Arena and Pall Mall: Sport in the Early Modern Period

Abstract

This article argues that the early modern period in Europe from c. 1450 to 1850 should be not seen merely as an independent era in the history of sport but rather as the formative period of modern sports. This is due to the high levels of institutionalization and standardization sports underwent in Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and England among other countries. In arguing this point, the article examines a number of topical examples: the codification of sports in rule books; the role of sports in educational programmes and humanist schools; sports architecture such as ball houses and pall malls; sporting goods such as palloni and racchette and their pan-European trade; the sports enthusiasm of early modern princes; the professionalization of sports through coaches, referees, professional athletes, competitions and prizes, and the beginnings of sports reporting; and pre-Coubertinian attempts at reviving the classical Olympic Games such as the Cotswold Games of Robert Dover from the early seventeenth to the mid-nineteenth centuries.