scholarly journals In the service of secrecy: An enveloped history of priority, proof and patents

2021 ◽  
pp. 135918352110288
Author(s):  
Eva Hemmungs Wirtén
Keyword(s):  
Intellectual Property ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Property System ◽  
Private And Public ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Propriété Industrielle ◽  
The Cost ◽  
Double Envelope ◽  
Double Compartment

This article is about an everyday paper object: an envelope. However, as opposed to most other flat paper containers, the enveloppe Soleau can only be bought from L’Institut national de la propriété industrielle (INPI) in Paris. At the cost of €15 you get a perforated, double-compartment envelope allowing you to constitute proof of creation and assign a precise date to your idea or project. But the enveloppe Soleau is something much more than just a simple and cheap way by which you can prove priority in any creative domain. It is a material footprint anchored to centuries of practices associated with disclosure and secrecy, a gateway into the infrastructure of the intellectual property system and its complicated relationship to the forms of knowledge it purports to hold. The purpose of this article is to consider the making of the enveloppe Soleau as a bureaucratic document, a material device performing a particular kind of legal paperwork. In four different vignettes, the article tracks the material becoming of the enveloppe Soleau as an evidentiary receptacle, beginning by going back to early modern practices of secrecy and priority, continuing with its consolidation in two patents (from 1910 and 1911) to the inventor Eugène Soleau (1852–1929), and ending up, in 2016, dematerialized in the e-Soleau. As a bureaucratic document, the enveloppe Soleau shows just how much work a mundane paper object can perform, navigating a particular materiality (a patented double envelope); formalized processes of proof (where perforations have legal significance); the practices of double archiving (in an institution and with the individual) and strict temporal limitations (a decade). Ultimately, the enveloppe Soleau travels between the material and immaterial, between private and public, between secrecy and disclosure, but also between what we perceive of as the outside and inside of the intellectual property system.

The World the Bedouin Lived in: Climate, Migration and Politics in the Early Modern Arab East

2015 ◽  
Vol 58 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 21-55
Author(s):  
Astrid Meier ◽  
Tariq Tell
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Environmental History ◽  
The Past ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
Societal Level ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Marginal Zones

Environmental history provides a perspective from which we can deepen our understanding of the past because it examines the relationships of people with their material surroundings and the effects of those relationships on the individual as well as the societal level. It is a perspective that holds particular promise for the social and political history of arid and marginal zones, as it contributes to our understanding of the reason some groups are more successful than others in coping with the same environmental stresses. Historians working on the early modern Arab East have only recently engaged with the lively field of global environmental history. After presenting a brief overview of some strands of this research, this article illustrates the potential of this approach by looking closely at a series of conflicts involving Bedouin and other power groups in the southern parts of Bilād al-Shām around the middle of the eighteenth century.

Introduction: State, Republic, and Commonwealth

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Noah Dauber
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
Early Modern England ◽  
Francis Bacon ◽  
History Of Political Thought ◽  
State And Society ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
Penal State ◽  
Private And Public ◽  
History Of

This book examines the tensions between state and society in early modern England (1549–1640) in order to elucidate the reception of the classical commonwealth in the wake of the Reformation. It analyzes five cases: the Reforming Christian commonwealth of the counselors who surrounded Edward VI; the vision of England as a society of orders in Thomas Smith's De Republica Anglorum; the Aristotelian monarchical republic of John Case's Sphaera Civitatis; the exploration of private and public in Jacobean England, especially in the Aphorisms and Essays of Sir Francis Bacon; and the penal state and the commonwealth of conscience in Thomas Hobbes's Elements of Law. This introduction discusses the history of political thought and the early modern state in England, focusing on commonwealth as a theory of the state.

The Enterprisers

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Igor Fedyukin
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Educational Innovation ◽  
Building Blocks ◽  
Modern School ◽  
Regular Army ◽  
Depth Study ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Modern Era

The Enterprisers traces the emergence of “modern” school in Russia during the reigns of Peter I and his immediate successors, up to the accession of Catherine II. The efforts to “educate” Russia represent a trademark of Peter I’s reign and reformist program, and innovations in schooling in Russia in the eighteenth century have traditionally been presented as a top-down, state-driven process. As with many other facets of the emerging early modern state, the Petrine-era school usually appears as the product of the practical needs of the tsar’s new “regular” army, which demanded skilled technical personnel. It is also commonly taken to be the personal creation of Peter I, who singlehandedly designed it and forced it on an unwilling population. Contrary to this received wisdom, The Enterprisers argues that schools were instead invented and built by “administrative entrepreneurs”—or projecteurs, as they were also called in that era—who sought to achieve diverse career goals, promoted their own pet ideas, advanced their claims for expertise, and competed for status and resources. As the in-depth study of some of the most notable episodes in the history of educational innovation and school-related “projecting” in Russia in the first half of the eighteenth century demonstrates, the creation of “modern” schools took place insofar as it enabled such enterprisers to pursue their agendas. The individual projects these enterprisers proposed and implemented served as building blocks for the edifice of the “well-regulated” state on the threshold of the modern era.

