Introduction

Abstract

Although ‘memory’ has in recent years become an important topic of study for early modernists, no comparative overview of its practice in early modern Europe and the British Isles as yet exists. It is the first aim of this book to offer such an overview. The introduction explores memory as a scholarly concept, explains why this book focuses on the ‘practice’ of memory, and what sources we have at our disposal to do so. It explains why theories and textbooks on memory have so far had so little to say about early modern practices, and proceed from the assumption that public memory is a modern phenomenon. By contrast, this book contends that a better knowledge of early modern memory practices can help account for many features of modern memory that are currently ascribed to the coming of modernity.