European Towns Research Articles

Market, civic virtues, and civic bargaining in the medieval and early modern age: some evidence from sixteenth century Italy

In the last decades, historians have shown that the modern market is rooted in the institutional system created in European towns since the middle ages. This approach leads us beyond the usual opposition between market and society or between public and private market. Indeed, in the medieval and early modern age, the market was part of a wider institutional design of civil life, which had a basic conceptual frame of reference in the notion of the common good, a feature typical of such organicistic and hierarchical societies. This paper explores the process of market construction in the medieval and early modern age. I firstly analysed the role of the market in these societies and then focused on the case of foodstuff provision: a key element of the non-written, ancient pact between rulers and people, based on the assurance of subsistence. As a basis for the study, I employed sixteenth century documents regarding Vicenza, a medium-sized town in the Republic of Venice. These show very clearly that, in general, market and price regulation was not the result of arbitrary interventions by public authorities; on the contrary, it was the result of a process of negotiation, which I call civic bargaining. This process involved—to various degrees—public authorities, landowners, merchants and guilds, and the town’s people, the pursuit of the common good being, in practice, a matter of balancing various needs and interests. Present-day economic and social public policies are, in many aspects, an inheritance of the institutional system created in the medieval and early modern age: knowledge of these origins is useful in the present debate regarding economic versus social development, as discussed at the end of the paper.

Earthworm diversity in urban habitats of Basel (Northwestern Switzerland)

The diversity and ecology of the soil fauna in Central European towns is not yet well known. There are references that earthworms, by their biomass, dominate all other animal groups in cities – surpassed only by man. Basel (11 km2) is, with its 170 000 inhabitants, Switzerland’s third largest community. Open green spaces in the city are scarce; the green belt is narrow. Nevertheless, in more than 60 locations studied between 1999 and 2010, 22 species (12 genera) of Lumbricidae were found. Eleven near-natural habitats could be sampled: private front gardens and backyards, wooded river sides, industrially watered flood plain forest plots, and a Zoological Garden with a large number of green spaces built up from imported soil. Nearly a dozen of these species are quite rare in their natural distribution area and in Basel; many of them are riparian, e.g. Aporrectodea georgii, Fitzingeria platyura depressa, and Helodrilus oculatus – while two are strictly endogeic (Allolobophora satchelli, Murchieona muldali). The sampling method “digging and hand-sorting plus mustard meal suspension” yielded the best possible quantitative results in urban habitats. A maximum of earthworm species (18) was sampled in the Zoological Garden, and the intensely used public lawns had the highest mean density and biomass (450 individuals resp. 280 g fresh mass/m2).

Life-cycle assessment of residential buildings in three different European locations, basic tool

The paper deals with the development of a tool used for the life cycle assessment of residential buildings located in three different European towns: Brussels (Belgium), Coimbra (Portugal) and Lulea (Sweden). The basic tool focuses on the structure and the materials of the buildings and permits the evaluation of the Embodied energy, Embodied carbon and yearly energy consumption. For that purpose, a different set of original data is taken into account for each location, in which the monthly temperatures, energy mix, heating and cooling systems are defined. The energy consumption, being for heating space or water, for cooling or for lighting is transformed into CO2 emissions to deduce the Operational carbon as well. The influence of the energy mix can therefore be assessed in the basic tool. As a matter of fact, the heating and cooling systems habitually used in the three countries are also of great importance. The District Heating system, is, for instance, incorporated in the basic tool. The presence of solar water heater or photovoltaic panels is also strongly influencing the operational carbon. After a short literature review on building LCA and the description of the basic tool, the software Pleiades + Comfie combined with Equer is used to achieve the complete LCA for one building using two different load bearing frames. The results of the calculations for Brussels climate are verified against these software results. The dependence of the results to parameters such as climate, energy mix and habits is then discussed in the companion paper.

