Download or read book Cultures of Correspondence in Early Modern Britain written by James Daybell and published by University of Pennsylvania Press. This book was released on 2016-06-28 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Cultures of Correspondence in Early Modern Britain leading scholars approach the letter from different disciplinary perspectives to illuminate its workings. Contributors to this volume examine how elements, such as handwriting, seals, ink, and use of space, were vitally significant to how letters communicated.
Download or read book The Material Letter in Early Modern England written by J. Daybell and published by Springer. This book was released on 2012-04-24 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first major socio-cultural study of manuscript letters and letter-writing practices in early modern England. Daybell examines a crucial period in the development of the English vernacular letter before Charles I's postal reforms in 1635, one that witnessed a significant extension of letter-writing skills throughout society.
Download or read book Elizabethan Diplomacy and Epistolary Culture written by Elizabeth R. Williamson and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2021-05-23 with total page 191 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A new account of Elizabethan diplomacy with an original archival foundation, this book examines the world of letters underlying diplomacy and political administration by exploring a material text never before studied in its own right: the diplomatic letter-book. Author Elizabeth R. Williamson argues that a new focus on the central activity of information gathering allows us to situate diplomacy in its natural context as one of several intertwined areas of crown service, and as one of the several sites of production of political information under Elizabeth I. Close attention to the material features of these letter-books elucidates the environment in which they were produced, copied, and kept, and exposes the shared skills and practices of diplomatic activity, domestic governance, and early modern archiving. This archaeological exploration of epistolary and archival culture establishes a métier of state actor that participates in – even defines – a notably early modern growth in administration and information management. Extending this discussion to our own conditions of access, a new parallel is drawn across two ages of information obsession as Williamson argues that the digital has a natural place in this textual history that we can no longer ignore. This study makes significant contributions to epistolary culture, diplomatic history, and early modern studies more widely, by showing that understanding Elizabethan diplomacy takes us far beyond any single ambassador or agent defined as such: it is a way into an entire administrative landscape and political culture.
Download or read book Emotional Settings in Early Modern Pedagogical Culture written by Judith Owens and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2020-05-30 with total page 223 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is notable for bringing together humanist schooling and familial instruction under the banner of emotions and for studying seminal works of early modern literature within this new analytical context. It thus furnishes unique ways to think about two closely interrelated moral imperatives: shaping boys into civil subjects; and fashioning heroic agency and selfhood in literature. In tracing the emotional dynamics of the humanist classroom, this book shows just how thoroughly school could accommodate resistance to authority and foster unruly boys. In gauging the emotional pressures at work in filial relationships, it shows how profoundly sons could experience patriarchal authority as provisional, negotiable, or damaging. In turning to Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Spenser’s Prince Arthur, and Sidney’s Arcadian heroes, Emotional Settings highlights the ways in which the respective emotional and moral imperatives of home and school could bring conflicting pressures to bear in the formation of heroic agency – and at what cost. Engaging and accessible, this book will appeal to scholars interested in early modern literature, pedagogy, histories of emotion, and histories of the family, as well as to graduate students and advanced undergraduate students in these fields.
Download or read book Women and Epistolary Agency in Early Modern Culture 1450 1690 written by James Daybell and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-06-10 with total page 332 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Women and Epistolary Agency in Early Modern Culture, 1450–1690 is the first collection to examine the gendered nature of women’s letter-writing in England and Ireland from the late-fifteenth century through to the Restoration. The essays collected here represent an important body of new work by a group of international scholars who together look to reorient the study of women’s letters in the contexts of early modern culture. The volume builds upon recent approaches to the letter, both rhetorical and material, that have the power to transform the ways in which we understand, study and situate early modern women’s letter-writing, challenging misconceptions of women’s letters as intrinsically private, domestic and apolitical. The essays in the volume embrace a range of interdisciplinary approaches: historical, literary, palaeographic, linguistic, material and gender-based. Contributors deal with a variety of issues related to early modern women’s correspondence in England and Ireland. These include women’s rhetorical and persuasive skills and the importance of gendered epistolary strategies; gender and the materiality of the letter as a physical form; female agency, education, knowledge and power; epistolary networks and communication technologies. In this volume, the study of women’s letters is not confined to writings by women; contributors here examine not only the collaborative nature of some letter-writing but also explore how men addressed women in their correspondence as well as some rich examples of how women were constructed in and through the letters of men. As a whole, the book stands as a valuable reassessment of the complex gendered nature of early modern women’s correspondence.
