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If the study of garden history, as traditionally conceived, requires a justification, a pertinent line of inquiry lies in the explication of the diverse roles that gardens played in the context of the early modern city. This discussion, however, is hindered by the anachronistic opposition between utility and pleasure, in addition to pervasive paradisiacal and pastoral associations that perpetuate a distinctly elitist image of these amenities. This article, using the example of sixteenth- through eighteenth-century Florence, challenges such assumptions by interpreting the network of recreational and productive properties within the city as an informal green infrastructure, reintegrating their narratives into the broader history of public space. By revaluating the social and economic meanings of gardens through the dual lenses of their accessibility and their productive use, this analysis shows specific ways in which they defined the urban landscape of early modern Italy, while also suggesting how they may have been experienced by nonelite visitors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we present the first estimate of the full income distribution in pre‐industrial Sweden (including present‐day Finland). We draw on the schedule and the individual assessments devised by the authorities to distribute the 1613 Älvsborg ransom taxation to estimate income inequality, as well as the income shares of the top quantiles and of various social groups. We find that Sweden was relatively equal compared with other early modern European societies, for two main reasons: first, because the nobility, the clergy, the burghers, and other middle‐rank social groups all held relatively small shares of the total income, and second, because the landless groups were less numerous in Sweden than in other societies. This resulted in a large share of the total income going to the relatively homogeneous group of landed peasants, who made up the majority of the population. Our study thus speaks to the political historiography of early modern Sweden, within which negotiation and collaboration between the landed peasantry and the state has been seen as pivotal to the state formation process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although historians and archaeologists have been quick to point out the political and economic conditions that tend to foment sea piracy, less attention has been given to the ecology of ‘blue crimes’. This article offers an empirical synthesis of recent archaeological work on piratical sites from the Age of Sail (ca. 1570–1860) while drawing parallels to both ancient Mediterranean and contemporary sea piracy in order to highlight some common patterns and explore the broader potential of a political ecology framing. I argue that sea piracy is in part an effect of ecological conditions and in turn produces its own political and ecological effects. I also consider Graeber and Wengrow’s transhistorical argument about the ‘ecology of freedom’ as it applies to sea piracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focusing on the Belgian cities of Namur and Liège in the eighteenth century, this article proposes to open a discussion around legal versus illegal butchery, and the description of how it was regulated: by limiting slaughter to specific locations, specific trades, and specific times, and by the work of the people in charge of inspecting foodstuffs. At the heart of this study is the butchery animal—that is, large animals—and the profession in charge of it: the butchers. Given the importance of meat products in consumption practices, the city's butchers had a central place: gathered in a guild, they had a privileged status, including a virtual monopoly on the slaughter of butchery animals and the sale of raw meat. However, as the meat economy was developing, master butchers were faced with a multitude of vendors who undermined their position and threatened health standards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The significance of birds in the medieval human diet has been greatly explored in Europe. However, there is a lack of systematic analysis of data from Croatia. Avian remains dated to the Late Medieval and Early Modern Periods from five archaeological sites in continental Croatia underwent skeletal and taxonomic analysis. Age groups were determined and sex identification was conducted using visual and X-ray diagnostics. Chicken bone measurements were taken, and the logarithmic size index (LSI) technique was performed. Statistical analysis was applied to explore differences between sites. A total of 694 avian remains were studied, revealing 10 species/genera. Avian remains ranged from 8.88% to 20.32% across sites, with the highest percentage found at the urban site BAN. Hens outnumbered cockerels across all sites, with adult chickens prevailing over immature and subadult ones. Chicken sizes were generally consistent across sites, except for castle MIL, where a larger breed was identified. Cockerels tended to be larger than hens, except for one small-sized spurred specimen. To conclude, bird exploitation complemented the use of other animals in diets. Chickens were vital for eggs and meat, with monasteries excelling in bird husbandry over castles. Inhabitants of urban areas mainly consumed bird meat. Castles showed high status through game and imported birds. The aim of this article was to fill in the gap of information regarding the exploitation and consumption of birds at Croatian sites during the Late Medieval and Early Modern Periods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The early modern differentiae iuris civilis et canonici constituted part of a genre that was emblematic of the “new ius commune”, the early modern learned law which discussed the scope and relevance of late medieval ius commune for the then-current legal system. The authors of differentiae have not articulated a coherent meaning of the term “ius commune”, and have only occasionally applied it with a slightly novel approach in their reasoning aimed at reconciling the discrepancies between the two bodies of law. Nevertheless, the early modern differentiae may be perceived as a legal genre that had the internal coherence of ius commune as one of its objectives.

