Early Modern Urban Research Articles

The Flowing Chō : Cart Transportation and the Redefinition of Japan's Early Modern Urban Space

Abstract: This article proposes a reinterpretation of the meaning and function of the basic sociospatial unit of the early modern Japanese city, the chō . It argues that chō is best understood not as a fixed unit of space but as a conception that could expand, change, and even move. Takanawa-chō, a peripheral area south of Edo, was transformed into the gateway to the city by its association with the transportation industry. The dynamic movement of this particular "flowing chō " not only reflected but also drove the socioeconomic transformation of the city throughout the Tokugawa period and into the early Meiji era.

A Companion to Early Modern Istanbul

A Companion to Early Modern Istanbul

James S. Amelang. Writing Cities: Exploring Early Modern Urban Discourse.

If you are interested in learning about early modern cities, James Amelang’s Writing Cities: Exploring Early Modern Urban Discourse will guide you expertly through town. You will explore new pathways in quest of a wide range of sources that Amelang has collected over years of research. These rambles began in Budapest in 2016 as a series of Natalie Davis lectures at Central European University. Filled with copious endnotes and a 42-page bibliography, they are the midpoint for a future comprehensive book and a valuable gift to present-day scholars. Amelang’s itinerary explores the authors, themes, and formats of early modern urban writing. We look at the social backgrounds of diverse authors and their views of what made a city beautiful from the late middle ages to 1800. Amelang also highlights the dialogue as a vehicle that reveals the dynamic give and take of urban society. At the end of our tour, we recognize what was singular or shared in the views of contemporaries who wrote about their cities.

The Fate of Rural Migrants in Early Modern Urban Centres: Soldiers, Servants, and Sailors

Abstract The seventeenth century saw a mass migration from the countryside to urban centres in Europe. Did migrants of rural origin integrate into their new communities, or did they form a subgroup in the town? This article is based on marriage, baptismal and burial records from the German and Danish Churches in Elsinore (Helsingør) between 1637 and 1660, and on municipal sources, mainly probate inventories and tax records. In the Early Modern period, Elsinore was the second-largest town in Denmark and the seat of the Sound Toll. This article presents a comparative analysis of the fate of rural and urban migrants in the town. The study found that rural migrants, and especially the women among them, faced lives of high mobility, poverty and limited social support, whereas urban migrants established more robust social networks and entered into more advantageous marriages.

The City as Fac¸ade in Velha Goa: Recognising Enduring Forms of Urbanism in the Early Modern Konkan

What do we know of early modern colonial urbanisms in South Asia? Rich archival sources provide meta-narratives of the ‘rise and fall’ of colonial outposts and their spatial projects. This article revisits these histories through the results of an archaeological project conducted at Portuguese Goa. In settings such as Velha Goa, histories of the city are unavoidably structured by elite, top-down understandings of social processes, principally owing to the limits of the colonial archives themselves. Quotidian material transformations, essential to urban process, remain largely unconsidered. In Goa, the archaeological data suggest the dominant historical narratives that characterise this capital of empire as the ̒Rome of the East’ work to substantiate a vision of the city that erases other socialities. The archaeological data allow us to productively think of the colonial early modern urban landscape as both a physical and conceptual façade. Historical tropes of ruination mask rich and varied archaeological evidence of enduring forms of urbanism. The idea of the city as façade allows at once a characterisation of the concealed failures of colonial urban governance and its legacies in perpetuating certain ideals and understandings of urbanism, and it questions narratives of urban decline that still resonate today.

Imagining the Past? Architecture and Public Rituals in Early Modern Lisbon, Madrid and Valladolid

This article discusses the application of architectural drawing and 3D modelling as suitable digital heritage methods for the study of ephemeral and residential architecture in sixteenth-century Iberia. Public rituals transformed spaces of social encounter in early modern cities. Learning how these urban spaces were decorated for such rituals is often challenging, for our knowledge of ephemeral displays and the residential architecture that composed the streetscapes of cities can be slim. Visual sources of ephemera, surviving early modern buildings and depictions of streetscapes can be scant. However, urban theories on early modern urbanism, theatre and space have demonstrated that ephemeral and permanent residential architecture are crucial for our understanding of festival culture. This paper examines the digital re-creation of the ephemera of the Lisbon ceremonial entry of 1581 through the lens of notions of authenticity in conservation theory and practice. It also explores early modern reforms in residential architecture in Madrid and Valladolid as a vehicle to examine the relationship between ritual and urbanism. This latter case study shows how digital re-creations aided the identification of primary visual sources and problematizes the use of digital heritage visualization as a tool for the analysis of urban historic environments.

