19th 20th Centuries Research Articles

«National historiographies» on the history of Russia in the 16th–18th centuries, published in the Hungarian journal «RussianStudiesHu»

In 2021 and 2022, review articles on the latest international historiography on the history of Russia in the 16th-18th centuries were published in the Hungarian online scientific journal on historical Russian studies RussianStudiesHu. The journal issues also introduce readers to new research by Russian historians, but in this article I will primarily focus on the current state of Russian studies about the 16th-18th centuries in Central, Eastern and Western Europe and the United States. In review articles on the history of Russia from 1462-1689, historians from Hungary, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and the United States, as well as French-speaking scholars, call this period of Russian history the "late medieval", "pre-modern" or "early modern" era. Some researchers argue that until the mid-17th century, Muscovy had little in common with European states. And based on review articles of international historiography, it can be established that the central figures of the historiography of the 18th century in almost every country are Peter I and Catherine II, and there is still no consensus regarding the periodization of Russian history in the 18th century.

Study of Toned Photographs of the Late 19th and Early 20th Century Using Multispectral Imaging and SEM/EDS Analysis

Abstract Toned photographs became popular in the second half of the 19th and early 20th century, either as stand-alone photographic images or as part of representative cards such as cabinet cards or cartes de visite. Still, further research is desirable to deepen our understanding about materials and techniques that had been used to create toned photographs. This study focusses on toning processes and is based on the analysis of 16 historical photographs from that period. To understand the toning process, information was collected from historical literature, while multispectral techniques and SEM/EDS analysis were applied to the sixteen photographs. Multispectral techniques, both macroscopic and microscopic, provide valuable information on surface and texture, damage phenomena and the photograph’s stratigraphy. SEM/EDS analysis yields information on the elements found in the studied photographs and their stratigraphy. This combination of the evaluation of historical written sources and scientific analysis provided an insight into the materials and techniques used in the toning of photographs.

Coffee in the Russian literature of the 18th and early 19th centuries

In the article, coffee is analyzed as one of the aspects of the cultural code of the Russian society in the 18th century. The historical context of the adaptation of coffee in Russia is also reconstructed. The purpose of the research is to reveal the semantic features of coffee in the texts of Russian authors of the 18th – early 19th centuries. Through semantic and comparative analysis of the coffee theme in the texts of A. Kantemir, G. Derzhavin, Catherine II, I. Krylov, V. Kuchelbecker and others, the range of meanings of the beverage and the context of using the word coffee is determined: from a negative attribute of the aristocracy to a positive ‘inspiration elixir’. The connections between coffee and the social status of the character are also investigated.

A geographic and social profile of Italy's great migration (1876–1913)

AbstractThis article sheds light on Italian emigration flows with a focus on their geographical origins in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, that is, during the so‐called Great Migration. Annual province‐level data on Italian emigration are analysed in order to reconstruct the regional origins of emigrants, the factors motivating their decisions, their gender, and their literacy levels. The regions generating the largest population outflows were located in the North of the country. Despite the literature's focus on the Italian south diaspora to the US, the main destinations of Italian emigration in this period were other European countries. Explanations focusing on economic factors as emigration drivers prove weak. The provinces generating the greatest outflows do not appear to share any characteristics nor obey any underlying pattern: some tentative explanations concerning provinces of origin will be offered. Data relating to the emigration of women and children point to the central role of nuclear families, displaying a higher rate of growth compared to overall emigration, with peaks during the migration booms to Latin America (1890s) and the United States (1905–1907). No obvious connection emerges between emigrant outflow size and literacy levels: people migrated from the literate North as well as from the more impoverished regions featuring much lower literacy levels.

Revolutionizing medicine: Recent developments and future prospects in stem-cell therapy.

Stem-cell therapy is a revolutionary frontier in modern medicine, offering enormous capacity to transform the treatment landscape of numerous debilitating illnesses and injuries. This review examines the revolutionary frontier of treatments utilizing stem cells, highlighting the distinctive abilities of stem cells to undergo regeneration and specialized cell differentiation into a wide variety of phenotypes. This paper aims to guide researchers, physicians, and stakeholders through the intricate terrain of stem-cell therapy, examining the processes, applications, and challenges inherent in utilizing stem cells across diverse medical disciplines. The historical journey from foundational contributions in the late 19th and early 20th centuries to recent breakthroughs, including ESC isolation and iPSC discovery, has set the stage for monumental leaps in medical science. Stem cells' regenerative potential spans embryonic, adult, induced pluripotent, and perinatal stages, offering unprecedented therapeutic opportunities in cancer, neurodegenerative disorders, cardiovascular ailments, spinal cord injuries, diabetes, and tissue damage. However, difficulties, such as immunological rejection, tumorigenesis, and precise manipulation of stem-cell behavior, necessitate comprehensive exploration and innovative solutions. This manuscript summarizes recent biotechnological advancements, critical trial evaluations, and emerging technologies, providing a nuanced understanding of the triumphs, difficulties, and future trajectories in stem cell-based regenerative medicine. Future directions, including precision medicine integration, immune modulation strategies, advancements in gene-editing technologies, and bioengineering synergy, offer a roadmap in stem cell treatment. The focus on stem-cell therapy's potential highlights its significant influence on contemporary medicine and points to a future in which individualized regenerative therapies will alleviate various medical disorders.