This article offers a comparative analysis of the brotherhoods (germanies1) and their respective revolts (also called Germanies) in Valencia and Mallorca from the historical, historiographic and memorialist vantage points. The most salient aspects of both movements within the historical context of the early 1520s are highlighted.

Anthropological features of the Russian city population in the 11th – 18th centuries were studied using classical methods of craniometry as well as cranio- and osteoscopy. However, the method of geometric morphometry, which has been actively used since the 1990s and is a recent morphometric tool, has not yet been applied to Russian urban craniological series. We obtained and analyzed by the GM method three-dimensional copies of 225 skulls from thirteen series of the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period from the excavations of the Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Despite the small number of studied samples from Tver and Torzhok, we were able to trace their features and originality relative to other comparable groups and among themselves. Based on historical information, these variations can be explained by political factors. The differences between the political systems of Ancient Rus’ and Russia in the Early Modern period also explain the greater morphological homogeneity of the urban population in the 15th – 18th centuries compared to the 11th –13th centuries. The study of variability in the late urban series and comparison of diachronic samples from Yaroslavl and Pereslavl-Zalessky showed morphological similarity between the inhabitants of the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period, which may indicate the constancy of administrative, trade, and economic ties, as well as the significant contribution of the local rural population to the formation of the anthropological appearance of the townspeople. The revealed greater variability in the female samples compared to the male ones may indicate significant irregularities in the facial skeleton shape of women, which cannot be disclosed using classical craniology data. In general, the obtained results not only confirm many of the conclusions of previous craniological studies of the urban population from Eastern Europe but also make it possible to obtain new data on the degree of homogeneity of the townspeople’s anthropological appearance in the Middle Ages and Early Modern periods.

This paper discusses three large, almost identical oval breverls from the eighteenth century burial contexts in present-day Republic of Croatia. Two of them were discovered during archaeological excavations in Žuberak and Prozorje, while the third one from Ližnjan had not been defined as breverl until now. Breverls are the rarest and most enigmatic devotional objects but the three analysed in this paper have a common link other than their appearance. They all contained religious medals from pilgrim sites and papers with the prayer against all evils and demonic attacks on one side and the blessings of saints, the prayer for the identification of those tortured by evil spirits, and the Prologue to John's Gospel on the other. This article compares the papers discovered in them, studies the motifs from the mentioned breverls and analyses other finds from them to provide answers to the questions of their place of production, the identity of the people who wore them and why. Tentative correlation of different bioarchaeological factors, such as age, sex, and health condition of the deceased can give us much information on who breverl bearers were. Apparently, they were the vulnerable members of society, such as pregnant women, people suffering from poor health, or, as prayers from the breverls suggest, individuals believed to be tortured by demons or evil spirits. Taking that into account, breverls were devotional objects believed to provide universal protection, a sort of medicine case for both physical and spiritual problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Migration & Ethnic Themes: MET / Migracijske i Etničke Teme is the property of Institut za istrazivanje migracija / Institute for Migration Research (IMIN) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The first systematic attempts to straighten the River Inn in Tyrol for shipping and land reclamation date back to the middle of the 18th century. A dedicated hydraulic engineering authority—the so-called Main Ark Inspection—was established to realize this challenging task. The one-man authority was unable to straighten the Alpine river through the period of its existence up to 1792. The reasons for this were by no means related to a lack of technical resources and knowledge. On the contrary, a micro- and environmental-historical analysis of the attempts to straighten the River Inn highlights the complexity of the causes, which were mutually reinforcing and multifactorial. In this paper, four key causes are examined in more detail: (1) the social organization of water engineering, (2) social conflicts between riparian communities among themselves and with the hydraulic engineering authority, (3) conflicts between Tyrol and Bavaria at the wet border downstream of Kufstein, and (4) increased bedload discharge into the main river by tributaries. To illustrate the causes mentioned above, historical river maps are analyzed in great detail, drawing on contemporaneous written sources. The approach thereby highlights the overall complexity of pre-modern hydraulic engineering in all its facets, be they social, technical, natural, administrative, or organizational. To conclude, the results of this environmental history research are embedded and discussed in the context of integrated river management in the Anthropocene. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of GENDER: Zeitschrift für Geschlecht, Kultur und Gesellschaft is the property of Verlag Barbara Budrich GmbH and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Simple Summary: In this study, we discuss the dietary characteristics of different sizes and types of dogs (n = 75) from sites relating to different social strata and time periods in Lithuania from the 12th to the 18th C AD. Results demonstrate that the size, type, diet, and health of canines from different time periods and sociocultural environments varied, and elite dogs had different nutrition values to urban canines. Overall, carbon isotopic signals indicate that dogs' diets were based on C3 plant environment foods (cereals and animals), while freshwater fish was more important for some individuals in coastal Klaipėda/Memelburg Castle. In the Middle Ages, the consumption of plant-based foods was likely higher compared to the early modern period, but this varied according to the particular individual. Our study also revealed that the diet was not related to the individual's size. Compared to pigs, dogs had a higher intake of animal foods in their diet. In general, the nutrition of the studied canines was similar to that of the rural human population of the same period. This article presents the results of research that focused on the nutrition and related health issues of medieval and early modern dogs found in the territory of present-day Lithuania. In this study, we present bone collagen carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) isotope ratios for seventy-five dogs recovered from seven sites which were dated back to the between the 12th and 18th C AD. In addition, by studying the remains of almost 200 dogs, we were able to estimate changes in the sizes and morphotypes of canines across over 600 years. On the basis of stable isotope and historical data, as well as the osteometric analysis, we discuss the dietary patterns of different sizes and types of dogs from the sites related to different social strata and time periods. The results of our study demonstrate that the size, type, diet, and health of canines from different time periods and sociocultural environments varied. Overall, carbon isotopic signals indicate that dogs' diets were based on C3 plant environment foods (cereals and animals), while freshwater fish was more important for some individuals in coastal Klaipėda/Memelburg Castle. The stable isotope analysis supported the historical records, indicating that cereals were highly important in the diet of elite dogs. Meanwhile, urban dogs had a different nutrition. In the Middle Ages, the consumption of plant-based foods was likely higher compared to the early modern period. Our study also revealed that the diets of dogs did not correlate with individual size. Compared to pigs, dogs had a higher intake of animal foods in their diet. In general, the nutrition of the studied canines was similar to that of the rural human population of the same period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This issue of Daphnis will examine the use of invective between scholars in the early modern period. The introduction places the findings of the individual contributions in a broader context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay lies at the intersection of several fields: the study of the novel, world literature, early modern studies, and global modernity. It analyzes the representation of the outside world in the Chinese novel Dream of the Red Chamber (aka The Story of the Stone) from the 18th century. There exist frequent appearances of foreign objects as well as glimpses of China's trade with the West in the novel, and yet the literary work maintains a China-centered worldview. The essay situates the novel in the context of nascent world literature at that time and intervenes in the field of East-West comparative literature in the early modern period. The encounter with foreign objects and material culture is a shocking and exciting discovery as described in vivid details in this novel. Yet, China's ambivalent attitude toward introducing and embracing foreign culture results in the belated emergence of world literature on its soil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global and knowledge-historical perspectives represent a productive challenge to the statist positions which still characterise much of legal history – positions whose deficiencies have become increasingly clear in recent times. This also applies to research on the Holy Roman Empire, which dominated the map of Central Europe until 1806. This empire had two central courts, the Imperial Chamber Court (Reichskammergericht) and the Imperial Aulic Council (Reichshofrat), which have been the subject of intensive study in German legal history since the 1960s. In order to utilise the rich yields of this research in terms of global history, German historians will have to stop reconstructing the history of the Imperial Chamber Court and Imperial Aulic Council teleologically as developmental steps towards the rule of law in the modern state. The process categories frequently used in the literature on the Holy Roman Empire, such as juridification, rationalisation and professionalisation, prove to be insufficient to adequately describe knowledge of the production of normativity. What is needed is a sociology of the judicial production of norms that sees the practices of the judges in constant interaction with social normativity regimes. Using the example of the Imperial Aulic Council, the article demonstrates how organisational and social analysis can be linked successfully.

