Early Modern City

The article attempts to define how the film picture becomes a medium to record urban space. The cinecamera showing urban landmarks resulting from the composition allows to note impressions, sensations in real time. Over time, the captured moment becomes a historical record illustrating the character of the city, place or point in space. In the film picture, dynamic rather than stable, urban space is subject to change. Can we still say nowadays that the film picture and the modern city are made for each other?

Pomimo prowadzonych od wielu lat badań nad historią miasta Wilna, wciąż niewiele wiemy o jego mieszkańcach, szczególnie ludziach drugiego i trzeciego planu historii, żyjących w cieniu wielkich dworów i pałaców. Równie słabo zbadane pozostają jurydyki wczesnonowożytnej stolicy Wielkiego Księstwa Litewskiego, w tym jurydyka kapituły wileńskiej. W oparciu o rękopiśmienny materiał źródłowy podjęta została próba jej zarysu oraz ukazania ludzi i problemów w niej zachodzących; jej zobrazowaniu posłużyć może załączony w aneksie Rejestr wybierania poboru z 1602 roku, dokument publikowany po raz pierwszy. Problemy własnościowe i personalne krzyżowały się w licznych sprawach związanych z występkami kanonika Izaaka Fechtinusa († 25 V 1607), który przez wiele lat gorszyć miał ulicę wileńską, mieszkańców miasta i kapitulnych konfratrów. Na przestrzeni kilkunastu lat wielokrotnie zarzucano kanonikowi nocne włóczęgi z podejrzanymi osobami, pijaństwo oraz utrzymywanie i mieszkanie z kobietami, najczęściej na terenie jurydyki kapitulnej. Bezskutecznie nakładano nań kary pieniężne, wstrzymywano wypłatę refekcji, grożono pozbawieniem kanonii, stosowano areszt domowy i zakazywano wstępu do Kościoła.

Der Aufsatz untersucht die Entstehung und den Wandel zweier spätmittelalterlicher Stiftungen in der Reichsstadt Memmingen. Totenmemoria und Wohltätigkeit erscheinen dabei als Einheit. Zunächst werden die Stifter und ihre Motivationen analysiert, um dann die "Dreikönigskapelle" (gestiftet 1399) und "Vöhlins Klösterle" (gestiftet 1490) als Ausprägungen kommunaler Wohltätigkeit einzuordnen. Anschließend wird die wechselhafte Entwicklung der beiden Stiftungen – die "Stiftungswirklichkeit" – bis in die Umbruchszeit um 1800 verfolgt. Aufgrund der Reformation und in den ihr folgenden Jahrhunderten waren Zweck und Charakter der beiden Memminger Einrichtungen grundlegenden Veränderungen unterworfen. Dabei wird vor allem die Spätphase der Reichsstadt im 18. Jahrhundert in ihrer Ambivalenz deutlich. Einerseits lassen sich die Bemühungen des Rates, die Misswirtschaft der "Dreikönigskapelle" zu beseitigen, die mit einer steigenden städtischen Verschuldung korrespondiert, als Ausdruck der "Defensive" der Reichsstadt interpretieren. Andererseits wird bei diesen Sanierungsmaßnahmen und der Umstrukturierung von "Vöhlins Klösterle" deutlich, daß die Reichsstadt im Aufklärungsjahrundert nicht als reformunfähiges System zu sehen ist, der nur die Mediatisierung das Überleben sichern konnte. Gerade im Bereich des Stiftungswesens kann man bereits vor 1802/1803 rationalistische Tendenzen in der Stadtverwaltung erkennen, die Stiftungszweck und -struktur nach dem Nützlichkeitsprinzip und nicht, wie in der Reformationszeit, primär religiös motiviert, abänderten.