The Corpus of Hebrew and Jewish Autos Sacramentales: Self-deception and Conversion

2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 182-226
Author(s):  
Einat Davidi
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Underlying Structure ◽  
Autos Sacramentales ◽  
History Of ◽  
Early Modern Era ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Cultural World ◽  
Good And Evil ◽  
Modern Era ◽  
Individual Human

Abstract This article identifies a set of plays written in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries by ‘new Jews’ in the Western Sephardi Diaspora, as autos sacramentales. It discusses essential characteristics of this genre, such as the dual—theomachic and psychomachic—level, the triangle constellation of allegorical characters with human nature in its center and the representatives of good and evil on both sides, and the parallelism created in the play between the cosmic story, the story of humanity, and the story of the individual human soul. It is argued that these characteristics are to be found in plays written by Jews in the Early Modern Era. The article maintains that the appearance of this corpus of plays in the history of Jewish writing indicates that an underlying structure of the psychic and historical consciousness of Western culture had not skipped the Jewish cultural world.

scholarly journals Commons and the nature of modernity: towards a cosmopolitical view on craft guilds

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bert De Munck
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Modern Science ◽  
The State ◽  
Allocation Of Resources ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Commons ◽  
The Common ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Nature And Society ◽  
Craft Guilds

AbstractThis paper argues that historical research on late medieval and early modern craft guilds fails to escape teleological and anachronistic views, including when they are addressed as commons or ‘institutions for collective action’. These present-day conceptual lenses do not only create idealized views on guilds, but also of the contexts in which they operated, especially the state and the market. This is especially the case with neo-institutional views on the commons, which fall back on a transhistorical rational actor, who can choose between three options for the allocation of resources and surpluses, namely the state, the market and the common. The paper shows that guilds were fundamentally entangled with both the state and the market and that their ethic implied a less utilitarian and instrumental attitude towards natural resources. The consequence of this is that the history of the guilds offers different lessons to present-day commoners than those implied by present-day research. With an eye at launching a reflection on that, I argue in favour of a cosmopolitical perspective, which invites to take fundamentally different worldviews seriously. This includes questioning our own conceptual and analytical abstractions like the state, the market and the individual, up to and including the very distinction between nature and society or nature and politics, which are at the very basis of modern science itself.

scholarly journals Name & sign: About Zaharija Orfelin’s pseudonym

2016 ◽  
pp. 75-87
Author(s):  
Vladimir Simic
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Intellectual History ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Early Modern Period ◽  
General Characteristic ◽  
Name Change ◽  
Modern Period ◽  
Historical Figure ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Individual

The problem of representation of intellectuals and artists in the early modern period has long occupied historians and researchers of various disciplines. One of the forms of artistic expression of intellectual self-consciousness was creation of pseudonyms. That was the metaphorical way of deliberation of individual identity, but also a signifier of cultural processes that took place between self, creativity and historical context. Onomastic studies had a long tradition and pre-modern intellectuals very early accepted idea that name reveals the essence of things and indicates the character of its wearer. The name was considered as a strong denotative force, which could affect private or public life of an individual. That was further confirmed in the manual of Adrien Baillet Auteurs Deguisez Sous Des Etrangers Noms published in 1690, for all those who wanted to create an alias. Zaharija Orfelin (1726-1785), as one of the early Serbian intellectuals and artists of the Enlightenment, also rejected his last name which remained unknown to date. Only one uncertain explanation was provided and that by Metropolitan Stefan Stratimirovic which stated that Zaharija?s last name was ?Stefanovic?, and that he himself invented the pseudonym ?Orfelin?. In the lack of other sources that thesis was accepted, but never did explain the motives behind the act. That aspect of his artistic personality remained unsolved, so this paper analyze the individual circumstances of his life in the context of onomastic and intellectual history of the early modern period. The invention of pseudonyms was recognized as a general characteristic of the era, so the comparisons and analogies of some biographical details are made between him and few other intellectuals and artists. Signatures that Orfelin put on his pieces are interpreted in the context of his public representation. From today?s perspective, it seems that Orfelins? historical figure stayed hidden behind the personality which was introduced by his chosen name. In that context, the name change referred to deeper internal changes in matters of his identity and public role.

