Early Modern Political Research Articles

:The Origins of the Bible and Early Modern Political Thought: Revelation and the Boundaries of Scripture

:<i>The Origins of the Bible and Early Modern Political Thought: Revelation and the Boundaries of Scripture</i>

Travis DeCook, The Origins of the Bible and Early Modern Political Thought: Revelation and the Boundaries of Scripture

Travis DeCook, <i>The Origins of the Bible and Early Modern Political Thought: Revelation and the Boundaries of Scripture</i>

:The Origins of the Bible and Early Modern Political Thought: Revelation and the Boundaries of Scripture

:<i>The Origins of the Bible and Early Modern Political Thought: Revelation and the Boundaries of Scripture</i>

Trajectory of Machiavelli’s Concept of State in Early Modern Politics

This paper suggests that the trajectory that Machiavelli’s concept of the state took by later political thinkers active in reshaping the character of the political order they were working with fundamentally the shape and direction of the political development of Early Modern Europe. Looking at how later thinkers used Machiavelli’s concept and reframed it for their given political traditions and contexts often lead to how the concept evolved over time. This paper argues that there was a clear arch of how Machiavelli’s concept of the state was reformulated and repackaged by such key legal and political thinkers such as Gentile, Bodin, Grotius and finally Hobbes, whose reformation of Machiavelli’s state is it fundamentally alters it so it radically transformed from what Machiavelli coined.&#x0D;

Progress, challenges and opportunities in early modern gender history, c.1550–1720

AbstractFollowing some of the themes of the original ‘An agenda for women's history in Ireland, 1500–1900’ and others that were not as prominent, this article considers progress since 1992 and highlights opportunities for the further development of Irish early modern women's and gender history. It considers aspects of the life cycle of women and men, especially birth, youth and marriage; the economic roles of women, especially when it came to work and property; and the importance of movement to and from Ireland in both personal biographies and wider contexts. It also reflects on some of the ways in which understandings of early modern politics and of religion and belief for the period c.1550–1720 have been transformed by consideration of the role of women. While the ‘Agenda’ noted the potential of buildings and spaces, there has been a new emphasis on ‘things’ as remnants of lives and labour, expressions of cultural norms and tools in the construction of gender, selfhood and social status. Very early on, the ‘Agenda’ strongly stated that ‘the history of women is also the history of men’, and this article also notes the green shoots of the history of masculinity in early modern Ireland.

Singing Nuns and Soft Power: British Diplomats as Music Tourists in Seicento Venice

Historians of early modern statecraft and confessional politics have traditionally treated the arts as peripheral to the more official bureaucratic concerns of government agents. Meanwhile, musicological scholarship rarely centers the experiences and exploits of politicians who participated in early modern musical events. This case study on British envoys to Venice in the early Stuart period illustrates how musical activity and political work were, in fact, thoroughly imbricated within the daily mechanics of cross-confessional ambassadorship. Drawing on seventeenth-century diplomatic sources, I detail how both English and Northern Italian politicians made strategic use of sacred music-making—particularly vocal performance in local nunneries—to influence their dealings with foreign states, as well as how English diplomats in the Italian peninsula surveilled Catholic musical devotions in their covert correspondences to communicate information about international affairs. In revealing these moments of interconnection between music, religion, and geopolitics, I seek to further recent efforts in the New Diplomatic History to highlight the contributions of women and artistic practice within histories of international relations.

Rituals of (dis)possession: appropriation and performativity in the early modern law of nations

Abstract This article makes a contribution to the history and theory of international law by looking at instruments, institutions, and practices of the Spanish Conquest. Instead of analysing the canonical texts of the ‘Spanish fathers’ of the law of nations, as has been done several times in the literature, it focuses on the legal forms of territorial acquisition and analyses the performative character of the ceremonies of possession that served to legalise the Conquest in the early modern political and theological order of 16th century Europe.

