Early Modern Europe Research Articles

Lamsechi, Guita, and Beatrice Trînca, eds. Spiritual Vegetation: Vegetal Nature in Religious Contexts Across Medieval and Early Modern Europe

Lamsechi, Guita, and Beatrice Trînca, eds. Spiritual Vegetation: Vegetal Nature in Religious Contexts Across Medieval and Early Modern Europe

Valdemoros, Ana, and David Amelang, project dirs. Crossdressed Characters in Early Modern European Theatre

Valdemoros, Ana, and David Amelang, project dirs. Crossdressed Characters in Early Modern European Theatre

The Twilight of the Law of the Fairs: Inventing International Cooperation on Bankruptcies in Early Modern Europe (Lyon, 1660–1710)

Abstract Bankruptcy was a key institution in the development of markets in Europe. However, the territoriality of jurisdictions and legal systems made international insolvencies difficult to manage. In the middle of the seventeenth century, cities such as Lyon developed networks of cooperation by granting foreign merchants equal rights to local creditors on a reciprocal basis. However, courts were reluctant to give foreign authorities control over assets and creditors on their territory. The article examines how the Lyon commercial court changed its policy towards international insolvencies during the second half of the seventeenth century. Whereas equal treatment of foreign creditors was conditioned on the recognition of an extraterritorial jurisdiction in the medieval fairs system, it now depended on the reciprocity of the legal status granted to merchants abroad. This system of cooperation between equally sovereign courts prefigured in many ways the current situation of private international law in bankruptcy matters.

Magic, Science, and Religion in Early Modern Europe, by Mark A. Waddell

Magic, Science, and Religion in Early Modern Europe, by Mark A. Waddell

Between Active Matter and Letters: Kabbalah, Natural Knowledge, and Jewish How-To Books in Early Modern East-Central Europe

Abstract This essay focuses on Jewish practical kabbalistic books of recipes that were produced in early modern East-Central Europe. These handwritten sources document the Jewish engagement with practical forms of expertise, which were informed by the theoretical foundations of kabbalistic knowledge. Through two case studies, the article highlights Jewish vernacular ideas about nature and matter, and the techniques used to transform these ideas into practical things during the early modern period. It also explores the phenomenon of recording these ideas and methods in the form of practical kabbalistic books of recipes, which serve as a prime example of practical episteme. In so doing, the article sheds light on the significance of kabbalistic theosophy and practical kabbalistic traditions, particularly those developed in East-Central Europe, in the broader history of Western European knowledge production.

Courtiers in Translation: Rubens’ Portrait of Baldassare Castiglione after Raphael

Around 1519, Raphael painted a portrait of his friend Baldassare Castiglione, author of the influential Book of the Courtier (1528). This portrait was later reproduced by Rubens, who may have seen the painting by Raphael, or a copy of it, during his Italian sojourn. Tracing the tensions between Rubens’ “copy,” Raphael’s portrait, and Castiglione’s book, this essay explores how Rubens’ painting problematizes the notion of visual translation in early modern Europe. I argue that his version is not merely a portrait of one person, but a conflation of four presences: the ideal courtly figure; the writer-courtier Castiglione; and the two court artists Raphael and Rubens. Ultimately, the painting represents a paradigm of collaboration and rivalry that underpins the process of translation, one involving multiple hands, works, and techniques, and thus defying the label “copy.”

Book Review: The Whole Economy: Work and Gender in Early Modern Europe by Macleod, Catriona, Alexandra Shepard, and Maria Ågren, eds.

Book Review: <i>The Whole Economy: Work and Gender in Early Modern Europe</i> by Macleod, Catriona, Alexandra Shepard, and Maria Ågren, eds.

A prince for the Renaissance: Antonio Beccadelli (1394–1471) and the representation of Alfonso the Magnanimous (1396–1458) in early modern Europe

ABSTRACT European powers – mainly Spanish and Italian – took the figure of Alfonso the Magnanimous, King of Aragon (1416–1458), into great consideration as the example of the new modern prince. His image was highly valued in sixteenth and seventeenth-century historical texts like those of Jerónimo de Zurita (1512–1580), Giovanni Antonio Summonte (d.u.–1602) and Luigi Bonincontro (d.u.). Their concept of this sovereign and their admiration for his character are largely due to the success of his representative programme. Given his link to the Neapolitan throne and his contact with Quattrocento Italy, the Magnanimous used an image discourse designed to represent him before his contemporaries and before posterity as a principe nuovo: Caesarean, virtuous and humanist. Among the component pieces of this programme, the works that his aulic humanists Lorenzo Valla (1407–1457), Bartolomeo Facio (1400–1457) and Antonio Beccadelli (1394–1471) dedicated to him stand out, with the latter's work being the one that raised up the sovereign as the exemplum of the new princeps. This paper focuses on how Beccadelli’s work generated the concept of the Magnanimous in modern Spain and modern Italy, especially through the Alphonsi Regis dicta aut facta memoratu digna, which, since the second half of the fifteenth century and before Niccolò Machiavelli (1469–1527) – mainly his The Prince and its inspiration Cesare Borgia (1475–1507) Alfonso the Magnanimous became a true exemplum principum for the modern era.

