In the midst of a global pandemic, the Frankfurt POLY (Polycentricity and Plurality of Premodern ... more In the midst of a global pandemic, the Frankfurt POLY (Polycentricity and Plurality of Premodern Christianities) Lectures on "Pathways through Early Modern Christianities" brought together a virtual, global community of scholars and students in the Spring and Summer of 2021 to discuss the fascinating nature of early modern religious life. In this book, twelve pathbreaking scholars from the “four corners” of the early modern world reflect on the analytical tools that structure their field and that they have developed, revised and embraced in their scholarship: from generations to tolerance, from uniformity to publicity, from accommodation to local religion, from polycentrism to connected histories, and from identity to object agency. Together, the chapters of this reference work help both students and advanced researchers alike to appreciate the extent of our current knowledge about early modern christianities in their interconnected global context—and what exciting new travels could lie ahead.
Scholarship has come to value the uncertainties haunting early modern knowledge cultures; indeed,... more Scholarship has come to value the uncertainties haunting early modern knowledge cultures; indeed, awareness of the fragility and plurality of knowledge is now offered as a key element for understanding early modern science as a whole. Yet early modern actors never questioned the possibility of certainty itself and never objected to the notion that truth is out there, universal, and therefore safe from human manipulation. This book investigates how early modern actors managed not to succumb to postmodern relativism, despite increasing uncertainties and blatant disagreements about the nature of God, Man, and the Universe. An international and interdisciplinary team of experts in fields ranging from the history of science to theology and the history of ideas analyses a number of practices that were central to maintaining and functionalizing the notion of absolute truth. Through such an interdisciplinary research the book shows how certainty about truth could be achieved, and how early modern society recognized the credibility of a wide plethora of actors in differentiating fields of knowledge.
Over recent decades, historians have become increasingly interested in early modern Catholic miss... more Over recent decades, historians have become increasingly interested in early modern Catholic missions in Asia as laboratories of cultural contact. This book builds on recent ground-breaking research on early modern Catholic missions, which has shown that missionaries in Asia cooperated with and accommodated the needs of local agents rather than being uncompromising promoters of post-Tridentine doctrine and devotion.
Bringing together some of the most renowned and innovative researchers from Anglophone countries and continental Europe, this volume investigates how missionaries’ entanglements with local societies across Asia contributed to processes of localization within the early modern Catholic church. The focus of the volume is on missionaries’ adaptation to four ideal-typical social settings that played an eminent role in early modern Asian missions: (1) the symbolically loaded princely court; (2) the city as a space of especially dense communication; (3) the countryside, where missionary presence was only rarely permanent; (4) and the household – a central arena of conversion in early modern Asian societies.
Shining a fresh light onto the history of early modern Catholic missions and the early modern Eurasian cultural exchange, this will be an important book for any scholar of religious history, history of cultural contact/global history and early modern history in Asia.
"On the road to Sanctity?" is a chapter of the recently published open-access volume "Making Sain... more "On the road to Sanctity?" is a chapter of the recently published open-access volume "Making Saints in a 'Glocal' Religion. Practices of Holiness in Early Modern Catholicism," edited by Birgit Emich, Daniel Sidler, Samuel Weber, and Christian Windler (Cultures of Christianity 3), Leiden/Boston/Paderborn/Vienna: Böhlau/Brill 2024. The chapter spans pages 227-247.
Badea, A., Boute, B., Cavarzere, M., and Vanden Broecke, S. (eds.), Making Truth. Establishing Credibility in Early Modern Catholicism (Scientiae Studies 1) Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2021
In the early modern period, the demarcation and the self-affirmation of Christian denominations d... more In the early modern period, the demarcation and the self-affirmation of Christian denominations did not only tangle with confrontation between various competing confessions, but also with pluralization within them. In this field of tension, Christian churches did not only claim a binding authority over doctrinal and canonical matters, but also over emerging scientific disciplines. This conference will delve into the practices that produced knowledge, in between modes of confrontation, baroque strategies of verbal equivocation or dissimulation, and adaptation, with the help of examples from the natural sciences, theology, the humanities, and law. It raises the question of how beliefs and findings could be verified to the extent, that they became regarded as full-blown truths. Interdisciplinary and international conference organised by Andreea Badea (Deutsches Historisches Institut in Rom), Bruno Boute (Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main), Marco Cavarzere (Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main) and Steven Vanden Broecke (Universiteit Gent).
