DOCSLIB.ORG

University of London Thesis

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
University of London Thesis SHL ITEM BARCODE REFERENCE ONLY UNIVERSITY OF LONDON THESIS Degree fVvsO Year Name of Author ^ ° ^ ^ COPYRIGHT This is a thesis accepted for a Higher Degree of the University of London. It is an unpublished typescript and the copyright is held by the author. All persons consulting the thesis must read and abide by the Copyright Declaration below. COPYRIGHT DECLARATION I recognise that the copyright of the above-described thesis rests with the author and that no quotation from it or information derived from it may be published without the prior written consent of the author. LOAN Theses may not be lent to individuals, but the University Library may lend a copy to approved libraries within the United Kingdom, for consultation solely on the premises of those libraries. Application should be made to: The Theses Section, University of London Library, Senate House, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HU. REPRODUCTION University of London theses may not be reproduced without explicit written permission from the University of London Library. Enquiries should be addressed to the Theses Section of the Library. Regulations concerning reproduction vary according to the date of acceptance of the thesis and are listed below as guidelines. A. Before 1962. Permission granted only upon the prior written consent of the author. (The University Library will provide addresses where possible). B. 1962 - 1974. In many cases the author has agreed to permit copying upon completion of a Copyright Declaration. C. 1975 - 1988. Most theses may be copied upon completion of a Copyright Declaration. D. 1989 onwards. Most theses may be copied. This thesis comes within category D. □ This copy has been deposited in the Library of This copy has been deposited in the University of London Library, Senate House, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HU. C:\Documents and Settings\lproctor.ULL\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\OLK36\Copyright - thesis.doc The Impact of Dutch Cartesian Medical Reformers in Early Enlightenment German Culture (1680-1720) Anette Henriette Munt University College London Thesis submitted for the degree of PhD, University o f London, 2004 UMI Number: U592582 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Dissertation Publishing UMI U592582 Published by ProQuest LLC 2013. Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 Abstract This study analyses the reception and influence of Dutch Cartesian medical reformers in German culture during the Early Enlightenment period. The impact of their proposed reforms, involving the rejection of traditional Galenic-Aristotelian theory and practice, and placing medicine in an essentially new, mechanistic science- oriented Cartesian philosophical framework, is discussed in the context of the large number of German translations of their works, published often in several editions in various parts of Germany between the late 1680s and the early eighteenth century, and in relation to the wider context of social and cultural reform. The study opens with an examination of factors that facilitated the reception of Dutch medical ideas in Germany, such as the large number of German medical students studying in the Netherlands, the preponderant impact of the Dutch universities in the promotion of the ‘new’ philosophy and science during the second half of the seventeenth and early eighteenth century, and the presence of physicians trained in the Dutch universities at the medical faculties of German Protestant universities, and as court, city, and army physicians. Supporting evidence is also drawn from the massive impact of Dutch publishing on the German book market, the proliferation of periodicals, book reviews and book production in Germany aimed at the general public in the vernacular. It is argued that the translated works of Comelis Bontekoe, Steven Blankaart, Heidentryk Overkamp and their Cartesian followers intensified debates about medical theory and practice and the new life-style issues of tea and coffee drinking and tobacco-smoking and considerably influenced their adoption in society. The concerns voiced by translators and influential German medical scholars, including Friedrich Hoffmann, Georg Ernst Stahl and Albrecht von Haller, show that their iatrochemical mechanist conception of how to preserve health, prevent illness and prolong life, and their advocacy of a virtual abolition of blood-letting and purging, contributed to a change in people’s perceptions of illness and attitudes to health care in some sections of society, and exerted a far greater impact on German medicine than has so far been recognized. 