:The Maker of Pedigrees: Jakob Wilhelm Imhoff and the Meanings of Genealogy in Early Modern Europe

:<i>The Maker of Pedigrees: Jakob Wilhelm Imhoff and the Meanings of Genealogy in Early Modern Europe</i>

Jan Glete, War and the State in Early Modern Europe: Spain, the Dutch Republic and Sweden as Fiscal-Military States Londres, Routledge, 2002, 277 p.

Jan Glete, War and the State in Early Modern Europe: Spain, the Dutch Republic and Sweden as Fiscal-Military States Londres, Routledge, 2002, 277 p.

:Reading Mathematics in Early Modern Europe: Studies in the Production, Collection, and Use of Mathematical Books

:<i>Reading Mathematics in Early Modern Europe: Studies in the Production, Collection, and Use of Mathematical Books</i>

The Enlightenment prophet: Muhammad in early modern Europe

This article examines the place of Islam in the intellectual history of the European Enlightenment. In 1649, the English civil war resulted in the establishment of the Commonwealth under Oliver Cromwell and the execution of King Charles I; in the same year, the first English translation of the Quran was published in London. For some royalists, the two events were linked: they both signalled the moral demise of the kingdom, and indeed some polemicists depicted Cromwell as a ‘new Mahomet’ seeking to gain power by attacking the moral and religious foundations of the nation. Authors writing in English, such as Henry Stubbe, John Toland and George Sale, embraced the comparison, presenting the Muslim prophet as a reformer who preached pure monotheism and who abolished the powers of a corrupt clergy. They used the prophet and Islam to argue for the curtailing of the power of the Anglican Church; 18th-century French authors similarly lionised him as a polemical tool against the Catholic church. Muhammad, seen as an imposter or a reformer, was at the centre of European debates on the proper relations between Church, Crown and people. The article arises from a British Academy Lecture delivered on 18 May 2023.

The Midwife-Witch on Trial: Historical Fact or Myth?

New developments in social history have generated scholarly work re-evaluating the history of the witch trials of early modern Europe. This paper explores the claim that the European witch trials of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries persecuted midwives. Multiple historical theories of the persecuted midwife-witch are discussed, including those that construct the midwife-witch as a skilled, respected member of a local female healing culture and alternately as a marginal figure in her community who was ignorant, disrespected, impoverished and therefore vulnerable. Medical histories of the midwife-witch have often relied on a construct of the marginal figure to champion the progress of medicine from earlier discredited and unscientific practices. Feminist analysis poses the witch trials as the suppression of women healers and the midwife-witch as symbolic of the threat of female control of reproduction to powerful patriarchal forces. Although these theories have been important to the revival of midwifery in North America specifically and to feminism more broadly, there is limited evidence to support these claims. The figure of the witch, like many myths, may tell us more about the interpreter of history than the witch herself.

Tacitus for the instruction of ambassadors: Vera’s Enbaxador (1620)

ABSTRACT Juan de Vera’s El Enbaxador (1620) was one of the main treatises on the role of the ambassador in Early Modern Europe and the first one published in Spanish. At the time, Spain was no exception to the influence of Tacitus as a significant ancient author to inspire the political practice of the age. Juan de Vera, a nobleman and writer, soon an ambassador and entitled count, incorporated his own reading of Tacitus into El Enbaxador. Justus Lipsius, the outstanding editor of Tacitus’ works, was also a main source for this book which was defined by John Elliott as a ‘quintessentially Lipsian handbook for diplomats’. The focus of this article is on Tacitus’ citations in El Enbaxador and their contexts within the book. My aim is to identify the specific themes for which Tacitus served as an exemplary source of guidance according to this particular text. Notably, some of such themes pertain to ambassadorial affairs, while others are common political topics in Early Modern Europe. Vera's reading of Tacitus in El Enbaxador gained wider dissemination beyond Spain as the work was subsequently translated into French and Italian.

Towards an understanding of patterns of movement of people in relation to the translation of devotional literature in early modern Europe. Seventeenth-century German and Dutch translators of English devotional literature

ABSTRACT This article expands on the generally accepted hypothesis in cultural history, that numerous migrants, exiles, or expatriates were among the most prolific translators in early modern Europe. It examines Dutch and German translators of English devotional literature in the seventeenth century in terms of the following framework: the extent to which these individuals were involved in migration, and the nature of the relationship between border crossings and translation. I will compare several highly mobile translators from the Hartlib circle, with the three most prolific Dutch and German translators of devotional literature during this period. My findings suggest that it was not migration but mobility that stimulated the collection and translation of devotional literature. Mobility, however, was not the only determinant.

