Sixteenth Century Research Articles

Recognizing Indigenous Persistence by Dating Extensive Low-Density Indigenous Occupations across the AD 1480–1630 Radiocarbon Plateau in Wellfleet, Massachusetts

Abstract Archaeologists have relied on the presence of European material on Indigenous New England sites as the main indicator that a site was occupied during the sixteenth or early seventeenth centuries—a span often characterized as the Contact period. The AD 1480–1630 span is particularly difficult to sequence because it lies on a radiocarbon calibration plateau. Here we report on a program of AMS dating from an Indigenous site on Great Island on Cape Cod in Massachusetts that highlights evidence of widespread activity during the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries—absent European material culture. Furthermore, the archaeological evidence indicates that a previously excavated colonial tavern in the same area on Great Island was the last in a long-term occupation in which “European contact” was not a defining event. Instead, the evidence points to a continuous Indigenous presence extending from the Middle Woodland period. Later colonial period activities, including those associated with European material, were mapped onto a long-standing Indigenous task-scape.

Venetian Goblets from the Town Hall in Bardejov, Slovakia

This lesser-known series of six goblets from Bardejov provides specific information about the distribution of Venetian glass to the countries north of the Alps and also about the efforts to imitate it in local glasshouses. Other covered goblets with chalice-shaped cups from the 1480s to early sixteenth century are known from present-day Hungary and Slovakia. SEM/EDS analyses of the glass and enamel compositions reveals the use of brass in the enamel, as has been seen for the same period in Hungary, and one goblet's origins can be traced to Venice.

‘Strange Enthusiastical Exhortations’: Distress, Religious Identity and the English Reformation

This article uses letters from BL, ms Lansdowne 99 to explore how a diverse group of individuals experiencing mental and emotional distress utilised religious ideas as a primary means of interpreting their experience and expressing themselves to those in authority in Elizabethan England. It shifts emphasis away from the causes and towards the construction and experience of distress. It argues that such letters shed important light on the character and progress of the English Reformation by the closing decades of the sixteenth century, as well as on the operation of the process of Reformation itself.

The Culture of the Lauda in Early Modern Milan

ABSTRACT Musicological studies of the Italian lauda—and more generally of communal singing—in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries have mostly focused on central and north-eastern Italy, leaving other regions relatively unexplored. In this article I explore a diverse array of documents and sources (from confraternity manuscripts to fragments of polyphonic music) to demonstrate how a distinctive culture of the lauda developed in the city of Milan. The lauda had multiple sites for and different modalities of performance, investigation of which provides new perspectives on the nexus between singing practices, collective rituals, private devotion, preaching, and education. Three environments seem particularly important as incubators for this Milanese culture of the lauda: the Franciscans, the flagellant movement, and the forerunners of the Schools of Christian doctrine. The abundance of evidence attests, however, that this culture was widely shared, and animated the city soundscape throughout the early modern era.

Overview of Early Modern Missionary Dictionaries of Konkani and Marathi

This article provides an overview of missionary dictionaries of Konkani and Marathi compiled in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. To give an idea of the linguistic landscape in which the dictionaries were compiled, the article begins by sketching the language situation in early modern western India, mainly from the viewpoint of early modern European lexicographers and grammarians in India. The second part of the article provides an overview of extant and nonextant dictionary manuscripts and their editions.

The Participation of the Orthodox Clergy in the Realisation of the “State Affairs” in Siberia in the 17th Century

