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Naval Intelligence from Germany: The Reports of the British Naval Attachés in Berlin, 1906–1914 (Navy Records Society Publications #Vol. 152)
by Matthew S. SeligmannDuring the course of the Anglo-German naval race, the British Admiralty found a regular flow of information on Germany's naval policy, on her warship construction and on the technical progress of her fleet to be absolutely vital. It was only on the basis of accurate calculations of Germany's maritime development that the framers of British naval policy could formulate a coherent response to this alarming challenge to the Royal Navy's long-standing supremacy at sea. While numerous sources were available to the Admiralty on the development of the German navy the most important, was the information provided by the British naval attaché in Berlin. From his meetings with German officials, conversations at social occasions, visits to naval facilities and shipyards, and personal observations of German naval politics, the British naval attaché was able to supply a regular stream of high-grade intelligence to his superiors in Whitehall. This volume examines and illustrates the work of the last four officers to hold the post of naval attaché in Berlin before the cataclysm of 1914, Captains Dumas, Heath, Watson and Henderson. By providing examples of their reporting on such crucial matters as the expansion of the German battle fleet, the goals of Admiral von Tirpitz, the development of German naval materiel, including Dreadnoughts, U-boats and airships, this volume of attaché correspondence illustrates a fundamental, but neglected, dimension of the Anglo-German naval race before the First World War: namely, the role of the navy's 'man on the spot' in Berlin.
Naval Power and British Culture, 1760–1850: Public Trust and Government Ideology
by Roger MorrissRecent work on the growth of British naval power during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries has emphasised developments in the political, constitutional and financial infrastructure of the British state. Naval Power and British Culture, 1760-1850 takes these considerations one step further, and examines the relationship of administrative culture within government bureaucracy to contemporary perceptions of efficiency in the period 1760-1850. By administrative culture is meant the ideas, attitudes, structures, practices and mores of public employees. Inevitably these changed over time and this shift is examined as the naval departments passed through times of crisis and peace. Focusing on the transition in the culture of government employees in the naval establishments in London - in the Navy and Victualling Offices - as well as the victualling yard towns along the Thames and Medway, Naval Power and British Culture, 1760-1850 concerns itself with attitudes at all levels of the organisation. Yet it is concerned above all with those whose views and conduct are seldom reported, the clerks, artificers, secretaries and commissioners; those employees of government who lived in local communities and took their work experience back home with them. As such, this book illuminates not only the employees of government, but also the society which surrounded and impinged upon naval establishments, and the reciprocal nature of their attitudes and influences.
Negotiating the French Pox in Early Modern Germany (The History of Medicine in Context)
by Claudia SteinThis book explores the identity of the 'French disease' (alias the 'French pox' or 'Morbus Gallicus') in the German Imperial city of Augsburg between 1495 and 1630. Rejecting the imposition of modern conceptions of disease upon the past, it reveals how early modern medical theory facilitated enormous flexibility in defining disease, and how disease identification was a local matter, and one of constant negotiation and renegotiation. Drawing on a wealth of primary source material this work combines concern with the conceptualisation of the disease with its practical application, and argues for the inseparability of both. It focuses on how theoretical understanding of the pox shaped the various therapeutic reactions, and vice versa. It exemplifies this in the specific socio-cultural context of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Augsburg, through an investigation of the city's municipal and private pox hospitals. Combining medical, religious, economic, municipal and institutional history this book offers a fascinating insight into how early modern society came to terms with disease both in a practical and theoretical sense. This revised English translation of Dr Stein's original German book adds new layers of understanding to a fascinating but complex subject.
Negotiating the Jacobean Printed Book
by Pete LangmanBy examining the spaces where authors, printers and readers interact, Negotiating the Jacobean Printed Book highlights the manner in which contemporary culture and canon not only co-existed but mutually nourished and affected one another. An international group of book history scholars look beyond the traditional literary and canonical texts to explore, amongst other things, the physical nature of books and their place in Jacobean society. The contributors interrogate not just the texts themselves, but the habits, proclamations, letters and problems encountered by authors, printers and readers. Ranging from the funding of perhaps the most important book of the early Jacobean period, the 1611 AV Bible, and the ways in which it changed the balance of power in the King's Printers, to how the importation of Continental drill manuals by professional soldiers influenced the Privy council, the essays focus on the fissures which open up between practice and proclamation, between manuscript and press, and between print and parliament. Together these essays nuance our understanding of how print culture affected, and was affected by, wider cultural concerns; the volume constitutes a compelling contribution to both literary and historical studies of early modern England.
