Early Modern Pamphlet Culture

Daniel Bellingradt: Review of Jan Löhdefink: Zeiten des Teufels. Teufelsvorstellungen und Geschichtszeit in frühreformatorischen Flugschriften (1520-1526), Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck 2016, in: sehepunkte 17 (2017), Nr. 1 [15.01.2017], URL: http://www.sehepunkte.de
/2017/01/29391.html

The article analyzes the media logic of urban acts of communication in early modern German cities. As is demonstrated by Cologne and Hamburg in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, the growing use of print (particularly pamphlets) moved local conflict away from face-to-face confrontation into progressively more multifaceted modes of communication, increasingly expressed in both manuscript and print. In highlighting the mediality of early modern urban culture, the changing relationship between the urban community, public opinion, and forms of communication is addressed. The resulting effect from the interplay and complementation of oral, written, and printed means of communication is described as echoes that formed an urban resonating box—a constant polyphonic state including both the literate and illiterate.

Thomas Aquinas’ ideas have frequently been considered as one of the
intellectual cornerstones of early modern European witch-hunts. His revolutionary approach to the study of angels created the conceptual basis that
allowed theologians and other members of the cultural elite to explain the physical and visible manifestations of demons in the material world, especially their interactions with human beings. Nevertheless, the penetration
of Aquinas’ notions among Protestant demonologists have sometimes been
doubted or considered imperfect. English authors of witchcraft tracts, for
example, have been pointed out as continuators of Augustine of Hippo’s gnoseological pessimism or John Calvin’s minimalist position on the matter. This
article aims to demonstrate that despite being Calvinists, English demonologists adopted Thomistic ideas about the nature and features of demonic
bodies, one of the essential problems of Christian demonological theory. The
central hypothesis is that English authors resorted to demonological concepts developed by Aquinas in the thirteenth century and synthetized by late
medieval and early modern European demonologists to rectify popular ideas
about demons delineated in witchcraft pamphlets published during Elizabethan and early Stuart periods

The Fronde generated vast amounts of ephemeral printed media that circulated polemical information and shaped public discourse. Pamphlets, street songs, and placards, known as mazarinades, survive as artefacts of performances that jostled for attention in chaotic urban public spaces. In this article I analyse three placards produced during the Fronde to demonstrate their utilitarian function as a tool of mass communication that sometimes incorporated songs drawn from the repertoires of literary elites and street singers. When a placard was read à haute voix or an inscribed song was sung, these objects engendered performances that filled Paris’s public spaces with political propaganda. Because songs printed on placards set new texts to pre-existing tunes, the layering of songs fostered webs of intertextual and intermusical references. By determining the significance of a particular tune to contemporary audiences, we can enrich textual and visual analyses and begin to determine how different social groups might have responded to the mazarinades. Through song, individuals participated in communal social acts that memorialized contemporary events and forged connections with events in living memory. Placards, then, illustrate how effective political messaging in early modern Paris in part translated to controlling the urban soundscape.

This thesis demonstrates that Tudor councillors and their clients raided the armoury of classical rhetoric to condemn sedition for over thirty years, using persuasive techniques which crossed confessional lines. It reconstructs, in fuller detail than has ever been attempted, the Tudor literary campaigns against rebels, tracing the origin and development of the anti-sedition oration in the works of Sir Richard Morison, Sir John Cheke, John Christopherson, Thomas Norton, Bernadino Ochino, Nicholas Udall, James Cancellar, Thomas Cranmer, John Proctor and others.

It begins by proposing a systematic framework for classifying early modern persuasive writings, arguing that the concept of the 'early modern public sphere' is flawed and unhelpful. Then, in analysing the major Tudor rebellions, it argues that governments employed a highly communicative style of politics at times of crisis. They opened emergency channels of communication with subjects, condemning disobedience but nonetheless listening to rebel grievances. Loyalist authors did not intend to subject government policy to public approval, or to communicate with the monarch by garnering public support: they were simply applying the Ciceronian idea that oratory is the best way to persuade the multitude. Tudor authors normally defend government policy not by appealing to the king’s absolute authority but by pointing out that policy had been approved by the king in Parliament.