The incorporation of Siberia into the administrative and economic structure of the Russian state between the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries was a complex and multifaceted process. The question of the participation of the institutions of the Russian Orthodox Church and, more particularly, the Tobolsk Bishop’s House, has been considered in historiography since the nineteenth century. The idea of the broad powers of the first Siberian archbishops they exercised to supervise and control the activities of local governors is solidly established. However, no attention has been paid to the practical implementation of these functions. The author aims to determine the degree of involvement of representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church in secular administrative and managerial activities in Siberia in the seventeenth century. The study draws upon the correspondence between central government bodies and bishops and district governors, tsarist and governor instructions to the stewards of settlements, petitions and customs books from Russian archives and published collections of documents. The article reflects the process behind the search of management solutions by Moscow authorities. The main reasons for the government’s aspirations to involve representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church in administrative and economic activities were the weakness of the centre-periphery connections, low executive discipline of local administrators, and the unresolved pressing problem of food supply in the region. Based on this, a range of extra-church duties was formed, which the secular authorities tried to involve the top leadership of the diocese and parish clergy in. Specific examples are given to illustrate the practices of implementing these intentions. It is concluded that the attempts to assign the first Siberian archbishop Cyprian with conducting a census of the West Siberian districts, regulating land use and taxation, as well as the powers of supervision of the bishops over local administrators recorded in the instructions, were more declarative in nature than real functions. Of significant importance for the central government was the fact that the archbishops were a channel of communication with the population of Siberia, independent of the governors, and an informant on the situation in the remote region. In reality, parish priests and church workers were involved in administrative activities. The parish clergy participated in the acceptance of grain into the state treasury, monitored the conscientious fulfillment of their duties by the tselovalniks (sworn men) and allottees. Archbishop Simeon tried to free the priests from this onerous duty, but the Moscow authorities did not completely abandon this practice. Being literate people, priests certified accounting documents and petitions. At the same time, due to their spiritual status, they acted as a kind of guarantor of the observance of state interests in the economic sphere and the reliability of the information provided. Clergymen performed the duties of scribes.

Origines Russicae by Gottlieb Bayer: The Ethnic History оf Rus’ Before the Calling of Rurik

The text being published here is a translation of an article by Gottlieb Siegfried Bayer (1694–1738), a professor at the St Petersburg Academy of Sciences. In 1741, after the author’s death, the original Latin article was published in the journal Commentarii Academiae Scientiarum Imperialis Pteropolitanae. The article reflects Bayer’s views on the origin of the Russian people, the interaction of Russians and Scandinavians, and the origin of the name “Rus'”. Bayer also studied some aspects of the history of the Slavic peoples, analysed various forms of ethnonyms of the peoples of Eastern Europe, and criticised legendary information about the origin of the Slavs. Besides that, Bayer was interested in the form of government among the Slavs, the titles of Slavic and Russian rulers, and social terminology. In his article, Bayer studies a wide range of Byzantine, Old Russian, Latin, Eastern, and Scandinavian sources. He criticises both medieval writers and the authors of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries who were keen on mythmaking. The article was not fully completed by Bayer; however, it reflects the ideas of the scholar well, demonstrates his characteristic good Latin language, his ironic style and extensive erudition. In the eighteenth century, the Latin text of the article was known to a certain extent and even received lengthy critical comments from V. K. Trediakovsky. Later, the article was virtually forgotten and was not translated into Russian. The proposed translation has been created from the original edition. The commentary explains Bayer’s numerous references to sources and literature and gives an idea of the discussions related to issues raised in the article. The publication is accompanied by an introductory article containing information about Bayer’s preparation of the text Origines Russicae, its historiographical fate, and aspects of the scholar’s conceptual positions.

Chronology of the discovery and development of Florida in the 16th century. Part 6. The 3rd stage of the exploration of Florida (1525–1538)

Aim. The study of this period is an essential part of continuing the publication of a complete chronology of the discovery and exploration of Spanish Florida in the sixteenth century. This study examines the expeditions from 1525 to 1538. For what the task is set to study in detail in chronological sequence the mutual cause-and-effect relationships between the events that took place in Europe, Asia and America, which influenced the organization of expeditions and the development of Spanish Florida.Methodology. The article uses the materials of scientific research available to the author in various parts of Europe and America, archival documents, maps and portolans. The methodological basis of the research is the principles of historicism, objectivity and consistency, detailed in previous articles.Results.The result of this work was the organization in chronological order of the history of attempts to develop the "Spanish Florida", based on the causal relationships of the processes that took place in the New World and the Old World between 1525 and 1538.