2 Table\ of Contents Acknowledgments 5 Abbreviations 7 Introduction 8 I The Cultural and Institutional Context i) German Medical Students at Dutch Universities 17 ii) The Impact of Dutch Academic ‘New’ Philosophy 23 and Science on German Medical Thought iii) Cartesianism in German Medical Faculties 36 a) Konigsberg University 38 b) Duisburg University 42 c) Frankfurt on Oder University 47 d) Marburg University 49 e) Halle University 55 II Dutch Cartesian Medical Reformers i) Comelis Bontekoe 58 ii) Heydentryk Overkamp 74 iii) Steven Blankaart 78 iv) Dutch Cartesian Allies 83 v) Scientific Instruments 91 III Medicine and the Early Enlightenment in Germany i) Intellectual Trends 97 ii) The German Language Journals 108 iii) Private Libraries, Encyclopaedias and Lexicons 121 iv) Publishers, Advertising and the Book Trade 126 3 IV Translating Medical Reform i) The Vemacularization of Medicine 135 ii) Rationales for Translating Dutch Medical Books into German 137 iii) Suitability of the German Language for Science and Medicine 141 iv) Accuracy, Translation Quality and Manipulation of Texts 147 v) Controversial Strategies 151 Vi) Gehema - A medical Reform Publicist 157 vii) German and French Allies 165 V A ‘Right and Reliable Guide to Constant Health and a Long Life9 173 VI Tea, Coffee, Chocolate and Tobacco - the Controversies surrounding their Use as Health-Promoting Remedies i) ‘Reliable Thoughts’ on Tea, Coffee and Chocolate 189 ii) Sugar - the ‘Hypocritical Enemy’ 204 iii) ‘Clearly Discovered Innocence’ of Tea and Coffee 206 iv) Bontekoe - A ‘Curious Saint’ 208 v) A New Sociability 210 vi) Tobacco - A Universal Medicine 215 VII Blood-letting and Purging - ‘Cruel Medical Murder Methods9 i) Blood-Letting 223 ii) Purging - the ‘Noblest Form of Healing’ 242 Conclusion - A Medical Reform Programme? 253 Bibliography 259 4 Acknowledgements It has been a long way from the conception of this project to its completion which has benefited enormously from its initial supervision by Professor Jonathan Israel (Dutch History), formerly at University College London, and Professor Roy Porter (while still at the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine). The history postgraduate seminars and history of medicine workshops, symposia, and occasional conferences I attended at University College London, the London Institute for Historical Research, and the Wellcome Institute, have introduced me to a wide range of historical and medical topics which have been hugely stimulating and rewarding. I am also grateful to Timothy McFarland of the German Department at UCL for supervising me during the later stages after the restructuring of my thesis, and for not giving up on me when the subject took still further turns. The part-time nature of my research presented a number of problems; I have therefore greatly appreciated the kindness and forbearance of my supervisors who allowed me to work at my own pace. That this project has been completed at all, is also thanks to some very special people whose kind encouragement has finally ‘quickned, and Midwifed into the world’ any ‘good Apprehensions’ I had on the subject. I first of all wish to thank Dr. Berkvens-Stevelinck whose perceptive comments, at the ‘Bookshop of the World’ conference in 1999, prompted me to develop a clearer concept of my project. I warmly thank Renee Gerson and Judith Pollmann for their support and for twice giving me the opportunity to introduce my ideas at the Low Countries Seminar of the IHR. I thank Reinier Salverda for inviting me to give a paper at the conference ‘The Bookshop of the World, A celebration of 500 years of printing and publishing in the Low Countries’ (organized by the British Library, the Wellcome Institute and University College London), later selected by Alastair Duke, Jacob Harskamp, and Theo Hermans for publication. I am grateful to them for their constructive advice, also on other occasions. I thank Jean Tsushima for enabling me to speak at the Huguenot and Walloon Research Association on ‘Aspects of Dutch medical education (1640-1700)’, and the Friends of the Iveagh Bequest at Kenwood where I spoke on ‘Medical Science and Art in the Dutch Golden Age’. 