Neville Chamberlain: A Biography
by Robert SelfHistory has not looked kindly upon Neville Chamberlain. Despite a long and distinguished political career, his trip to Munich in 1938 and the 'appeasement' of Hitler have forever overshadowed his many other achievements and blighted his reputation, his name now synonymous with the futility of trying to reason with dictators and bullies. Yet, as this biography shows, there is much more to this complex and intriguing character than is generally supposed, and even the infamous events of 1938 are open to more charitable interpretations than is usually the case. Appeasement brought the British government crucial time in which to rearm, and in particular allowed the RAF to drastically increase the number of fighter aircraft it could muster for the Battle of Britain during the summer of 1940. Based on the study of over 150 collections of private papers on both sides of the Atlantic, as well as exhaustive exploration of British government records held in the National Archives, it is no exaggeration to say that the author has surveyed virtually all the existing archival material written by or to Chamberlain, as well as a high proportion of that referring to him. As such, this volume will no doubt establish itself as the definitive account of Chamberlain's life and career, and provide a much fuller and fairer picture of his actions than has hitherto been the case.
New Turkes: Dramatizing Islam and the Ottomans in Early Modern England
by Matthew DimmockEarly Modern England was obsessed with the 'turke'. Following the first Ottoman siege of Vienna in 1529 the printing presses brought endless prayer sheets, pamphlets and books concerning this 'infidel' threat before the public in the vernacular for the first time. As this body of knowledge increased, stimulated by a potent combination of domestic politics, further Ottoman incursions and trade, English notions of Islam and of the 'turke' became nuanced in a way that begins to question the rigid assumptions of traditional critical enquiry. New Turkes: Dramatizing Islam and the Ottomans in Early Modern England explores the ways in which print culture helped define and promulgate a European construction of 'Turkishness' that was nebulous and ever shifting. By placing in context the developing encounters between the Ottoman and Christian worlds, it shows how ongoing engagements reflected the nature of the 'Turke' in sixteenth century English literature. By offering readings of texts by artists, poets and playwrights - especially canonical figures like Kyd, Marlowe and Shakespeare - a bewildering variety of approaches to Islam and the 'turke' is revealed fundamentally questioning any dominant, defining narrative of 'otherness'. In so doing, this book demonstrates how continuing English encounters, both real and fictional, with Muslims complicated the notion of the 'Turke'. It also shows how the Anglo-Ottoman relationship - which was at its peak in the mid-1590s - was viewed with suspicion by Catholic Europe, particularly the apparent ritual and devotional similarities between England's reformed church and Islam. That the 'new turkes' were not Ottoman Muslims, but English Protestants, serves as a timely riposte to the decisive rhetoric of contemporary conflicts and modern scholarly assumption.
Northern Identities: Historical Interpretations of ‘the North’ and ‘Northernness’
by Neville KirkRecent years have witnessed an explosion of academic and popular interest in the issue of social identity. Yet the subject areas of regional and sub-regional identities, and historical engagements between ’the regional’, ’the local’ and ’the national’, remain very neglected. Seeking to make a contribution towards redressing these areas of neglect and to further advancing our knowledge and understanding of the general issue of social identity, this volume of essays offers the reader an exploration of some of the rich and varied, historical interpretations of ’the North’ and ’Northernness’. The focus rests mainly, but not exclusively, upon the North of England. Taken as a whole, the essays highlight the contingent, fluid, and ambiguous nature of ’Northenness’, its complex and shifting interplay with feelings of localism and nationalism, and the profound, if varying, influences of class, race, gender, sport, tourism, music and political and economic structures and concerns upon ’northern’ identities. This book will hold a general appeal to readers interested in the issue of social identity, especially in its regional and local manifestations and engagements. It will find a wide readership across the humanities and social sciences. It should be compulsory reading for those in New Labour addressing the issue of the ’North-South divide’.