Notices

Notices Morris D. Forkosch Prize The Journal of the History of Ideas is pleased to announce the winner of the Morris D. Forkosch Prize ($2,500) for the best first book in intellectual history published in 2020: Hannah Marcus, for Forbidden Knowledge: Medicine, Science, and Censorship in Early Modern Italy, published by University of Chicago Press. Eligible submissions are limited to the first book published by a single author, and to books published in English. The subject matter of submissions must pertain to one or more of the disciplines associated with intellectual history and the history of ideas broadly conceived: viz., history (including the histories of the various arts and sciences); philosophy (including the philosophy of science, aesthetics, and other fields); political thought; the social sciences (including anthropology, economics, political science, and sociology); and literature (including literary criticism, history, and theory). No translations or collections of essays will be considered. The judges will favor publications displaying sound scholarship, original conceptualization, and significant chronological and interdisciplinary scope. For further information, please visit our website at http://jhi.pennpress.org. Selma V. Forkosch Prize The Journal of the History of Ideas is pleased to announce the winner of the Selma V. Forkosch Prize ($750) for the best article published in the Journal of the History of Ideas each year. The most recent winner is Sharon Achinstein for “Hugo Grotius and Marriage’s Global Past: Conjugal Thinking in Early Modern Political Thought,” volume 81, number 2, pages 195–215. [End Page 175] Institute for Advanced Study School of Historical Studies Opportunities for Scholars The Institute is an independent private institution founded in 1930 to create a community of scholars focused on intellectual inquiry, free from teaching and other university obligations. Scholars from around the world come to the Institute to pursue their own research. Candidates of any nationality may apply for a single term or a full academic year. Scholars may apply for a stipend, but those with sabbatical funding, other grants, retirement funding or other means are also invited to apply for a non-stipendiary membership. Some short-term visitorships (for less than a full term, and without stipend) are also available on an ad-hoc basis. Open to all fields of historical research, the School of Historical Studies’ principal interests are the history of western, near eastern, and Asian civilizations, with particular emphasis upon Greek and Roman civilization, the history of Europe (medieval, early modern, and modern), the Islamic world, East Asian studies, art history, the history of science and philosophy, modern international relations, and music studies. Residence in Princeton during term time is required. The only other obligation of Members is to pursue their own research. The Ph.D. (or equivalent) and substantial publications are required. Further information can be found in the announcement on the web at www.hs.ias.edu/mem_announcement, or on the School’s website, www.hs.ias.edu. Inquiries sent by post should be addressed to the School of Historical Studies, Institute for Advanced Study, Einstein Dr., Princeton, NJ 08540. Email: mzelazny@ias.edu. Annual deadline: November 1. Institute of Intellectual History University of St Andrews, Scotland The University of St Andrews, Scotland’s oldest, has recently inaugurated an Institute of Intellectual History (http://www.intellectualhistory.net/). Under the direction of Professor Richard Whatmore, it encompasses one of the largest concentrations of scholars in the field anywhere (http://www.intellectualhistory.net/members/). They represent all relevant disciplines: history, [End Page 176] philosophy, history of science, political science, international relations, legal studies, economics, anthropology, theology, art history, classics, literary studies, book history. The Institute offers undergraduate courses, a one-year MLitt, as well as doctoral training. It provides a wide range of academic events (http://www.intellectualhistory.net/events/). The journal History of European Ideas is edited within the Institute. Through a rapidly growing archive of papers of intellectual historians, it is a major resource for the history of the discipline itself. [End Page 177] Copyright © 2022 Journal of the History of Ideas

Antonio Serra, Early Modern Political Economist: From Good Government as Individual Behavior to Good Government as Practical Policy

Abstract Antonio Serra is one of the first authors to write that society and economy will benefit from a diversified economy, an physical infrastructure for better connectivity between people (for trade), investing in an educated citizenry, and good government. To him government is the prime institutional arrangement that has the ability to lift people up. In this article his ideas are discussed and shown how they foreshadowed the thoughts of colleagues in France, Germany, and Italy in the 17th and 18th centuries. His thoughts also envisions what is called a welfare state.

