“É boa leitura, mas para momentos de lazer”: a leitura dos romances de Walter Scott pelo imperador Pedro II / “It’s good to read, but in moments of leisure”: the reading of Walter Scott’s novels by Emperor Pedro II

Resumo: O objetivo deste artigo é analisar as anotações e opiniões sobre os romances de Walter Scott presentes em cartas escritas pelo imperador Pedro II. Para isso, serão utilizadas como fonte as missivas enviadas pelo imperador à princesa Isabel e ao conde de Gobineau, entre os anos de 1860 e 1880, e que hoje fazem parte do Arquivo Grão-Pará do Museu Imperial de Petrópolis. A análise das práticas de leitura retratadas nessas cartas teve como base três aspectos principais: de que maneira a obra de Walter Scott era vista no século XIX, qual eram os pensamentos de Pedro II sobre esses livros e como o imperador e a princesa Isabel realizaram a leitura do romance Ivanhoé. Ao final do trabalho, conclui-se que a leitura de livros de Walter Scott era bastante valorizada pela crítica do período e por outros membros da aristocracia. Pedro II também admirava as qualidades literárias dos romances de Scott, que, segundo ele, eram uma ótima ocupação para os momentos de descanso e lazer. Além disso, em suas cartas, ele indica a leitura de diferentes obras do escritor, como Ivanhoé e Waverley, com base em critérios que também eram utilizados pela crítica especializada do período, como a qualidade das descrições, a verossimilhança, a construção das personagens e a capacidade dos romances de entreter e instruir os leitores.Palavras-chave: Walter Scott; família imperial brasileira; Ivanhoé, carta; leitura.Abstract: The purpose of this article is to analyze the notes and opinions about Walter Scott’s novels written in letters by Emperor Peter II. The corpus of the study are the missives sent by the emperor to Princess Isabel and to the Count of Gobineau between the years 1860 and 1880 and which are part of the Grão-Pará Archive of the Imperial Museum of Petrópolis. The analysis of the reading practices represented in these letters is based on three main aspects: how Walter Scott’s work was seen in the 19th century, what were Pedro II’s thoughts about these books and how the Emperor and Princess Isabel read the novel Ivanhoe. It is concluded that the reading of Walter Scott’s books was highly valued by critics of the period and by other members of the aristocracy. Pedro II also admired the literary qualities of Scott’s novels, which, according to him, were a great occupation for moments of leisure. In his letters, he indicates the reading of different works of the writer, such as Ivanhoe and Waverley, based on criteria that were also used by specialized critics of the period, such as the quality of the descriptions, the construction of the characters and the capacity of the novels to entertain and instruct the readers.Keywords: Walter Scott; Brazilian imperial family; Ivanhoe; letter; reading.

At court service

The article carries information about D. 0. Otts work as a Court physician. Ittouches upon the events connected with the birth о f children in the Imperial Family. The article is written on the basis of the archive documents and the memoirs.

The cult of the tsar and its promotion by Orthodox religious institutions

With the annexation of Bessarabia to the Russian Empire, not only economic, political and cultural changes took place, but also spiritual ones. The strengthening of the role of the Orthodox Church for the idea of the Russian press will take place with the launch by Nicholas I of the well–known triad: “Orthodoxy, autocracy, people” – the three pillars on which Russian statehood will be based. It is interesting that “orthodoxy” in this triad occupies the primordial place and this in a multinational and multi–denominational state, and “autocracy” is on second place giving way to the Church. This position of the Russian Orthodox Church existed before and has been preserved since, with slogans such as “For Faith, the Tsar and Fatherland” or “Russian God, Russian Tsar and Russian People”. Obviously, for this position, the Orthodox Church had to make a significant effort to spread the cult of the tsar, which also refers to Bessarabia as a component part of this colossus. And this is done through all existing measures and possibilities. This also refers to the publicity of books invoking the entire imperial family, to the publication of instructions and special regulations related to the manner and rules of performing divine services in honor of the emperor and the imperial family, as well as various actions aimed at promoting the imperial image.