In Western Europe, the Early Modern Period is characterized by the rise of tenderness in romantic relationships and the emergence of companionate marriage. Despite a long research tradition, the origins of these social changes remain elusive. In this paper, we build on recent advances in behavioral sciences, showing that romantic emotional investment, which is more culturally variable than sexual attraction, enhances the cohesion of long-term relationships and increases investment in children. Importantly, this long-term strategy is considered especially advantageous when living standards are high. Here, we investigate the relationship between living standards, the emotional components of love expressed in fiction work, and behavioral outcomes related to pair bonding, such as nuptial and fertility rates. We developed natural language processing measures of "emotional investment" (tenderness) and "attraction" (passion) and computed romantic love in English plays (N = 847) as a ratio between the two. We found that living standards generally predicted and temporally preceded variations of romantic love in the Early Modern Period. Furthermore, romantic love preceded an increase in nuptial rates and a decrease in births per marriage. This suggests that increasing living standards in the Early Modern Period may have contributed to the emergence of modern romantic culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Investigaciones Historicas is the property of Universidad de Valladolid, Facultad de Filosofia y Letras and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article aims to verify the reliability in the historiographic narration regarding investiture of the podestà in sixteenth-century Koper-Capodistria with an analytic tool predicated on anthropology, the historical genesis of entry rituals and the universally valid protocol prescription for cities under Venetian rule. This tool has made possible to broadly qualify civic ritual wherewith the podestà was publicly invested with his powers, revealing the underlying social relationships and allowing for a comprehensive understanding of its historiographical reconstruction. The obtained results represent a novelty in the panorama of historical research and bring forth new and stimulating interpretative hypotheses in the case of the Koper-Capodistrian entry ritual. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the results of the first large‐scale study of children from early modern northern Estonia. A total of 191 non‐adults (<17 years) from the 16th–18th century Tõnismägi cemetery in the suburbs of Tallinn were analyzed to gain a better understanding of the health and living environment of these low‐status children. This was achieved through growth analysis and palaeopathological investigation of metabolic and respiratory diseases such as scurvy, vitamin D deficiency, and tuberculosis. Growth disruption was shown to be the most severe among non‐adults aged between 4 and 9 years and comparable to children living in post‐medieval London. It is unlikely that the children from Tallinn would have experienced the same level of industrial hazards as those in London, but poor socioeconomic status, an impoverished diet, and unsanitary living conditions in the suburbs had a detrimental effect on the growth of these non‐adults. This was supported by a statistically significant correlation between growth faltering and respiratory infections and evidence for scurvy in 40% of the infants (n = 30). The most likely cause was early weaning and a diet devoid of vitamin C, induced by poverty and cultural practices. The prevalence of rickets was much lower when compared with other post‐medieval populations in Europe, at just 1.2%. This suggests that children living in Tallinn were not deprived of sunlight and may have had access to more green spaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The fifth part of Rabbi Khalifa Ben-Malka's Kaf naki (Clean Hand), Meshovah niẓaḥat (Triumphant Response) portrays a series of interreligious disputations that he conducted with Christian colleagues in Agadir during the first half of the eighteenth century. A study of Meshovah niẓaḥat reveals that, while these debates represent a direct continuation of medieval interreligious polemic, occasionally the traditional arguments took on a new garb—for example, those proofs relying on the era's geographic or scientific discoveries. Ben-Malka was well-versed in the intricacies of theological debate and was familiar with the most sophisticated tools the medieval polemical tradition had to offer, as well as with post-medieval Jewish anti-Christian literature. His writing opens a window onto eighteenth-century Jewish-Moroccan intellectual history while simultaneously raising a number of questions. Further study will be necessary to paint a fuller and more diverse picture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

MS New York, Columbia University Libraries, General 261, contains a short narrative, which recounts the illness and recovery in February 1771 of a Jewish trader from Prague named Isaac Poppers, known from other sources. The text, titled Divre ha-yamim me-ish holekh tamim [The chronicles of a man who walketh uprightly] is a deliverance story, which exhibits a number of similarities to so-called family scrolls. The narrative mentions various rituals and liturgies that Poppers' wife arranged to be performed in Vienna, where her husband was taken ill, and in their home city of Prague, where Rabbi Ezekiel Landau (1713-1793) was instrumental in organizing the rituals. The article interprets illness and medical therapy in the Divre ha-yamim through a comparison with another story of healing found in the roughly contemporary Shivhe ha-Besht, the wellknown collection of Hasidic tales. A parallel reading of both texts sheds light on the importance of non-physical cause of Poppers' illness and the ensuing necessity of ritual "repairing" (tikkun) of his non-physical ailments, which was a pre-condition for the efficacy of medical treatment of the physical disease. In contrast to other deliverance stories, in this case the memorial day was not established by the main male protagonist but by Poppers' wife Frumet. It represented a periodic culmination of ongoing penitential practices, prescribed for Poppers. The manuscript was completed on 29 January 1772, shortly before the first anniversary of Poppers' recovery. Poppers died in September 1777 and his memorial day was most likely discontinued. The article is followed by a complete edition of the Hebrew text, which contains a Yiddish-Hebrew postscript. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The topic of Jewish finance and trade in earlier historiography was encumbered by a number of clichés, derived primarily not only from prejudicial attitudes towards the Jewish population, but also often from a lack of understanding of the functioning of the early modern system of long-distance and local trade, and of the principles of financial transactions. Research conducted over recent decades in the Czech Republic and at a number of institutions in other countries has repeatedly shown that the economic activities of the Jews cannot be interpreted merely in the narrow context of Jewish community life. On the contrary, at issue is a factor that contributed in varying degrees to the overall form of the financial and religious relations that existed in the early modern period. Drawing on the examples of five Jewish financiers who were active in Prague at the end of the 16th century and in the first two decades of the 17th, this study aims to set out the wide range of different financial instruments that were employed by Jews and Christians when negotiating loans. Attention is paid to the development of legislation on lending that was in force in the Kingdom of Bohemia during the 16th century. The legislative conditions for Jewish and Christian lenders are contrasted with the lending practices of the day, as recorded in the testimonies of witnesses at the Court of the Supreme Burgraviate of Prague. An analysis of specific examples of credit transactions between Jews and Christians demonstrates the various ways in which loans were negotiated and repaid, and highlights the diverse network of various client relationships among Prague Jews, burghers, aristocratic owners of large estates, and holders of provincial and court offices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this introduction to the JEMS collective volume Subaltern Writing and Popular Memory in the Early Modern World, the editors provide a historiographical and theoretical survey on the history of subaltern forms of literacy, as well as of popular modes of remembrance, mainly focused in the early modern period. While providing examples of the ways in which literacy has been carefully policed in different societies, giving way to structures of exclusion, it also points to the more or less fluid relation that common men and women from different backgrounds established with writing, occasionally using it to record personal memory and participate in the collective shaping of the past. "The essay tackles the difficulty of recovering the written traces of common men and women, while surveying the ways in which this archive of subaltern writing and memory has been creatively constructed by subsequent scholarly interventions from very different disciplines, including anthropology, paleography, sociology, epigraphy, gender and sexuality studies, and social and cultural history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The editorial provides an overview of this issue of the Journal of Early Modern Studies. First it lays out the research questions that were at the origin of the project. Then it sketches out its conceptual and historiographical armature, pointing to some classical and recent arguments about memory, the history of literacy, and popular writing. Finally, this essay surveys the structure of the special issue and summarizes the object and argument of each one of the fifteen contributions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By analysing Johannes Amos Comenius' Pansophy, this study shows how Comenius squared his idea of a system with his strong sense of history. It discusses how his systematic and historical approaches interact. The monumental, long-standing project of Pansophia, originating in the 1630s, was supposed to provide a wide range of information and cover all important subjects. Although Comenius studied history from early in his academic career, wrote several history treatises, and considered history the most beautiful part of knowledge, he seems to have failed to include it in his ambitious pansophical work. History does not seem to play a part in this most comprehensive of oeuvres. To fulfil his aspiring program of universal knowledge, Comenius did not feel obliged to tell the history of the world, respective countries, or the church. The striking absence of history makes Comenius' pansophical enterprise significantly different from his earlier encyclopaedic project, Theatrum universitatis rerum, which included several books covering both civil and church history. The lack of such a prominent field of scholarship might be surprising in a book designed to summarise the entire knowledge available at the time. Seeking an explanation for such a remarkable omission, this study argues that excluding history was intentional, based on two significant changes in the author's intellectual predilections. The first was related to the very concept of history, its nature and function. The second was linked to the issue of early modern knowledge organization. While structuring knowledge, Comenius did not omit history, but he abandoned the concept of disciplines in general. In the reconstructed systematisation, the topics concerning time, history and historicity stepped out of traditional historical genres. They are scattered throughout the book in more or less inconspicuous passages, hidden in many specific, non-narrative manifestations. These changes are to be attributed to the highly discussed questions regarding the optimal knowledge system in seventeenth-century scholarly discourse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study deals with the content analysis of the funeral oration delivered by the court preacher Christoph Traut at the funeral of the late empress Claudia Felicitas, second wife of Leopold I, in the Augustinian Church in Vienna on 19 May 1676. The sermon itself was subsequently printed in Latin and German by the