Early modern Europe’s other real characters

ABSTRACT Histories of the early modern artificial language movement have focused not unreasonably on a series of ambitious, seventeenth-century language planners who set out to design ‘real characters’ or ‘universal languages’. However, there were also practitioners working in fields like music, mathematics, and chemistry who likewise aspired to develop new, more systematic nomenclatures or notations, often also in the hope that such tools would designate things instead of words. Because histories of the artificial language movement do not usually address such projects or do so only insofar as these projects pertain to arguments about the language planners, their nomenclatures and notations constitute early modern Europe’s ‘other’ real characters. This article surveys three cases in which individuals who are not typically considered representatives of the artificial language movement sought to design newer, more systematic means of communication. It compares and contrasts their approaches with those of well-known language planners, both in terms of how they designed their symbols and what they understood their symbols’ primary function to be. In so doing, this article also proposes to reframe the history of the early modern artificial language movement by situating the more famous language planners within a wider and more varied intellectual milieu.

Artists and their economic context. A comparison of payments to painters Caravaggio and Luca Giordano at the Pio Monte della Misericordia in seventeenth-century Naples

ABSTRACT Catholic confraternities in early modern Europe adopted detailed accounting practices which reveal their social context. This study applies an accounting [in] history approach to the creative industries. We argue that confraternities' accounting books can help better appreciate prices paid to famous masters by contrasting them with payments to lesser-known artists and skilled craftsmen. After analysing 1118 payments related to a construction project at the Pio Monte della Misericordia (1659–1679), a Catholic confraternity in Naples, we focus on the contemporary acquisition of an altarpiece by the painter Luca Giordano. The analysis shows that its purchase accounted for a minor share of the expenses for the construction project, and that the main contribution of the Pio Monte to the creative industries was the cumulative payments to skilled craftsmen. Nonetheless, the value of Giordano's painting was significantly higher than unitary payments to minor artists. We then make a comparison with the price paid by the Pio Monte in 1606–1607 to Caravaggio for a similar painting, showing that payments to Giordano and Caravaggio were in line with both artists' market rates and those of similar painters in Naples and Rome. The study thus discusses how accounting sources situate artists within the creative industries of the past.

How Northern European Pagans Became Christians

The article analyzes the course and methods of the spread of Christianity in medieval and early modern Europe, particularly the politically and ethnically fragmented areas of the northern half of the continent. Based on a study of contemporary literary sources, it presents a typology of the ways in which conversion to Christianity was achieved, or the reasons why the natives were willing to accept a change of religion. My analysis shows that missionary strategies based on theological argumentation and criticism of local polytheism usually had only a minimal effect on the Pagan natives. On the contrary, successful missionary methods on most of the European continent were based on offensive political pressure, variously combined with power and economic incentives, the attractiveness of the material culture of Christian countries, or also the religious interpretation of “signs” in favor of Christianization by the natives themselves. I suggest that any positive response to Christianity by northern European Pagans was based on associations between cult and practical prosperity that were characteristic of Pagan religious thought.

Historical State Formation Within and Beyond Europe

State formation is a critical concern for comparative politics. Much of the most influential literature has focused on the politically fragmented setting of early modern Europe, where warmaking fostered state consolidation and the development of institutions of representation and taxation. More recently, scholars have expanded this perspective by emphasizing the state-building implications of alternative forms of competition, interstate cooperation, and emulation, as well as the influence of a broader set of societal actors beyond belligerent rulers. The authors review recent scholarship on state formation that suggests that the canonical bellicist path is only one pathway to state consolidation, both in Europe and beyond. This article draws attention to the importance of geography and to new insights regarding the organization of state-society relations and the influence of regional and global economic engagements on state formation.

The Muse of Zenon: from Syracuse to the Museum of Guadalajara

AbstractThis article traces a statue, which Zenon of Aphrodisias carved, from Syracuse to its discovery at the Palace of Cogolludo in 2007. The study of this statue of the Muse Euterpe broadly demonstrates the appreciation for a figure from the classical world to Early Modern Europe and focuses attention on two understudied moments in the history of sculpture. It shows that Zenon carved the figure in the 4th c. CE, and its story reveals new connections between sculptors of Aphrodisias and specific patrons of the period. The statue's subsequent history attests to the high regard for ancient art and epigraphy in the Iberian Peninsula in 1500–1700. Since the statue probably belonged to Luis de la Cerda, ninth Duke of Medinaceli, it draws attention to a remarkable patron and a neglected aspect of Spanish cultural history.