The Reform of the Chinese Intellectual Property Trial System

2016 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 68-90
Author(s):  
Haien Shen ◽  
Xiaohong Wen
Keyword(s):  
Intellectual Property ◽  
Intellectual Property Protection ◽  
Judicial System ◽  
Property System ◽  
Chinese Intellectual ◽  
History Of ◽  
Recent Reform ◽  
The Law ◽  
Protecting Intellectual Property ◽  
Reform And Opening Up

The 100-year history of China’s intellectual property system witnessed a shift from an “I have to use the law” to “the law serves me” approach, as well as the development of policies which shifted from transplanting the law to innovating the law. Since 1978, along with the Reform and Opening up, China has established an intellectual property legal system, which has experienced three stages—establishment, development and perfection. However, there are still many problems in the Chinese intellectual property protection regime. The most essential one is the implementation of the law. This makes the judicial system the focus of the reform debate. The recent reform of the judicial system for the intellectual property cases is a result of a series of systematic attempts over the years to structure a new judicial system for intellectual property cases. The most important outcome of these efforts is the ‘three-in-one’ trial model. At the end of 2014, intellectual property courts were established in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. These reforms unify the standards for the judgment, and conform to the international and professional trends in protecting intellectual property. However, due to multiple reasons, the judicial and administrative departments still have a long way to go in their joint efforts for the coordination and improvement of intellectual property protection.

scholarly journals Transformation of representations on the normative content of morality in moral philosophy of the Early Modern Age

2020 ◽  
pp. 91-107
Author(s):  
Andrey Vyacheslavovich Prokofyev
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Moral Philosophy ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Individual Rights ◽  
Appropriate Behavior ◽  
Religious Wars ◽  
Modern Age ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Normative Content

The object of this research is the philosophical representations on the normative content of morality in their historical dynamics. Unlike its formal and functional characteristics that include objectivity, universality, priority with regards to other regulators of human behavior, the content of morality implies the general requirements and criteria for approval that form the image of a morally perfect individual and set the parameters of morally appropriate behavior. Although on the level of utmost generalizations, Western European idea of morality retains the normative content typical to the Judeo-Christian tradition; its instantiation constantly varies. The goal of this work consists in tracing the changes of such instantiation occurred in Western moral philosophy of the XVI – XVIII centuries (Early Modern Age). The indicated historical process is the subject of analysis. Research methodology suggests determination of the long-term trends in the history of normative ethics and their correlation with the socio-historical context. The analysis of sources on the topic demonstrates that understanding of ethical requirements and criteria for approval in understanding of moral philosophers of the Early Modern Age have experienced the following fundamental changes: 1)  displacement to periphery of the morality of responsibilities of moral figure before himself, 2) transition towards understanding of the good of other person through the prism of his wellbeing and opportunities for unhindered personal fulfillment, 3) emergence of correlation between responsibilities to other person and regards of his individual rights. In relation to the latter change, the three factors had crucial significance:  advancement of the idea of religious tolerance beyond the religious wars, countering the paternalistic custody by absolutist regimes, as well as the development of universal empathy based on the new forms of description of inner experience of a human. Although some conclusions acquired in evolution of the ideas of recent decades contradict to the explanation of the process of implementation of the individual rights into the moral legal discourse, which relies on the aforementioned three factors, it remains most promising according to the author.

A bird’s eye view of the English subjunctive

2020 ◽  
pp. 202-240
Author(s):  
Lilo Moessner
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Middle English ◽  
Old English ◽  
Relative Clause ◽  
18Th Century ◽  
Main Clause ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Adverbial Clause ◽  
Historical Periods

This chapter analyses subjunctive use in the construction types main clause, relative clause, noun clause, and adverbial clause in three synchronic cuts through the periods Old English (OE), Middle English (ME), and Early Modern English (EModE). They are followed by a condensed history of the English subjunctive from the earliest documents to the beginning of the 18th century. The first three sections trace the frequency development of the subjunctive and its competitors in the relevant period and establish the linguistic and extralinguistic parameters which influence their distribution. The last section additionally gives an overview of the role that the simplification of the verbal syntagm, the individual construction types, the different text categories, and the expression of modality played in subjunctive use across the historical periods.

The Emotional Economy of Early Modern Pilgrimage Shrines: The Case of Mariazell

2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-27
Author(s):  
Charles Zika
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Close Association ◽  
Emotional Responses ◽  
Religious Rituals ◽  
Political Patronage ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Individual ◽  
A Site ◽  
And Control

This article aligns with recent attempts to challenge the notion that pilgrimage shrines were unified centres of sacred power. It aims to demonstrate that pilgrimages offered varied and changing benefits through their various cultic objects, and that these benefits were transformed as meanings attributed to objects changed over time in response to changing historical pressures and needs. It explores the different emotional benefits cultic objects generated – whether consolation, gratitude, joy, fidelity, self-abasement or resilience – within a broader economy of emotional exchange, promotion and control. The history of three significant objects in the Mariazell basilica – the Statue of Mercy, the Marian Column and the Treasury Image – demonstrates how physical and cultural framing, associated religious rituals, and broader political patronage and association, promoted different emotional responses around these objects. Under pressure of the Hapsburgs’ close association with the shrine from the seventeenth century, changes in the promotion of objects like the Marian Column and the Treasury Image, as well as more structured and choreographed pilgrimage practices, reflected the transformation of Mariazell into a site for the expression of collective and proto-national emotions, in addition to the individual emotional benefits that continued to be critical for the shrine’s ongoing popularity and survival.

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