Two Countries, One Mission: Comparing Member of Ottoman and English Pay-to-Pray Institutions (XVI and XVII. Centuries)

This article compares paid prayer workers employed in the Ottoman Empire and England during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Throughout history, clergy in all societies undertook the duty of offering prayers. However, English and Ottoman pay-to-pray workers were specifically obligated to pray for the souls of those who provided them with dedicated income. These individuals were often in need of state protection and care and were in need of support and assistance. Using studies conducted on paid prayer workers and documents from Ottoman archives, this article seeks to identify the similarities and differences between the prayer workers of these two countries. The article argues that the similarities were shaped by the requirements of religion and social life, while the differences were shaped by the economic and cultural conditions of the time. Following a brief introduction to prayer workers, the article highlights the working conditions, qualifications, responsibilities, and income of those who received a salary or, for various reasons, acquired income and thus prayed for the state, the ruler, and the income provider. Due to the lack of in-depth studies on the topic and the absence of detailed publications on such prayer workers in both states, this article is of an essay.

A Note on Recent Research on the Term the ‘Tatar Yoke’ (Tatarskoe igo)

Research objectives: This essay analyzes and critiques recent research on the genealogy of the expression “Tatar Yoke” (Tatarskoe igo), the standard term for the period of Mongol rule of Rus’, in both Slavic and Latin. Research materials: This essay is based upon publications from 1984 to the present by Halperin, Ostrowski, Keenan, Rudakov, and Seleznev. Results and novelty of research: In 1984, Halperin identified the discovery of the earliest appearance of Tatarskoe igo in Slavic dated to the second half of the seventeenth century, made by Lev Dmitriev who did not appreciate its significance. Therefore the term was an anachronism if projected onto thirteenth- to fifteenth-century Rus’. This conclusion remained unchallenged until now. At that time, Halperin did not address the genealogy of the expression in Latin. Ostrowski and Keenan found theoretically the earliest Latin usages (jugum tartarico) in foreign texts from 1521 and 1575. Apparently Ostrowski’s and Keenan’s contributions to the topic escaped the attention of historians in Russia. Rudakov himself found Keenan’s source but failed to notice that it referred not just to the “yoke” but the “Tatar Yoke.” Seleznev has discovered two Latin references from the thirteenth century, one supposedly a translation from a no longer extant Slavic text. Seleznev concludes that the expression “Tatar Yoke” was therefore known at the time and is not an anachronism. The present essay reinterprets the significance of Seleznev’s findings for our understanding of the Latin genealogy of “Tatar Yoke.” The existence of the term in Slavic is suspect, but in Latin clearly it is as old as Tatar rule. However, the significance of both Rudakov’s and Seleznev’s brilliant depiction of how writers both Catholic and Orthodox interpreted the Tatar conquest of Rus’ via analogy with Old Testament narrations of the enslavement of the Hebrews by the Egyptians and the Babylonian Captivity of the Hebrews lies elsewhere. This essay argues that we have to consider that any author familiar with Scripture could easily independently have made the leap from “Yoke” to “Tatar Yoke,” which renders a genealogy of the evolution of the term moot. Historians still need to address how Catholic writers in the thirteenth and sixteenth centuries made that conceptual link, but no Rus’/Russian author did so until the second half of the seventeenth century.

“Let the Story Go Round and Round”

Abstract This article argues that, as Panay Bukidnon chanted epics called sugidanon are increasingly transformed from oral into written texts and from community to public performances, scholarly attention paid to markers of oral performance should similarly increase. These markers include variation between performances and performers, semantic parallelism and other forms of repetition, and audience participation. This article proposes a nonhierarchical typology for sugidanon performance contexts to better understand how Panay Bukidnon chanting practices have changed over time from the sixteenth century to the present. An in-depth analysis of semantic parallelisms examines a standard repertoire of poetic speech that appears across all recorded sugidanon epics; the author proposes that these features of semiextemporaneous performance situate the epics within other regional poetry forms in Island Southeast Asia.

The Šāhnāma of Firdawsī

Abstract This paper discusses the stylistic and iconographic links between a Safavid copy of the Šāhnāma of Firdawsī (d. 1020) with illustrations dated to the 1520s, and four different centers from the Turko-Persian world in the beginning of the sixteenth century: Herat, Tabriz, Istanbul, and lastly Shiraz. It emphasizes that these artistic exchanges are not just visible through common stylistic characteristics or artists’ nisbas, but also through subtle influences that can be traced across different traditions of book arts, thus providing a nuanced understanding of how the interactions and stylistic overlaps between different manuscript centers may not always be straightforward or unidirectional, but instead reflect a complex web of artistic exchanges and continuities.