Obedient Heretics: Mennonite Identities in Lutheran Hamburg and Altona During the Confessional Age (St Andrews Studies in Reformation History)
by Michael D. DriedgerThis case study examines the history of the Netherlandic Mennonite community living in and around Hamburg after the Thirty Years War. Based on detailed archival research, it expands the scope of Radical Reformation studies to include the confessional age (c. 1550-1750). During this period Mennonites had to conform politically while trying to preserve many of the nonconformist ideals of their forebears, such as the refusal to baptize children, bear arms and swear solemn oaths. The research presented in Obedient Heretics will, therefore, be of interest to scholars of minority communities in addition to those concerned with the Reformation's legacy, confessionalization and confessional identity.
Observing God: Thomas Dick, Evangelicalism, and Popular Science in Victorian Britain and America
by William J. AstoreScottish theologian, educator, astronomer and popularizer of science, Thomas Dick (1774-1857) promoted a Christianized form of science to inhibit secularization, to win converts to Christianity, and to persuade evangelicals that science was sacred. His devotional theology of nature made radical claims for cultural authority. This book presents the first detailed analysis of his life and works. After an extended biographical introduction, Dick's theology of nature is examined within the context of natural theology, and also his views on the plurality of worlds, the nebular hypothesis and geology. Other chapters deal with Dick's use of aesthetics to shape social behaviour for millennial purposes, and with the publishing history of his works, their availability and their reception. In the final part, the author explores Dick's influence in America. His pacifism won him Northern evangelical supporters, while his writings dominated the burgeoning field of popular science, powerfully shaping science's cultural meaning and its uses.
Omnia disce – Medieval Studies in Memory of Leonard Boyle, O.P. (Church, Faith and Culture in the Medieval West)
by Joan GreatrexThe eighteen studies included here reflect three particular aspects of Leonard Boyle's remarkable impact on teaching and scholarship. His abiding interest in the early history and architecture of the basilica of San Clemente in Rome forms the focus of Part I; his profound contribution to the theory and practice of palaeography is reflected in Part II; and his creative work on clerical education, pastoral care, and the Dominican Order, inspires Part III. In all these areas, Fr Boyle combined remarkable attention to detail with the humane ability to bring clarity to complex issues. This book commemorates his inspiration, but also reflects his favourite maxim, derived from the twelfth-century teacher-theologian, Hugh of St-Victor, to 'Learn everything', for 'afterwards you will find that nothing is superfluous.' The fourth section is devoted to Fr Leonard as friend, scholar, and Prefect of the Vatican Library, and it ends, fittingly, with what may be regarded as his own scholarly valediction, 'St Thomas Aquinas and the Third Millennium'.
On the Eighteenth Century as a Category of Asian History: Van Leur in Retrospect
by Leonard Blussé Femme S GaastraThe starting point of this volume is the scathing attack, far-reaching in its consequences, launched in 1942 by J.C. van Leur on the views then current on the character and significance of the 18th century as a category in Asian history. His denial of European pre-eminence in Asian waters represented a direct attack on colonial historiography. The essays here derive from an international conference held 50 years later, to assess the impact of van Leur’s work. In part historiographic, in part drawing on new research, they aim to delimit the boundaries of European-Asian interaction, and to provide case studies of what this period actually meant for the history of South and East Aia.