court printer Johann Christoph Cosmerovius. Through his comprehensive verbal narrative, the learned clergyman, originally from Bavaria, sought to honour the memory of the deceased, to shape and spread her generally positive posthumous image, to preserve it for future generations and to place the late empress in the context of the carefully crafted history of the Habsburg dynasty. The author’s contribution therefore focuses on the socio-historical role of the surviving sermon, in particular on a detailed analysis of the communication schemes and topoi used in relation to the posthumous (re)presentation and mediatization of Claudia Felicitas of Austria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global and knowledge-historical perspectives represent a productive challenge to the statist positions which still characterise much of legal history - positions whose deficiencies have become increasingly clear in recent times. This also applies to research on the Holy Roman Empire, which dominated the map of Central Europe until 1806. This empire had two central courts, the Imperial Chamber Court (Reichskammergericht) and the Imperial Aulic Council (Reichshofrat), which have been the subject of intensive study in German legal history since the 1960s. In order to utilise the rich yields of this research in terms of global history, German historians will have to stop reconstructing the history of the Imperial Chamber Court and Imperial Aulic Council teleologically as developmental steps towards the rule of lawin the modern state. The process categories frequently used in the literature on the Holy Roman Empire, such as juridification, rationalisation and professionalisation, prove to be insufficient to adequately describe knowledge of the production of normativity. What is needed is a sociology of the judicial production of norms that sees the practices of the judges in constant interaction with social normativity regimes. Using the example of the Imperial Aulic Council, the article demonstrates how organisational and social analysis can be linked successfully. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Acta Universitatis Carolinae Historia Universitatis Carolinae Pragensis is the property of Charles University Prague, Karolinum Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper focuses on evaluating the changing role of seafood imports in comparison with freshwater resources in medieval and early modern Estonia, based on zooarchaeological material and provenance analyses. A secondary aim was to find evidence of the early stages of practicing aquaculture in Estonia. The work presents the results of taxonomic and morphological analyses of the zooarchaeological material of aquatic animals, including marine and freshwater vertebrates (fish, marine mammals) and invertebrates (shellfish). These results were combined with additional evidence gained from previously published stable isotope data from the bone collagen of fish and marine mammals, allowing us to identify and investigate local and foreign resources among the medieval and early modern fish populations in Estonia. Our results show that herring and cod were the most exploited marine species during this period; however, freshwater species dominated at both coastal and inland sites. Compared to earlier periods, the remains of seals disappear almost completely from the zooarchaeological record, whereas those of oyster shells increase. Stable isotope analyses revealed the diverse habitats of consumed fish: from the Atlantic to the eastern Baltic, and from inland rivers to shallow coastal waters. Not much evidence was found of commonly farmed fish in the Estonian archaeological material.

In this article, zooarchaeological evidence from 37 medieval and early modern sites in Estonia were assembled and examined. The analysis of over 69 000 mammal remains gave a comprehensive overview of the production and consumption of animal resources in the 13th to 18th century castles, towns, rural settlements, and one monastery. The focus was on domestic livestock: cattle, sheep, goats, pigs and horses. Cattle remains were most abundant, confirming it as the primary animal resource in the study period. Morphometrical analysis and tooth wear study supported the historical knowledge of a stronger tradition of draught oxen in the north and a possible focus on dairy husbandry in the south. Sheep and goat husbandry also had several purposes: kill-off times indicated lamb consumption and keeping the herd for wool and reproduction. Pigs, on the other hand, were raised only as a food resource. Stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analyses revealed differences in grazing areas and feed types between species and geographical regions. Compared to the main livestock, horses and also wild mammals had insignificant roles in providing primary resources but immense importance in manifesting status (horses and hunting) or in use for work and military purposes (horses). Overall, the animal husbandry of the Middle Ages and Early Modern Period developed towards the innovations and improvements of modern times, with native breeds being one example of the heritage of the past.

In this paper, we discuss bird bones from sixteen sites across Estonia, focusing on the Medieval and Early Modern Period (ca 1200â1800). Zooarchaeology, stable isotope analysis and Zooarchaeology by Mass Spectometry (ZooMS) are used to explore how the exploitation of birds has differed between sites of various functions and locations. The results demonstrate the ubiquity of the chicken as the most abundant avian species in most sites and periods under study. The goose and the duck were the second and third most common species identified in the assemblages. Species diversity was highest at castle sites, where the presence of different wild birds can be associated with higher social status; however, the use of several bird species is unlikely to be food-related. The most frequently discovered wild birds were the black grouse and the western capercaillie, which are also known to have been served at feasts. This paper presents the first comprehensive study of Estonian avian zooarchaeological material from various contexts, giving a better overview of the importance of birds to historical communities.