Genetic Diversity and Distinctiveness of Common Beans (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) Between Landraces and Formal Cultivars Supporting Ex Situ Conservation Policy: The Borlotti Case Study in Northern Italy

The common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) arrived in Europe in the sixteenth century from the American continent and spread across the old continent as a result of adaptation to different climatic and geographical conditions, as well as selection for different cultivation techniques and eating habits. This expansion gave rise to a huge number of landraces, which have now been largely replaced by more productive cultivars. To avoid losing this genetic diversity heritage, it is essential to characterize the genetic resources at risk of extinction for correct in situ/ex situ conservation and as a first step toward promoting and relaunching their exploitation. In this article, we report the study of a group of Borlotti beans, both landraces and modern cultivars, which are typically cultivated in Northern Italy. The aim was to explore the variability within the assembled Borlotti panel to assess whether landraces have maintained their morphological and genetic identity over time during on-farm cultivation. In particular, we investigated whether it is possible to distinguish between landraces and commercial accessions, a topic that has so far been understudied, but in the field of conservation, it is particularly important because it allows for the prioritization of preserving genetic resources. We found distinctive traits among the various accessions, with only a few landraces maintaining their identity, many of which should more properly be defined as obsolete cultivars. Taken together, these data indicate that it is possible to establish a priority scale for in/ex situ conservation by comparing landraces and cultivars using morphological and genetic data. Furthermore, thanks to geographical isolation, on-farm conservation has proven to still be successful in maintaining the identity of landraces.

A North African Sheikh’s Ultimo Gusto: Abū ‘l-Fatḥ al-Tūnisī’s Poetic Defences of Coffee in Early Modern Damascus

ABSTRACT Abū ‘l-Fatḥ al-Tūnisī (d. 1576) was a North African Mālikī jurist, Ṣūfī, and, for some, a brazen bon vivant in early Ottoman Damascus. A prominent postclassical (early modern) poet and controversial scholar, he left behind a largely obscure poetic legacy, especially his poems on coffee (qahwiyyāt). The latter were composed in Damascus to defend and celebrate this drink at the peak of the great coffee controversy. Abū ‘l-Fatḥ al-Tūnisī’s qahwiyyāt provides a nuanced perspective, both communal and personal, on the historical debate surrounding coffee consumption and coffeehouses establishment in the late fifteenth century and throughout the sixteenth century in the Islamic world, particularly in the Ottoman context. Drawing on Simon Leese’s examination of Arabic tobacco poetry, the article contends that Abū ‘l-Fatḥ was an “arbiter of the senses and of sensory experiences” who brilliantly transformed a predominantly polemical religious-legal discourse into a subject of poetic and interpoetic experimentation.

Svibno – fenomen propadlega trga

Svibno (Germ. Scharfenberg) near Radeče is unique in many regards among Slovenian market towns of medieval origin. Situated in the middle of the Sava Hills, it stood at the highest elevation of all. Although it was founded below an important castle and at the seat of an old parish, Svibno did not retain its market functions for long. At its zenith, it had a strong cottage industry, but it did not establish itself as a trade hub. First documented as a market town in the early fifteenth century, it had already experienced a considerable economic and demographic decline by the second half of the sixteenth century. The number of homes decreased from about thirty in the first half of the fifteenth century to only three in the mid-eighteenth century. Apart from its structural shortcomings and remoteness from transport connections, the decline and ultimately the collapse of the market town was also due to its rival, the neighbouring market town of Radeče (Germ. Ratschach) on the navigable Sava River. Even though it was completely ruralized and all but completely disappeared, Svibno retained its market town title in the local environment well into the nineteenth century.

