of patriotic genres, including works of topographical-historical, natural philosophical, ethnographic, cartographic, cosmographic, and genealogical interest. Furthermore, it calls for historians working on sixteenth-century costume books and alba to look deeper into the meanings of such images and collections in the specific contexts of their production; networks of knowledge and material exchange; and – in the German context – the political landscape of territorialization, confessionalization, and dynastic ambition in the Holy Roman Empire between the Peace of Augsburg and the Thirty Years War (1555–1618).

Baron Alexander Stroganov’s Mission to Vienna (1761): Dynastic Policy and Symbolic Communication

2021 ◽  
pp. 117
Author(s):  
Olga Khavanova
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Holy Roman Empire ◽  
Symbolic Communication ◽  
Bilateral Relations ◽  
History Of ◽  
Personal Qualities ◽  
European Education ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Francis I

The article is based on the materials from Russian and Austrian archives and devoted to lesser-known circumstances of the preparation and course of the 1761 diplomatic mission of Baron A.S. Stroganov to Vienna on the occasion of the wedding of the heir to the throne, Archduke Joseph, with Isabella of Parma. The embassy is considered in the context of symbolic communication through ceremonial gestures between St. Petersburg and Vienna. It emphasised the particularly friendly nature of the relationship between the two dynasties and two courts, not only united by a bilateral treaty and membership in the anti-Prussian alliance during the Seven Years War but also symbolically related as godparents. A.S. Stroganov was a young aristocrat without proper experience in the field of diplomacy and of the modest court rank of Kammer-Junker. The appointment was explained by his kinship with Chancellor M.I. Vorontsov whose daughter Anna officially accompanied her husband on the trip. The imperial ambassador to St. Petersburg Count Nicolaus Esterházy spared no effort to smooth over the awkwardness and find benevolent patrons for the young couple in Vienna. European education and the exceptional personal qualities of the ambassador allowed A. Stroganov to fulfil the commission with honour and receive the title of a Count of the Holy Roman Empire from Emperor Francis I as a reward. The embassy became the last page in the history of relations between St. Petersburg and Vienna on the eve of the break of bilateral relations and Russia’s withdrawal from the Seven Years War in 1762.

scholarly journals Grafen von Krabaten

2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 203-228
Author(s):  
Robert Kurelić
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Dominant Role ◽  
Holy Roman Empire ◽  
German Language ◽  
Late Medieval ◽  
The Family ◽  
History Of

The counts of Krk were one of the most prestigious and most powerful noble families in late medieval Croatia, with a dominant role attained under Nicholas IV who received the last name Frankapani from Pope Martin V in 1430. Soon after his death German language sources began to refer to the family as Grafen von Krabaten or Counts of Croatia, a somewhat peculiar designation considering that there were other prominent families such as the counts of Krbava who also maintained contacts within the Holy Roman Empire. This paper traces the development of the term von Krabaten from 1440 until the election of Ferdinand I Habsburg as king of Croatia, showing how it was used throughout the century and may have been an indication of the respect and status achieved by the Frankapani under Nicholas IV and his sons. The term is also explored as a helping tool for further research into the history of the family using sources that have hitherto been overlooked or neglected.

Reformation, Resistance, and Reason of State (1517-1625)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Mortimer
Keyword(s):  
Intellectual History ◽  
Natural Law ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
Political Power ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Political Theories ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
Reason Of State ◽  
History Of ◽  
New Ideas

The period 1517–1625 was crucial for the development of political thought. During this time of expanding empires, religious upheaval, and social change, new ideas about the organization and purpose of human communities began to be debated. In particular, there was a concern to understand the political or civil community as bounded, limited in geographical terms and with its own particular structures, characteristics, and history. There was also a growing focus, in the wake of the Reformation, on civil or political authority as distinct from the church or religious authority. To explain these new ideas about political power, the concept of sovereignty began to be used, alongside a new language of reason of state. Yet political theories based upon religion still maintained significant traction, particularly claims for the divine right of kings. In the midst of these developments, the language of natural law became increasingly important as a means of legitimizing political power; natural law provided a rationale for earthly authority that was separate from Christianity and its use enabled new arguments for religious toleration. This book offers a new reading of early modern political thought, drawing on a wide range of sources from Europe and beyond. It makes connections between Christian Europe and the Muslim societies that lay to its south and east, showing the extent to which concerns about the legitimacy of political power were shared. It demonstrates that the history of political thought can both benefit from, and remain distinctive within, the wider field of intellectual history.

The German Reformed Congregation and its Province of Lower Germany

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Christman
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Martin Luther ◽  
Holy Roman Empire ◽  
Close Analysis ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
Observant Movement

To fully appreciate the events leading to the executions of Vos and van den Esschen, it is critical to understand the establishment, structure, and growth of the German Reformed Congregation of Augustinians (Observants) in the Holy Roman Empire during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. In particular, close analysis of the Congregation’s expansion into Lower Germany in the 1510s, a result of encouragement by its leader, Johann von Staupitz, reveals a clear set of tactics at work. An awareness of this strategy establishes the foundation for one argument of this monograph: that having learned how the objectives of the Observant movement could be promoted and disseminated, Martin Luther and his colleagues repurposed these methods in the service of the Reformation.

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