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A masterful deciphering of an extraordinary art object, illuminating some of the biggest questions of the eighteenth century The Throne of the Great Mogul (1701–8) is a unique work of European decorative art: an intricate miniature of the court of the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb depicted during the emperor’s birthday celebrations. It was created by the jeweler Johann Melchior Dinglinger in Dresden and purchased by the Saxon prince Augustus the Strong for an enormous sum. Constructed like a theatrical set made of gold, silver, thousands of gemstones, and amazing enamel work, it consists of 164 pieces that together tell a detailed story. Why did Dinglinger invest so much time and effort in ma...
Over the course of four centuries, the island of Malta underwent several significant political transformations, including its roles as a Catholic bastion under the Knights of St. John between 1530 and 1798, and as a British maritime hub in the nineteenth century. This innovative study draws on both archival evidence and archeological findings to compare slavery and coerced labor, resource control, globalization, and other historical phenomena in Malta under the two regimes: one feudal, the other colonial. Spanning conventional divides between the early and late modern eras, Russell Palmer offers here a rich analysis of a Mediterranean island against a background of immense European and global change.
With respect to public issues, history matters. With the worldwide interest for historical issues related with gender, religion, race, nation, and identity, public history is becoming the strongest branch of academic history. This volume brings together the contributions from historians of education about their engagement with public history, ranging from musealisation and alternative ways of exhibiting to new ways of storytelling.
To celebrate the first ten years of the international forum Collecting and Display, as well as the launch of a dedicated series of publications “Collecting Histories”, in 2014, a conference dedicated to new directions in terms of collecting, display, visitor experience and the use of modern media in today’s museums was held at museums of the city of Memmingen in Bavaria. Speakers looked into whether and how the engagement with the history of collections, in their diverse permutations, has influenced and modified modern museology. This volume looks forward towards a future which oftentimes looks bleak due to funding cuts, lack of appreciation of cultural history and a sometimes dubious ...
This book offers a comparative perspective on Northern and Southern European laws and customs concerning women’s property and economic rights. By focusing on both Northern and Southern European societies, these studies analyse the consequences of different juridical frameworks and norms on the development of the economic roles of men and women. This volume is divided into three parts. The first, Laws, presents general outlines related to some European regions; the second, Family strategies or marital economies?, questions the potential conflict between the economic interests of the married couple and those of the lineage within the nobility; finally, the third part of the book, Inside the ...
Bringing together a variety of evidence, such as princely correspondence, travelogues, financial accounts, chronicles, chivalric or Renaissance poems, this book examines marital travels of princely brides and grooms on a comparative trans-European scale. This book argues that these journeys were extraordinary events and were instrumental for dynastical and monarchical self-representation, and channelled aspirations and anxieties of princely houses when facing each other. Each such journey was a little earthquake that resonated across all layers of society. Hundreds of diplomats, envoys, aristocrats, city officials, low-status personnel, soldiers, artists, musicians, poets, and humanists were...
This volume brings together twenty-two authors from various countries who analyze travelogues on the Ottoman Empire between the fifteenth and nineteenth centuries. The travelogues reflect the colorful diversity of the genre, presenting the experiences of individuals and groups from China to Great Britain. The spotlight falls on interdependencies of travel writing and historiography, geographic spaces, and specific practices such as pilgrimages, the hajj, and the harem. Other points of emphasis include the importance of nationalism, the place and time of printing, representations of fashion, and concepts of masculinity and femininity. By displaying close, comparative, and distant readings, the volume offers new insights into perceptions of "otherness", the circulation of knowledge, intermedial relations, gender roles, and digital analysis.
Glass is one of the most fascinating and versatile building materials in architectural history. The new insights into glass in architecture are the result of research at the intersection of glass production, construction technology and building culture. Coming from a variety of disciplines, the contributions bridge the divide between natural sciences, humanities and the preservation and restoration of cultural heritage. They explore the crucial role of flat glass in shaping architecture, particularly since the 18th century, and discuss the in-situ restoration of historic windows and glass façades and the importance of preserving this fragile heritage. The topics range from the manufacture o...
- While cotton was a world-changing good in the early modern period, for producers, merchants, and consumers, it was but one of many different fabrics. This volume explores this dichotomy by contextualizing cotton within its contemporary culture of textiles. In doing, it focuses on a long, under-researched region: the German-speaking world, particularly Switzerland, which transformed into one of the most prolific European regions for the production of printed cottons in the eighteenth century. Sixteen contributions investigate the (globally entangled) history of Indiennes, silk, wool, and embroideries, giving new insights into the manufacturing, marketing, and consumption of textiles between 1500 and 1900.
Early modern princely courts were not only inhabited by humans, but also by a large number of animals. This coexistence of non-human living beings had crucial impacts on the spatial organization, the social composition and cultural life at these courts. The contributions enrich our knowledge on another aspect of court life and invite to reconsider our basic understandings of court, courtiers and court society.