Inside and outside the early modern hospital. Ideas, practices, contexts

The  essay  reflects  on  some  questions  raised  by  recent  studies  on  early  modern  hospitals,  underlining  the  research  potentials of this historiographical object. The first part reveals the  different  disciplines,  methodologies  and  perspectives  that  can  be  used  to  study  hospitals  or  assistance  networks  by  discussing  two  books  focused  on  charitable  institutions  of  Venice  (C.  Giron-Panel,  Musique  et  musiciennes  à  Venise.  Histoire  sociale  des  ospedali,  École  française  de  Rome,  Roma  2015; La  chiesa  e  l’ospedale  di  San  Lazzaro  dei  Mendicanti.  Arte,  beneficenza,  cura,  devozione,  educazione,  eds.  A.  Bamji,  L. Borean, L. Moretti, Marcianum Press, Venezia 2015). The second part connects some of the themes that emerged from the reading of this new works to wider trends in the research on early modern assistance and poor relief. The focus is on the evolution of the ideas on pauperism, with particular attention to  the  pedagogic  function  of  the  charitable  institutions  and  the need to connect theory and practices. Finally, the analysis broadens  to  include  the  connections  between  the  history  of  hospitals  and  the  history  of  medicine.  This  approach  can  allow us to detect multiple research paths, shedding light on the  various  actors  and  places  devoted  to  healthcare  and  the  entanglement of spiritual and physical therapies.

The emergence of regional states along with their provincial capitals (Murshidabad, Hyderabad, Poona, Lahore and Srirangapatna) in the eighteenth century ushered a new beginning in the political history of India. Though these states were diverse in terms of their orientation and power base, yet they relied on the ‘broad conception of power sharing and a political economy that was geared to greater commercialization and to military contingencies’ (Subramanian, 2010: 21). The power was vested in the ownership of land and the emergence of dominant class in the form of rural and revenue intermediaries, including some commercial groups who invested in revenue farming. Historians have attested to the primacy of mercantile class in the emerging economy of eighteenth century.

This Unit will take you through the tale of this city, which underwent remarkable changes in three centuries. It transformed from a pargana headquarter to the provincial capital of Awadh in 1775. After the British annexation in 1856, it became a major colonial centre. The revolt of 1857 and its aftermath shook the city in many ways and it underwent significant morphological changes to pacify the wrath of the colonial authentics. A major blow to its prestige came with its demotion to a provincial town when Oudh was absorbed in the North West Provinces in 1877. Finally, Lucknow was restored as the capital of the United Provinces in 1920.The region is significant from the perspective of varied changes it underwent in a short span of time.

Queens’ entries into cities became a focal point for political and ideological discourse in early modern Spain. Construed as some of the monarchy’s greatest public events, they provided numerous occasions for kingship glorification and legitimization, while overlooking its shortcomings and flaws. From a cultural perspective, they allowed for the development of complex iconographic programmes and chaotic decorative ensembles, visually staging gender relationships in the urban environment. This essay offers an overview for this type of pageantry in Spanish 16th century, through remaining literary accounts.

Las entradas de reinas a ciudades fueron un campo primordial de acción política y construcción ideológica durante la Edad Moderna española. Conjugadas como uno de los grandes eventos públicos de la monarquía, proporcionaron a ésta muchas ocasiones de glorificación y justificación a la vez que se soslayaban los puntos más débiles de la autoridad regia. Desde el punto de vista cultural, fueron ámbito para el desarrollo de complejos programas iconográficos y caóticos conjuntos decorativos, a la vez que escenarios en los que las relaciones de género se visualizaban en el entorno urbano. El presente artículo traza una panorámica de este género de fiestas en el siglo XVI español, a través de las relaciones contemporáneas.