5 My very special thanks go to professors Martin Swales and Mary Fulbrook, and my friend and fellow student Philip Naylor for their stimulating and valuable advice at decisive turning points during my years at University College, to my close friends Anne Mansell and Marlies Mattem for their love, interest and support throughout, to my daughter Claire for her understanding, especially during this last year, and most of all to Jonathan, my true companion in every way. I have been financially supported by a five-year (part time) grant from the Arts and Humanities Research Board covering my tuition fees. The research for this study was carried out at various libraries in London, especially the British Library and the Wellcome Library, as well as libraries in Amsterdam, The Hague, Leiden, Wolfenbiittel, Gottingen, Jena, Berlin, Wroclaw (Breslau) and Krakow/Poland.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The Theology of the French Reformed Churches Martin I
    The Theology of the French Reformed Churches REFORMED HISTORICAL-THEOLOGICAL STUDIES General Editors Joel R. Beeke and Jay T. Collier BOOKS IN SERIES: The Christology of John Owen Richard W. Daniels The Covenant Theology of Caspar Olevianus Lyle D. Bierma John Diodati’s Doctrine of Holy Scripture Andrea Ferrari Caspar Olevian and the Substance of the Covenant R. Scott Clark Introduction to Reformed Scholasticism Willem J. van Asselt, et al. The Spiritual Brotherhood Paul R. Schaefer Jr. Teaching Predestination David H. Kranendonk The Marrow Controversy and Seceder Tradition William VanDoodewaard Unity and Continuity in Covenantal Thought Andrew A. Woolsey The Theology of the French Reformed Churches Martin I. Klauber The Theology of the French Reformed Churches: From Henri IV to the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes Edited by Martin I. Klauber Reformation Heritage Books Grand Rapids, Michigan The Theology of the French Reformed Churches © 2014 by Martin I. Klauber All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any man­ ner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. Direct your requests to the publisher at the following address: Reformation Heritage Books 2965 Leonard St. NE Grand Rapids, MI 49525 616­977­0889 / Fax 616­285­3246 [email protected] www.heritagebooks.org Printed in the United States of America 14 15 16 17 18 19/10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 [CIP info] For additional Reformed literature, request a free book list from Reformation Heritage Books at the above regular or e-mail address.
    [Show full text]
  • ACTA UNIVERSITATIS UPSALIENSIS Uppsala Studies in History of Ideas 48
    ACTA UNIVERSITATIS UPSALIENSIS Uppsala Studies in History of Ideas 48 ANDREAS RYDBERG Inner Experience An Analysis of Scientific Experience in Early Modern Germany Dissertation presented at Uppsala University to be publicly examined in Geijersalen (Eng6-1023), Engelska Parken, Humanistiskt centrum, Thunbergsvägen 3P, Uppsala, Friday, 9 June 2017 at 10:00 for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. The examination will be conducted in Swedish. Faculty examiner: Kristiina Savin (Lunds universitet, Institutionen för kulturvetenskaper). Abstract Rydberg, A. 2017. Inner Experience. An Analysis of Scientific Experience in Early Modern Germany. Uppsala Studies in History of Ideas 48. 245 pp. Uppsala: Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis. ISBN 978-91-554-9926-6. In the last decades a number of studies have shed light on early modern scientific experience. While some of these studies have focused on how new facts were forced out of nature in so-called experimental situations, others have charted long-term transformations. In this dissertation I explore a rather different facet of scientific experience by focusing on the case of the Prussian university town Halle in the period from the late seventeenth till the mid-eighteenth century. At this site philosophers, theologians and physicians were preoccupied with categories such as inner senses , inner experience, living experience, psychological experiments and psychometrics. In the study I argue that these hitherto almost completely overlooked categories take us away from observations of external things to the internal organisation of experience and to entirely internal objects of experience. Rather than seeing this internal side of scientific experience as mere theory and epistemology, I argue that it was an integral and central part of what has been referred to as the cultura animi tradition, that is, the philosophical and medical tradition of approaching the soul as something in need of cultivation, education, disciplination and cure.