Contaminants at Former Manufactured Gas Plants: Sources, Properties, and Processes

In the course of industrialization in the 19th century, manufactured gas plant sites were built in almost every larger town in Europe and the United States. Organic and inorganic contaminations pose a continuing threat to groundwater resources at these locations even though the operations were terminated decades ago. The different coal tars and tar oils present in the subsurface are composed of a huge variety of organic compounds often possessing a high toxic potential, such as monocyclic, polycyclic, and heterocyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. In addition to these inorganic contaminants, cyanides and heavy metals can be found due to dumping of by-products and wastes. A multitude of factors influence the fate of these compounds and an increasing number of studies deal with this subject. However, key processes are still not well understood. One example is the mobilization of colloid associated contaminants by extreme single events, which can be responsible for the bulk contaminant load in the seepage water. Another example is the role of microbial populations and communities in cooperative degradation pathways of organic pollutants. We aim for a comprehensive overview on the present knowledge about the processes, which determine the fate of organic and inorganic contaminant at such sites. This way, a sound basis is provided for the identification of future research directions, evaluation of risk, and development of remediation techniques.

Nestling diet of the Common Magpie (Pica pica) in urban and agricultural habitats

Several processes may be responsible for the urbanization of the Common Magpie (Pica pica), a species spreading widely in European towns during the last 50 years. Greater supply or better availability of food could play a role in the successful colonization of urban habitats by this species. We compared the nestling diet of Magpies within (urban) and adjacent to the city (rural) of Prague, Czech Republic, using the neck-collar method, and studied parental foraging behavior and micro-habitat associations in the city of Prague. Although the nestling diet was different between urban and rural areas, invertebrates (mainly Coleoptera) were the most frequent prey in both areas. Anthropogenic food was more abundant in urban than in rural areas. The nestling diet differed from the potentially available food supply in both urban and rural areas: Annelida and Lepidoptera were preferred, while Isopoda, Diplopoda, Orthoptera and Hymenoptera were neglected. In urban areas, Magpies foraged actively (i.e., by walking) and by perching. Prey was collected mostly from the ground. Magpies foraged mainly at sites covered with short vegetation. Utilization of short vegetation was proportional to its availability, whereas tall vegetation was used less than could be expected by availability. Short vegetation dominated the home ranges of Magpies in urban areas, while tall vegetation was more common in the Magpie home ranges in rural areas.

Woman inside the Window

Woman inside the Window Coleen Muir (bio) She is two stories up, centered and framed inside the white stucco building. Two windows, close as eyes, hold the image of her as she moves her arm along the length of the ironing board, dragging the iron from one window into the next, stopping, lifting, beginning again. Rotting wood holds the scene together, is the crumbling final barrier the warm air from the street must pass through before stepping inside—there is no glass, no screen, no restraint. The woman could reach her hand through, from inside to outside, and, if it were raining, collect a wet pool in her palm, tilt the water out, and dry her hand in the blue curtains. The curtains hang listless next to her, stretching long shadows against the hardwood floor the woman stands upon, barefoot, touching and smoothing the scarlet fabric draped across her board. The sun moves in, pools inside the fabric, reflects light. Is it an evening gown? Satin? Has it been worn before? From the street, I wonder at this woman who is ironing above me. I am walking home from a bookstore, past dark-mouthed garages, the shadowed entrances of buildings, restaurants. The street is still, the day slumped between late morning and early afternoon. Clouds pass over the sun, throwing shadows over this building, the ones next to it, myself, and also her arms as they pass over and over the red fabric. It seems unreal, like a clip pulled from a black-and-white film shot on the streets of a small European town. Another woman in another window, ironing her husband’s shirt, calling out to him, or her child, to come inside. Secondary characters never to be developed beyond their windows, never to be illumined with color. [End Page 69] The woman lifts her arm, as white as a shell, and moves the iron. She is engulfed in color, her sea-green walls, blue curtains (one pulled into a loose knot), and the dirty white waves of the building’s stucco. The color is so rich it could’ve been painted on. Possibly, this is a work of art. And if it were, how would I explain the absence of her head in the picture? The viewer’s perspective is limited, as I am standing on the sidewalk looking up, and from this perspective, her throat and head are cut off by the window. Because of this, the viewer is struck with a sting of curiosity. She wants to know more. Who is that woman in the window? Is she lovely or plain? I envision her as lovely. Her breasts form two full crescents on her navy blue dress, and her arms are slim and soft, and her sides dip in like the curve of a spoon. She must have a lovely face. I imagine her face as round, oval, with short curly brown hair, dark eyes, and yellow dot earrings. I see her lips slightly parted, pale pink, and traces of black tea stains upon her teeth—venture that she has switched from coffee to tea in the recent past, tying to lower her caffeine intake. Perhaps she has been suffering headaches from the withdrawal; perhaps this is why the windows are open and she is standing there. She needs fresh air. She breathes in the fresh air, gains a whiff of bus exhaust. The headache pounds. She touches her forehead. Sighs. Of course, as it stands, she is real, so perhaps it’s silly to imagine her beating head, her stained teeth. Who could know? Perhaps there is no sense in pretending at all. One must walk away, imagination unraveling, and leave it at that. But yet, one must wonder about the scarlet cloth she is ironing, right at the window’s opening. I imagine her setting the iron to the side and lifting the blue dress she is wearing up and over and off herself in one smooth motion, her standing there for a moment, entirely nude. Her breasts are pale and heavy, with large brown nipples; her stomach fills out into a grin, and right above the ironing board, there is a flash...

