#early modern history

[schistostegapennata]

So, just wanted to share that early modern pop-up astronomy books were a thing and they are absolutely glorious.

Here's a close-up of the little dragon-serpent guy, because he is especially magnificent.

[pathetic-gamer]

Pentiment's Complete Bibliography, with links to some hard-to-find items:

I've seen some people post screenshots of the game's bibliography, but I hadn't found a plain text version (which would be much easier to work from), so I put together a complete typed version - citation style irregularities included lol. I checked through the full list and found that only four of the forty sources can't be found easily through a search engine. One has no English translation and I'm not even close to fluent enough in German to be able to actually translate an academic article, so I can't help there. For the other three (a museum exhibit book, a master's thesis, and portions of a primary source that has not been entirely translated into English), I tracked down links to them, which are included with their entries on the list.

If you want to read one of the journal articles but can't access it due to paywalls, try out 12ft.io or the unpaywall browser extension (works on Firefox and most chromium browsers). If there's something you have interest in reading but can't track down, let me know, and I can try to help! I'm pretty good at finding things lmao

Okay, happy reading, love you bye

Beach, Alison I. Women as Scribes: Book Production and Monastic Reform in Twelfth-Century Bavaria. Cambridge Univeristy Press, 2004.

Berger, Jutta Maria. Die Geschichterder Gastfreundschaft im hochmittel alterlichen Monchtum: die Cistercienser. Akademie Verlag GmbH, 1999. [No translation found.]

Blickle, Peter. The Revolution of 1525. Translated by Thomas A. Brady, Jr. and H.C. Erik Midelfort. The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1985.

Brady, Thomas A., Jr. “Imperial Destinies: A New Biography of the Emperor Maximilian I.” The Journal of Modern History, vol 62, no. 2., 1990. pp.298-314.

Brandl, Rainer. “Art or Craft: Art and the Artist in Medieval Nuremberg.” Gothic and Renaissance Art in Nuremberg 1300-1550. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1986. [LINK]

Byars, Jana L., “Prostitutes and Prostitution in Late Medieval Bercelona.” Masters Theses. Western Michigan University, 1997. [LINK]

Cashion, Debra Taylor. “The Art of Nikolaus Glockendon: Imitation and Originality in the Art of Renaissance Germany.” Journal of Historians of Netherlandish Art, vol 2, no. 1-2, 2010.

de Hamel, Christopher. A History of Illuminated Manuscripts. Phaidon Press Limited, 1986.

Eco, Umberto. The Name of the Rose. Translated by William Weaver. Mariner Books, 2014.

Eco, Umberto. Baudolino. Translated by William Weaver. Mariner Books, 2003.

Fournier, Jacques. “The Inquisition Records of Jacques Fournier.” Translated by Nancy P. Stork. Jan Jose Univeristy, 2020. [LINK]

Geary, Patrick. “Humiliation of Saints.” In Saints and their cults: studies in religious sociology, folklore, and history. Edited by Stephen Wilson. Cambridge University Press, 1985. pp. 123-140

Harrington, Joel F. The Faithrul Executioner: Life and Death, Honor and Shame in the Turbulent Sixteenth Century. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2013.

Hertzka, Gottfired and Wighard Strehlow. Grosse Hildegard-Apotheke. Christiana-Verlag, 2017.

Hildegard von Bingen. Physica. Edited by Reiner Hildebrandt and Thomas Gloning. De Gruyter, 2010.

Julian of Norwich. Revelations of Divine Love. Translated by Barry Windeatt. Oxford Univeristy Press, 2015.

Karras, Ruth Mazo. Sexuality in Medieval Europe: Doing Unto Others. Routledge, 2017.

Kerr, Julie. Monastic Hospitality: The Benedictines in England, c.1070-c.1250. Boudell Press, 2007.

Kieckhefer, Richard. Forbidden rites: a necromancer’s manual of the fifteenth century. Sutton, 1997.

Kuemin, Beat and B. Ann Tlusty, The World of the Tavern: Public Houses in Early Modern Europe. Routledge, 2017.