Factors Causing the Development of the Endowment in Safavid Dynasty

The tradition of the endowment is one of the activities having existed in all human societies from past to now. In Iran, this tradition was seen as a belief from ancient civilization. It is developed and flourished in Safavid dynasty so that, in Isfahan (Iran), the endowed estate is found everywhere. The endowment is so important that public, rich people and imperial family participated in this tradition and endowed their properties. This study has aimed to answer this question: what reasons and factors developed the endowment and what is the role of endowment in Safavid time? To do so, library and descriptive-analytic methods were used in this study.

Beglückte Verbundtnüß des Adels mit der Tugend

The anonymous Beglückte Verbundtnüß des Adels mit der Tugend (The happy union of nobility with virtue) is a Sittenspiel (moral or morality play) with music. The score, preserved in the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, was probably presented to members of the imperial family when they attended performances of the entertainment at the Augustinian convent of St. Laurenz in Vienna in August 1688. Beglückte Verbundtnüß was performed by the convent-school girls; its attractive music is suited to the skills of the young performers and the limited resources of the convent. The work illuminates the musical life and educational practices of one of Vienna's most prominent educational institutions for girls in the early modern era and links this city with the widespread use of music and drama in female education in the late seventeenth century.

Constructing global missionary families: Absence, memory, and belonging before World War I

The separation of parents and children was a quite common imperial family constellation before World War I. Many children left the respective colonial or mission territories at the beginning of their seventh year. They were sent to their parents’ regions of origin in Europe to spend their childhood and youth in the households of relatives or in missionary boarding schools specially set up for them. This article examines German-speaking missionary families in the imperial context of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and focuses on letter communications between parents and children as an expression of family construction at a distance. I will mainly focus on two families (Kaundinya, Nommensen) in order to examine from a micro-historical perspective, the construction of missionary families in a transimperial framework. Rooted in the pietistic milieu of German-speaking missionaries from the Basel Mission and the Rhenish Mission, these families enable us to compare the results of imperial and missionary family historiography, which has developed over the last 20 years within the British context, with empirical material from other national and imperial contexts.

Imperial Women within the Imperial Family

Starting with Faustina the Younger, whose fecundity and imperial ties suggest her as a model imperial woman, this chapter explores the imperial domus—house, household, family—and women’s roles within it from Augustus through the Severans. That domus was a cornerstone of Augustus’ new principate, becoming ever more important during the principate. Flavian dynastic emphasis is noted, as is the growing attention to family in the motherless imperial families of Nerva, Trajan, and Hadrian. A high point comes with Faustina the Elder and Faustina the Younger, but familial emphasis continues under the Severans. The chapter also discusses nontraditional imperial families, including “concubines” and the same-sex relationship of Hadrian with Antinous, and various terms for the imperial house such as domus divina. The chapter reveals both that “the imperial family” was a cornerstone of the principate, but that it was hard for imperial women to gain individual visibility within that construct.

Crimes and Punishments of Imperial Women

Discussion of Domitia Longina, who survived allegations of adultery, Domitian’s divorce and (re)marriage, and his assassination, opens this chapter on imperial women and Roman law. Moving from Ulpian’s statement about legal rights and privileges of emperors and the Augusta, it covers norms and regulations for imperial women’s sexuality, particularly marriage and divorce, as well as crimes and punishments of imperial women, including the adultery cases and sentences of Julia the Elder in 2 BCE and Julia the Younger in 8 CE that Tacitus obliquely ties to treason. Reviewing finally imperial women’s fates at the deaths of their husband or other relative as emperor, the chapter concludes that inclusion in the imperial family brought women greater liability, but no immunity or impunity.

Imperial Women Abroad, and with the Military

Beginning with the extraordinary military associations of Julia Domna, Julia Maesa, Julia Soaemias, and Julia Mamaea, this chapter explores the interrelated themes of imperial women’s reported links with Rome’s military, and the issue of their movements abroad. Despite the constant pronounced bias against any woman mixing with Rome’s armed forces or provincial administration, women are sporadically but ever more attested in military settings such as camps and barracks, and even in armed conflict. This applies to non-imperial as well as imperial women, as is clear from archaeology and documentation. By the time of Domna and other Severans, women accompanied the imperial entourage unchallenged, even if decried by authors. The growing ritual of the imperial court, the increasing importance of the imperial family as a whole, and the mounting necessity for the emperor to inspect provinces and armies personally encouraged imperial women to travel more as the principate evolved.