Friaries as the Cradle of the Profit Economy in the Early Modern Urban Society in Eastern and Central Europe? A Case of the Franciscans in the 17–18th Century Vilnius

[article in English; abstract and key words in English and Lithuanian]
 This paper analyzes the economic activities of the Conventual Franciscans in the early modern urban society of Vilnius from the second part of the 17th until the end of the 18th centuries. We ask the key question whether the Franciscans had embraced the “profit economy” in a similar way that Lester K. Little famously portrayed them do in the Latin Christendom at the end of the medieval ages. This paper will look at the economic model of the Franciscan order based on their income and expenses books, and it will delve into their key economic activities: financial services and property management.

Introduction: Early Modern Urban Periphery in Europe, the New Lödöse Project

The Nya Lodose Project focused on one particular urban site, a Swedish town founded in 1473 and finally abandoned in 1624. The use of the town virtually abandoned on several occasions related to large - scale wars. A large scale rescue archaeology project initiated in 2013 focused on this urban site, situated in today’s Gothenburg, Sweden. Combining a set of disciplines proved productive. Historical sources were revisited and scrutinized, and new archaeological evidence retrieved. Various specialists contributed with knowledge on digital field methodology, osteology, archaeobotany and ICP analysis, just to quote some examples. The Nya Lodose Project has produced a wealth of information of one particular location from the sixteenth century, a town of relatively short duration, and thus with a good time/space relation. This introduction briefly discusses the articles of this IJHA volume, entirely dedicated to the Nya Lodose project.

:Early Modern Urbanism and the Grid: Town Planning in the Low Countries in International Context: Exchanges in Theory and Practice, 1550–1800

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Of Grids, Ideals and Myths: A review of Early Modern Urbanism and the Grid: Town Planning in the Low Countries in International Context. Exchanges in Theory and Practice 1550–1800

As the title of this volume of eleven articles and an introduction suggests, Early Modern Urbanism and the Grid: Town Planning in the Low Countries in International Context is about the significance of the grid in early modern urbanism.

Female Agency and Early Modern Urbanism

Female Agency and Early Modern Urbanism: The Paris of Maria de’ Medici analyzes the urban history of early modern Paris and the impact of the interventions promoted by Queen Maria de’ Medici during her regency (1610–17) over the long-term development of the city. On the basis of new archival evidence, Sara Galletti reinterprets the queen’s Parisian projects—among them the Luxembourg Palace and the Arcueil Aqueduct—as the constituents of an ambitious urban plan that radically transformed the Left Bank, left a permanent imprint on the city, and ultimately determined the direction of its future developments. Maria de’ Medici’s projects are discussed within the broader context of the interventions realized on the banks of the Seine by the royal family, the city government, and a number of private investors during the first half of the seventeenth century; these established a new relationship between the city and its river and drew the urban fabric out of its medieval boundaries.

The Architectural Origins of the Great Early Modern Urban Synagogue*

Throughout the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period, synagogues across Christian Europe were generally small and, as far as their exteriors were concerned, they adhered to prevailing norms of vernacular architecture, so as to be ‘‘invisible’’ or at least unrecognizable as houses of worship. This was not just a defensive measure by Jews in order to avoid unwanted attention but was also a result of the restrictions placed upon theJewish populace by the government which required that they be inconspicuous. Synagogues are important artefacts of Jewish material culture. Their size renders them immovable and they represent a substantial investment in resources.This either requires a communal investment or a signi¢cant sum from a benevolent benefactor. Like any form of art, a statement is made through the production, visibility, and maintenance of synagogue architecture. Therefore a ‘‘great synagogue’’ constitutes a much larger, more pronounced statement. The cultural meaning of a great synagogue can be echoed, and thus reinforced, when aspects of its architectural design are duplicated elsewhere. With the coming of Renaissance philosophy, the Age of Reason, and Jewish urbanization in Christian Europe ^ primarily in the seventeenth-century Holy Roman Empire, Poland-Lithuania, and the Netherlands ^ synagogue architecture, art, and size began to change signi¢cantly. The increased size and architectural