One of the main pillars of the more or less confessionalized res publica literaria was the refuta... more One of the main pillars of the more or less confessionalized res publica literaria was the refutation. That’s why it may astonish at first glance that especially a work like Sarpi’s “Historia del Concilio Tridentino” remained for nearly half a century without a proper response from curial circles. This circumstance is, on the one hand, owed to the jealous wrangling between Roman scholars who all wanted to be the one who refuted Sarpi and who tried to thwart each other’s efforts to see the archive documents. On the other hand, there was the pope’s nephew, Francesco Barberini, who directed the refutation project, being very careful to mask the curia’s involvement. In this struggle there was certain risk of career failure, as in the case of the Blackfriar Abraham Bzowsky.
La storia della censura libraria continua a costituire più dell’analisi di processi di censura li... more La storia della censura libraria continua a costituire più dell’analisi di processi di censura libraria e di singoli casi. Da sempre, essa si inserisce nel contesto della storia sociale, culturale e delle idee. In Italia, in particolare, viene spesso praticata in un’ottica di storia politica. La ricerca degli ultimi anni ha collegato in maniera crescente la storia della stampa e del controllo dei libri a concetti come quelli della libertas philosophandi o della libertà di coscienza. Ha apportato importanti risultati ai fini della comprensione del processo - lungo e socilamente complesso –che si snoda fra la raccolta e l’organizzazione del sapere fino alla formazione di un’opinione individuale. Un tale processo ha richiesto, da parte delle autorità, un passaggio da pratiche di disciplinamento a pratiche di controllo del pubblico.
In the midst of a global pandemic, the Frankfurt POLY (Polycentricity and Plurality of Premodern ... more In the midst of a global pandemic, the Frankfurt POLY (Polycentricity and Plurality of Premodern Christianities) Lectures on "Pathways through Early Modern Christianities" brought together a virtual, global community of scholars and students in the Spring and Summer of 2021 to discuss the fascinating nature of early modern religious life. In this book, twelve pathbreaking scholars from the “four corners” of the early modern world reflect on the analytical tools that structure their field and that they have developed, revised and embraced in their scholarship: from generations to tolerance, from uniformity to publicity, from accommodation to local religion, from polycentrism to connected histories, and from identity to object agency. Together, the chapters of this reference work help both students and advanced researchers alike to appreciate the extent of our current knowledge about early modern christianities in their interconnected global context—and what exciting new travels could lie ahead.
Scholarship has come to value the uncertainties haunting early modern knowledge cultures; indeed,... more Scholarship has come to value the uncertainties haunting early modern knowledge cultures; indeed, awareness of the fragility and plurality of knowledge is now offered as a key element for understanding early modern science as a whole. Yet early modern actors never questioned the possibility of certainty itself and never objected to the notion that truth is out there, universal, and therefore safe from human manipulation. This book investigates how early modern actors managed not to succumb to postmodern relativism, despite increasing uncertainties and blatant disagreements about the nature of God, Man, and the Universe. An international and interdisciplinary team of experts in fields ranging from the history of science to theology and the history of ideas analyses a number of practices that were central to maintaining and functionalizing the notion of absolute truth. Through such an interdisciplinary research the book shows how certainty about truth could be achieved, and how early modern society recognized the credibility of a wide plethora of actors in differentiating fields of knowledge.
Over recent decades, historians have become increasingly interested in early modern Catholic miss... more Over recent decades, historians have become increasingly interested in early modern Catholic missions in Asia as laboratories of cultural contact. This book builds on recent ground-breaking research on early modern Catholic missions, which has shown that missionaries in Asia cooperated with and accommodated the needs of local agents rather than being uncompromising promoters of post-Tridentine doctrine and devotion.
Bringing together some of the most renowned and innovative researchers from Anglophone countries and continental Europe, this volume investigates how missionaries’ entanglements with local societies across Asia contributed to processes of localization within the early modern Catholic church. The focus of the volume is on missionaries’ adaptation to four ideal-typical social settings that played an eminent role in early modern Asian missions: (1) the symbolically loaded princely court; (2) the city as a space of especially dense communication; (3) the countryside, where missionary presence was only rarely permanent; (4) and the household – a central arena of conversion in early modern Asian societies.
Shining a fresh light onto the history of early modern Catholic missions and the early modern Eurasian cultural exchange, this will be an important book for any scholar of religious history, history of cultural contact/global history and early modern history in Asia.
