Early Modern History Research Papers

In the context of an all-male performance tradition, what did audiences see when a boy actor played a pregnant woman? While it is difficult to know with complete certainty how femininity materialized on the male body, as Peter Stallybrass... more

In the context of an all-male performance tradition, what did audiences see when a boy actor played a pregnant woman? While it is difficult to know with complete certainty how femininity materialized on the male body, as Peter Stallybrass acknowledges in his discussion of prosthetic breasts, pregnancy was a highly conspicuous theatrical convention on the Stuart stage. Playwrights and actors narrated, performed, and costumed pregnancy, making visible the great belly when appropriate to the play’s dramatic action. With other provisions of gendered identity, such as wigs, cosmetics, and gowns, bellies add to the constellation of feminine theatrical prosthetics deployable by actors. Playwrights and players accomplished the illusion of pregnancy through verbal descriptions of physical appearances, as well as by using common soft goods, such as pillows and cushions, as prosthetic devices.

Between 1603 and 1642, there exist approximately twenty-two surviving “pregnancy plays.” The defining characteristic of this dramatic subgenre is that the play portrays a pregnancy (whether visible or unknown to the audience) or a pregnant character who drives the action of a plot in some significant way. Over the span of thirty-nine years, pregnancy became conspicuous in its representation on Stuart stages, and this sudden increase in the visibility of gestating bodies—along with the material construction of pregnancy on boy bodies—is deserving of significant critical attention, though it has received little. Early modern theater practitioners implemented various strategies to stage pregnancy on seventeenth-century London stages. Three plays in particular trace the trajectory of visible pregnancy and its conventions. Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure (1604) shows that pregnancy was indeed a visible theatrical convention on the Stuart stage. Thomas May’s The Heir (c. 1620), which “delivers” a cushion to an expectant father, dismantles the convention of performed pregnancy. This play, when read against other revelations of prosthetically constructed gender and identity, offers compelling evidence for common strategies of materializing pregnancy in performance. More specifically, May’s comedy reveals, parodies, and deconstructs the material conventions established in earlier pregnancy plays. Finally, Ben Jonson’s The Magnetic Lady (1632) highlights the ways in which playwrights—especially Jonson—further parody the pregnancy convention during the Caroline reign. Through these plays and others, the “great belly” becomes part of the ongoing conversation surrounding early modern prosthetics and stage materials.

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- by Sara B.T. Thiel
- •
- 7
  Theatre History, Early Modern History, Shakespeare, Drama

There has been substantial work done interpreting the descriptive texts from the early-modern encounters of Portuguese colonizers in Brazil. The interpretations have had major difficulty with significant elements of the texts, which the... more

The problems of contemporary states are in large part “affective disorders”; they are failures of states to properly understand and coordinate the emotions of the individuals within and in some instances outside the state. By excluding,... more

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- by E. Tucker
- •
- 28
  Social Theory, Emotion, Political Philosophy, Moral Psychology

This is mainly an archival contribution whose purpose is to reassess the concrete phases of Nobili's education. Here I demonstrate that, contrary to what previous historians repeated, Nobili's involvement with the College Romano was very... more

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- by Paolo Aranha
- •
- 43
  Religion, History, Intellectual History, Classics

We are so accustomed to use digital memories as data storage devices, that we are oblivious to the improbability of such a practice. Habit hides what we habitually use. To understand the worldwide success of archives and card indexing... more

Alberico Gentili (San Ginesio 1552 - Londra 1608) studia presso l’Università di Perugia dove si laurea in diritto civile il 23 settembre 1572. Nel 1580 è costretto a fuggire dall’Italia, per motivi religiosi, per giungere a Londra in... more