Ordering Law: The Architectural and Social History of the English Law Court to 1914
by Clare GrahamOver the last thirty years, historical studies of building types have become something of a growth area. As well as such general surveys as Nikolaus Pevsner's History of Building Types, there are growing numbers of studies of individual types, of which the most distinguished perhaps remain Mark Girouard's Life in the English Country House and Robin Evan's study of prisons, The Fabrication of Virtue. This growth is not surprising, because the subject lends itself to the 'New Art History', and to our increasing desire to set buildings within their social and cultural contexts, as well as their stylistic and cultural ones. This book by Dr Graham is a comprehensive study of a type of building - the law court - which has, to date, remained largely unexplored. Ordering Law establishes when, why and how the trial came to be housed in purpose-built accommodation in England, and what was architecturally distinctive about that accommodation in the period leading up to 1914. The main text concentrates on examining in depth a series of well-documented individual buildings and groups of buildings, using a wide range of contemporary sources to illuminate the way in which they were designed and used. Other information gleaned about court buildings nationwide is placed in an appendix, in gazetteer form; originally drawn from the 200 or so examples listed in the Buildings of England guides, this has expanded to include over 800 entries. As a piece of scholarly research, this work draws on several disciplines and will be of interest to those studying social and legal history, as well as those with a broader interest in architectural history.
Ordering Women’s Lives: Penitentials and Nunnery Rules in the Early Medieval West
by Julie Ann SmithThis book takes an innovative approach to the study of the penitentials and nunnery rules and the ways in which these texts impinged upon the lives of female audiences. The study emphasises the importance of the texts for the promotion of Christian values and of the expectations of churchmen in the construction of appropriate Christian behaviour for women in the early medieval West. These texts constitute the only written works which would have had direct influence upon the lives of lay and religious women. The work focuses upon the elements of the penitentials which provided female-specific expectations, and these fall largely into two categories of sexuality and pre-Christian practices. The nunnery rules seldom provided comprehensive sets of behavioural expectations. Rather, rules emphasised expectations relating to issues of enclosure, work and abstinence which came to be perceived as the defining characteristics of religious women.
Ottoman Women Builders: The Architectural Patronage of Hadice Turhan Sultan (Women and Gender in the Early Modern World)
by Lucienne Thys-SenocakExamined here is the historical figure and architectural patronage of Hadice Turhan Sultan, the young mother of the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed IV, who for most of the latter half of the seventeenth century shaped the political and cultural agenda of the Ottoman court. Captured in Russia at the age of twelve, she first served the reigning sultan's mother in Istanbul. She gradually rose through the ranks of the Ottoman harem, bore a male child to Sultan Ibrahim, and came to power as a valide sultan, or queen mother, in 1648. It was through her generous patronage of architectural works-including a large mosque, a tomb, a market complex in the city of Istanbul and two fortresses at the entrance to the Dardanelles-that she legitimated her new political authority as a valide and then attempted to support that of her son. Central to this narrative is the question of how architecture was used by an imperial woman of the Ottoman court who, because of customary and religious restrictions, was unable to present her physical self before her subjects' gaze. In lieu of displaying an iconic image of herself, as Queen Elizabeth and Catherine de Medici were able to do, Turhan Sultan expressed her political authority and religious piety through the works of architecture she commissioned. Traditionally historians have portrayed the role of seventeenth-century royal Ottoman women in the politics of the empire as negative and de-stabilizing. But Thys-Senocak, through her examination of these architectural works as concrete expressions of legitimate power and piety, shows the traditional framework to be both sexist and based on an outdated paradigm of decline. Thys-Senocak's research on Hadice Turhan Sultan's two Ottoman fortresses of Seddülbahir and Kumkale improves in a significant way our understanding of early modern fortifications in the eastern Mediterranean region and will spark further research on many of the Ottoman fortifications built in the area. Plans and elevations of the fortresses are published and analysed here for the first time. Based on archival research, including letters written by the queen mother, many of which are published here for the first time, and archaeological fieldwork, her work is also informed by recent theoretical debates in the fields of art history, cultural history and gender studies.
Papal Banking in Renaissance Rome: Benvenuto Olivieri and Paul III, 1534–1549 (Studies in Banking and Financial History)
by Francesco Guidi BruscoliBenvenuto Olivieri was a Florentine banker active in Rome during the first half of the sixteenth century. A self made man without any great family patrimony, he rose to prominence during the pontificate of Pope Paul III, becoming involved with a variety of papal enterprises which allowed him to get to the heart of the mechanisms governing the papal finances. Amassing a considerable fortune along the way, Olivieri soon built himself a role as co-ordinator of the appalti (revenue farms) and became one of the most powerful players in the complex network that connected bankers and the papal revenue. This book explores the indissoluble link that had developed between the papacy and bankers, illuminating how the Apostolic Chamber, increasingly in need of money, could not meet its debts, without farming out the rights to future income. Utilising documents from a rich corpus of unpublished sources in Florence and Rome, Guidi Bruscoli unravels the web of financial connections that bound together Florentine and Genoese bankers with the papacy, and looks at how money was raised and the appalti managed.