Children Abandoned and Taken Back

Abandoning a child was no rare deed in European towns in the nineteenth century, mostly among single women in underprivileged environments. On the other hand, taking this same child back was more unusual. By analyzing the registers of the Lyon hospitals, it is possible to determine the percentage of children taken back by their mothers, how this was actually achieved, and to examine the family status of the mothers at the time of both events. Both of these acts -- abandoning a child and then taking it back -- can be put back in their context in these women's lives, for instance, by looking into the length of time separating the two procedures. To finish with, it appears that the 'Hospices civils de Lyon' encouraged mothers to take the children back and generally had a conciliatory attitude toward them, supposedly in the children's interest.

European Cities and Towns, 400-2000, by Peter Clark

European Cities and Towns, 400-2000, by Peter Clark

The impact of body mass index in old age on cause-specific mortality.

To assess the association between Body Mass Index (BMI) and cause-specific mortality in older adults and to assess which BMI was associated with lowest mortality. Prospective study. European towns. 1,980 older adults, aged 70-75 years from the SENECA (Survey in Europe on Nutrition and the Elderly: a concerted action) study. BMI, examined in 1988/1989, and mortality rates and causes of death during 10 years of follow-up. Cox proportional hazards model including both BMI and BMI², accounting for sex, smoking status, educational level and age at baseline showed that BMI was associated with all-cause mortality (p<0.01), cardiovascular mortality (p<0.01) and mortality from other causes (p<0.01), but not with cancer or respiratory mortality (p>0.3). The lowest all-cause mortality risk was found at 27.1 (95%CI 24.1, 29.3) kg/m², and this risk was increased with statistical significance when higher than 31.4 kg/m² and lower than 21.1 kg/m². The lowest cardiovascular mortality risk was found at 25.6 (95%CI 17.1, 28.4) kg/m², and was increased with statistical significance when higher than 30.9 kg/m². In this study, BMI was associated with all-cause mortality risk in older people. This risk was mostly driven by an increased cardiovascular mortality risk, as no association was found for mortality risk from cancer or respiratory disease. Our results indicate that the WHO cut-off point of 25 kg/m² for overweight might be too low in old age, but more studies are needed to define specific cut-off points.

Views, events, and debates

by Eleanor Kilroy Laws hold up a mirror to the societies that have created them. While laws can be progressive, and promote positive change, where they reflect values and culture that are inimical to the rights of women, they serve as a major obstacle to the attainment of gender equality. Here, we profile WLUML, a network organisation which works to challenge laws that discriminate against women, across the Muslim world. by Maddy Coy The growing presence of lap-dancing, pole-dancing, and strip clubs on the streets of many European towns has been met with dismay by many women, whose attempts to have them closed down have met with varying levels of success. In the summer of 2010, Iceland took the step of banning such clubs and in this piece Maddy Coy explores what lies behind this aspect of the sex industry, and why the ban is important.

