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Sheds a bright light on the infancy of book publishing.
In one of his sermons, the medieval preacher Bernardino of Siena listed seven ’fathers’ to whom one owed obedience: God, one’s natural father, godfather, confessor, benefactor, a government official, and any elderly man. This book seeks to answer the question of why medieval Europeans saw the need for so many ’fathers.’ Why was fatherhood so appealing as a metaphor? Situated at the intersection of social and cultural history, the study draws upon a variety of late-medieval and early-modern sources including witness depositions, personal letters and pedagogical treatises from the city of Basel, Switzerland. It focuses on how people from different walks of life invoked ideas about fa...
This peer-reviewed conference volume examines paper and material aspects of the written word in early modern Europe. The collection is designed around three thematic strands, based on the lifecycle of handwritten documents and manuscripts and printed books: first, production of paper, second production of books and manuscripts and third, trade and exchange, and ownership of manuscripts and books. By tracing the history of paper, books and collections through case studies of historically important objects, the authors identify agents and hotspots of production, trade and ownership from both centres and peripheries of Europe from the late Middle Ages until the beginning of industrialisation. They thereby address material aspects of documents, manuscripts and books, as well as object biography, from an interdisciplinary viewpoint. By doing so this volume provides insight into actual practices of the past and the material history of written texts.
This book is the first complete and thoroughly commented English translation of Johannes Reuchlin’s Augenspiegel (1511). The translation sheds light on the author’s motive in appealing to the authorities for the preservation of Jewish books at a stage of great cultural change in Early Modern Europe. It also addresses the question of how the church and state dealt intellectually with Judaism at a time when it was considered a threat to the existence of Christianity. The translation of one of the most politically controversial sixteenth century pamphlets provides a view of the treatment of a minority’s culture with perhaps lessons for today’s world.
Early Modern Universities: Networks of Higher Education contains twenty essays by experts on early modern academic networks. Using a variety of approaches to universities, schools, and academies throughout Europe and in Central America, the book suggests pathways for future research.
In Johann Froben, Printer of Basel, Valentina Sebastiani offers a comprehensive account of the life and printing production of Froben, a major representative of early modern Europe’s most refined printing traditions. Some five centuries after they first appeared in print, Sebastiani provides a bibliography of the 329 Froben editions published in Basel between 1491 and 1527 (including an analysis of some 2,500 copies held in more than twenty-five libraries worldwide), listing the paratextual and visual elements that distinguish Froben’s books as well as economic, technical, and editorial details related to their production and distribution. Sebastiani’s study sheds new light on Froben’s family and career, his involvement in the editing and publication of Erasmus’ works, and the strategies he adopted to market them successfully.
The printed book caused an explosion of knowledge and major changes in the perception of texts. In investigating how knowledge was presented to the early modern reader, this volume treats both book-historical issues and the intersections of layout with issues of genre, content and function.
Gregor Reisch's The Philosophical pearl (Margarita Philosophica), first published in 1503 and republished 11 times in the sixteenth century, was the first extensive printed text which discussed the disciplines taught at university to achieve widespread dissemination. This distinguishes it from printed editions of individual texts of Aristotle and other authorities. It is presented as a dialogue between master and pupil, covering the seven liberal arts, natural philosophy and moral philosophy, and with illustrations throughout. It has received remarkably little attention in its own right as a work of education which helped shape the world view of sixteenth-century educated men. Its author was...
This volume deals with the intellectual world of “progressive” Benedictine and Cistercian monks who vicariously represent humanists in cloisters (Klosterhumanismus, Bibelhumanismus) in German speaking lands: Conradus Leontorius (1460-1511), Maulbronn, Benedictus Chelidonius (c. 1460-1521), Nuremberg and Vienna, Bolfgangus Marius (1469-1544), Aldersbach in Bavaria, Henricus Urbanus (c. 1470-c. 1539), Georgenthal in the region of Gotha and Erfurt, Vitus Bild Acropolitanus (1481-1529), Augsburg, Nikolaus Ellenbog (1481-1543), of Ottobeuren. For the first time in historical-theological research, new insights are provided into the world of the “social group” called Monastic Humanists who emerged next to the better known Civic Humanists within the diverse, international phenomenon of Renaissance humanism.
Following Zwingli explores history, scholarship, and memory in Reformation Zurich. The humanist culture of this city was shaped by a remarkable sodality of scholars, many of whom had been associated with Erasmus. In creating a new Christian order, Zwingli and his colleagues sought biblical, historical, literary, and political models to shape and defend their radical reforms. After Zwingli’s sudden death, the next generation was committed to the institutional and intellectual establishment of the Reformation through ongoing dialogue with the past. The essays of this volume examine the immediacy of antiquity, early Christianity, and the Middle Ages for the Zurich reformers. Their reading and...