"On the road to Sanctity?" is a chapter of the recently published open-access volume "Making Sain... more "On the road to Sanctity?" is a chapter of the recently published open-access volume "Making Saints in a 'Glocal' Religion. Practices of Holiness in Early Modern Catholicism," edited by Birgit Emich, Daniel Sidler, Samuel Weber, and Christian Windler (Cultures of Christianity 3), Leiden/Boston/Paderborn/Vienna: Böhlau/Brill 2024. The chapter spans pages 227-247.
Badea, A., Boute, B., Cavarzere, M., and Vanden Broecke, S. (eds.), Making Truth. Establishing Credibility in Early Modern Catholicism (Scientiae Studies 1) Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2021
In the early modern period, the demarcation and the self-affirmation of Christian denominations d... more In the early modern period, the demarcation and the self-affirmation of Christian denominations did not only tangle with confrontation between various competing confessions, but also with pluralization within them. In this field of tension, Christian churches did not only claim a binding authority over doctrinal and canonical matters, but also over emerging scientific disciplines. This conference will delve into the practices that produced knowledge, in between modes of confrontation, baroque strategies of verbal equivocation or dissimulation, and adaptation, with the help of examples from the natural sciences, theology, the humanities, and law. It raises the question of how beliefs and findings could be verified to the extent, that they became regarded as full-blown truths. Interdisciplinary and international conference organised by Andreea Badea (Deutsches Historisches Institut in Rom), Bruno Boute (Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main), Marco Cavarzere (Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main) and Steven Vanden Broecke (Universiteit Gent).
One of the main pillars of the more or less confessionalized res publica literaria was the refuta... more One of the main pillars of the more or less confessionalized res publica literaria was the refutation. That’s why it may astonish at first glance that especially a work like Sarpi’s “Historia del Concilio Tridentino” remained for nearly half a century without a proper response from curial circles. This circumstance is, on the one hand, owed to the jealous wrangling between Roman scholars who all wanted to be the one who refuted Sarpi and who tried to thwart each other’s efforts to see the archive documents. On the other hand, there was the pope’s nephew, Francesco Barberini, who directed the refutation project, being very careful to mask the curia’s involvement. In this struggle there was certain risk of career failure, as in the case of the Blackfriar Abraham Bzowsky.
La storia della censura libraria continua a costituire più dell’analisi di processi di censura li... more La storia della censura libraria continua a costituire più dell’analisi di processi di censura libraria e di singoli casi. Da sempre, essa si inserisce nel contesto della storia sociale, culturale e delle idee. In Italia, in particolare, viene spesso praticata in un’ottica di storia politica. La ricerca degli ultimi anni ha collegato in maniera crescente la storia della stampa e del controllo dei libri a concetti come quelli della libertas philosophandi o della libertà di coscienza. Ha apportato importanti risultati ai fini della comprensione del processo - lungo e socilamente complesso –che si snoda fra la raccolta e l’organizzazione del sapere fino alla formazione di un’opinione individuale. Un tale processo ha richiesto, da parte delle autorità, un passaggio da pratiche di disciplinamento a pratiche di controllo del pubblico.
Wer durfte mitreden, wenn es um Religion ging? Wer durfte erklären, was wahren von falschem Glaub... more Wer durfte mitreden, wenn es um Religion ging? Wer durfte erklären, was wahren von falschem Glauben unterscheidet und wer entschied, wie Glaube gelebt bzw. praktiziert wurde? Sehr schnell und möglichst pauschal könnte man mit einem Wort antworten: „Männer“! Mit Luther, Melanchthon, Calvin oder jeden beliebigen Papst der letzten 2000 Jahre im Hinterkopf hätte man schnell die zentralen Akteure religiöser Diskurse der Vergangenheit ausgemacht. Die Forschung der letzten Jahre hat allerdings ein viel differenzierteres Akteur*innenfeld herausgearbeitet, innerhalb dessen Diskurshoheit immer wieder ausgehandelt wurde und das auf vielschichtige Konstruktionen von Geschlecht und sozialer, religiöser oder intellektueller Zugehörigkeit hinweist. Das Seminar wird unterschiedliche Entwürfe von Männlichkeit und Weiblichkeit religiös kontextualisieren und sich auch mit der Frage beschäftigen, wie mit Phänomenen umgegangen wurde, die sich cis- oder binären Kategorisierungsversuchen entzogen. Ferner untersuchen wir geschlechtlich bedingte Teilhabe/Ausschluss an/aus verschiedenen religiösen Diskursen, Institutionen, Praktiken und fragen nach der Agency der involvierten Akteur*innen.