Alberico Gentili (San Ginesio 1552 - Londra 1608) studia presso l’Università di Perugia dove si laurea in diritto civile il 23 settembre 1572. Nel 1580 è costretto a fuggire dall’Italia, per motivi religiosi, per giungere a Londra in agosto, dopo aver attraversato l’Europa. Nel 1587 viene nominato da Elisabetta I regius professor di civil law presso l’Università di Oxford. Malgrado la solida preparazione giuridica ed i legami costruiti nei primi anni di permanenza sul suolo inglese con gli ambienti politici e accademici, la nomina a regius professor era stata profondamente avversata, da più parti: molto probabilmente dagli ambienti umanistici, ed in particolare da Jean Hotman il quale, pur avendo manifestato inizialmente sentimenti di affettuosa amicizia e solidarietà col giurista italiano, si distaccherà da lui dopo la pubblicazione, da parte di Gentili, della sua prima opera e, poco dopo, da parte degli ambienti religiosi puritani.
Mentre i dissensi con Hotman e gli umanisti erano destinati ad affievolirsi, anche in ragione della metodologia seguita dal Gentili nella pubblicazione delle opere successive, ben diverse saranno, a partire dal 1585, le relazioni del giurista italiano con alcuni esponenti della teologia puritana ed in particolare con John Rainolds, teologo autorevolissimo, col quale avrà, fra il 1593 e il 1594, un denso e polemico scambio epistolare. Alcune delle idee espresse nei volumi pubblicati fra il 1585 e il 1593 non solo non saranno condivise dagli ambienti puritani, ma risulteranno da essi fortemente avversate. Alcuni passaggi di queste opere, e gli inediti conservati nella Bodleian Library e nel Corpus Christi College di Oxford, che attestano, fra l’altro, le avversità di cui Alberico fu oggetto, anche in ragione della sua “italianità”, costituiscono la fonte da cui muovere per una migliore comprensione della sua vicenda umana e del suo pensiero.
Un percorso, quello del giurista di San Ginesio, che proseguirà nel 1598, allorquando darà alle stampe la sua opera più nota, i De iure belli libri tres, e che si completerà nel 1601, con la pubblicazione dei Disputationum de nuptiis libri VII: nel I Libro, riprendendo le ragioni della polemica con il Rainolds, esprimerà compiutamente il suo pensiero circa il rapporto fra diritto, teologia e religione e l’individuazione degli ambiti di competenza del giurista e del teologo. Convincimenti che la letteratura contemporanea tende talvolta a racchiudere nel Silete theologi in munere alieno: espressione notissima vergata a conclusione del capitolo XII del I Libro del De iure belli, che necessita, per essere pienamente compresa, di essere inserita nel lungo percorso compiuto dal giurista di San Ginesio nell’arco di circa un ventennio.
Giuristi e teologi si confrontarono, dunque, su questioni che, fra XVI e XVII secolo, furono cruciali nel dibattito scientifico del Vecchio Continente, e che, in modi e forme sostanzialmente diverse da quel lontano passato, stanno tornando prepotentemente di grande attualità. Su di esse, pertanto, appare necessario tornare criticamente a riflettere, anche alla luce delle idee espresse da uno dei maggiori pensatori della prima Età moderna.

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- by Giovanni Minnucci and +1
  Monduzzi Editoriale Cisalpino
- •
- 159
  History, Modern History, Intellectual History, Cultural History

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- by Corine Schleif
- •
- 28
  Gender Studies, Art History, Women's Studies, Medieval History

Muito boa tarde a todos. Gostaria de agradecer a vossa presença aqui neste final de tarde, por terem dispendido um pouco do vosso tempo para homenagearem o Jorge e o trabalho que ele tem desenvolvido nos últimos tempos. De facto não foi... more

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- by Pedro Urbano
- •
- 32
  History, Modern History, Humanities, Social Sciences

Across early modern Europe, countless people were charged as witches, often subject to brutal torture and gruesome deaths. Within this, most witches were female, only in select areas, such as Russia, did male witches outnumber female... more

Livro vencedor de menção honrosa na categoria “Catálogo” dos prémios da APOM, em 2018.