Women and Worth: Female Access to Property in Early Modern Urban Jewish Communities

Women and Worth: Female Access to Property in Early Modern Urban Jewish Communities

‘European Cities: Containers or Groups of Inhabitants? A Review of some Recent Developments in Early Modern Urban Studies’1

AbstractThe study of European cities and their inhabitants in the early modern period (approximately from the 14th through the 18th centuries) has changed in emphasis in the last few decades. Instead of focusing on the role of urbanization in the development of modern capitalism, modernity or other major epochal shifts such as the Renaissance or Reformation, scholars from various disciplines look at cities as sites of exchange and conflict where identities are created and power is exercised in specific spatial contexts. These contexts are increasingly international and sometimes global.

Living on Past Glories and Future Dreams The Effects of Depopulation on Early Modern Urban Development in the Former Castle Town of Kanazawa

AbstractDepopulation of urban areas is a serious issue in twenty-first century Japan, as shown by the recent large-scale amalgamation of municipalities and programmes to combat declining central city areas. However, this is not the first time depopulation has had a significant effect on urban development: the decline in castle towns after the Meiji Restoration of 1868 had profound effects on both urban form and development concepts. Kanazawa, once one of the largest cities in Japan, suffered from an initial and long-lasting drop and then a more insidious decline as its Japan Sea coast location cut it off from the bulk of industrial and trade development. This article uses a two-fold approach to examine depopulation: first, an examination of the physical effects of depopulation based on statistical analysis of pre-war land registers shows the patterns of decline and regrowth throughout the modern period. Second, the impact of depopulation on the city's image of itself is examined through period documents such as council records and local newspapers. The need to regain status through population rank became an overarching goal of the urban leaders, and formed the basis of Kanazawa's reactions to the modern era and eventually towards imperialism.

Early Modern Urban Immigration in East Central Europe: A Macroanalysis

Most surveys of urban growthin the long sixteenth century stress the comparatively high level of early modern population mobility encouraged by the emergence of qualitatively new phenomena in the spheres of economics, culture, and religion. There is also a prevailing consensus among historians referring to “natural decrease theory.” Historical demographers have suggested that, because of the high mortality rates caused by epidemics, wars, natural catastrophes, and continual problems with hygiene, the natural increase of the urban population was either moderate or nonexistent. Therefore, it was primarily immigration that either produced the rise or compensated for population losses.

Early Modern Urban Britain

Early Modern Urban Britain

The English urban landscape

Introduction 1. The Roman Contribution 2. Decay and Revival: Early Medieval Landscapes 3. The Medieval Urban Landscape, AD 900-1540 4. Early Modern Urban Landscapes, 1540-1800 5. Modern London 6. Temples of Commerce: Revolutions in Shopping and Banking 7. The Industrial Town 8. Transport 9. Slum and Suburbs: The Persistence of Residential Apartheid 10. The Pleasures of Urbanity 11. The Public Face 12. English Towns in the Creative Imagination Cameo features: York Eighteenth-Century London Fire and the Early Modern Townscape Aracadian Retreats The Potteries A Railway Town - Swindon The Garden City The Council Estate Community Scarborough The Civic Buildings of Birmingham The Fictional Detective as Modern Urban Hero bibliography

A Model of Early Modern Urban Demography

A Model of Early Modern Urban Demography

Bureaucracy and Social Welfare in the Renaissance: A Florentine Case Study

Previous articleNext article No AccessBureaucracy and Social Welfare in the Renaissance: A Florentine Case StudyGene BruckerGene Brucker Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by The Journal of Modern History Volume 55, Number 1Mar., 1983 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/242416 Views: 17Total views on this site Citations: 3Citations are reported from Crossref Copyright 1983 The University of ChicagoPDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article: William Caferro Petrarch's War: Florentine Wages and the Black Death, Speculum 88, no.11 (Sep 2015): 144–165.https://doi.org/10.1017/S003871341300050XJoseph F. Patrouch ‘European Cities: Containers or Groups of Inhabitants? A Review of some Recent Developments in Early Modern Urban Studies’ 1, History Compass 7, no.55 (Sep 2009): 1350–1362.https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1478-0542.2009.00631.x Gene Brucker Florentine Voices from the "Catasto", 1427-1480, I Tatti Studies in the Italian Renaissance 5 (Oct 2015): 11–32.https://doi.org/10.2307/4603680