This is the first volume to explore the reception of the Pythagorean doctrine of cosmic harmony within a variety of contexts, ranging chronologically from Plato to 18th-century England. This original collection of essays engages with contemporary debates concerning the relationship between music, philosophy, and science, and challenges the view that Renaissance discussions on cosmic harmony are either mere repetitions of ancient music theory or pre-figurations of the 'Scientific Revolution'. Utilizing this interdisciplinary approach, Renaissance Conceptions of Cosmic Harmony offers a new perspective on the reception of an important classical theme in various cultural, sequential and geographical contexts, underlying the continuities and changes between Antiquity, the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. This project will be of particular interest within these emerging disciplines as they continue to explore the ideological significance of the various ways in which we appropriate the past.

Shows students of the history of witchcraft and magic that the beliefs of the seventeenth century continued through the Enlightenment, despite the attempts by philosophers to dismiss magic and its practice, into the nineteenth century. The volume is divided into three sections highlighting different definitions of magic including the concern over the non-material world as found in popular and elite practices, its relationship with science and medicine, and other forms of divination available to the general population. Providing students with a broad view of how magic was engaged with in the eighteenth century to inform their own studies. Explores the relationship between magic, science and medicine providing students with a good understanding of how the emerging fields of science and medicine came into conflict with popular belief in and practice of magic. Allowing students to see why magic still resonated with the general public into the nineteenth century.

Scientific Practices in European History, 1200-1800 presents and situates a collection of extracts from both widely known texts by such figures as Copernicus, Newton, and Lavoisier, and lesser known but significant items, all chosen to provide a perspective on topics in social, cultural and intellectual history and to illuminate the concerns of the early modern period. The selection of extracts highlights the emerging technical preoccupations of this period, while the accompanying introductions and annotations make these occasionally complex works accessible to students and non-specialists. The book follows a largely chronological sequence and helps to locate scientific ideas and practices within broader European history. The primary source materials in this collection stand alone as texts in themselves, but in illustrating the scientific components of early modern societies they also make this book ideal for teachers and students of European history.

This is a wide-ranging, closely-researched collection, written by scholars from both sides of the Atlantic, on the cultural placement and transmission of texts between 1520 and 1750. Material and historical conditions of texts are analysed, and the range of works is wide, including plays and the Lucrece of Shakespeare (with adaptations, and a discussion of 'reading' playtexts), Sidney's Arcadia, Greene's popular Pandosto (both discussed in the contexts of changing readerships and forms of fiction), Hakluyt's travel books, funerary verse, and the writings of Katherine Parr and Elizabethan Catholic martyrs.

According to both popular myth and traditional histories, Mary Tudor was a failure. Known primarily as Bloody Mary, she has usually been contrasted unfavorably with her younger sibling and heir, Elizabeth I. This negative view of Mary has most recently been perpetuated in David Starkey's TV documentaries and biography of the young Elizabeth, which present the new queen as deliberately forging a path that was quite different from that of her half-sister. The time has come for a rethink. Susan Doran and Tom Freeman have gathered an outstanding team of international historians to look at the traditional presentation of Mary and her reign, and why we should question this view. This incisive collection will appeal to students, scholars and general readers.Features: * Challenges the accepted view of Mary as a tyrant, presenting a more balanced and nuanced portrait * Based on the latest cutting-edge and controversial thinking in Early Modern history
* Traces the growth and development of the myth of 'Bloody Mary' This text will be essential reading for graduate courses on Tudor history.

The Great Fire of 1666 was one of the greatest catastrophes to befall London in its long history. While its impact on London and its built environment has been studied and documented, its impact on Londoners has been overlooked. This book makes full and systematic use of the wealth of manuscript sources that illustrate social, economic and cultural change in seventeenth-century London to examine the impact of the Fire in terms of how individuals and communities reacted and responded to it, and to put the response to the Fire in the context of existing trends in early modern England. The book also explores the broader effects of the Fire in the rest of the country, as well as how the Great Fire continued to be an important polemical tool into the eighteenth century.

This book focuses on a key period in Latin American history, the transition from colonial status, via the revolutions for independence, to national organization. The essays provide in-depth studies of eighteenth-century society, the colonial state, and the roots of independence in Spanish America. The relation of Spanish America to the age of democratic revolution and the reaction of the Church to revolutionary change are newly defined, and leadership of Simon Bolivar is subject to particular scrutiny. National organization saw the emergence of new political leaders, the caudillos, and the marginalization of many people who sought relief in popular religion and millenarian movements.

In turn, Tory minister, Jacobite renegade, English philosopher and anti-minister, Bolingbroke has elicited mixed reactions from his compatriots, both contemporaries and historians. In this book, Bernard Cottret discusses his political writings in the context of contemporary thought in England and France. His analyses of "A Dissertation upon Parties" and "The Idea of a Patriot King" are supported by a full reprint of the texts making available these significant documents of mid-18th-century political thought.

