The phenomenon of “female erudition” in the works by German-language authors in the second half of the 18th century

The article focuses on analysis of some German philosophers and publicists’ views on the phenomenon of female erudition in the second half of the 18th century. In the present article, genetic closeness of the mentioned authors’ ideas to educational program by Jean-Jacques Rousseau is stressed. The author makes attempts to put the phenomenon of female erudition in the wide context that included such issues as functioning of equal cross-gender communication in the frameworks of «mixed societies», crucial tends of female education development, key features of reading culture in the German-speaking space in the period under review, as well as enlightened discourse on the rights and duties of women in the second half of the 18th century.

“The morning star of Wittenberg”: Katharina von Bora’s image in the historical memory of Germany in 19th century

The article explores various ways Katharina von Bora Martin Luther’s wife was perceived by the German intellectuals in the 19th century. The author intends not only to reveal the reasons of turning to this person in a certain historical period but also to define the key differences in her image’s interpretation compared to the previous centuries. To achieve this goal the author explores the biographical works, which were dedicated to the wife of the founder of the Reformation tradition and their married life. Such similar genre of works gives the most complete representation of the dynamical transformation of Katharina’s image, which was conditioned by social processes in Germany during the whole of the 19th century: starting with the private life development during the Biedermeier period and ending with high industrialization and the rise of the national feelings. Another important role plays the growth of the German women’s movement. Therefore, it is possible to see the construction of a “new” Katharina von Bora in every period, and with it a new ideal of women’s identity, a moral example for the lady of the house self-identification.

Pepys reading: passion for books in an English man’s diary of the 17th century

The article touches upon the Early Modern practices of reading, which are subject of much debate in contemporary scholarship. The traditional image of man’s reading before the 18th century implied serious approach to books and the use of information found there for self-education, self-edification, and acquisition of social prestige. The analysis of the diary by Samuel Papys (1660-1669), a Navy Office clerk, demonstrates that this ideal model did not have considerable effect on representations of the experience of reading in texts that constructed a “story of self”. Not only the practices of reading varied greatly, but the category chosen by Pepys to define this experience was the category of pleasure directly linked to the “self-image” under construction.

Attitude to divorce by an Act of Parliament in eighteenth-century England

The eighteenth-century England was different from other Protestant countries in its lack of popular access to divorce; most spouses settled for separation from bed and board, semi-legal procedures or simply desertion. Divorces by Acts of Parliament that opened the possibility for a remarriage were not in high demand. The article analyses the attitude of the English to divorce and uncovers the reasons for the unwillingness to use the procedure including spread of information about one’s private life, perceived danger to reputation and morality as well as the cost and duration of the proceedings.

Englishwomen at Madrid and Brussels in the 17th century: women’s patronage and English Catholic exiles overseas

The article presents an attempt to reconstruct a communication network of Jane Dormer, Duchess of Feria). A lady at the court of Mary I of England and a wife of a Spanish grand, she was a powerful patroness of English Catholic exiles and helped them enter the Habsburg patronage network. The analysis of political activities of the Duchess of Feria (which included exchange of political information and patronage) compared with that of other women patronesses, first of all, Anne Percy, Countess of Northumberland made it possible to define parameters of women’s patronage. It has been shown that connections to the court of Mary I of England that was partially integrated into the system of Habsburg courts made it easier for the former Marian courtiers to find patrons within transnational clientele of the Habsburgs

The “Life of Lady Falkland”: a biography or a conversion story?

The article presents an introduction to a first Russian translation of the “Life of Lady Falkland” written in the mid-17th century by the nuns of the English Benedictine Abbey at Cambrai (the Cary sisters), which told the life of their mother, Elizabeth Cary, Viscountess of Falkland – a translator, poet and polemicist, and also a Catholic convert. It has been argued that the “Life” combines the traits of biography and conversion story, and that the conversions described there – of Lady Falkland and her children fell into the category of the so-called “intellectual conversions” brought about by reading books and debating the fine points of religious doctrines. “Intellectual conversions’ were seen to be reserved to men. However, the Cary sisters used this model to establish their position within the Cambrai religious community, which consisted of many nuns with wide intellectual interests. The authors of the “Life” also demonstrated that intellectual efforts of their mother led to conversions of others to Catholicism, thus making her a Catholic missionary in all but a name.

Moskovitki, Moskovki, Moskalikhi: Gender history of Russian Emigration in the 16th – 17th centuries

Exile or free movement of Early-Modern Russian women abroad (first of all to Polish Crown and Grand Duchy of Lithuania) comes under scrutiny in the article, which is based on the manifold evidence from the 16th to the 18th centuries. Push-factors were decisions to leave the country with their husbands, children or other relatives, captivity, abduction and desertion in the frontier regions of the Russian state. The pull-factors were quite weak, and can be rarely proven by the evidence of sources evidence. Usually, the wives of the gentry (syny boiarskie) successfully integrated into the new society either with their husbands and sons or alone in the case of their death. These women of Muscovite origin often had a good grasp of the legal traditions of their home lands. They found familiar traits in the judicial practices of Poland and Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Emigrees from the low classes emerged in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the normative “grey zone”, from which they could either rise to freedom, or remain in slavery owned by local gentry, magnates or town-dwellers. Special attention is paid to the sexual and family violence which could force the Muscovite women flee abroad, made them and their representatives bring lawsuits in the Commonwealth. Objectivation of women in Russia fed ethnical visions, but it did not stimulate stereotypes and phantasms typical for the Time of Enlightenment.

Jewish salonnières in Berlin as viewed by Christian authors of the late 18th – early 19th centuries

The author analyses works and comments by German au-thors of the late 18th — early 19th cc., which reflected their views on the role of Jewish salonnières in social and cultural life of Ber-lin. The article shows the role of Jewish financial and intellectual elite in the life of the capital of Prussia, and analyses the causes of the popularity of Jewish salons among German intellectuals and state officials. The author also looks into integrative strategies of the female members of the Berlin’s Jewish elite, which helped them charm the German public.

BATHILDIS: THE QUEEN’S TWO STORIES

The article presents an introduction to a publication of a Russian translation of the Vita St. Balthildis, a Life of one of a few canon-ized royal spouses, a Frankish Queen Bathildis. The publication is based on the second, enlarged version of the Vita, compiled in the 9th century by an anonymous Carolingian hagiographer.