Download or read book The Routledge Handbook of Material Culture in Early Modern Europe written by Catherine Richardson and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2016-09-13 with total page 506 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Routledge Handbook of Material Culture in Early Modern Europe marks the arrival of early modern material culture studies as a vibrant, fully-established field of multi-disciplinary research. The volume provides a rounded, accessible collection of work on the nature and significance of materiality in early modern Europe – a term that embraces a vast range of objects as well as addressing a wide variety of human interactions with their physical environments. This stimulating view of materiality is distinctive in asking questions about the whole material world as a context for lived experience, and the book considers material interactions at all social levels. There are 27 chapters by leading experts as well as 13 feature object studies to highlight specific items that have survived from this period (defined broadly as c.1500–c.1800). These contributions explore the things people acquired, owned, treasured, displayed and discarded, the spaces in which people used and thought about things, the social relationships which cluster around goods – between producers, vendors and consumers of various kinds – and the way knowledge travels around those circuits of connection. The content also engages with wider issues such as the relationship between public and private life, the changing connections between the sacred and the profane, or the effects of gender and social status upon lived experience. Constructed as an accessible, wide-ranging guide to research practice, the book describes and represents the methods which have been developed within various disciplines for analysing pre-modern material culture. It comprises four sections which open up the approaches of various disciplines to non-specialists: ‘Definitions, disciplines, new directions’, ‘Contexts and categories’, ‘Object studies’ and ‘Material culture in action’. This volume addresses the need for sustained, coherent comment on the state, breadth and potential of this lively new field, including the work of historians, art historians, museum curators, archaeologists, social scientists and literary scholars. It consolidates and communicates recent developments and considers how we might take forward a multi-disciplinary research agenda for the study of material culture in periods before the mass production of goods.
Download or read book English Renaissance Manuscript Culture written by Steven W. May and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2023-07-15 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: English Renaissance Manuscript Culture: The Paper Revolution traces the development of a new type of scribal culture in England that emerged early in the fourteenth century. The main medieval writing surfaces of parchment and wax tablets were augmented by a writing medium that was both lasting and cheap enough to be expendable. Writing was transformed from a near monopoly of professional scribes employed by the upper class to a practice ordinary citizens could afford. Personal correspondence, business records, notebooks on all sorts of subjects, creative writing, and much more flourished at social levels where they had previously been excluded by the high cost of parchment. Steven W. May places literary manuscripts and in particular poetic anthologies in this larger scribal context, showing how its innovative features affected both authorship and readership. As this amateur scribal culture developed, the medieval professional culture expanded as well. Classes of documents formerly restricted to parchment often shifted over to paper, while entirely new classes of documents were added to the records of church and state as these institutions took advantage of relatively inexpensive paper. Paper stimulated original composition by making it possible to draft, revise, and rewrite works in this new, affordable medium. Amateur scribes were soon producing an enormous volume of manuscript works of all kinds—works they could afford to circulate in multiple copies. England's ever-increasing literate population developed an informal network that transmitted all kinds of texts from single sheets to book-length documents efficiently throughout the kingdom. The operation of restrictive coteries had little if any role in the mass circulation of manuscripts through this network. However, paper was cheap enough that manuscripts could also be readily disposed of (unlike expensive parchment). More than 90% of the output from this scribal tradition has been lost, a fact that tends to distort our understanding and interpretation of what has survived. May illustrates these conclusions with close analysis of representative manuscripts.
Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of the Age of Shakespeare written by Robert Malcolm Smuts and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2016 with total page 849 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Rather than seeking to survey the historical 'background' to Shakespeare, the essays in the collection display a variety of perspectives, insights and methodologies found in current historical work that may also inform literary studies. In addition to Elizabethan and early seventeenth century polities, they examine such topics as the characteristics of the early modern political imagination; the growth of public controversy over religion and other issues duringthe period and ways in which this can be related to drama; attitudes about honour and shame and their relation to concepts of gender; histories of crime and murder; and ways in which changing attitudeswere expressed through architecture, printed images and the layout of Tudor gardens.
Download or read book Essex written by Annaliese Connolly and published by Manchester University Press. This book was released on 2016-05-16 with total page 504 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection of new essays about the earl of Essex, one of the most important figures of the Elizabethan court, resituates his life and career within the richly diverse contours of his cultural and political milieu. It identifies the ways in which his biography has been variously interpreted both during his own lifetime and since his death in 1601. Collectively, the essays examine a wealth of diverse visual and textual manifestations of Essex: poems, portraits, films; texts produced by Essex himself, including private letters, prose tracts, poems and entertainments; and the transmission and circulation of these as a means of disseminating his political views. As well as prising open long-held assumptions about the earl’s life, the authors provide a diachronic approach to the earl’s career, identifying crucial events such as the Irish campaign and the uprising, and re-evaluating their significance and critical reception. Collectively, the essays illuminate the reach and significance of the many roles played by the earl and the impact of his brief, dazzling life on his contemporaries and on those who came after, making this the first volume to offer a comprehensive critical overview of the Earl's life and influence.
Download or read book Bess of Hardwick written by Lisa Hopkins and published by Manchester University Press. This book was released on 2019-01-09 with total page 217 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Born the daughter of a country squire, Bess of Hardwick made four marriages which brought her wealth and status. She built and furnished houses and founded a dynasty which included a granddaughter, Arbella Stuart, who had a claim to the thrones of both England and Scotland.
Download or read book The British and German Worlds in an Age of Divergence 1600 1850 written by Niels Grüne and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2024-07-22 with total page 417 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The question of whether Britain is "apart from or a part of Europe" (D. Abulafia) has gained significance in recent years. This book reassesses an underexplored field of early modern transnational history: the variety of ways in which connections between Britain and German-speaking Europe shaped developments. After a comprehensive introduction, this book is divided into three parts: cross-border transfers and appropriations of knowledge; coping with alterity in intergovernmental contacts; and ideologising the cultural nation. The topics range from the exchange of religious and political ideas over court life, diplomacy, and espionage to literary and philosophical debates. Particular attention is paid to the media processes involved and to the practical value of knowledge about the "other" in different historical contexts. The picture emerging from the case studies reveals an intriguing dynamic: Mutual interest and ambiguous entanglements deepened precisely at a time when the British and German worlds diverged evermore from each other in terms of social and political structures. This fascinating volume sheds new light on Anglo-German relations and will be essential reading for students of early modern European history.
Download or read book A Renaissance Marriage written by Carolyn James and published by . This book was released on 2020 with total page 221 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The marriage of Isabella d'Este, one of the most famous figures of the Italian Renaissance, and Francesco Gonzaga, ruler of the small northern Italian principality of Mantua (r.1484-1519) offers a fascinating portrait of early modern political marriage - a relationship born from strategic alliance, but built on cooperation and mutual respect.
Download or read book Gender and Political Culture in Early Modern Europe 1400 1800 written by James Daybell and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-07-01 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Gender and Political Culture in Early Modern Europe investigates the gendered nature of political culture across early modern Europe by exploring the relationship between gender, power, and political authority and influence. This collection offers a rethinking of what constituted ‘politics’ and a reconsideration of how men and women operated as part of political culture. It demonstrates how underlying structures could enable or constrain political action, and how political power and influence could be exercised through social and cultural practices. The book is divided into four parts - diplomacy, gifts and the politics of exchange; socio-economic structures; gendered politics at court; and voting and political representations – each of which looks at a series of interrelated themes exploring the ways in which political culture is inflected by questions of gender. In addition to examples drawn from across Europe, including Austria, the Dutch Republic, the Italian States and Scandinavia, the volume also takes a transnational comparative approach, crossing national borders, while the concluding chapter, by Merry Wiesner-Hanks, offers a global perspective on the field and encourages comparative analysis both chronologically and geographically. As the first collection to draw together early modern gender and political culture, this book is the perfect starting point for students exploring this fascinating topic.