Overview of the research work of Prof. Fumiko Sugimoto

Professor Fumiko Sugimoto has been analysing the history of the 18th century and first half of the 19th century with a focus not only on the temporal axis but also on the relationships between specific spaces and the people who live and act as subjective agents in these spaces. During the past few years, she has been endeavouring to decipher the history in the period of transition from the early modern period to the modern period by introducing the perspective of oceans, with a focus on Japan. Through the study of history in terms of spatial theory that also takes oceans into consideration, she is proposing to present a new concept about the territorial formation of modern states. [Main subjects] Law and Governance in Early Modern Japan Judgement in Early Modern Society The Evolution of Control over Territory under the Tokugawa State A Human Being in the Nineteenth Century: WATANABE Kazan, a Conflicting Consciousness of Status as an Artist and as a Samurai Early Modern Maps in the Social-standing-based Order of Tokugawa Japan The World of Information in Bakumatsu Japan: Timely News and Bird's Eye Views Early Modern Political History in Terms of Spatial Theory The Emergence of Newly Defined Oceans and the Transformation of Political Culture.

Provoking Performance: Printed Dialogue and Early Modern Publics in Christopher St. German's Salem and Bizance

This essay argues that Christopher St. German made tactical use of the dialogue form to cultivate a public in his print controversy with Thomas More on the subject of reform. Publishing in the early 1530s, More accused St. German of disseminating disgruntled speech in print absent a real constituency of speakers voicing such complaints. St. German countered More's critique by incorporating a dialogue between the characters Salem and Bizance that conflated the reading of his printed works with the speaking and sharing of their political concerns. Although the role of performance in early modern politics has long been recognized in connection to the theater and theatricality, St. German's work demonstrates that early print also invoked the bodily interactivity and iterability characteristic of performance in order to script readers’ use of the relatively new medium. St. German's Salem and Bizance dialogue thus prompted print readers to understand themselves as, and indeed to become, partisan members of a public speaking in and about the debate.

The Historical Role of Leviticus 25 in Naturalizing Anti-Black Racism

Leviticus 25:39–46 describes a two-tier model of slavery that distinguishes Israelites from foreign slaves. It requires that Israelites be indentured only temporarily while foreigners can be enslaved as chattel (permanent property). This model resembles the distinction between White indentured slaves and Black chattel slaves in the American colonies. However, the biblical influence on these early modern practices has been obscured by the rarity of citations of Lev. 25:39–46 in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century sources about slavery. This article reviews the history of slavery from ancient Middle Eastern antiquity through the seventeenth century to show the unique degree to which early modern institutions resembled the biblical model. It then exposes widespread knowledge of Leviticus 25 in early modern political and economic debates. Demonstrating this awareness shows with high probability that colonial cultures presupposed the two-tier model of slavery in Leviticus 25:39–46 to naturalize and justify their different treatment of White indentured slaves and Black chattel slaves.

The Genesis of the Idea and Value of Political Peace in Early Modern Political Philosophy

The main intention of this paper is to reconstruct the conceptual and historical‎ genesis of the idea and value of political peace from the point of view of ‎political philosophy at the intersection between late scholasticism and early modernity. The paper consists of three related parts. The first part highlights‎ methodological and contextual reasons why the idea of political peace has ‎been overshadowed throughout history by dominant discourses on war. The ‎second part deals with conceptual clarifications. The nature of war is distinguished ‎from other types of conflict and three interpretative approaches to‎ war are analyzed: political realism, fundamentalist-moralistic view of the holy‎ war, and the many theories of natural law that give rise to conceptions of just‎ war, but also the first abolitionist perspective or idea of ending all wars. Early‎ theoretical articulations of the notion of peace indicated modern-day emancipation‎ of politics from the tutelage of metaphysics and classical ethics, thus‎ separating the value of political peace from its original oneness with cosmic ‎and psychological peace. The third part of the paper highlights key moments ‎in the historical genesis of the value of political peace in the works of Aurelius ‎Augustine, Marsilius of Padua, and William of Ockham.‎