Die Summerschool besteht aus mehreren Masterclasses, die ausgewiesene Forscher*innen in dem Feld leiten werden, und beinhaltet zudem eine Sequenz, welche die Möglichkeit bietet, Masterarbeiten oder Doktorarbeiten zum Themenkomplex Gender und Religion in der Frühen Neuzeit vorzustellen.
In the early modern period, the demarcation and the self-affirmation of Christian denominations d... more In the early modern period, the demarcation and the self-affirmation of Christian denominations did not only tangle with confrontation between various competing confessions, but also with pluralization within them. In this field of tension, Christian churches did not only claim a binding authority over doctrinal and canonical matters, but also over emerging scientific disciplines. This conference will delve into the practices that produced knowledge, in between modes of confrontation, baroque strategies of verbal equivocation or dissimulation, and adaptation, with the help of examples from the natural sciences, theology, the humanities, and law. It raises the question of how beliefs and findings could be verified to the extent, that they became regarded as full-blown truths. Interdisciplinary and international conference organised by Andreea Badea (Deutsches Historisches Institut in Rom), Bruno Boute (Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main), Marco Cavarzere (Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main) and Steven Vanden Broecke (Universiteit Gent).
Das Konzil von Trient sollte zum zentralen Ereignis der Legitimation einer lang anhaltenden Phase... more Das Konzil von Trient sollte zum zentralen Ereignis der Legitimation einer lang anhaltenden Phase katholischer
Selbstreflexion werden, während der sich die als Religion verstandene Konfession ständig neu definierte. Faktische
Umsetzung fand diese Defintions‐ und Abgrenzungsarbeit in der Ausdifferenzierung des kurialen
Verwaltungsapparates, der sich im Verlauf des 16. und 17. Jahrhunderts in Form verschiedener Kongregationen
organisierte. Im jeweiligen lokalen Kontext fand die Neuorganisation und Zentralisierung der Verwaltung ihren
Widerhall in der Arbeit der Bischöfe und den ihnen untergeordneten Institutionen. Neben ihnen waren es ferner die
Orden und die Nuntien, die nicht immer als Beauftragte, sondern oft auch als Vermittler zwischen Zentrale und
Peripherie wahrgenommen wurden.
Solche Entwicklungen implizieren das Mitdenken von Kooperationen. Die verschiedenen Formen der Zusammenarbeit
zwischen den Kongregationen der Kurie einerseits sowie andererseits zwischen Rom und den diversen lokalen
Autoritäten können als wichtige Marker römischer Zentralisierungsversuche und konfessioneller Ausdifferenzierung
verstanden werden. Doch die zahlreichen damit einhergehenden Kompetenzüberschreitungen generierten bisweilen
Konflikte, die es nicht nur innerhalb der Dikasterien, sondern auch in der Kommunikation mit der Peripherie
auszuhalten galt. Die Risiken solcher Auseinandersetzungen wurden allerdings unterschiedlich abgefedert; einerseits
durch die Länge des Zeitraumes, der für die Herausbildung klarer Strukturen und Kompetenzbereiche nötig gewesen
war, andererseits durch die personelle Zusammensetzung der jeweiligen Institutionen. Charakteristisch für die
Akteure solcher Prozesse des Mit‐ und Gegeneinander ist, dass sie gleichzeitig mehrere Positionen in den
verschiedenen Dikasterien innehatten und sich in ihrem Handeln verschiedener Ebenen der Verflechtung bedienten.
Die einzelnen Vorträge des Workshops werden auf verschiedene Aspekte dieser Verflechtung eingehen und die
Komplexität der römischen Verwaltung nach dem Trienter Konzil anhand von Einzelfällen aus diversen geographischen
Gebieten aufzeigen.
This online workshop will investigate the unhappy state of mind of those people in history who ha... more This online workshop will investigate the unhappy state of mind of those people in history who have been taken in by fakes and forgeries, as well as the afterlives of forged texts. What effect did the exposure and revelation of their gullibility have on the reception of forgeries? The Donation of Constantine, for example, was defended by high-ranking members of the Catholic Church for another century after Lorenzo Valla's astute criticism. The Reformation lent further urgency to these discussions, when polemicists on both sides of the confessional divide-Catholic and Protestant-often accepted or rejected the results of the humanists on the basis of religious and political expediency. To date, many historians have focussed their attention on the discussion of forgery in ecclesiastical history. This workshop therefore aims to move beyond this genre, to discuss the study of forgery in other disciplines, such as the history of science, literature and art. It will ask questions such as: what were the similarities and differences in the reception of legends, myths, falsely attributed texts and forged documents? How did invention, translation, and circulation of texts inflect upon one another? And finally, how were more everyday objects such as safe-conducts or letters of recommendation subject to scrutiny as fakes or frauds, and how were those carrying them able to 'prove' their identities? This workshop will take place online only.