This paper deals with infectious diseases reflected on human skeletal remains from the period of the Northern Crusades in Estonia, i.e. from the 13th until the end of the 18th century. Skeletons from the Medieval and Early Modern Periods are considered together, as most of the pathologies detected on them are characteristic of both periods. This article gives a preliminary overview of infectious diseases â leprosy, venereal syphilis and tuberculosis â in Estonian osteological material, based on bone material and also written sources.

The material culture of the medieval and later foodways in Estonia was in a constant evolution, influenced by various changes in the local society as well as in the broader human environment. In this paper, we will broadly outline these changes through the development of the equipment used both for making and consuming food and liquids in the domestic sphere. Based on the surviving evidence, it is possible to note several processes, some bound with the cultural transfer from abroad, others connected with the political and economic situation in the area under discussion.

New stable carbon and nitrogen isotopic analyses from medieval and early modern sites across Estonia demonstrate systematic differences in the dietary habits of people from various locations and social groups. These results are compared with previously published isotopic data from similar contexts to identify the type and origin of dietary items, specifically in terms of aquatic resource consumption. Distinction between protein sources is, however, complicated by the high degree of isotopic variation among aquatic ecosystems and the fact that resources from multiple habitats were routinely exploited, resulting in a mixing of the isotopic signal. Nitrogen isotopic ratios display variations in the consumption of higher trophic level protein (such as fish), differentiating between rural, urban and elite individuals, as well as between males and females. Carbon isotopic ratios show a clear distinction between humans from coastal and inland sites, likely reflecting the importance of Baltic Sea fish to coastal communities. However, the exact quantification of aquatic resources into the diets of historic period people in the region needs further work.

The significance of birds in the medieval human diet has been greatly explored in Europe. However, there is a lack of systematic analysis of data from Croatia. Avian remains dated to the Late Medieval and Early Modern Periods from five archaeological sites in continental Croatia underwent skeletal and taxonomic analysis. Age groups were determined and sex identification was conducted using visual and X-ray diagnostics. Chicken bone measurements were taken, and the logarithmic size index (LSI) technique was performed. Statistical analysis was applied to explore differences between sites. A total of 694 avian remains were studied, revealing 10 species/genera. Avian remains ranged from 8.88% to 20.32% across sites, with the highest percentage found at the urban site BAN. Hens outnumbered cockerels across all sites, with adult chickens prevailing over immature and subadult ones. Chicken sizes were generally consistent across sites, except for castle MIL, where a larger breed was identified. Cockerels tended to be larger than hens, except for one small-sized spurred specimen. To conclude, bird exploitation complemented the use of other animals in diets. Chickens were vital for eggs and meat, with monasteries excelling in bird husbandry over castles. Inhabitants of urban areas mainly consumed bird meat. Castles showed high status through game and imported birds. The aim of this article was to fill in the gap of information regarding the exploitation and consumption of birds at Croatian sites during the Late Medieval and Early Modern Periods.

Thearticle presents the research group CoCoLaw (Comparing Early Modern ColonialLaws) to the general academic public. In short, the article will present anoutline of the activities, research interests (especially thoserelated to the matter of this journal’s issue), and the objectives of CoCoLaw.The article is divided into three sections. The first section presents thegroup and its research, whereas the second explains the connection betweenstudies on “police” or “police regulation,” and the proposal to study “coloniallaw” in early modernity. The third section offers a view of the next steps ofdigitalization and the creation of a database.