Ilner, Thomas, et al. The Economy of Duerrnberg-Bei-Hallein: An Iron Age Salt-mining Center in the Austrian Alps. The Antiquaries Journal, vol 83, 2003. pp. 123-194

Lang, Benedek. Unlocked Books: Manuscripts of Learned Magic in the Medieval Libraries of Central Europe. The Pennsylvania State University Press, 2008

Lindeman, Mary. Medicine and Society in Early Modern Europe. Cambridge University Press, 2019.

Lowe, Kate. “’Representing’ Africa: Ambassadors and Princes from Christian Africa to Renaissance Italy and Portugal, 1402-1608.” Transactions of the Royal Historical Society Sixth Series, vol 17, 2007. pp. 101-128

Meyers, David. “Ritual, Confession, and Religion in Sixteenth-Century Germany.” Archiv fuer Reformationsgenshichte, vol. 89, 1998. pp. 125-143.

Murat, Zuleika. “Wall paintings through the ages: the medieval period (Italy, twelfth to fifteenth century).” Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences, vol 23, no. 191. Springer, October 2021. pp. 1-27.

Overty, Joanne Filippone. “The Cost of Doing Scribal Business: Prices of Manuscript Books in England, 1300-1483.” Book History 11, 2008. pp. 1-32.

Page, Sophie. Magic in the Cloister: Pious Motives, Illicit Interests, and Occullt Approaches to the Medieval Universe. The Pennsylvania State University Press, 2013.

Park, Katharine. “The Criminal and the Saintly Body: Autopsy and Dissectionin Renaissance Italy.” Renaissance Quarterly, vol 47, no. 1, Spring 1994. pp. 1-33.

Rebel, Hermann. Peasant Classes: The Bureaucratization of Property and Family Relations under Early Habsburg Absolutism, 1511-1636. Princeton University Press, 1983.

Rublack, Ulinka. “Pregnancy, Childbirth, and the Female Body in Early Modern Germany.” Past & Present,vol. 150, no. 1, February 1996.

Salvador, Matteo. “The Ethiopian Age of Exploration: Prester John’s Discovery of Europe, 1306-1458.” Journal of World History, vol. 21, no. 4, 2011. pp.593-627.

Sangster, Alan. “The Earliest Known Treatise on Double Entry Bookkeeping by Marino de Raphaeli.” The Accounting Historians Journal, vol. 42, no. 2, 2015. pp. 1-33.

Throop, Priscilla. Hildegarde von Bingen’s Physica: The Complete English Translation of Her Classic Work on Health and Healing. Healing Arts Press, 1998.

Usher, Abbott Payson. “The Origins of Banking: The Brimitive Bank of Deposit, 1200-1600.” The Economic History Review, vol. 4, no. 4. 1934. pp.399-428.

Waldman, Louis A. “Commissioning Art in Florence for Matthias Corvinus: The Painter and Agent Alexander Formoser and his Sons, Jacopo and Raffaello del Tedesco.” Italy and Hungary: Humanism and Art in the Early Renaissance. Edited by Peter Farbaky and Louis A. Waldman, Villa I Tatti, 2011. pp.427-501.

Wendt, Ulrich. Kultur and Jagd: ein Birschgang durch die Geschichte. G. Reimer, 1907.

Whelan, Mark. “Taxes, Wagenburgs and a Nightingale: The Imperial Abbey of Ellwangen and the Hussite Wars, 1427-1435.” The Journal of Ecclesiastical History, vol. 72, no. 4, 2021, pp.751-777.

Wiesner-Hanks, Merry E. Women and Gender in Early Modern Europe. Cambridge University Press, 2008.

Yardeni, Ada. The Book of Hebrew Script: History, Palaeography, Script Styles, Calligraphy & Design. Tyndale House Publishers, 2010.

[riteofconfession]

in small forgotten things // notes from a book i studied for my class on the history of printing

[enbycrip]

So this meme about “spinster originally being a word for a woman so good at weaving she was financially independent” seems to have made it into pretty much every group I follow, so after the best part of a week biting my hands not correcting it so as not to undercut the broader point, I’ve now been *forced* to correct it (badly) and write a screed of additional context just for my own sanity.

“Spinster” is indeed a word for women who became financially independent through the cloth and garment-making trade, but by SPINNING, ie making thread from fibres, rather than by WEAVING, which is making cloth out of thread. You can tell by the title being SPINster, not WEAVEster!

The “-ster” suffix indicates that the title is feminine; you can see it in other surnames like “sangster” and “brewster”.