Paradosiaká: Music, Meaning and Identity in Modern Greece (SOAS Studies in Music)
by Eleni KallimopoulouSince the 1980s, musicians and audiences in Athens have been rediscovering musical traditions associated with the Ottoman period of Greek history. The result of this revivalist movement has been the urban musical style of 'paradosiaká' ('traditional'). Drawing from a varied repertoire that includes Turkish art music and folk and popular musics of Greece and Turkey, and identified by the use of instruments which previously had little or no performing tradition in Greece, paradosiaká has had to define itself by negotiating contrastive tendencies towards differentiation and a certain degree of overlapping in relation to a range of indigenous Greek musics. This monograph explores paradosiaká as a musical style and as a field of discourse, seeking to understand the relation between sound and meanings constructed through sound. It draws on interviews, commercial recordings, written musical discourse, and the author's own experience as a practising paradosiaká musician. Some main themes discussed in the book are the migration of instruments from Turkey to Greece; the process of 'indigenization' whereby paradosiaká was imbued with local meanings and aesthetic value; the accommodation of the style within official and popular discourses of 'Greekness'; its prophetic role in the rapprochement of Greek culture with modern Turkey and with suppressed aspects of the Greek Ottoman legacy; as well as the varied worldviews and current musical dilemmas of individual practitioners in the context of professionalization, commercialization, and the intensification of cross-cultural contact. The text is richly illustrated with transcriptions, illustrations and includes downloadable resources. The book makes a valuable contribution to ethnomusicology, cultural studies, as well as to the study of the Balkans and the Mediterranean.
Parish Churches in the Early Modern World
by Andrew SpicerAcross Europe, the parish church has stood for centuries at the centre of local communities; it was the focal point of its religious life, the rituals performed there marked the stages of life from the cradle to the grave. Nonetheless the church itself artistically and architecturally stood apart from the parish community. It was often the largest and only stone-built building in a village; it was legally distinct being subject to canon law, as well as consecrated for the celebration of religious rites. The buildings associated with the "cure of souls" were sacred sites or holy places, where humanity interacted with the divine. In spite of the importance of the parish church, these buildings have generally not received the same attention from historians as non-parochial places of worship. This collection of essays redresses this balance and reflects on the parish church across a number of confessions - Catholic, Lutheran, Reformed and Anti-Trinitarian - during the early modern period. Rather than providing a series of case studies of individual buildings, each essay looks at the evolution of parish churches in response to religious reform as well as confessional change and upheaval. They examine aspects of their design and construction; furnishings and material culture; liturgy and the use of the parish church. While these essays range widely across Europe, the volume also considers how religious provision and the parish church were translated into a global context with colonial and commercial expansion in the Americas and Asia. This interdisciplinary volume seeks to identify what was distinctive about the parish church for the congregations that gathered in them for worship and for communities across the early modern world.