This introduction discusses the constitutive role played by various practices of coercion within a range of labour relations across the Nordic region in the early modern period. In recent years a growing body of international literature has worked to re-conceptualize histories of labour coercion. Current trends in global labour history have emphasized the interrelational nature of labour regimes, eschewing traditional boundaries of free and unfree labour, productive and unproductive labour, wage labour and unpaid labour, and focused rather on the entangled history of labour and coercion in its various guises. Based on a critical discussion of the teleological frameworks and essentialized analytical categories that have largely characterized the historiography of labour in many of the Nordic countries, we argue for shifting the focus of attention to study the actual practices of labour and coercion in order to establish a more inclusive, contextual and historicized historiography of Nordic labour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In popular literary works, films, and television series, the impression is given that all people accused, tried, and executed for witchcraft in early modern Europe between 1563 and 1736, as required by the Witchcraft Act, were women. As a result of this false impression, the existence of men accused of witchcraft and executed is ignored. In the historical texts, it is seen that there is no gender discrimination among the people accused of witchcraft. The pacts they make with evil spirits are more important than the gender of those accused of witchcraft. Although witchcraft accusations were not sex-specific in that era, studies later focusing on that period have created the idea that men were excluded from the trials. Especially feminist readings focusing on women’s executions have created the false impression that, due to gender roles in that period, women suffered from male patriarchy. It is an undeniable fact that the vast majority of people executed were women and that men were in the minority group; however, dismissing the male executions altogether does not serve the purpose of condemning the trials. The fact that all the prosecutors in the British judicial system were men in early modern period and that women were not able to practice law plays an important role and has reshaped reality because while men were perceived as prosecutors of women’s executions, women were merely the ones accused and oppressed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Apropos of Spanish or Languedocien elements manifest in the late 13th-century Durandus Pontifical, this study explores the relationship between high medieval ritual and identity formation. It introduces the notion of liturgical use, an inclusive term for the body of customs that determined the way ceremonies were performed by lasting communities with a sense of belonging together. The primary challenge of comparing uses lies in selecting and systematizing the relevant information and interpreting the results. The authors argue that this challenge can be met by reducing the evidence to textual items and positions that lend themselves to large-scale comparative analysis in both time and space. As the main methodological contribution, they introduce the principle of mapping and drawing historical and cultural conclusions from their patterns. By summarizing a decade of careful research into thousands of sources accomplished by the team of the Usuarium database, they present four historical layers of medieval liturgical history, termed formative periods, and outline convergent geographical areas that they call liturgical landscapes. Since data on a lower level rarely correspond to smaller contiguous areas, they interpret the phenomenon called artificial diversity through medieval concepts of regionality and cultural transfer, formulating some thought experiments to understand the ways in which a Europe of uses once functioned. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article deals with the construction of a European border area and the process of its integration as a corporation within broader political entities. The analytical framework is Gipuzkoa, a Basque province that was part of the Crown of Castile, from the late 14th to the 17th century. The study focuses on the interaction among different participants, powers, and institutions that fought over spatial dominance and the definition of a specific territorial republican model. The focus of analysis concentrates on some agents that have been neglected by historiography, the inhabitants of rural communities, and their capacity for political action regarding the appropriation, control, and definition of a territorial state with a single identity, rather. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The article focuses on duelling in the Habsburg hereditary lands, with an emphasis on Styria. It presents around fifteen cases of duels that have been fought or provoked, from 1643 to 1750. In the Habsburg hereditary lands and in the Holy Roman Empire in general, duelling flourished during and after the Thirty Years' War, and thrived between 1660 and 1730. Anti-duelling decrees prescribed fines and sometimes imprisonment, and the death penalty in homicide cases. Duels continued despite strict bans (also) because sanctions were generally not enforced, and if the 'criminal' was brought to court, he was almost always pardoned by the Emperor. In practice, the death penalty for duellists was an extraordinary event, since even trials were exceptional, including cases when duels resulted in deaths. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses instances of feud-like behaviour, enmities and peacemaking among peasants in seventeenth-century Denmark. It provides examples of early modern peasants declaring enmities, exacting vengeance, committing various forms of feud-related violence and making private peace settlements, and discusses whether such practices may be seen in continuation of late medieval peasant feuds. It is concluded that while such behaviours and mentalities were indeed rooted in earlier conflict resolution paradigms, they need to be interpreted in the context of social change, not least state-making, pacification and criminalisation, in order to estimate their significance and avoid selective use of evidence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Centring on non-nobles in the Duchies of Styria, Carniola and Carinthia, this paper addresses dispute settlement in Inner Austria, following the Imperial prohibition of feud in 1495 and the Habsburgs' local consolidation of power earlier in the century. These developments are said to have brought about an end to feuding in the duchies in the 1500s, but by focusing on the concept of enmity, which articulated the same state of social relations, this article presents ample evidence that among all social classes dispute settlement retained much of the traditional practices well into the 1700s. Their survival was instrumentally underpinned by various courts of law and local authorities, regarding them as an indispensable element of keeping social cohesion and peace. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]