Retrofitting of Timber Beam Ceilings with the Timber-Concrete Composite Construction

Regarding the redevelopment of existing residential buildings the timber-concrete-compo- site (TCC) construction is an innovative possibility to toughen up timber beam ceilings. Thereby a concrete slab is added to the timber beams. Both parts of the construction are connected by using special shear connectors. In this case timber is mainly loaded in tension and concrete is generally loaded in compression. The bearing capacity as well as the serviceability of the ceiling can be improved by this composite construction. The idea of combining the construction materials timber and concrete in the way that they both can take and carry on loads is not new. In Germany it was mentioned in 1939 for the first time. The cityscape of Central European towns is mainly characterized by buildings constructed before the 50th of the last century. The protection of the historical main structure of these buildings is getting more important today. Floors built up till that time were primarily made of timber. Research in Germany has been intensified during the last decade. This paper will show the specific properties of timber-concrete composite floors. Several metallic combing agents exist currently. Type and distance of the connection members influence the load bearing behavior of the composite construction. The main types used in Germany will be presented in this paper. The possible ways of calculating timber-concrete composite ceilings will be given and the design basis will be explained.

Maritime Law and Practice in Late Medieval Aberdeen

This article examines maritime law and its use in legal practice in late medieval Aberdeen. It is argued that, although several copies of a Scottish translation of the ‘Rôles d'Oléron’, a French sea law, were available in Scotland, written law collections were rarely used in court proceedings. Rather, judgments were ‘concluded’ or ‘found’ based on common sense. Some of these judgments did, nonetheless, correspond to regulations laid down in the ‘Rôles d'Oléron’, or to verdicts from legal practice recorded elsewhere in northern Europe. Although no common tradition of maritime law and practice existed in northern Europe, Aberdeen practice appears to have been significantly different from that of other northern European towns, suggesting that Aberdeen may have been part of a separate north-western European tradition instead.

Revisiting the decline in remarriage in early-modern Europe: The case of Rheims in France

Many were the European towns where remarriage frequency declined, especially for widows, in the 17th and 18th centuries. This article investigates how remarriage models evolved in France, basing our analysis on vital events collected for the fourteen parishes of the town of Rheims in Champagne. A large set of Family Reconstitution Forms for the period 1668-1802 allows the study of remarriage among urban widows and widowers. Through four successive periods of time, we observe changes in remarriage behaviour in this preindustrial center as a case study, in a gender comparative perspective. In urban surroundings, in the late 18th century, strategies of remarriage may have been more flexible than in rural areas. Women were less exposed to family and social pressure preventing them to remarry, discouraging or delaying a new union. The presence of dependent children was always a problem when a widow tried to choose a new partner. It was easier for a man to remarry. A widower used to take a new wife quickly and a younger one, if possible without children at charge. A specific aspect of the urban context was population geographical turn-over and changing labour markets. It would explain, at least partly, the decreasing proportion of remarriages in Rheims. Female urban surplus was a constant, affecting the chances for remarriage, particularly in large European cities.

Carrying out a language policy change: advocacy coalitions and the management of linguistic landscape

This paper focuses on agency in language policy change. The object of the analysis is the processes of bilingualization of signage in three European towns. Located in the Czech Republic, Hungary and Wales, the towns differ in various respects, including the extent to which signage language policies have faced opposition and threatened social cohesion. Two theoretical frameworks are combined to analyse what facilitated or hindered language policy changes at the three sites. Language management framework provides a model of behaviour through which language and communication evolve in response to deviations from communicative expectations. Advocacy coalition framework, developed in political science, is used to gain an understanding of how such behaviour by coordinated social actors influences macro-level processes such as policy change.