Patents, Pictures and Patronage: John Day and the Tudor Book Trade (St Andrews Studies in Reformation History)
by Elizabeth EvendenJohn Day (1522-1584) is generally acknowledged to be the foremost English printer of the later sixteenth century. As well as printing some of the most important books of his day, most notably John Foxe's Acts and Monuments, he also pioneered enormous advances in English typography and book illustration. Yet despite his revered position in printing history, this book is the first full-length study to look into Day's life and legacy. Scholars have paid much attention of late to the Acts and Monuments but without placing it within the context of Day's overall business strategy. He was a printer whose success and range of titles, like his connections and influence, went far beyond John Foxe. Day may have gained his notoriety as the printer of Foxe's book but in order to understand both the man and his business, as Evenden shows, we must look at the wider range of Day's productions and the motivation behind them. The study begins by setting Day in the context of the sixteenth-century printing industry, examining his disputed origins and his establishment as a London printer. A number of Day's most celebrated Elizabethan productions are then discussed in detail, in order to understand not only his business strategies but also his religious and political affiliations throughout this period; similarly, Evenden examines his connections with the Stranger communities in London, and how they assisted Day's business and helped to enhance his reputation. Throughout the book it is argued that Day's printing empire and wealth were founded on a combination of two crucial factors: outstanding technical skills, and the ability to attract patrons and patents. Day carried out technically demanding printing assignments (most notably the heavily illustrated Acts and Monuments) for leading Elizabethan statesmen and churchmen and was rewarded with exclusive rights to print more lucrative works such as the ABC, Catechism, and Metrical Psalms. Thus, his success rested on both cheap and exp
Penitence in the Age of Reformations (St Andrews Studies in Reformation History)
by Anne T. Thayer Katharine Jackson LualdiThis volume is comprised of thirteen essays that explore penitential teachings and practices from the late fifteenth to the early seventeenth centuries in Western Europe and its colonies. Together the essays reveal that in this period, penitence was an increasingly important force shaping the individual and society. Consequently, the authors argue, penitence is central to our understanding of early modern Christianity as it was taught and experienced in everyday life. From Germany to France and to the Americas, Catholics turned to traditional forms of penitence not only to save individual souls, but also to assert their confessional identity. For their part, Protestants established distinctive penitential approaches and institutions in accordance with their own understandings of sin and salvation. In thus examining the treatment of post-baptismal sin across chronological and confessional boundaries, the volume breaks new ground in the history of penance. The volume concludes with a postscript assessing the ways in which the essays enrich the current state of scholarship on penitence and encourage further research. Katharine Jackson Lualdi is an independent scholar. Anne T. Thayer is Assistant Professor of Church History at Lancaster Theological Seminary, Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
Penitence, Preaching and the Coming of the Reformation (St Andrews Studies in Reformation History)
by Anne T. ThayerWhy did the Reformation take root in some places and not others? Although many factors were involved, the varying character of penitential preaching across Europe in the decades prior to the Reformation was an especially important contributor to the subsequent receptivity of evangelical ideas. In this book, several collections of model sermons are studied to provide an overview of late medieval teaching on penitence. What emerges is a pattern of differing emphases in different geographical locations, with the characteristic emphases of the penitential message in each region suggesting how such teaching prepared the ground for both the appeal and the reputation of Luther's message. People heard and interpreted the new theology using the late medieval penitential understandings and expectations they had been taught. The variety of teaching found in the Church left different regions vulnerable or resistant to evangelical critiques and alternatives. Despite current academic claims that the establishment of the Reformation cannot have resulted from lay religious understanding, this study offers evidence that theological ideas did reach beyond religious elites to promote a degree of popular support for the Reformation.
Peoples of the Pacific: The History of Oceania to 1870 (The Pacific World: Lands, Peoples and History of the Pacific, 1500-1900 #3)
by Paul D'ArcyPresenting the history of the inhabitants of the Pacific Islands from first colonization until the spread of European colonial rule in the later 19th century, this volume focuses specifically on Pacific Islander-European interactions from the perspective of Pacific Islanders themselves. A number of recorded traditions are reproduced as well as articles by Pacific Island scholars working within the academy. The nature of Pacific History as a sub-discipline is presented through a sample of key articles from the 1890s until the present that represent the historical evolution of the field and its multidisciplinary nature. The volume reflects on how the indigenous inhabitants of the Pacific Islands have a history as dynamic and complex as that of literate societies, and one that is more retrievable through multidisciplinary approaches than often realized.