This actually points to one of the traditional points about female-dominated practices; while weaving within the household to make cloth for members of the household was traditionally almost entirely done by women in the house, when weaving became a well-paid trade regulated by guilds, men began doing it and rapidly pushed out the women weavesters or websters who had started the profession and originally trained most of the male weavers.

This never happened with spinsters because spinning was never as lucrative as weaving and thus it never became a guild-regulated profession; it remained a trade women in the household practiced to supplement household income.

Single women could habitually manage to support themselves on their earnings from it, including single women living in lodgings in urban centres as well as single women living in their own cottages in rural places, which was incredibly valuable to them.

This points to one of the ways trade unions, the more modern and proletarian-focused version of guilds, are not *simply by their existence* a solution for worker liberation. Trade unions, like guilds, have frequently enforced societal misogyny by favouring male and male-read workers over female and female-read workers, often actively undercutting the needs of female and female-read workers, because of the societal trope that “men were supporting a family” and “women were working for pocket money”. this kept on applying even when many female and female-read workers were primary wage earners.

Men, especially cis men, in trade union spaces have a responsibility to keep your union intersectionally-aware and actively seek female and nonbinary delegates, officers and activists to fill roles.

As everyone who is privileged in any axis - male, white, cishet, abled - has a responsibility to actively seek representation from marginalised folk, and to actively canvas marginalised folk you represent to make sure you are fighting for needs you may not perceive. It’s easily possible for instruments of liberation to end up marginalising and oppressing marginalised folks unless there is an ongoing commitment to inclusive and liberating practice in them.

[baebeylik]

Incident in a Mosque/Divan of Hafiz.

Persian. Safavid Period. 1530.

Gifted to the Harvard University Art Museums.

[marianadecarlos]

The family of Philip IV of Spain

In the summer of 1662, Felipe IV attempted but failed to reconquer Portugal. Despite his loss, he refused to grant Portugal its independence. Meanwhile, Queen Mariana, who had recently given birth a few months to her deceased infant daughter, continued to carry on with her royal duties. The focus was on Carlos, the prince of Asturias, who could now stand but had difficulty walking. He used a mini carriage to get around the palace and was often carried and assisted by his servants.

"Margarita is as beautiful as ever, and she is growing into a young woman," Queen Mariana commented as she observed Margarita playing with her younger brother. "Let us pray that our children will experience the joys of life." King Philip IV replied While the royal couple observes their children, they are interrupted by Jose Everardo Nithard, Queen Mariana's confessor.

Jose Everardo Nithard bowed to the royal couple and said, "Your Majesty." "It is a pleasure to see you again, Padre," Queen Mariana replied.

Carlos and Margarita stopped playing when they saw José Everardo Nithard. Margarita approached the confessor and bowed to him as a sign of respect. Carlos, on the other hand, stared at the confessor.

A story I created for the fanart, the only thing that is historically accurate in this story is the first paragraph.

[cinematic-phosphenes]

Portrait of a Prince with a Hawk | 18th Century Mughal miniature, gum tempera and gold on paper 

[newhistorybooks]

Reynolds insightfully picks her way through the tumultuous advent of Reformation, the spread of printing, burgeoning lay literacy, and expanding markets to tell a complex story about the often-counterintuitive interplay between words and experience, natural and divine, manuscripts and print, and new and old knowledge in early modern England.

[morwynlefay]

the previously posted sketch of a 17th outfit has been created

[racefortheironthrone]

So, in a very brief aside when you mentioned the spoke-and-wheel model for King's Landing. You also mentioned public housing in flea bottom, sewer and water systems, and public hospitals. I'm a little curious, what would that look like in a medieval setting? How would a system with a less developed administrative system handle public housing?

Administratively, it would be a lot simpler than our modern public/social housing system. It would probably look more like charity housing than a state system that provides comprehensive services above and beyond a roof over one's head, but it could be done in the period.

This is the Fuggerei, the world's oldest continually-operating public housing that dates back to 1514. A 52-unit walled complex, these apartment buildings were a charitable donation by the famous Fugger banking family (it's good to be the personal bankers to the Hapsburgs when the Holy Roman Emperor doesn't quite understand international arbitrage in silver prices) to the poor people of Augsberg, Bavaria.