Download or read book Invisible Agents written by Nadine Akkerman and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2018-06-10 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It would be easy for the modern reader to conclude that women had no place in the world of early modern espionage, with a few seventeenth-century women spies identified and then relegated to the footnotes of history. If even the espionage carried out by Susan Hyde, sister of Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon, during the turbulent decades of civil strife in Britain can escape the historiographer's gaze, then how many more like her lurk in the archives? Nadine Akkerman's search for an answer to this question has led to the writing of Invisible Agents, the very first study to analyse the role of early modern women spies, demonstrating that the allegedly-male world of the spy was more than merely infiltrated by women. This compelling and ground-breaking contribution to the history of espionage details a series of case studies in which women -- from playwright to postmistress, from lady-in-waiting to laundry woman -- acted as spies, sourcing and passing on confidential information on account of political and religious convictions or to obtain money or power. The struggle of the She-Intelligencers to construct credibility in their own time is mirrored in their invisibility in modern historiography. Akkerman has immersed herself in archives, libraries, and private collections, transcribing hundreds of letters, breaking cipher codes and their keys, studying invisible inks, and interpreting riddles, acting as a modern-day Spymistress to unearth plots and conspiracies that have long remained hidden by history.
Download or read book Writing to the World written by Rachael Scarborough King and published by JHU Press. This book was released on 2018-06 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ultimately, Writing to the World is a sophisticated look at the intersection of print and the public sphere.
Download or read book Spycraft written by Nadine Akkerman and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2024-06-07 with total page 367 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A fascinating exploration of the devious tricks and ingenious tools used by early modern spies--from ciphers to counterfeiting, invisible inks to assassination Early modern Europe was a hotbed of espionage, where spies, spy-catchers, and conspirators pitted their wits against each other in deadly games of hide and seek. Theirs was a dangerous trade--only those who mastered the latest techniques would survive. In this engaging, accessible account, Nadine Akkerman and Pete Langman explore the methods spies actually used in the period, including disguises, invisible inks, and even poisons. Drawing on a vast array of archival sources, they show how understanding the tricks and tools of espionage allows us to re-imagine well-known stories such as the Babington and Gunpowder plots. Exposing the murky world of spies, they demonstrate how the technological innovations of petty criminals, secretaries, and other hitherto invisible actors shaped the fate of some of history's most iconic figures. Spycraft explains how early modern spies sought to protect their own secrets while exposing those of their enemies, showing the reader how to follow in their footsteps.
Download or read book Lucy Hutchinson and the English Revolution written by Claire Gheeraert-Graffeuille and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2022-10-10 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Lucy Hutchinson and the English Revolution, Claire Gheeraert-Graffeuille explores Lucy Hutchinson's historical writings and the Memoirs of the Life of Colonel Hutchinson, which, although composed between 1664 and 1667, were first published in 1806. The Memoirs were a best-seller in the nineteenth century, but largely fell into oblivion in the twentieth century. They were rediscovered in the late 1980s by historians and literary scholars interested in women's writing, the emerging culture of republicanism, and dissent. By approaching the Memoirs through the prism of history and form, this book challenges the widely-held assumption that early modern women did not - and could not - write the history of wars, a field that was supposedly gendered as masculine. On the contrary, Gheeraert-Graffeuille shows that Lucy Hutchinson, a reader of ancient history and an outstanding Latinist, was a historian of the English Revolution, to be ranked alongside Richard Baxter, Edmund Ludlow, and Edward Hyde.