    [Show full text]
  • Diplomarbeit/ Diploma Thesis
    DIPLOMARBEIT/ DIPLOMA THESIS Titel der Diplomarbeit/ Title of the Diploma Thesis „Der Vampirdiskurs in Enzyklopädien und Wörterbüchern des 18. Jahrhunderts“ verfasst von/ submitted by Thomas Haindl angestrebter akademischer Grad/ in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Magister der Philosophie (Mag. phil.) Wien 2017 Studienkennzahl lt. Studienblatt/ degree programme code as it appears on the student record sheet: A 190 333 313 Studienrichtung lt. Studienblatt/ degree programme as it appears on the student record sheet: Lehramtsstudium UF Geschichte UF Deutsch Betreut von / Supervisor: Univ.-Prof. Mag. Dr. Christoph Augustynowicz DANKSAGUNG Ein besonderer Dank gilt meiner Mutter Renate und meiner Freundin Marie, die mich stets ermutigt und mit viel Geduld moralisch unterstützt haben. Besonders danken möchte ich Herrn Prof. Mag. Dr. Christoph Augustynowicz für die wissenschaftliche Betreuung dieser Diplomarbeit. Ihre hilfreichen Anregungen waren eine große Hilfe bei der Erarbeitung dieser Arbeit. Zuletzt möchte ich mich bei meinen Freunden und meiner restlichen Familie bedanken, die immer ein offenes Ohr für meine Probleme hatten. 2 1. EINLEITUNG ................................................................................................................................... 5 2. METHODISCHE KONKRETISIERUNG ..................................................................................... 7 3. FORSCHUNGSSTAND .................................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Early Modern German Biographical Lexicons and Encyclopedias
    Quidditas Volume 29 Article 8 2008 Alphabetical Lives: Early Modern German Biographical Lexicons and Encyclopedias Richard G. Cole Luther College, Emeritus Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/rmmra Part of the Comparative Literature Commons, History Commons, Philosophy Commons, and the Renaissance Studies Commons Recommended Citation Cole, Richard G. (2008) "Alphabetical Lives: Early Modern German Biographical Lexicons and Encyclopedias," Quidditas: Vol. 29 , Article 8. Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/rmmra/vol29/iss1/8 This Note is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at BYU ScholarsArchive. It has been accepted for inclusion in Quidditas by an authorized editor of BYU ScholarsArchive. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. Cole 121 Notes Alphabetical Lives: Early Modern German Biographical Lexicons and Encyclopedias Richard G. Cole Luther College, Emeritus Those who appear obvious to us as “major players” in past eras may in part result from an unintended consequence of the work of early modern biographical lexicographers. By the eighteenth century, there were enough printed sources and available archival materials to deluge or even overwhelm historians and biographers with information about past actors of sixteenth century history. Those biographical lexicographers made choices about whom to give prominence and whom to minimize or ignore in their works. Much has been written about the impact of printing from the time of Gutenberg through the early modern period of European history. New methods of storing and retrieving data, producing accurate maps and printing biographical lexicons are but a few of the contributions of early modern European printing presses.1 By the end the seventeenth century, a new book genre, the biographical lexicon and encyclopedia, emerged from sixteenth century German print technology.
    [Show full text]
  • Notes on Contributors / Remembering Roy Porter
    Notes on Contributors / Remembering Roy Porter Not only was Roy Porter a brilliant scholar and a dedicated colleague, he was also a remarkable, generous and idiosyncratic individual – in fact, he was exactly the kind of person about whom Roy himself loved to write. We were all lucky that our lives were enriched by his presence. In this section, conventionally reserved for descriptions of ourselves, many of us have also added favourite memories of Roy, or moments when his influence shaped our ideas and careers. Roberta Bivins is Wellcome Lecturer in the History of Medicine at Cardiff University. The topic of her most recent book,Alternative Medicine? A Global Approach (2007), was suggested to her by Roy Porter many years ago. She is now studying the reciprocal impact of immigration and medical research/healthcare delivery in the US and UK since the Second World War. ‘As a nervous PhD student, I came to Roy via the most tenuous of connections: my American supervisor happened to know Roy’s wife. It is typical of his generosity that Roy invited me to London sight unseen, simply as a favour to his wife’s acquaintance. Dutifully, he scheduled regular lunches with me to check on my progress. Alongside the sandwiches and the inspiration, Roy offered me, in his inimitable way, a much- needed sense of belonging. One lunchtime, he dropped into his chair, grinned, and reported: “My mother has a question for you: did the royals use acupuncture?” I was surprised – but the idea that Roy’s mum knew all about my dissertation suddenly made me feel right at home in London.