Conversions to Christian Orthodoxy were not unusual in XVIIIth and XIXth centuries Moldavia. To identify individual conversions andconverts, the author had looked for areliable criterion, which eventually proved to be their family name: Botezatu (i.e. „the
baptized one” in Romanian). This family name comes from a nick-name which became common to all converts, because of extensive denominative use, and, therefore, it may be considered as converts' social label. Early XIXth century diplomats living in Moldavia
have also accounted for the link between the family name and the biography of its bearer. Converts were thus identified to have settled in Iasi since the last quarter of the XVIIth century, following tides of immigration originated in Transylvania, Poland or Wallachia, not to mention even more distant places. Advantages they were awarded by the Princeand the local Church stimulated conversions. Here is a brief list of incentives to abandoning the original faith for Orthodoxy: tax-exemptions (applied to the convert and his family), important loans (contracted with low interest rates, for supporting an economic
take-off), significant links to upper social strata (converts would benefit from the specific links with their god-parents, usually wealthy and/or influent noble people). All advantages would finally enable the convert to integrate smoothly into the Moldavian society by accepting a new religious belief. In two generations time, most of converts' families would have been considered as autochtonous. A 1755 census mentions five converts living in Iasi. One of them is acknowledged to be the founder of a famous Botezatu family which lasted for two hundred years and was raised to peerage in the first half of the previous
century. The 1774-1775 census mentions a larger number of converts than in 1755, which proves the efficiency of the policy of conversion the State was committed to apply to foreigners dwelling in Moldavia. A comparison between the 1808 and 1820 censes also accounts for the increase in the number of converts at the beginning of the XIXth century.
Converts were most attracted by the urban environment than by rural life, and from all given opportunities, the capital of Moldavia seemed to offer them reliable solutions to re-shape their own life according to their new identity. Most of them settled in the outskirts of Iasi, in cheap and non-residential areas. But for a while, until their total integration
into the Moldavian cultural millieu, they were subject to careful and inquisitive observation from their neighbours, local priests and local authorities. Cases of untrustworthiness were reportedly often. They also seemed to have preferred a daily double-living for work and rest; a considerable figure worked in enterprises run by Orthodox Christians, in the center of the city, and returned home, in the outskirts, at the end of the day. A 1828 monasteries' and churches' mentions converts living at the expenses of the Orthodox Church in cloisters and among priests or monks. Most of them belonged to a special category of converts, namely composed of people whose changes of faith were genuine and disinterested. The only census directly related to the number of convers in Iasi had been drafted by Church officials between 1819 and 1832. The annexes show the annual quota of conversions, the origins of converts and the distribution of conversions during the 1819-1832 period. A 1824-1825 census offers biographic information for some
converts who preferred to re-baptize but applied for a foreign citizenship or asked for foreign diplomatic protection.

This article is concerned with the interplay between commerce and manners in early eighteenth-century Paris. It examines how the esteemed ‘cultural capital’ of Paris came to be challenged by the model of contra-cultural economic capital observed in London. Against a study of Brice’s description of Paris which de-emphasises trade outside ventures of national benefit, it highlights the incremental counter-narrative in the commentaries on London by Miege and Muralt. It traces the development of this counter-narrative from Miege’s account of trade and English prosperity to Muralt’s construction of an imitable urban model through study of the individualist English character and the socio-economic freedoms it secured.

My paper examines The City Wit (1629-1632), a city comedy by Richard Brome revolving around the unscrupulous trade world, where all the characters aim at social recognition, even trampling on feelings and moral values. My objective is to investigate the play as one of the earlier examples of strategic use of space in Brome’s dramatic production. Firstly, I will consider the function of space in relation to the identity of the single characters. Secondly, I will show how space can be manipulated for the re-fashioning of a new identity, as in the case of Jeremy, a male servant disguised as a widow, who builds up a fictitious Cornish identity. Finally, I will analyze the geography of the play focusing in particular on the scene set in the Presence Chamber of Whitehall.

El siglo XV asistió en la Corona de Castilla a un amplio y diversificado fenómeno de creaciones conventuales femeninas promovidas por mujeres que fue muy visible en las ciudades. Se inscribió en las reformas de la Baja Edad Media y coincidió con el debate conocido como “Querella de las Mujeres”. Partiendo de la idea de que hubo un Humanismo femenino, pensado y enunciado por las mujeres en sus propios términos, en estas páginas se buscan las conexiones entre dichos fenómenos, especialmente entre las aportaciones femeninas de reforma religiosa concretadas en las fundaciones de espacios de espiritualidad y la “Querella de las Mujeres”. Para ello, se fundamenta el análisis en una ciudad concreta, Córdoba, y se delimitan cronologías y tipologías religiosas a fin de determinar sus contenidos programáticos. El objetivo último es perfilar algunas de las principales formulaciones y claves explicativas del proyecto humanista de las mujeres.

Résumé :
Peut-on estimer l’emprise foncière des religieux dans l’espace urbain bordelais au milieu du XVIIIe siècle ? Bordeaux faisait partie des cinq villes les plus peuplées du royaume de France et abritait une trentaine de communautés régulières. L’étude de la répartition des couvents et de leurs logiques d’implantation met en évidence une domination symbolique des réguliers dans le paysage. Leur présence dans le tissu urbain se traduisait en outre par des biens locatifs dont il est intéressant d’analyser les caractéristiques et la dispersion, en cherchant des critères de différenciation tels que l’ancienneté des communautés, leur taille, leur nature (ordres ou congrégations) ou leur genre. Enfin, pour confirmer ou relativiser l’emprise spatiale des réguliers, il faut pouvoir la comparer aux autres propriétaires ecclésiastiques.

