Early Modern Alchemical Theory

2018 ◽  
pp. 64-87
Author(s):  
William R. Newman
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Central Europe ◽  
Fourteenth Century ◽  
Early Modern Period ◽  
Close Connection ◽  
Life And Death ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Modern Period ◽  
Modern Author

This chapter argues that Newton's belief that metals are not only produced within the earth but also undergo a process of decay, leading to a cycle of subterranean generation and corruption, finds its origin in the close connection between alchemy and mining that developed in central Europe during the early modern period. Alchemy itself acquired a distinct, hylozoic cast that the aurific art had largely lacked in the European Middle Ages. Despite a common scholarly view that holds alchemy to have been uniformly vitalistic, the early modern emphasis on the cyclical life and death of metals was not a monolithic feature of the discipline across the whole of its history, but rather a gift of the miners and metallurgists who worked in shafts and galleries that exhibited to them the marvels of the underground world. The chapter concludes by describing sources used by Newton, such as his favorite chymical writer, Eirenaeus Philalethes, and the pseudonymous early modern author masked beneath the visage of the fourteenth-century scrivener Nicolas Flamel.

Medieval Chant for the Mass Ordinary

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hana Vlhová-Wörner
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Central Europe ◽  
Early Modern Period ◽  
Late Period ◽  
Religious Orders ◽  
Late Middle Ages ◽  
Modern Period

The Ordinary of the Mass (Lat.: ordinarium missae) is part of the Roman mass and comprises six chants whose texts remain the same through the year, namely Kyrie eleison, Gloria in excelsis Deo, Credo, Sanctus, Agnus Dei, and Ite, missa est. An initial repertory of these chants were established by the end of the first millenium, but compositions of new monophonic chants or full cycles along with polyphonic elaborations of older chant repertories continued up to the Early Modern period. While the texts of these chants did not change (although there are some exceptions), interpolations in the form of tropes (newly composed texts with music inserted before and between the phrases of established chants) or prosulas (newly composed texts underlaid to preexistent melodies) were cultivated from the 9th century on. The full scope of the repertory is still unknown; present catalogues count around two thousand melodies, but some of them were used for more than one chant in the group (most typically Sanctus and Agnus Dei or Kyrie eleison and Ite, missa est) or, in particular in the late Middle Ages, adapted from other genres. There was never a unified repertory of chants of the mass ordinary for the whole Western church, but individual regions (Spain, Central Europe, etc.), religious orders (Cistercians), or dioceses developed their own traditions. Melodies of the mass ordinary chants often had their own character, employing, among other elements, repetitions of short melodic formulas or, typically in the late period, moving in the modus mixtus (authentic and plagal range of one mode) and introducing rhythmized sections (cantus fractus).

Spiritual Ways, Spiritual Faculties

2016 ◽  
Vol 23 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 128-147
Author(s):  
Csilla Gábor
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Early Modern Period ◽  
The Other ◽  
Close Connection ◽  
Textual Representations ◽  
Modern Age ◽  
Modern Period ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
The One

This article investigates meditations (both Catholic and Protestant) that are considered relevant textual representations of the devotional culture in the Early Modern Age. Studying the reception and use of patristic and mediaeval texts of devotional character in the early modern period, the article states that a close connection may be observed between early modern devotional culture on the one hand, and the patristic and mediaeval tradition on the other. Through analysis of the sources, the researcher can observe that the breach between the mediaeval church and the churches of the Reformation is much less abrupt and definitive than is often assumed. Particularly, the devotio moderna forms an important bridge between the Middle Ages and the later Baroque age.

Social structure and land markets in late medieval central and east-central Europe

2008 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-100 ◽  
Author(s):  
MARKUS CERMAN
Keyword(s):  
Property Rights ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Central Europe ◽  
Early Modern Period ◽  
Land Markets ◽  
General Development ◽  
East Central Europe ◽  
East Central ◽  
Modern Period

ABSTRACTRecent research on the development of peasant land markets and transfer patterns for central and east-central Europe concentrated on the early modern period. For the late Middle Ages, rural history still relies on older approaches studying the general development of ‘agrarian structure’ (Agrarverfassung) and peasant ‘inheritance’. This article seeks to establish the basis for a more systematic analysis of the formation and general development of peasant land markets in late medieval central and east-central Europe in a comparative perspective. Apart from changes weakening traditional manorial structures, secure peasant property rights of hereditary tenure developed and prevailed by the later Middle Ages. Possible institutional rigidities of transactions with peasant farmland, whose effects in practice would need further exploration, were undermined by the existence of reserves of land situated outside the measured open fields of peasant farms that could be traded more flexibly. These areas also formed important resources for the establishment of smallholders and cottagers who in turn added to the dynamics of developing peasant land markets. In the final section, the article offers a brief survey of developments during the early modern period and concludes that traditional images of an undermining of peasant property rights and of massive landlord powers due to the rise of ‘demesne lordship’ (Gutsherrschaft) must be seriously questioned, as recent empirical studies highlight enormous regional variation and a dominant pattern of continuity of secure peasant property rights and also indicate considerable land mobility.

From Craft to Institution: Accounting in Italy from the Middle ages to the Early Modern Period

2012 ◽  
pp. 135-152 ◽  
Author(s):  
O. Volkova
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Social Economic ◽  
Early Modern Period ◽  
Social Institution ◽  
Business Environment ◽  
Technical Standards ◽  
Medieval Italy ◽  
Modern Period ◽  
Professional Field

The article describes the evolution of accounting from the simple registration technique to economic and social institution in medieval Italy. We used methods of institutional analysis and historical research. It is shown that the institutionalization of accounting had been completed by the XIV century, when it became a system of codified technical standards, scholar discipline and a professional field. We examine the interrelations of this process with business environment, political, social, economic and cultural factors of Italy by the XII—XVI centuries. Stages of institutionalization are outlined.

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