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- by Nelson Moreira Antão and +1
  António Celso Mangucci
- •
- 20
  Early Modern History, Archival science, Early Modern Europe, Archives

This article explores the military use of dogs in the west, principally from the thirteenth to the eighteenth century. It is argued that the use of ‘war dogs’ was a recurrent but essentially ad hoc, sporadic and localized practice, quite... more

The SSPCK has been described as “the single most important institution of Anglicisation in the 1700s”. The Edinburgh-based charitable organisation (f. 1709) maintained charity schools in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, intended to... more

On the basis of historical sources and historiography, the life path and circumstances related to the death of Marc' Antonio Borisi (c. 1570-1620), the nobleman of Bar and Koper, the Grand Dragoman in the Venetian embassy of... more

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- by Savo Marković
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- 20
  History, Cultural History, Military Intelligence, Humanities

This article traces the plight of the widows of Scottish soldiers who participated in the Thirty Years' War. Contrasting a number of strategies the women used in two main contrasting legal systems (Dutch & Swedish), this article offers an... more

Among the few descriptions of an early voyage to Spanish America, Eugenio de Salazar's is one of the most famous and also one of the most entertaining. In his long bureaucratic career, he served in a wide variety of judicial and... more

The focus of this study in occupational mapping is on combining locational data for early modern occupations with a contemporary town plan of Edinburgh, in order to study occupational distribution in the urban environment. Much work has... more

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- by Jacek Szymala
- •
- 10
  Cultural Studies, Visual Studies, Game studies, Film Studies

During the centuries thermal baths were popular in Hungary. People from all kind of ranks could use these bath, which were situated mainly the northern region of the Carpathian basin. The paper investigates the social costumes of using... more

/Users/dante/Desktop/Battaglia di Ravenna 1512.pdf

Объектом данного исследования является готицизм – исторический миф, согласно которому народы стран севера Европы являются потомками готов. Он появился в XV веке в странах Скандинавии, был заимствован двумя столетиями позже англичанами, а... more

Объектом данного исследования является готицизм – исторический миф, согласно которому народы стран севера Европы являются потомками готов. Он появился в XV веке в странах Скандинавии, был заимствован двумя столетиями позже англичанами, а от них в XVIII веке шотландцами. В качестве предмета изучения была выбрана концепция готицизма в Шотландии, в рамках которой предками шотландцев признавались пикты – народ, об этногенезе которого до сих пор ведутся споры. Им было приписано германское происхождение, а через них – и всей шотландской нации. Целью данной статьи было расширить трактовку концепции готицизма в отечественной науке, которая в основном работала с материалом Германии и Скандинавии, а также со знаменитой норманнской теорией. В настоящей работе было прослежено развитие концепции готицизма в Шотландии. В силу специфики данного исследования была использована методология историцизма, что в данном случае означало познание роли и места этой теории в её историческом контексте. Тем не менее, также было выявлено значение шотландского готицизма для современной науки – в качестве идеи о германском происхождении пиктов. В рамках данной работы было установлено, что концепция готицизма продемонстрировала последствия разделения страны на лоулендеров и горцев-гэлов, когда представители шотландских интеллектуальных кругов, дабы избежать ассоциации с ирландцами и «дикими кельтами» (образ которых пользовался большим успехом у англичан), создают себе новую идентичность, заимствуя у тех же англичан концепцию готицизма. В статье также обосновывается вывод, что готицизм как вариант национального мифа Шотландии существовал на протяжении целого столетия, а на смену ему пришла концепция тевтонизма, в рамках которой и стала рассматриваться гипотеза о германском происхождении шотландцев.