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Bringing together some of the most renowned and innovative researchers from Anglophone countries and continental Europe, this volume investigates how missionaries’ entanglements with local societies across Asia contributed to processes of localization within the early modern Catholic church. The focus of the volume is on missionaries’ adaptation to four ideal-typical social settings that played an eminent role in early modern Asian missions: (1) the symbolically loaded princely court; (2) the city as a space of especially dense communication; (3) the countryside, where missionary presence was only rarely permanent; (4) and the household – a central arena of conversion in early modern Asian societies.
Shining a fresh light onto the history of early modern Catholic missions and the early modern Eurasian cultural exchange, this will be an important book for any scholar of religious history, history of cultural contact/global history and early modern history in Asia.
Bringing together some of the most renowned and innovative researchers from Anglophone countries and continental Europe, this volume investigates how missionaries’ entanglements with local societies across Asia contributed to processes of localization within the early modern Catholic church. The focus of the volume is on missionaries’ adaptation to four ideal-typical social settings that played an eminent role in early modern Asian missions: (1) the symbolically loaded princely court; (2) the city as a space of especially dense communication; (3) the countryside, where missionary presence was only rarely permanent; (4) and the household – a central arena of conversion in early modern Asian societies.
Shining a fresh light onto the history of early modern Catholic missions and the early modern Eurasian cultural exchange, this will be an important book for any scholar of religious history, history of cultural contact/global history and early modern history in Asia.
Die Summerschool besteht aus mehreren Masterclasses, die ausgewiesene Forscher*innen in dem Feld leiten werden, und beinhaltet zudem eine Sequenz, welche die Möglichkeit bietet, Masterarbeiten oder Doktorarbeiten zum Themenkomplex Gender und Religion in der Frühen Neuzeit vorzustellen.
Selbstreflexion werden, während der sich die als Religion verstandene Konfession ständig neu definierte. Faktische
Umsetzung fand diese Defintions‐ und Abgrenzungsarbeit in der Ausdifferenzierung des kurialen
Verwaltungsapparates, der sich im Verlauf des 16. und 17. Jahrhunderts in Form verschiedener Kongregationen
organisierte. Im jeweiligen lokalen Kontext fand die Neuorganisation und Zentralisierung der Verwaltung ihren
Widerhall in der Arbeit der Bischöfe und den ihnen untergeordneten Institutionen. Neben ihnen waren es ferner die
Orden und die Nuntien, die nicht immer als Beauftragte, sondern oft auch als Vermittler zwischen Zentrale und
Peripherie wahrgenommen wurden.
Solche Entwicklungen implizieren das Mitdenken von Kooperationen. Die verschiedenen Formen der Zusammenarbeit
zwischen den Kongregationen der Kurie einerseits sowie andererseits zwischen Rom und den diversen lokalen
Autoritäten können als wichtige Marker römischer Zentralisierungsversuche und konfessioneller Ausdifferenzierung
verstanden werden. Doch die zahlreichen damit einhergehenden Kompetenzüberschreitungen generierten bisweilen
Konflikte, die es nicht nur innerhalb der Dikasterien, sondern auch in der Kommunikation mit der Peripherie
auszuhalten galt. Die Risiken solcher Auseinandersetzungen wurden allerdings unterschiedlich abgefedert; einerseits
durch die Länge des Zeitraumes, der für die Herausbildung klarer Strukturen und Kompetenzbereiche nötig gewesen
war, andererseits durch die personelle Zusammensetzung der jeweiligen Institutionen. Charakteristisch für die
Akteure solcher Prozesse des Mit‐ und Gegeneinander ist, dass sie gleichzeitig mehrere Positionen in den
verschiedenen Dikasterien innehatten und sich in ihrem Handeln verschiedener Ebenen der Verflechtung bedienten.
Die einzelnen Vorträge des Workshops werden auf verschiedene Aspekte dieser Verflechtung eingehen und die
Komplexität der römischen Verwaltung nach dem Trienter Konzil anhand von Einzelfällen aus diversen geographischen
Gebieten aufzeigen.
ALL WELCOME. Book your free ticket here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/148185734521