    [Show full text]
  • Die Historischen Buchbestände Der Stadtbibliothek Schaffhausen Hanspeter Marti, René Specht, André Weibel Bestandsgeschichte
    Die historischen Buchbestände der Stadtbibliothek Schaffhausen Hanspeter Marti, René Specht, André Weibel Bestandsgeschichte Die Stadtbibliothek Schaffhausen wurde an Ostern 1636 als Bürgerbibliothek gegründet, of- fenbar nach dem Vorbild der 1629 gegründeten Stadtbibliothek von Zürich.1 Neben der Bür- gerbibliothek gab es bereits eine theologische Fachbibliothek in der Kirche St. Johann, die Vorläuferin der heutigen Ministerialbibliothek. In der Sammlung im St. Johann hatten nach der Reformation die Reste der Bibliotheken der aufgehobenen Klöster Aufnahme gefunden. Die Intentionen der nicht namentlich bekannten Gründer der Bürgerbibliothek sind formuliert in der lateinischen praefatio zum Album publicae civium scaphusianorum bibliothecae. In diesem Buch wurden die Namen von Gönnern, gestiftete Summen und Titel von geschenk- ten Büchern eingetragen.2 Das Album ist neben den erhaltenen Büchern, den darin enthalte- nen Besitzeinträgen und Widmungen sowie wenigen anderen Zeugnissen die wichtigste Quelle für die frühe Bestandesgeschichte. Die Bürgerbibliothek sammelte auch Bilder, Mo- delle, Naturalien u. ä. Von diesem Teil der Sammlung, auf den hier nicht weiter eingegangen wird, trennte sie sich im Laufe des 19. Jhs. Eines der frühesten bekannten Buchgeschenke ist jenes von Johannes Fabricius, praecep- tor. Die Quatuor evangeliorum consonantia des Ammonius (Mainz, 1524) enthält auf dem hinteren Spiegelblatt eine vom August 1636 datierte Widmung und ist mit Autor, Titel und Namen des Schenkers im Album aufgeführt.3 Ein weiterer Schenker der
    [Show full text]
  • August Hermann Francke, Friedrich Wilhelm I, and the Consolidation of Prussian Absolutism
    GOD'S SPECIAL WAY: AUGUST HERMANN FRANCKE, FRIEDRICH WILHELM I, AND THE CONSOLIDATION OF PRUSSIAN ABSOLUTISM. DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of the Ohio State University By Terry Dale Thompson, B.S., M.A., M.T.S. * ★ * * * The Ohio State University 1996 Dissertation Committee Approved by Professor James M. Kittelson, Adviser Professor John F. Guilmartin ^ / i f Professor John C. Rule , J Adviser Department of History UMI Number: 9639358 Copyright 1996 by Thompson, Terry Dale All rights reserved. UMI Microform 9639358 Copyright 1996, by UMI Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. UMI 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, MI 48103 COPYRIGHT BY TERRY DALE THOMPSON 1996 ABSTRACT God's Special Way examines the relationship between Halle Pietism and the Hohenzollern monarchy in order to discern the nature and effect on Brandenburg-Prussia of that alliance. Halle Pietism was a reform movement within the Lutheran church in 17th and 18th century Germany that believed the establishment church had become too concerned with correct theology, thus they aimed at a revival of intense Biblicism, personal spirituality, and social reform. The Pietists, led by August Hermann Francke (1662-1727) , and King Friedrich Wilhelm I (rl7l3-l740) were partners in an attempt to create a Godly realm in economically strapped and politically divided Brandenburg-Prussia. In large measure the partnership produced Pietist control of Brandenburg- Prussia'a pulpits and schoolrooms, despite the opposition of another informal alliance, this between the landed nobility and the establishment Lutheran church, who hoped to maintain their own authority in the religious and political spheres.