In early-modern Scotland various religious writings addressed dying, death, burial, or funerals. The intention was to further the aims of the Scottish reformers to correct what they perceived to be superstition or idolatry, and to align... more

I miracoli arrivano all'improvviso, come un fulmine a ciel sereno. La liquefazione del sangue di san Gennaro si ripete invece da secoli in occorrenze precise. «Nessuna legge naturale è in grado di spiegare un fenomeno che si verifichi... more

I miracoli arrivano all'improvviso, come un fulmine a ciel sereno. La liquefazione del sangue di san Gennaro si ripete invece da secoli in occorrenze precise. «Nessuna legge naturale è in grado di spiegare un fenomeno che si verifichi soltanto in date liturgicamente significative» è stato detto. Eppure de Ceglia dimostra che nel Medioevo il sangue di san Gennaro era inteso come una sostanza semplicemente instabile e ricostruisce le vicende che hanno conferito alle sue liquefazioni l'euritmia che le rende cosí celebri. «I capricci non piacciono a nessuno. Davanti a comportamenti refrattari a ogni norma, all'inizio l'entusiasmo è incontenibile, poi i fedeli si stancano di un oggetto che, senza una chiara ragione, ora è in un modo ora in un altro, cosí lo abbandonano smorzandone gli slanci vitali. Ecco perché quel sangue non avrebbe potuto godere a lungo della libertà di gorgogliare come e quando desiderasse, trovandosi invece nella condizione di dover acquisire una forma: un modo di manifestarsi, cioè, cosí peculiare da renderlo unico nell'orbe cristiano».

La liquefazione periodica del sangue di san Gennaro non è ufficialmente riconosciuta come miracolosa dalla Chiesa cattolica, che piú cautamente ora parla di prodigio. Ma il fenomeno è stato per secoli chiamato miracolo in testi liturgici approvati dall'autorità ecclesiastica e in discorsi di vescovi, cardinali, papi e santi. L'Inquisizione ha inoltre sottoposto a formali processi coloro che lo hanno attribuito a cause naturali. La questione del riconoscimento ufficiale, se ha un senso per gli ultimi cinquant'anni, ne ha dunque tanto meno quanto piú ci si spinga indietro nel tempo. Perché quel mutare in determinate circostanze fu di fatto considerato un miracolo ed è questo ciò che interessa allo storico. Come si può però far storia naturale di qualcosa che per definizione supera l'ordine del creato? La ricostruzione che qui si abbozza non si interroga sul miracolo in sé, bensí sulla cultura che lo ha identificato come tale. Obiettivo di questo lavoro è infatti ripercorrere in chiave antropologica gli sforzi compiuti da uomini e donne del passato per concettualizzare un fenomeno complesso e sfuggevole. Il miracolo di san Gennaro assurge cosí a punto di osservazione privilegiato da cui ripercorrere non solo la storia di Napoli, ma anche e soprattutto l'evoluzione della mentalità di chi, persino in terre assai lontane, con quell'appuntamento periodico si è nel tempo confrontato. E consente di delineare una storia della meraviglia e della sua funzione conoscitiva. Un racconto di cuori che battono all'impazzata, di mani che pregano e di gole riarse dalle incessanti giaculatorie. Ma anche di occhi che scrutano alla ricerca di un senso. O semplicemente di un perché.

European crossbows XVI-XIX centuries in the collection of the Historical Museum

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- by Anna Gerasimova
- •
- 3
  Art History, Early Modern History, Crossbow

The Fortunate Islands are, perhaps, one of the most mythologized spaces of the geographic context of the Middle Ages. As a result of an analytic development that stems from the classical world, many medieval authors give to the Fortunate... more

This article focuses on the Tacitist thought shared by Justus Lipsius and Hugo Grotius. Contrary to what his later works might suggest, in the years before the Dutch political crisis of 1618, Grotius appears willing to look at history and... more

No início da Idade Moderna, observamos um fenômeno que teve, como uma de suas principais características, a disseminação do cultivo, comercialização e uso de uma série de elementos botânicos. Apesar, de hoje, a Historiografia dispor de um... more

This paper establishes how the verse and general speech of Elizabeth I was reflective of the monarchical power-play and gender politics in the Early Modern England.