Eligibility criteria hasn't changed: in order to be eligible, residents must be living in poverty but not have debts, they must have lived in Augsburg for two years, and they must be Catholics. Likewise, rents haven't changed much: residents of the Fuggerei pay one Rhenish gulden (roughly 1 euro) a year, must say the Lord's Prayer, a Hail Mary, and the Nicene Creed once per day for the souls of the Fugger family, and must work at least part time.

So that's what public housing in Flea Bottom might look like.

[maryqos]

“The day of her execution became Mary’s most successful piece of self-presentation. The tawny petticoat she wore — the color of Catholic martyrdom — showed Mary’s chosen role for posterity. Though she left behind far less striking a body of contemporary portraits than did Elizabeth, the history painters of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries delighted in her tragedy. For as such it was almost universally seen: as the Venetian ambassador in France, Michele Surian predicted in 1569, when the English finally killed Mary, ‘her life, which till now has been compounded of comedy and tragi-comedy, would terminate at length in pure tragedy.’” 

sarah gristwood, "the queen as artist: elizabeth tudor and mary stuart."

[the-history-of-fighting]

[god-of-annwn]

Witchcraft in Wales

Only five people were found guilty and hanged for witchcraft in Wales, in comparison to the estimated 500 executions in England and somewhere between 3,000 and 4,000 in Scotland.

There was a unique outlook on witchcraft in early modern Wales. For centuries Wales has been considered as a land of magic and the supernatural. The English sometimes travelled into Wales in search for soothsayers and enchanters.

There were fears of witchcraft and black magic in Wales however, but accusations played out differently among communities. Additionally, there was a reliance of soothsayers and wise women or ‘healers’, meaning that ‘magic’ was less likely to be brought to the attention of the court.

There are some similarities between Welsh women and descriptions of witches in literature like the Malleus Maleficarum. They included appearance, unreformed religion, and the reliance on charms to heal. Some researchers theorised that the traditional black hat of the Welsh woman inspired the wide-brimmed hat of the fairy tale witch.

source: Mari Ellis Dunning, Aberystwyth University

[useless-catalanfacts]

Founded in the year 1524 and still open nowadays, this is the Pinós Inn (Hostal de Pinós in Catalan), the oldest restaurant in Catalonia that has been serving without interruption until our days.

The inn was founded to serve the pilgrims who came to the Sanctuary of Saint Mary of the Pinós, first built by the Templar Knights in the year 1312 and soon transferred to the Knights Hospitaller. According to the legend, in 1505 a man stopped to pray in this location to ask the Virgin Mary for help with the plague, and the Virgin Mary appeared to him. For this reason, the new church was built some years after and, right next to this church, the inn that could offer shelter and food to the pilgrims and travellers.

At first, the Pinós inn only served pilgrims, ill, and homeless people, but in 1677 they opened it to everyone. It continued being an inn (place where you can sleep and eat) until the 1970s, and since then it's all dedicated to being a restaurant. They still serve traditional Catalan food, with many dishes that continue being almost the same as all these centuries ago.

The Solsona Diocesan Archive still preserves the document that testifies the inn's opening in the 5th of July 1524. In it, the Lady of Pinós, Elisabet de Josa, gives permission to open the inn to the priest Narcís Garriga and the innkeeper Joan Bertrans.

Photos of the restaurant by Montse Giralt published in El Nacional. Photos of the documents by Oriol Clavera published by Descobrir. Information from Generalitat de Catalunya and Pep Antoni Roig (El Nacional).

[enbycrip]

Letting kids see a different, discursive take on history is really cool and really important.

It’s why I think there is still a genuinely radical element to Hamilton despite all its issues with lionising the Founding Fathers - because it’s asking people to imagine a history where this was possible.

Not to mention, tbh, this is actually kind of an incredible nod to the debt that European Enlightenment-era science owed to the scientific tradition in Asia and the Middle East, which Eurocentric history has been ignoring for centuries.

If a British kid sees this and digs into Newton’s life, they might well be disappointed to find out that he was actually white, but hopefully they’ll then find out about Ibn al-Haytham (known in Europe as Alhazen) and see the enormous debt Newton’s work owes to his.

[baebeylik]

Calligraphic Galleon. Abd al-Qadir Hisari.

Ottoman Empire. 1767 CE.

Housed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.