Le traitement de l’hermaphrodite dans la littérature juridique de l’Ancien Régime Droit, société et idéologie

Under the Ancien Régime in France, the individual was inserted into a legal system of binary classification shaped around masculinity and femininity already used in earlier periods. Roman jurists and after them the medieval canonists refuted the proven existence of both male and female sexes in one body and such an orientation continued in the West under the Ancien Régime. During these times, this physiological feature was assimilated to deviant and condemnable sexual behaviours. The study of several trials against hermaphrodites shows the social embarrassment caused by sexual ambivalent. This strange physiognomy was enough to suggest he was a criminal or a debauchee. Nowadays, French legal system is fortunately milder but remains organized around a unique and defined sex as stated in the birth certificate. Therefore it fails to recognize the concept of third gender. A mental revolution has to rise on this point.

La consommation de chocolat et ses topoï dans la fiction des Lumières

This article investigates chocolate in Ancien Régime society through a selection of treatises, dictionaries, and novels from the Enlightenment. These texts provide valuable information on its benefits, preparation, and consumption – revealing new dietary as well as social rituals, closely linked to the libertine imagination. In addition, the novels inform the evolution of descriptive practices. The analysis of short excerpts enables us to propose a few topoi, such as “to take one’s chocolate,” “to invite to take chocolate,” “to feel pleasure with chocolate” or “(to attempt) to administer poison or narcotic in chocolate.”

Medium der konkurrierenden Herrschaftsrepräsentation?

It is a truth universally acknowledged that opera seria was designed as a power-enhancing spectacle to impress not only local publics but also foreign courts, particularly the major European power players. Modern scholarship considers official envoys as the main agents of transmitting information about performances, titles, storylines and the meaning of operas. However, this common perception can be disproved by evaluating the reports of the Austrian embassy in Berlin between 1740 and 1780, the critical years of political rivalry between Austria and Prussia. Music and opera are rarely mentioned in the coverage of court and political news; a targeted interest in their aesthetic value or potential political interpretation did not exist. These findings challenge common perceptions of serious opera as a means of princely representation between the courts of the ancien regime.

Orígenes de la industrialización en Vizcaya. Aproximación al marco jurídico liberal, 1868-1900

En el periodo de 1868 a 1876, tras la aprobación de la Constitución, se produce en España un complejo proceso de construcción política y legislativa del Estado liberal que supone la desaparición definitiva del “Ancien Régime”, el advenimiento de la sociedad capitalista, y, sobre todo, la transformación de la sociedad española y vizcaína. Este nuevo contexto formal facilita el desarrollo y consolidación de la Revolución Industrial en Vizcaya (País Vasco, España) durante las últimas tres décadas del siglo XIX. El presente artículo interpreta este cambio en el modo de producción desde una perspectiva jurídica y pretende un primer análisis del surgimiento de la nueva burguesía vizcaína dentro del sistema de redes clientelares propuesto por la restauración monárquica.

The Shutting of the Gates

This chapter presents a wider challenge to the existing power structures in Ireland during the tumultuous 1790s. It recounts the collapse of the ancien régime in France and divided urban world, then examines how the French Revolution opened up cleavages and profoundly sharpened social and religious divisions. The chapter then introduces Mathew Carey, a Dublin baker's son, who presented his imprudent willingness to articulate in print the enormity of Catholic grievances. His violent criticism of Dublin Castle, of the English connection, and of local political heavyweights ended with his flight to America in disguise in 1784. The chapter also discusses how the local theatre provides some insight as to how far political attitudes shifted. The chapter then shifts to investigate how the two versions of democratic fraternity, the Belfast's first United Irish Society and Dublin United Irish Society, marked the beginnings of radical political organization. It follows the revival of the Catholic Committee in Dublin, and assesses the effects of the removal of the remaining penal laws, especially the firearms ban.