Hysterical Women: The Fight for an Expanded British Franchise at the Turn of the 20th Century

This project argues that in the United Kingdom at the turn of the 20th century, social and medical claims of female hysteria worked as a way of confining women to the domestic sphere. To explore the social implications of feminine hysteria in this region, the medical legitimacy of these claims is analyzed through looking at the texts of various surgeon generals of the late 19th and early 20th centuries while placing them in conjunction with the rapidly changing world. This world was filled with suppressors who worked toward maintaining established social norms. The group analyzed in this project, women, were most prominently suppressed through the negative rhetorical use of medical terms such as female hysteria in pursuit of maintaining the status quo of the early 1800s. This umbrella term was historically used to describe any and all afflictions of women but morphed into ammunition for medical professionals and the general public alike to contain unruly women. This project contextualizes women’s health issues encapsulated by this umbrella term (hysteria) and others with the prevailing thoughts on women’s suffrage of the time to argue the above claim.

“THE SERMON ON THE DEC EASED” BY HRYHORII TSAMBLAK: RECENSIONS, POETICS, AND STYLE

The copy of “The Sermon on the Deceased” by Hryhorii Tsamblak, preserved in the library of the Kyiv Cave Monastery, was written in the 16th or early 17th century at the Belarusian Suprasl Monastery. This sermon is a part of the so-called “Hryhorii Tsamblak’s Book,” which may have been compiled by the author himself during his tenure as Kyivan metropolitan. The examined copy of the “The Sermon on the Deceased” and the copy of the same work kept in the scientific library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences in Vilnius are of Belarusian origin and differ significantly from the copies created in the Moscow principality. Therefore, it can be assumed that the Kyiv and Vilnius codices originate from a common protograph that was modified either by the author himself or by a scribe in the territory of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. In “The Sermon on the Deceased,” Hryhorii Tsamblak shares his thoughts on the Christian custom of commemorating the dead. The preacher optimistically proclaims an eschatological perspective for Christians. The didactic purpose of Tsamblak’s sermon is to illuminate the futility of earthly concerns and efforts. The ontological perspective for the righteous pertains to the hope of the resurrection of the dead and eternal life. Based on numerous examples of human activity, such as the hard lives of warriors, farmers, sailors, and ore miners, the preacher attempts to illustrate the concept of “the vanity of vanities” and “the hurricane of human life that passes quickly.” Tsamlak argues that the Christian’s axiology should oppose the cult of enrichment, power, and vanity. Metaphorically and symbolically, he portrays the work of a farmer hoping for a good harvest, which represents the imperishable — eternal life in Christ. “The Sermon on the Deceased” was influenced by the sermons of John Chrysostom and, probably, by one of the works of Macarius the Great. The style of Tsamblak’s sermon can be defined as emotionally expressive.

The Economic Life of Sevastopol During the Late 18th and Early 19th Centuries

The Economic Life of Sevastopol During the Late 18th and Early 19th Centuries

Who are the people of Cyprus? The national identity building process in Cyprus from the late 19th to the early 20th century

Abstract This article offers a nuanced examination of the complex identity dynamics among the Christian and Muslim communities in Cyprus during the late 19th and early 20th century, particularly in the aftermath of British administration replacing Ottoman rule in 1878. The article draws attention to the profound impact of this historical transition on the identity formation processes of both communities. Despite the shared wartime experience of the First World War, the Christian and Muslim communities in Cyprus failed to construct a cohesive identity rooted in their common geographical space. Drawing on Zygmunt Bauman’s concept of ambivalence, the article explores the complex process by which Cypriot communities sought to align their identity with larger nations, namely Greece and Turkey, rather than grounding it in their local context. The article contends that the genesis of their ambivalence can be traced back to 1878 when British administration replaced Ottoman rule on the island.