The Puritans of seventeenth century England have been blamed for everything from the English civil war to the rise of capitalism. But who were the Puritans of Stuart England? Were they apostles of liberty, who fled from persecution to the New World? Or were they intolerant fanatics, intent on bringing godliness to Stuart England? This study provides a clear narrative of the rise and fall of the Puritans across the troubled seventeenth century. Their story is placed in context by analytical chapters, which describe what the Puritans believed and how they organised their religious and social life. Quoting many contemporary sources, including diaries, plays and sermons, this is a vivid and comprehensible account, drawing on the most recent scholarship. Readers will find this book an indispensable guide, not only to the religious history of seventeenth century England, but also to its political and social history.

The turbulent Tudor age never fails to capture the imagination. But what was it actually like to be a woman during this period? This was a time when death in infancy or during childbirth was rife; when marriage was usually a legal contract, not a matter for love, and the education of women was minimal at best. Yet the Tudor century was also dominated by powerful and characterful women in a way that no era had been before. Elizabeth Norton explores the seven ages of the Tudor woman, from childhood to old age, through the diverging examples of women such as Elizabeth Tudor, Henry VIII's sister who died in infancy; Cecily Burbage, Elizabeth's wet nurse; Mary Howard, widowed but influential at court; Elizabeth Boleyn, mother of a controversial queen; and Elizabeth Barton, a peasant girl who would be lauded as a prophetess. Their stories are interwoven with studies of topics ranging from Tudor toys to contraception to witchcraft, painting a portrait of the lives of queens and serving maids, nuns and harlots, widows and chaperones.

Starting with an essay on the Renaissance as the concluding phase of the Middle Ages and ending with appreciations of Paul Oskar Kristeller, the great twentieth-century scholar of the Renaissance, this new volume by John Monfasani brings together seventeen articles that focus both on individuals, such as Erasmus of Rotterdam, Angelo Poliziano, Marsilio Ficino, and NiccolA(2) Perotti, and on large-scale movements, such as the spread of Italian humanism, Ciceronianism, Biblical criticism, and the Plato-Aristotle Controversy. In addition to entering into the persistent debate on the nature of the Renaissance, the articles in the volume also engage what of late have become controversial topics, namely, the shape and significance of Renaissance humanism and the character of the Platonic Academy in Florence.

A collection of nine articles written by leading scholars in Britain, Ireland, Italy and the USA on various aspects of the city of St Petersburg during the important first century and a quarter of its existence, from its founding in 1703 to the end of the reign of Alexander I. Cartography, architecture, social history and foreign perceptions are some of the subjects covered in these lively and informed essays.

The time seems ripe for the greening of cities: green roofs and walls, planted pavements, shared or therapeutic gardens... Is the city discovering its vegetable nature? Exploring the place of nature in the French urban environment from the seventeenth to the twenty-first century, this volume, translated from the original French by Moya Jones, reveals, rather than a monolithic narrative, a continuous, but fluctuating, interlacing of paving stones and plants. The focus of this liberally-illustrated book is not just gardens and parks, but also all the plants and plant matter that circulate in the space of the city - vegetable waste, market fruits and vegetables, cut flowers, etc. These various forms give a new inflection to the history of cities, taking us on a voyage back to their natural roots. We trace why the presence of certain aspects of nature in an urban environment has been accepted, sometimes encouraged; what actors have allowed it to take root and flourish; and what challenges have been faced along the way. In examining the vegetal nature of the city at the crossroads of social, economic, cultural and political history, green spaces and plants reveal themselves as instruments of urbanity or disorder; agents of stage setting, schooling and subsistence; objects of commerce, entertainment, scientific study, wellbeing or good living. From the gardens of the aristocracy of the Grand Siecle to the market of the Halles in Paris, from the parks of the Second Empire to botanical gardens, a whole new history is unveiled and throws the light of the past over our own time.

Thomas Paine's book "Common Sense" was the written word that inflamed and drove the people of the colonies to the cause of the American Revolution. It was a clear and passionate document for freedom from the English Crown. Over 500,000 ccopies were sold in just a few months from when it was written in January 1776. His book "The Rights of Man" is a clear document for democracy and egalitarianism. It supported all forms of a progressive society and was an inspiration for the patriots of America's early days. Also, "The Age of Reason" was his last book and almost entirely is centered on religion - Christianity. It puts to test many questions towards faith in order to make valid answers possible. Many essential beliefs are confronted with rational logic. A Cpollector's Edition.

New Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Poland and Prussia: The Impact of Gdansk draws together the latest reseach conducted by local historians and archaeologists on the city of Gdansk and its impact on the surrounding region of Pomerania and Poland as a whole. Beginning with Gdansk's early political history and extending from the 10th to the 16th century, its twelve chapters explore a range of political, social, and socio-cultural historical questions and explain such phenomena as the establishment and development of the Gdansk port and city. A prominent theme is a consideration of the interactions between Gdansk and Poland and Prussia, including a look into the city's links with the State of the Teutonic Order in Prussia and the Kingdom of Poland under the rule of the Piast and Jagiellonian dynasties. The chapters are placed in the historical context of medieval Poland as well as the broader themes of religion, the matrimonial policy of noble families or their contacts with the papacy. This book is an exciting new study of medieval Poland and unparalleled in the English-speaking world, making it an ideal text for those wanting to deepen their knowledge in this subject area.

