Nobilitas in the 16th — 17th Centuries Antiquarian Discourse and Emergence of the Social

Abstract

More or less persistent tendency towards a coherent description and classification of nobility and more broadly — of social groups within the Early modern British society is inseparably connected with the Sixteenth — Seventeenth Centuries antiquarian tradition. Within the same tradition occurs so called epistemological turn which leads to a discursive fragmentation of social order as well as social groups which form its entirety and complexity. The antiquarian framing of all complexities of social order was based not only on abandoning of an idea of institutional entity — crucial for the medieval corporal theory but also on introducing a particular group-wide characteristic features. Such features offered the challenge for remodeling of ancient regime with consideration to diversity which is innate for social indicia.