Ancient Roman History as a Means for Legitimacy in the English Early Modern Political Thought

Balázs Rigó* Ancient Roman History as a Means for Legitimacy in the English Early Modern Political Thought DOI: 10.54148/ELTELJ.2021.1.17 Abstract The paper examines how the Roman history as one relevant part of the Classical knowledge and history was used by Sir Robert Filmer as argumentation for the legitimacy in the debate concerning the best form […]

Notices

Notices Morris D. Forkosch Prize The Journal of the History of Ideas is pleased to announce the winner of the Morris D. Forkosch Prize ($2,000) for the best first book in intellectual history published in 2019: Lydia Barnett, for After the Flood: Imagining the Global Environment in Early Modern Europe, published by Johns Hopkins University Press. Eligible submissions are limited to the first book published by a single author, and to books published in English. The subject matter of submissions must pertain to one or more of the disciplines associated with intellectual history and the history of ideas broadly conceived: viz., history (including the histories of the various arts and sciences); philosophy (including the philosophy of science, aesthetics, and other fields); political thought; the social sciences (including anthropology, economics, political science, and sociology); and literature (including literary criticism, history, and theory). No translations or collections of essays will be considered. The judges will favor publications displaying sound scholarship, original conceptualization, and significant chronological and interdisciplinary scope. For further information, please visit our website at http://jhi.pennpress.org. ________ Selma V. Forkosch Prize The Journal of the History of Ideas is pleased to announce the winner of the Selma V. Forkosch Prize ($750) for the best article published in the Journal of the History of Ideas each year. The most recent winner is Sharon Achinstein, for “Hugo Grotius and Marriage’s Global Past: Conjugal Thinking in Early Modern Political Thought,” volume 81, number 2, pages 195–215. [End Page 541] ________ Institute for Advanced Study School of Historical Studies Opportunities for Scholars The Institute is an independent private institution founded in 1930 to create a community of scholars focused on intellectual inquiry, free from teaching and other university obligations. Scholars from around the world come to the Institute to pursue their own research. Candidates of any nationality may apply for a single term or a full academic year. Scholars may apply for a stipend, but those with sabbatical funding, other grants, retirement funding or other means are also invited to apply for a non-stipendiary membership. Some short-term visitorships (for less than a full term, and without stipend) are also available on an ad-hoc basis. Open to all fields of historical research, the School of Historical Studies’ principal interests are the history of western, near eastern, and Asian civilizations, with particular emphasis upon Greek and Roman civilization, the history of Europe (medieval, early modern, and modern), the Islamic world, East Asian studies, art history, the history of science and philosophy, modern international relations, and music studies. Residence in Princeton during term time is required. The only other obligation of Members is to pursue their own research. The Ph.D. (or equivalent) and substantial publications are required. Further information can be found in the announcement on the web at www.hs.ias.edu/mem_announcement, or on the School’s website, www.hs.ias.edu. Inquiries sent by post should be addressed to the School of Historical Studies, Institute for Advanced Study, Einstein Dr., Princeton, NJ 08540. Email: mzelazny@ias.edu. Annual deadline: November 1. ________ Institute of Intellectual History University of St Andrews, Scotland The University of St Andrews, Scotland’s oldest, has recently inaugurated an Institute of Intellectual History (http://www.intellectualhistory.net/). Under the direction of Professor Richard Whatmore, it encompasses one of the largest concentrations of scholars in the field anywhere (http://www.intellectualhistory.net/members/). They represent all relevant disciplines: [End Page 542] history, philosophy, history of science, political science, international relations, legal studies, economics, anthropology, theology, art history, classics, literary studies, book history. The Institute offers undergraduate courses, a one-year MLitt, as well as doctoral training. It provides a wide range of academic events (http://www.intellectualhistory.net/events/). The journal History of European Ideas is edited within the Institute. Through a rapidly growing archive of papers of intellectual historians, it is a major resource for the history of the discipline itself. [End Page 543] Copyright © 2021 Journal of the History of Ideas

Ein Markt für ökonomisierbares Wissen?