This book looks specifically at the years leading up to Mussato's public coronation, on 3rd December 1315, as poet laureate for his city / His writings are a key component of his political manoeuvres as he tried to navigate through the troubled waters of northern Italian politics and will therefore appeal to those interested in that topic / The book demonstrates how the sources pertaining to Mussato's life and career are part of an exercise in self-promotion and self-fashioning, intended to secure his position within factional politics, but rooted in a philosophical approach derived from his early classical studies.

Between the meeting of the Long Parliament in November 1640 and the restoration of the monarchy in 1660, and as a consequence of the defeat of the armies of Charles I and the Civil Wars and the failure of subsequent royalist conspiracies and rising, several hundred Cavaliers went into exile on the Continent, for periods ranging from a few weeks to twenty years. This book examines their experience: the identity of the exiles; their reasons for leaving England; the extent of their travels in Europe; how they, and their families coped with the ordeal; the role of the different Stuart "courts" as magnets to the exiles; the return to England at the Restoration,; how they were treated on their return and how they had been influenced by their enforced resident abroad. This is the story of ordinary Cavaliers and how they attempted to survive as soldiers of fortune, secret agents, couriers, hangers-on at court and so on.

The Protectorate's foreign relations are among the most misunderstood aspects of a little-known period of British history, usually seen as an interlude between regicide and Restoration. Yet Cromwell's unique political and military position and current European conflicts enabled him to play a crucial role in international affairs, playing off France against Spain and arousing Catholic fears. Financial and security problems determined the nature of Cromwell's policies, but he achieved great influence among his neighbours in five turbulent years.

This book examines the importance of the Glorious Revolution and the passing of the Toleration Act to the development of religious and intellectual freedom in England. Most historians have considered these events to be of little significance in this connection. From Persecution to Toleration focuses on the importance of the Toleration Act for contemporaries, and also explores its wider historical context and impact. Taking its point of departure from the intolerance of the sixteenth century, the book goes on to emphasize what is here seen to be the very substantial contribution of the Toleration Act for the development of religious freedom in England. It demonstrates that his freedom was initially limited to Protestant Nonconformists, immigrant as well as English, and that it quickly came in practice to include Catholics, Jews, and anti-Trinitarians. Contributors: John Bossy, Patrick Collinson, John Dunn, Graham Gibbs, Mark Goldie, Ole Peter Grell, Robin Gwynn, Jonathan I. Israel, David S. Katz, Andrew Pettegree, Richard H. Popkin, Hugh Trevor-Roper, Nicholas Tyacke, and B. R. White.

This timely study analyzes the 17th century revival of monasticism by English women who founded convents in France and the Low Countries. Examining the nuns' membership of both the English Catholic community and the continental Catholic Church, it argues that despite strict monastic enclosure and exile, they nevertheless engaged actively in the spiritual and political controversies of their day. The book will add much to our understanding of women's power in early modern Europe, and offer an insight into a previously ignored section of English society.

This is the first full-length study of one of the most prolific and controversial polemical authors of the seventeenth century. It provides for the first time a detailed analysis of the ways in which Laudian and royalist polemical literature was created, tracing continuities and changes in a single corpus of writings from 1621 through to 1662. In the process, the author presents important new perspectives on the origins and development of Laudianism and 'Anglicanism' and on the tensions within royalist thought. Milton's book is neither a conventional biography nor simply a study of printed works, but instead constructs an integrated account of Peter Heylyn's career and writings in order to provide the key to understanding a profoundly polemical author. Early chapters trace Heylyn's career in the 1620s when his Laudian credentials were far from evident, and his years as the main official spokesman for the religious policies of Charles I's personal rule. Further chapters trace his actions in the 1640s as the target of a vengeful parliament, editor of the main royalist newsbook and an increasingly disillusioned pamphleteer; his remarkable attempted rapprochement with Cromwell in the 1650s; and his attempts to shape the Restoration settlement and his posthumous celebrity as a spokesman of the Anglican royalist position. Throughout the book, Heylyn's shifting views and fortunes prompt an important reassessment of the relative coherence and stability of royalism and Laudianism. Historians of early modern English politics and religion and literary scholars will find this book essential reading.

The humorous side of Dutch culture of the 17th century is obscured by a change that took place around 1670. Religious treatises and books of manners warning against laughter contributed to a new image, that of the humorless Calvinist Dutch. Based on a manuscript containing some 2000 jokes, the lost laughter of the Golden Age is reconstructed and analyzed. Most jokes are crude and obscene, and they throw a new light on attitudes towards sexuality, religion, and other aspects of life.