Abstract:
Is there a land influence of religious communities in the urban space of Bordeaux in the middle of the 18th century? There were about thirty regular communities in Bordeaux, one of the five most populous cities in France. The study of convents’ distribution and setting up logics highlights their symbolic domination in the urban fabric. The analysis of their rental properties’ characteristics and their dispersal shows another form of religious communities’ land influence. To compare communities, it is interesting to look for criteria of differentiation like long-standing, size, kind (orders or congregations) or gender. Finally, the regular communities’ spatial influence must be compared with others holders of the Catholic Church’s land properties, to confirm or relativize this domination.

Völlerei, Sexualität, das Sezieren von Leichen oder verschwenderisches Zurschaustellen des eigenen Reichtums: Im Exzess wurde - so die These des Buches - gesellschaftliche Ordnung gestaltet. Wie produktiv das Agieren im Übermaß sein konnte, beleuchtet Sarah-Maria Schober an Medizinern, die um 1600 in Basel lebten. Sie folgt den Ärzten an Orte, an denen sie Grenzen austesteten: in Bäder und Haushalte, an ihre Schreibtische und auf die anatomische Bühne. Damit bietet sie zugleich eine quellennahe Analyse einer städtischen Gesellschaft im späten 16. und frühen 17. Jahrhundert.

Published in: „Kwartalnik Historii Kultury Materialnej”, 68 (2020), 1, s. 51–68, http://doi.org/10.23858/KHKM68.2020.1.004

The topic of the article is the execution of testaments in three small towns of Greater Poland, Dolsk, Krzywiń and i Książ, in the second half of the 16th c. and the first half of the 17th c. On the basis of surviving testaments and selected records from municipal books, the author dis-cusses various actions undertaken in conformity with the codified and common law to execute last  wills.
Most  of  the  data  were  drawn  from  the  sources  from  Dolsk,  which  had  been  most  thoroughly explored by the author.
The first part of the article characterizes the persons named as executors by the testators. Those were usually people holding posts in the municipal government. There were often two executors,  sometimes  also  named  as  the  guardians  of  the  testator’s  widow  and  under-age  children.
In most cases, municipal books registered the documents that confirmed the execution of  particular  testamentary  dispositions,  e.g.  transferring  money  to  a  Church  institution,  or  movable or immovable property to particular persons; settling a debt or collecting a sum due. The time between making a testament and recording such a confirmation varied from one day to 21 years; but in most cases dispositions were carried out according to the custom, within one year.
Even though one of the major objectives of testators was to prevent domestic strife, the execution of testaments sometimes involved conflicts, when some people were disappointed by the last will or when the testator had hidden their debts. The article presents several cases of conflicts over reasons which, as can be surmised, were most common at that time. Sometimes the municipal authorities, the town’s owner or his representative annulled the bequests that had lest to such conflicts; such cases usually concerned immovable property.
The sources analysed suggest that the testator’s “life after death”, featuring in the title of the present article, could take an unexpected turn, not necessarily intended when the last will was drawn up. The examples are meant to illustrate the multitude of data available in records on testament execution and to highlight the possibility of more detailed research on selected issues, e.g. on the disposing of inherited property.

À la fin des guerres de Religion, Marseille se retrouva isolée du fait de son catholicisme intransigeant. Pour s’approvisionner en grains et en munitions, la municipalité dut procéder à un déploiement diplomatique à l’échelle euro-méditerranéenne, et mettre en place des relations inédites avec des puissances catholiques, mais aussi protestantes et musulmanes. Cet article étudie la mise en place des ces relations, ainsi que les apprentissages politiques occasionnés par une telle expérience.

Article concerns the case of murder of polish town councillor Kasper Langa in 1731. On its basis author analyzes the criminal practice in early modern Poland and the activities of authorities trying to solve this death, as well as participation in the murder of his wife, Marianna Langa.