Understanding late medieval population change in English towns: an alternative approach

Abstract Understanding population change in late medieval English towns is crucial for interpreting urban development and economic shifts. Traditional estimates, based on taxation records from 1377 to the Tudor period, provide arbitrary population figures at two fixed points and fail to capture short—term fluctuations. This study proposes an alternative methodology that integrates multiple strands of evidence, including court records, tax lists, and archaeological data, offering a more nuanced understanding of demographic change. Using Nottingham as a case study, it challenges prevailing models of urban population decline. The evidence suggests that after sustained population growth into at least the 1330s, approximately 60 per cent of the townspeople died during the Black Death of 1349. However, significant migration by the early 1350s, and again in the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries, led to periods of population recovery. Archaeological evidence, together with documentary sources, indicates urban expansion from the second half of the fourteenth century, with substantial growth by the early sixteenth century—contradicting traditional narratives of abandonment and decline. The findings demonstrate that demographic change was far more complex than traditional methodologies suggest and that this alternative approach provides deeper insight into population trends. This approach is applicable to towns with comparable source material.

Housing inequality and social segregation in Leiden, 1561–1606

Abstract The Dutch city of Leiden experienced economic and demographic growth from the last quarter of the sixteenth century onwards. This article analyses its effects on the urban private housing market by charting both the ratio of owners to tenants and the spatial patterns of housing wealth. Housing inequality increased in Leiden, reinforcing existing economic disparities and patterns of residential segregation. These dynamics were mainly caused by migration, which created great demand for housing. Gaining an insight into the pre-modern housing market also helps us to understand how inequalities were (re)produced and how they affected the daily lives of urbanites differently.

Intertextuality Is the Name of the Game: Melusine–Undine–Theophrastus Paracelsus–Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué–Christian Petzold: Water Spirits Are with Us, Throughout Time

The concept of intertextuality often remains a catchphrase for many different phenomena, but it is really a crucially important concept involving all narrative processes from the past to the present. What writer would not borrow from a plethora of sources, whether s/he does it deliberately or unconsciously? In fact, we could identify literature as an infinite fabric of narrative threads, and the more closely we examine a literary work, and the denser its composition, the more we can recognize the essential weave it is composed of. This can be powerfully illustrated in the case of the many different narratives involving the water nixie Undine (or Melusine), who was already popular in the Middle Ages, then was discussed in the sixteenth century, subsequently entered the fantasy of Romantic writers, and has most recently become the subject of a major modern movie. The cultural-historical arc from the past to the present powerfully demonstrates the fundamental working of intertextuality on both the vertical and horizontal axes. Writing, whether creative or factual, constantly operates within a web of narrative exchanges. On this basis, we are on firm ground when we claim that ancient or medieval literature is just as important for us today as nineteenth- or twentieth-century literature as a source of inspiration and influence, shaping both our worldview and value system and this through an intertextual chain of narratives. Of course, we move (hopefully) forward in our own time, but many of the analytic tools available to us are historically grounded.

The Moat Pit Re-Visited: The Coal Mining Enterprise of the Bruce Family in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries in Culross, Fife

This article is both an update to an earlier article ( Adamson 2008 ) insofar as it considered the Moat Pit coal mine but it is also a study for the first time of the wider coal mining enterprise of the Bruce family in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries at Culross, Fife. The article demonstrates that the previous understanding of where the landward shaft of the Moat Pit was located was incorrect. It moves that entrance westwards to a newly identified shaft on the shore known as the Waterdie pit, which is also a possible location for the Egyptian Wheel drainage mechanism. It highlights the importance of the nearby and disregarded Dunimarle Pier to the mining operation. New documentary evidence has led to a re-calculation of the Moat Pit coal mine output which increases this very substantially. An analysis of the other operational coal shafts in Culross in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries point to the Moat Pit having had both an earlier prototype and also a potential successor. These had linked onshore shafts to moated structures located between low and high tides, exactly as with the Moat Pit. There is evidence of the very extensive coal mining operations carried on by the sons and grandsons of Sir George Bruce which has been previously little understood. The mining innovation of the Bruce family is considered and found to be impressive.

Juan Lozano Machuca and the Construction of the Global Spanish Monarchy in the Sixteenth Century

Juan Lozano Machuca and the Construction of the Global Spanish Monarchy in the Sixteenth Century