Perceptions of Retailing in Early Modern England (The History of Retailing and Consumption)
by Nancy Cox Karin DannehlWhilst there has been much recent scholarly work on retailing during the early modern period, less is known about how people at the time perceived retailing, both as onlookers, artists and commentators, and as participants. Centred on the general theme of perceptions, the authors address this gap in our knowledge by looking at a different aspect of consumption. They focus on two ancillary themes: the first is location and how contemporaries perceived the settlements in which there were shops; the other is distance. Pictures, prints, novels, diaries and promotional literature of the tradespeople themselves provide much of the evidence. Many of these sources are not new to historians, but they have not been scrutinized and analysed with the questions in mind that are posed here. The methodology to be employed has been developed by Nancy Cox over the last decade, and is used successfully in her book The Complete Tradesman and in the compilation of the forthcoming Dictionary of Traded Goods and Commodities 1550-1800. This book will find a ready market with scholars concerned with British social and economic history in the early modern period. Although it is first and foremost a book written by historians for historians, it nevertheless borrows concepts and approaches from various disciplines concerned with theories of consumption, material culture and representational art.
Performing Maternity in Early Modern England (Studies in Performance and Early Modern Drama)
by Kathryn R. McPhersonPerforming Maternity in Early Modern England features essays that share a common concern with exploring maternity's cultural representation, performative aspects and practical consequences in the period from 1540-1690. The essays interrogate how early modern texts depict fertility, conception, delivery and gendered constructions of maternity by analyzing a wealth of historical documents and images in conjunction with dramatic and non-dramatic literary texts. They emphasize that the embodied, repeated and public nature of maternity defines it as inherently performative and ultimately central to the production of gender identity during the early modern period.
Personification in the Greek World: From Antiquity to Byzantium (Publications of the Centre for Hellenic Studies, King's College London #Vol. 7)
by Judith HerrinPersonification, the anthropomorphic representation of any non-human thing, is a ubiquitous feature of ancient Greek literature and art. Natural phenomena (earth, sky, rivers), places (cities, countries), divisions of time (seasons, months, a lifetime), states of the body (health, sleep, death), emotions (love, envy, fear), and political concepts (victory, democracy, war) all appear in human, usually female, form. Some have only fleeting incarnations, others become widely-recognised figures, and others again became so firmly established as deities in the imagination of the community that they received elements of cult associated with the Olympian gods. Though often seen as a feature of the Hellenistic period, personifications can be found in literature, art and cult from the Archaic period onwards; with the development of the art of allegory in the Hellenistic period, they came to acquire more 'intellectual' overtones; the use of allegory as an interpretative tool then enabled personifications to survive the advent of Christianity, to remain familiar figures in the art and literature of Late Antiquity and beyond. The twenty-one papers presented here cover personification in Greek literature, art and religion from its pre-Homeric origins to the Byzantine period. Classical Athens features prominently, but other areas of both mainland Greece and the Greek East are well represented. Issues which come under discussion include: problems of identification and definition; the question of gender; the status of personifications in relation to the gods; the significance of personification as a literary device; the uses and meanings of personification in different visual media; personification as a means of articulating place, time and worldly power. The papers reflect the enormous range of contexts in which personification occurs, indicating the ubiquity of the phenomenon in the ancient Greek world.
Petrarch's English Laurels, 1475–1700: A Compendium of Printed References and Allusions
by Jackson Campbell Boswell and Gordon Mcmurry BradenThe powerful influence of Petrarch on the development of Renaissance vernacular poetry has long been recognized as one of the major factors in early modern cultural history; this work provides a far more comprehensive catalogue of the direct evidence for that influence in England than any yet available. Following the model of Boswell's Dante's Fame in England (1999), it offers an itemized presentation, year by year, of printed citations, translations, and allusions, with complete bibliographical information, quotations of the relevant passages, and brief commentary. The most fully studied aspect of Petrarch's influence, his love poetry as a model for imitation, remains paramount: a model by turns slavishly imitated, ruthlessly mocked, and searchingly reworked, sometimes all at the same time. But the significance of other aspects of his legacy are also documented, with new fullness: notably his Latin prose works-especially his encyclopedic moral treatise On the Remedies of Both Kinds of Fortune, popular throughout the period-and his polemics against the Avignon papacy, which earned him a strong reputation in England as an angry moral prophet and champion of what would become the Protestant cause. The picture here presented provides new texture and complexity for any further discussion of Petrarch in the English Renaissance.