    [Show full text]
  • The Beginnings of the Library in Charles Town, South Carolina by Edgae Legake Pennington
    1934.] The Library in Charles Town, So. Carolina 159 THE BEGINNINGS OF THE LIBRARY IN CHARLES TOWN, SOUTH CAROLINA BY EDGAE LEGAKE PENNINGTON HE lending library of colonial America owes most to T the industry and example of an English clergy- man, the Reverend Doctor Thomas Bray. Bray was born at Marton in Shropshire in 1656; after studying divinity at Oxford, he entered holy orders. He early attracted attention by his indefatigable zeal and great industry, and his interest in various reform movements. His energies led to his selection as a proper person to model the infant Church of England in the province of Maryland and establish it on a solid foundation. There had been a petition from that province for the assist- ance of a "superintendent, commissary, or suffragan"; 80, in April, 1696, Thomas Bray was appointed com- missary, or official representative of the Bishop of London who acted as diocesan of the Church in the American colonies. Bray was not able to go promptly. As he was impressed by the fact that it was difficult to secure the best ministers for the colonial field, he began to direct his efforts towards remedying such difficulties as might stand in the way. He found that the clergymen were usually too poor to buy books; and across the sea, shut off from educational opportunities, they must needs deteriorate. He laid the results of his enquiries before the bishops ; and declared that without a compe- tent provision of reading matter, the ministers could not prove useful to the design of their mission, and that a library would be the best encouragement to studious and sober men to enter the service.
    [Show full text]
  • LONDA SCHIEBINGER Curriculum Vitae
    LONDA SCHIEBINGER Curriculum Vitae CURRENTLY: John L. Hinds Professor of History of Science, History Department. Director, EU/US Gendered Innovations in Science, Health & Medicine, Engineering, and Environment. Director, Graduate Studies, History Department, 2020-2021. Ethics Review Panel, Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence Institute, 2020-. Stanford University, 450 Serra Mall, Bld. 200 Stanford, CA 94305-2024, USA E-Mail: [email protected] EDUCATION Ph.D. Harvard University, Department of History, 1984. M.A. Harvard University, Department of History, 1977. B.A. University of Nebraska, Department of English, 1974. PRIZES Honorary Doctorate, University of Valencia, Spain, 2018. AND Honorary Doctorate, Faculty of Science, Lund University, Sweden, 2017. HONORS Medical Women's Association President’s Recognition Award, 2017. Impact of Gender/Sex on Innovation and Novel Technologies Pioneer Award, 2016. Linda Pollin Women’s Heart Health Leadership Award, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, 2015. Member, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2014. Honorary Doctorate, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, 2013. Distinguished Affiliated Professor, Technical University, Munich, 2011-. Member, Institute for Advanced Study, Technical University, Munich, 2011-. Interdisciplinary Leadership Award, 2010, Women’s Health, Stanford Medical School. Prize in Atlantic History, American Historical Association, 2005, for Plants and Empire: Colonial Bioprospecting in the Atlantic World (2004). Alf Andrew Heggoy Book Prize, French Colonial Historical Society, 2005, Plants and Empire: Colonial Bioprospecting in the Atlantic World (2004). J. Worth Estes Prize for the History of Pharmacology, American Association for the History of Medicine, 2005, for “Feminist History of Colonial Science,” Hypatia (2004). Alexander von Humboldt Research Prize, Berlin, 1999-2000 (first woman historian to win this senior prize). Faculty Scholar's Medal for Outstanding Achievement in the Arts and Humanities, Pennsylvania State University, 2000.