A Market for Economical Knowledge? On the Difficulties in Recruiting Technical-Economic Specialists in the 17th Century In 1624, Landgrave Moritz of Hesse-Kassel sent his chamber director Wilhelm of Craesbeke to the Netherlands. His task was to meet a number of people who had offered to bring secrets (secreta or Mittel) to his lands shortly before. The economy of Hesse-Kassel stood to benefit substantively from both. It was Craesbeke’s task to find out more and, wherever it seemed worthwhile, to negotiate with the men. The article reconstructs the challenges of recruiting technical-economic specialists in the 17th century. In doing so, it outlines the market for economic knowledge, the precarious status of this knowledge and the roles played by the various market actors. It shows the close connection between knowledge and the economy in the history of the early modern period and emphasizes the importance of competition for technical and economic knowledge in early modern politics.

Politics, Religion and Ideas in Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century Britain: Essays in Honour of Mark Goldie. Edited by Justin Champion, John Coffey, Tim Harris, and John Marshall. Studies in Early Modern Cultural, Political and Social History. Woodbridge: Boydell, 2019. xvi + 341 pp. $115.00 hardcover.

Politics, Religion and Ideas in Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century Britain: Essays in Honour of Mark Goldie. Edited by Justin Champion, John Coffey, Tim Harris, and John Marshall. Studies in Early Modern Cultural, Political and Social History. Woodbridge: Boydell, 2019. xvi + 341 pp. $115.00 hardcover.

How Anne Askew Read the Bible

ABSTRACT The two parts of Anne Askew's Examinations (1546–47) offer a first-hand retrospective narrative of the interrogation, condemnation, and execution of a woman who ran afoul of English clerical and secular authorities because she violated prohibitions on public Bible reading when she read the scriptures at Lincoln Cathedral. This was not a capital offense in itself, but her devotion to Luther's doctrine of sola scriptura (“by scripture alone”) led to her execution for denying orthodox belief in transubstantiation and the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Mass. Her experience provides an outstanding example of how reading and interpretation of the English Bible as it was translated by William Tyndale (1494–1536), individuals associated with him, and their successors led a literate laywoman to being burnt alive for heresy. This investigation clarifies our understanding of reading practices, the materiality of early modern books, book editing, contemporary politics and religion, and other subjects related to her Bible reading.

Popular Culture and Political Agency in Early Modern England and Ireland: Essays in Honour of John Walter. Edited by Michael J. Braddick and Phil Withington. Studies in Early Modern Cultural, Political, and Social History, volume 26. Edited by Tim Harris, Stephen Taylor, and Andy Wood.Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2017. Pp. xiv+310. $99.00.

<i>Popular Culture and Political Agency in Early Modern England and Ireland: Essays in Honour of John Walter</i>. Edited by Michael J. Braddick and Phil Withington. Studies in Early Modern Cultural, Political, and Social History, volume 26. Edited by Tim Harris, Stephen Taylor, and Andy Wood.Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2017. Pp. xiv+310. $99.00.

Steve Poole and Nicholas Rogers. Bristol from Below: Law, Authority and Protest in a Georgian City. Studies in Early Modern Cultural, Political and Social History. Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2017. Pp 387. $120.00 (cloth).

Steve Poole and Nicholas Rogers. Bristol from Below: Law, Authority and Protest in a Georgian City. Studies in Early Modern Cultural, Political and Social History. Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2017. Pp 387. $120.00 (cloth).