New group of glazed Anatolian Pottery from the Ottoman fortress of Azak

The article introduces a new group of glazed pottery of Anatolian production from the archaeological studies of different years (1962, 2004, 2020) on the territory of the former Ottoman fortress of Azak in the North-Eastern Azov Region. Among the finds, there are 20 fragments of open shaped vessels (bowls, plates) and one fragment of the lid which originate from redeposited cultural layer of the site dated back to the late Middle Ages – Modern period. Close analogies can be found on the Crimean peninsula in the materials from the excavations in Sudak, Aluston, Cembalo, Mangup, Partenit, Biyuk-Lambat (Maly Mayak), and Chufut-Kale where they are generally dated by the last quarter of 15th–17th century AD, as well as in South-Western Georgia (Gonio fortress in Adjara) and on the Taman Peninsula (the Taman fortified settlement) in the cultural layer of the 16th–17th centuries AD. Production centre for this group of Ottoman pottery has not yet been established. The group got its conventional name ‘thick-walled bichrome bowls’ due to the dominant archaeological remains of thick-walled bowls with the characteristic decor style in the Crimea.

Sources of Silver in North-Eastern Rus in the 10th–13th centuries ad according to lead isotope analysis

The article discusses the results of lead isotope analysis of 54 silver objects from the 9th–13th centuries AD from rural sites of Suzdal Opolye and villages around Murom. As a result of comparing the obtained data with the available databases for Pb-Pb isotopic values of archaeological objects from various collections and ore samples, it was established that in the second half of the 10th – early 11th century AD, Samanid dirhams were used in Opolye as a raw material for jewellery making. In the 11th century, silver from European sources began to flow into the region via the Baltic, becoming dominant by the end of the century. In Opolye and Murom of the 12th century, adornments were made from European raw materials.

Forest, Bandits, and State: Some Measures Taken against the Use of Forests as Illegal Activity Areas in the Ottoman Empire (16th-18th centuries)

Forest, Bandits, and State: Some Measures Taken against the Use of Forests as Illegal Activity Areas in the Ottoman Empire (16th-18th centuries)

Lay Religious Associations in Extractive Zones: A Case Study of Diamantina, Brazil

This article considers religion in extractive zones by focusing on a religious practice in an extractive zone, namely, an Afro-Brazilian Irmandade (Catholic lay religious association) devoted to Our Lady of Mercy in Diamantina, Minas Gerais, Brazil. It adopts approaches from history and cultural studies to examine art, architecture, archives, and material culture, and brings these methodologies into conversation with Mary Louis Pratt’s notion of contact zones, Charles Long’s connection between these zones and new religious practices, Eduardo Gudynas’ definition of extraction, and Macarena Gómez-Barris’ decolonial methodologies for approaching the study of extractive zones. This study is contextualized in the history of mining in Brazil, the connection between mining and enslavement of Africans in the Americas, and the enduring legacy of lay religious associations in Brazil. The article then examines the association’s church, focusing on its late 18th and early 19th century façade and the statues at its main altar, and its 19th and 20th century maintenance records. It suggests that the Irmandades are engaged in a unique religious practice that arises within an extractive region because of specific historical, political, and social reasons, and that they give their members a place within the existing structures even as they challenge them.

The dawn and twilight of Old Irish scholarship

ABSTRACT Even though the publication of Johann Kaspar Zeuss’s monumental Grammatica Celtica (Zeuss 1853) marks the beginning of the modern, scientific study of the Old Irish language, short excerpts of the most important textual witnesses of Old Irish, the so-called Old Irish glosses, preserved in 8th–9th-century manuscripts on the European Continent, had appeared in print since the early 18th century. This article gives an overview of these early publications from the 18th and early 19th century by Johann Georg von Eckhart, Domenico Vallarsi, Lodovico Antonio Muratori, and Vittorio Amedeo Peyron, and assesses their role as early trailblazers in the study of Old Irish.

THE ARS MORIENDI, MANUALS FOR A GOOD DEATH IN WESTERN EUROPE FROM THE 15TH TO THE 16TH CENTURIES

The subject of death has been studied since ancient times, although the last moment of a human being's life has not always been interpreted from the same perspective. This article studies the spirituality of the 15th-16th centuries in western Europe and describes the change in attitude towards death. Since the Council of Constance, death, far from being considered a reason to instill fear, comes to be understood as a necessary transit. After the particular judgment that confronts the forces of good and evil, the eternal salvation or the condemnation of the soul is debated in the room of the dying. Based on the influence that Jean Gerson's work had on the Council of Constance, editions and translations were printed in various languages in Europe, some of which were typographic and others included figures with the intention of serving as a guide to the contemplation of the faithful, among which the literary translation of Bernardí Vallmanya’s Cordial de l’ànima stands out.