    [Show full text]
  • No. 26 Jonathan Israel, Radical Enlightenment
    H-France Review Volume 2 (2002) Page 105 H-France Review Vol. 2 (February, 2002), No. 26 Jonathan Israel, Radical Enlightenment: Philosophy and the Making of Modernity, 1650-1750. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2001. xxii + 810 pp. Maps, tables, plates, notes, bibliography, and index. $45.00 US (cl). ISBN 0-19-820608-9. Review by J.B. Shank, University of Minnesota. Was ist Aufklärung? Robert Darnton recently began a lecture on this topic by asking his audience to repeat the question, only this time with feeling. Jonathan Israel would not have been amused. He finds nothing tired or stale about this classic question of European intellectual history, nor does he see any problem with the classic "men and ideas" approach to it that Darnton has built a career critiquing. Radical Enlightenment, Israel's magisterial history of the emergence of Enlightenment thought in Europe, is nothing if not a throwback to a bygone era when, to borrow from Darnton again, intellectual historians were scholars who took dusty philosophical tomes off library shelves and taught readers how to link them together. Yet despite its frustrating traditionalism and maddening dismissal of an entire generation of newer Enlightenment scholarship, Radical Enlightenment is an important book. It especially offers an important chronological and geographical reconceptualization of the origins of the Enlightenment that scholars, whatever their historiographical stripe, will ignore only at their peril. But will anyone actually read the book? And can the honest reviewer actually recommend that one do so? It is not that Israel is a bad writer. Quite the contrary, he proves to be a very engaging guide to the many topics he presents.
    [Show full text]
  • The Pennsylvania State University the Graduate School
    The Pennsylvania State University The Graduate School College of the Liberal Arts FROM MORAL REFORM TO CIVIC LUTHERANISM: PROTESTANT IDENTITY IN SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY LÜBECK A Dissertation in History and Religious Studies by Jason L. Strandquist © 2012 Jason L. Strandquist Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy August 2012 ii The dissertation of Jason L. Strandquist was reviewed and approved* by the following: R. Po-chia Hsia Edwin Earle Sparks Professor of History Dissertation Adviser Chair of Committee A. Gregg Roeber Professor of Early Modern History and Religious Studies Daniel C. Beaver Associate Professor of History Charlotte M. Houghton Associate Professor of Art History Michael Kulikowski Professor of History and Classics and Ancient Mediterranean Studies Head, Department of History and Program in Religious Studies *Signatures are on file in the Graduate School iii ABSTRACT The following study suggests that social change in seventeenth-century German cities cannot be understood apart from community religious identity. By reconstructing the overlapping crises of the seventeenth century as they occurred in Lübeck, the capital city of the Hanseatic League, I argue that structural crisis alone did not cause permanent changes in the ordering of urban politics and religious life inherited from the late middle ages and Reformation. In fact, the “Little Ice Age” (c. 1570-1630) and Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648) elicited very different responses from the city’s Lutheran pastors and oligarchic magistrates. In contrast to better-studied cities like Augsburg and Frankfurt, dramatic change came to Lübeck only when guildsmen mounted a series of overlapping attacks on elite property and religious non-conformists in the 1660s.
    [Show full text]
  • Theatre of Truth: Performing Public Religious Disputation in Seventeenth-Century Europe
    Theatre of Truth: Performing Public Religious Disputation in Seventeenth-Century Europe by David Lorne Robinson A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Degree History University of Toronto © Copyright by David Lorne Robinson 2020 Theatre of Truth: Performing Public Religious Disputation in Seventeenth-Century Europe David Lorne Robinson Doctor of Philosophy History University of Toronto 2020 Abstract This dissertation examines the practice of public religious disputation in early seventeenth- century Europe. It takes a transnational approach, examining disputations in France, England, and the Low Countries between 1598 and 1625. This approach highlights the ways in which common social and political circumstances created a climate for frequent disputations, but also how religious controversy was communicated across political boundaries. It argues that these debates were part of a wider culture of performance and became especially prevalent in religiously-divided communities where performances of religious unity like Corpus Christi processions had become contested. These disputations took the practice of academic disputation, still well regarded by both Catholics and Protestants as an effective method of inquiry, and relocated it in the homes of lay hosts. The lay audience thereby became active participants in the performance, debating clergy and performing their own religious identity. Disputations then became the subject of a more public debate as rumours about them spread and clerics exploited oral and manuscript communications networks and printing presses to vaunt their victories and denigrate their opponents, making use of negative stereotypes to solidify religious divisions. State actors, seeing the utility of disputation in shaping public opinion, also sought to organize disputations in an effort to legitimize their religious policies.
    [Show full text]