The Development of Police Forces in Urban Europe in the Eighteenth Century

Recent years have seen the renewal of historiography concerning the police in the early modern period. Specialists no longer receive the figure of cities without police forces before the creation of modern institutions. Moreover, recent research has demonstrated convergence of a great movement of reflection with reforms of the police forces and organizations in European towns, especially in the second half of the eighteenth century. Two tendencies illustrate this evolution: first, the general decline of the institutions of civic police forces and their replacement by professional forces and, second, the professionalization of municipal police forces. But these reforms of the police force could also be realized via use of traditional mechanisms of community policing. In several cities, inhabitants of the district or neighborhood were again in charge of functions of “modern” policing. Although it is premature to present a global synthesis, various European examples demonstrate that there is no linear historical process leading directly from community or civic policing to a state police force while bypassing the municipal police force. The historical processes of the modernization of the police in early modern Europe are more complex.

Public Services in Early Modern European Towns: An Agenda for Further Research

Starting with a set of key questions formulated by Walter Prevenier in 1984, this article proposes an agenda for future research on urban public services in early modern European towns. The author suggests, first of all, a shift in research strategy toward a greater emphasis on actor-oriented analysis and a systematic reconstruction of underlying ideas and intentions of actors in shaping public services. Second, he points out the need for comparative research on variations in public services in different zones of state formation, urban fiscal matters, and town—country relations within Europe and on continuity and change in “repertoires” of practices in urban provisions through time. Finally, he argues that historians should also address the grand question in what respect, how, and why the long-term evolution of urban public services was affected by “great transformations” such as the Reformation, Enlightenment, the French Revolution, and the Industrial Revolution. The historiographies of public services in the early modern and modern periods could thus be more closely connected as well.

Changes in the functional composition of a Central European urban flora over three centuries

Urbanization has shaped European landscapes for many centuries. The first towns already developed around 700 B.C. in the Mediterranean (Antrop 2004). Since these early times, urbanization spread all over Europe which is today one of the most urbanized continents, with 72% of the total population living in urban areas (only Latin and Northern America have higher rates of urban population with 78% and 81% respectively; United Nations 2008). In the 18th century and especially in the 19th century, industrialization and trade caused the growth of many European towns (Berry 1990). However, the main phase of urbanization took place in the 20th century (Berry 1990; United Nations 2006) with its rapid developments in transportation techniques (Berry 1990; Antrop 2004). The increased mobility, together with other factors, such as political frameworks, enabled urban sprawl, which was especially strong in the second half of the 20th century (Kasanko et al.2006).

Weed occurrence on pavements in five North European towns

SummaryWeeds on pavements in urban areas are unwanted mainly because they cause an untidy appearance or sometimes structural damage. Glyphosate has been the principal weed control method for years, but policies in several European towns have changed to lower dependence on herbicides. Instead, less effective and more species‐dependent non‐chemical methods are used, but little is known about the pavement flora. Consequently, we surveyed the flora on pavements in five North European towns [Braunschweig (DE), Malmö (SE), Næstved (DK), Royal Leamington Spa (UK) and Wageningen (NL)] by recording weed species and their coverage in 56 recording points randomly placed in each town. Weeds were recorded at several dates in 2005 and 2006 and no weed control was applied apart from sweeping. Weed coverage increased during the survey (averaging 1.4% in late 2006) and was highest in the towns having the strictest policies limiting herbicide use. Most coverage (averaging 2%) was found along the pavement edge away from the road. Poa annua was the most frequently recorded species, followed by bryophytes (mainly mosses), Sagina procumbens and perennial grasses. Grasses and some other species frequently found, notably Taraxacum officinale, should receive particular attention when planning a non‐chemical weed control campaign on pavements.

Der Dienst Am Kranken: Krankenversorgung zwischen Caritas, Medizin und Okonomie vom Mittelalter bis zur Neuzeit (review)