The rise and decline of Atlantic piracy has been used to gauge the level of commercial, administrative, naval, and diplomatic control that Britain exercised in the Atlantic. Indeed, historians have suggested that by 1730, Britain had... more

The rise and decline of Atlantic piracy has been used to gauge the level of commercial, administrative, naval, and diplomatic control that Britain exercised in the Atlantic. Indeed, historians have suggested that by 1730, Britain had eradicated piracy in the region. These studies credit a governmental campaign of law enforcement and moral persuasion for a revolutionary shift in public attitudes against piracy. A close examination, however, reveals that piracy flourished in Atlantic waters well into the nineteenth century, and that Britain’s command of the region was not nearly as thorough as some have suggested. Old practices and beliefs regarding piracy’s legality and propriety persisted in the face of imperial attempts to effect change—Britons continued to regard “armed commerce” as wholly conventional and legitimate. Piracy was eventually ushered out of the Atlantic indirectly and inadvertently, not through forceful confrontation at sea and port, but in response to the reduced profitability of contraband.
Britain’s ineffective anti-piracy campaign reveals the limits of British power at sea, but also on land, vis-à-vis its constituents. Violence and property losses at sea were useful to authorities in their efforts to articulate differences between the illegitimate violence of pirates and smugglers, and legitimate force wielded by the government. And yet, the government’s attempts to extend its jurisdiction beyond coastal waters, monopolize violence, and sanction some forms of maritime commerce while delegitimizing others, were consistently resisted, ignored, and thwarted by large swaths of British society on both sides of the ocean. British subjects retained an archaic and localist conception of society, state, and law, and resisted legal and bureaucratic structures put in place by landed governments to facilitate state building.

The chronological discrepancy regarding the passing of piracy and the resultant misconception regarding Britain’s control of the Atlantic are products of historians’ modernist definition of piracy. This anachronistic understanding of piracy obscures the continued activity of pirates in the Atlantic during the “long eighteenth century” and gives credence to the presumptions of eighteenth-century governments to monopolize the use of force at sea.

The bread supply in Palma (Majorca) during the early modern age, has received little attention from researchers. The main objective of this paper is to show one specific aspect of that process: the bread baking. This essay portrays the... more

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- by Cools Hans
- •
- Early Modern History

Il presente contributo intende proporre l’evoluzione di un paesaggio urbano, che come un organismo vivente cresce e si contrae nel tempo, qual è il complesso architettonico del Quarter. Situato nel versante Sud-Est del centro storico di... more

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- by angela simula
- •
- 3
  Cartography, Early Modern History, Archeologia

There is a lot of misinformation circulating about this battle. This is largely based on retrospective accounts of the day, and some particularly partisan accounts. This section challenges these through a forensic study of eye-witness... more

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- by Steve Murdoch
- •
- 22
  Generalship, Early Modern History, War Studies, English History

London’s physical and demographic expansion between 1500 and 1700 was dramatic. The population of the city and its suburbs grew from about 50,000 to almost half a million inhabitants. Almost all this increase was in the suburbs,... more

CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title Award 2016. For more than 1500 years, Confucianism has played a major role in shaping Japan's history - from the formation of the first Japanese states during the first millennium AD, to Japan's... more

As a leading Muslim thinker, 'Abd al-Ghani al-Nabulusi of Damascus creatively engaged with the social, religious, and intellectual challenges that emerged during the early modern period in which he lived. Yet, at a time of high... more

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This is a comined book review of Katherine Ellison, Susan Kim (eds.), A Material History of Medieval and Early Modern Ciphers. Cryptography and the History of Literacy, Routledge: Oxford 2018. && Katherine Ellison, A Cultural History... more

In 1645, Philip IV replaced don Juan de Austria on the government of Flanders by Archduke Guillermo- Leopoldo. The decision was due to the aggressive policy pursued from by the court of Paris in the Mediterranean sea since 1643. The loss... more

John Smith’s Generall Historie of Virginia, New-England, and the Summer Isles (1624) canonized a settler colonial narrative activity that I call kinshipwrecking—a conventional mode of storytelling that destroys and moves to supplant... more

Early Modern History

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