THE ARS MORIENDI, MANUALS FOR A GOOD DEATH IN WESTERN EUROPE FROM THE 15TH TO THE 16TH CENTURIES

The subject of death has been studied since ancient times, although the last moment of a human being's life has not always been interpreted from the same perspective. This article studies the spirituality of the 15th-16th centuries in western Europe and describes the change in attitude towards death. Since the Council of Constance, death, far from being considered a reason to instill fear, comes to be understood as a necessary transit. After the particular judgment that confronts the forces of good and evil, the eternal salvation or the condemnation of the soul is debated in the room of the dying. Based on the influence that Jean Gerson's work had on the Council of Constance, editions and translations were printed in various languages in Europe, some of which were typographic and others included figures with the intention of serving as a guide to the contemplation of the faithful, among which the literary translation of Bernardí Vallmanya’s Cordial de l’ànima stands out.

The Shift Toward Imperialist Mentality and America’s China Policy:A Study Centered on The Open Door Policy

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, American foreign policy underwent a major shift toward expansionism and imperialism. This transformation was not only a natural result of the increase in American power, but also largely influenced by the mentality of national identity, American exceptionalism, cultural superiority, etc. The American images of China, influenced by this shift, had also undergone significant changes. China in the 19th century was seen as a byword for barbarism, but in the early 20th century, Americans began to talk about China’s awakening. A variety of changes in mentality and expansionist policies had turned the national imagination of Americans to imperialism, which was the driving force behind the change in China’s image. The change in China’s image had in turn affected U.S. policy toward China. However, on the other hand, the tradition of Orientalism had led American to regard China as a passive and static entity. China as a nation and Chinese laborers led the United States to view China as a “double other” rather than a free subject of thought or action. This ideology promoted the formation of the consensus of Open Door Policy and Chinese Exclusion.

Stone Staircase Design in Historical Buildings in Tomsk Late in 19th and Early 20th Centuries

The paper studies the stone staircase design in Russia and Tomsk on the example of the main building of the former Tomsk Imperial University built in 1878-1888, and the building 12 on Gogol Street built in 1908.The relevance of the article is conditioned by the necessity to consider historical staircases when carrying out repair and restoration works on the objects of cultural heritage and historical buildings for the maximum preservation of their authenticity.Purpose: To study the design of stone staircases late in the 19th and early 20th centuries in Russia and Tomsk. The study is based on the analysis of books and manuals on the construction art in 19–20th centuries, allowing to study the types and design of staircases characteristic to that period.Methodology/approach: The article collects and generalizes the material on typical structural solutions of stone staircases in the historical buildings of Tomsk. An integrated approach including the literature review contributes to the goal achievement.Practical implications: The obtained results can be used in repair and restoration of residential and public stone objects of historical buildings in Tomsk.Value: The identification of stone staircase design in the 19–20th centuries in residential and public buildings of the city of Tomsk.

Small Architectural Forms in Tomsk Wooden Buildings in 19–20th Centuries

The paper considers small architectural forms in the wooden manor buildings of Tomsk late in the 19th and early 20th centuries and their impact on the historical image of the city. The paper also studies preservation of historical cities and loss of historical and architectural wooden heritage.Purpose: To identify the types of small architectural forms in the wooden houses of Tomsk and determine their role in the city image.Methodology: Historical photographs, drawings, and field survey of wooden buildings, archival documents and photographs by local historians P. N. Kokhanenko and R. Perushin, allowing to determine lost small architectural forms and systematize them.Research findings: Determination of small architectural forms in preserving individual history and culture of the historical city.Practical implications: The obtained results can be used to study wooden buildings of Siberian cities and develop projects for their reconstruction in Tomsk.

Were the tables of Ibn Isḥāq al-Tūnisī known in Paris c.1300?

Two Latin sources from the years around 1300 (John of Sicily’s commentary on the canons to the Toledan tables and a parchment slip documenting the astronomical activities and observations of Alard of Diest) contain brief references suggesting that Parisian scholars of this period had access to a set of astronomical tables for Tunis known as tabulae Benesac. According to the argument developed in this article, the tables in question probably corresponded to a Maghribī zīj originally created by Ibn Isḥāq al-Tūnisī in c.1222. The article goes on to discuss the possible channels of transmission that could have brought these tables to Paris as well as the potential implications of this finding for the history of Latin astronomy in the late 13th and early 14th century. Attention is also drawn to the presence of eclipse-related material from the Muqtabas zīj by Ibn al-Kammād in a Northern French manuscript of the second half of the 13th century, which was independently translated from the Arabic and accordingly does not derive from the well-known translation by John of Dumpno (Palermo, 1260).