Reviewed by: Der Dienst Am Kranken: Krankenversorgung zwischen Caritas, Medizin und Okonomie vom Mittelalter bis zur Neuzeit Alisha Rankin Gerhard Aumüller, Kornelia Grundmann, and Christina Vanja, eds. Der Dienst Am Kranken: Krankenversorgung zwischen Caritas, Medizin und Okonomie vom Mittelalter bis zur Neuzeit. Veröffentlichungen der Historischen Kommission für Hessen 68. Marburg: N. G. Elwert Verlag, 2007. xv + 383 Ill. €24.00 (978-3-7708-1315-5). This collection of essays comprises papers given at a 2007 conference at the Hessian State Archive in Marburg, Germany, honoring the eight-hundredth anniversary of the death of St. Elisabeth of Thuringia. The volume focuses on the development of institutionalized medical care, mainly in German-speaking lands, from the Middle Ages to the twenty-first century. Many essays particularly emphasize charitable care of the sick poor, for which St. Elisabeth was known. As a whole, the collection gives a fascinating survey of hospital care through the ages, illustrated by numerous high-quality images. Elisabeth of Thuringia herself appears chiefly in the introductory and concluding essays to the volume: Klaus Niehr’s study of the changing iconography of St. Elisabeth and Helmut Siefert’s survey of four very different leading figures in charitable care, beginning with Elisabeth and ending with Cicely Saunders. The links among institutional medicine, charity, and religion form the focus of three essays on the Middle Ages. Kay Peter Jankrift challenges the nearly exclusive emphasis on monastic medicine as a source of medical care in the early Middle Ages. Hubert Kolling provides an overview of institutionalized care of the sick in medieval Europe from its early medieval roots in the monastic tradition to the founding of hospitals by knights’ orders, lay confraternities, and civic authorities. He notes the importance of female healers to the charitable hospital tradition. Finally, Peter Dilg surveys the development of the apothecary trade in the Middle Ages, which he relates to the early medieval monastic tradition as well as to the regulation of apothecaries in European towns from the twelfth century. The next two sections focus on the institutionalization of hospitals in the Renaissance and Enlightenment. Using the example of Augsburg, Claudia Stein disputes the thesis that newly founded institutions for the “French disease” in the sixteenth century were forerunners of late-eighteenth-century medical clinics, and Gerhard Aumüller provides a careful study of the organization of the hospital in the Hessian town of Haina. Frank Hatje examines the diverse types of institutional care in eighteenth-century northern Germany, demonstrating that differentiation did not always entail a systematic division of labor. Heiko Droste studies the increasing professionalization in hospitals, which took place within the framework of existing strict hierarchies. Irmtraut Sahmland contrasts the cloister-like statutes in the eighteenth-century Merxhausen hospital, which required that pregnant female carers be banned from the institution, with the more lenient treatment of pregnant carers in practice. [End Page 600] The essays on nineteenth-century hospitals return in part to the theme of charity. Gunnar Stolberg surveys the development of hospitals as institutions and their handling of the “laboring poor,” and Norbert Friedrich examines the continuing connection between deacons and deaconesses and medical care. Christina Vanja focuses on the care provided by sanatoria, which relied on the ideals of aesthetic living and self-discipline. The final three essays examine the modern hospital: they include Martin Dinges’s study of homeopathy in the hospital from the eighteenth to the twenty-first century; Kornelia Grundmann’s portrayal of the Marburg Surgical Clinic in the early twentieth century as an example of the increasing acceptance of hospitals (despite a continuing surplus of poor patients); and Michael Lingenfeder’s probing of the conflict between modern hospital management and health services. The essays are of notably high quality and provide a substantial survey of the salient themes regarding institutional care and the development of the modern hospital. However, the book lacks a strong introduction or conclusion tying the essays together, which leaves the reader without a clear overview of the shifting meanings of the hospital or the changing relationship between hospitals and charitable healing. An essay specifically related to women and charity would have provided a nice link to Elisabeth of Thuringia. Nevertheless, this...

Club goods and inefficient institutions: why Danzig and Lübeck failed in the early modern period

This article uses club theory to explain why two major medieval commercial centres declined in the early modern period. Lübeck and Danzig illuminate the difficulties experienced by old‐style European towns where early modern guilds (and other privileged ‘corporations’) had a lot of political influence in making the transition to the new style of north‐west European cities such as Amsterdam and Hamburg. The article refutes theories proposing that the special privileges awarded to a merchant elite enhanced economic growth; instead, it is argued that those privileges gave rise to ‘club goods’ that were beneficial only to a small number of merchants and were provided at the expense of society at large, resulting in economic decline.