Dit masteronderzoek is een onderzoek naar anonieme pamfletten uit de 16de eeuw die in Antwerpen gedrukt zijn in de periode rondom de Val van Antwerpen (1585). De focus is op Antwerpen gelegd omdat in deze stad vele deskundige drukkers en uitgevers actief zijn geweest. Van hen zijn er vier uitgekozen om nader te bestuderen: Jan (III) van Ghelen, Niclaes Mollyns, Gilles van den Rade en Mattheus de Rische.
Om een antwoord te kunnen geven op de vraag in hoeverre Nederlandstalige teksten in anonieme pamfletten uit deze periode een grotere betekenis hebben gehad dan de directe omgeving waarin ze verkocht zijn, is onderzocht of er in het buitenland sprake is geweest van een navolging van deze teksten, via vertaling of bewerking.
Tevens is getracht het tekstennetwerk rond de vier geselecteerde drukkers beter in kaart te krijgen door van elke drukker een portfolio op te stellen, de publicaties te vergelijken, originele teksten te achterhalen, illustraties te beoordelen op hergebruik en drukkersportfolio’s te vergelijken.
In het onderzoek is veel gebruik gemaakt van bibliografisch onderzoek aan originele pamfletten en digitale versies ervan in collecties van erfgoedinstellingen en (universiteits)bibliotheken.
Alle vier geselecteerde drukker-uitgevers bleken pamfletten over de oorlogshandelingen te hebben uitgegeven als een soort voorloper van de nieuwskrant. De drukkers hebben een keuze moeten maken ten tijde van de Val van Antwerpen, met een wisseling van de macht: het protestantse Antwerpen kwam onder Spaans katholiek bewind. Voor de ene drukker betekende dit een noodzakelijk vertrek, voor de ander een aanpassing van zijn portfolio en een keuze in geloofs- en politieke uitingen.
De vier Antwerpse drukkers hebben allen pamfletteksten uitgegeven over wonderbaarlijke (natuur)verschijnselen die ook in het buitenland opgemerkt werden. Soms is de Antwerpse drukker een navolger van dit soort publicaties geweest, maar dit masteronderzoek toont aan dat deze drukkers met hun teksten ook een voorbeeldfunctie hebben gehad voor collega-drukkers in het buitenland. De Antwerpse teksten zijn dan terug te vinden in een Engelse, Franse of Duitse vertaling.
Er is zelfs een bestendige relatie tussen twee drukkers aan te tonen: het is in dit onderzoek gebleken dat de Duitse drukker Jozias Wörli met regelmaat Duitse pamfletten heeft uitgegeven met dezelfde teksten als de Antwerpse drukker Mattheus de Rische. Het is aannemelijk dat De Rische hierbij het voorbeeld is geweest en Wörli de navolger. In een enkel geval is dit ook onomstotelijk bewezen.
Dit masteronderzoek heeft aangetoond dat anonieme Nederlandstalige teksten uit de 16de eeuw een groter belang in het buitenland hebben gehad dan tot nu toe bekend is.

In the second half of the seventeenth century, a number of political pamphlets and treatises appeared on the European balance of power (aequilibrium potentiae), which by then had already been argued against the concept of universal monarchy (monarchia universalis). The principle of balance of power became a prominent element of eighteenth-century state politics and political journalism, as well as one of the key concepts of the emerging theory of interstate relations. The term became part of the official language of diplomacy with the Peace of Utrecht (1713), becoming part not only of political thought, but also of the official political practice, and developed into one of the fundamental milestones of English foreign policy and political thought in the 18th centuries. The English economist, Tory politician and political pamphleteer Charles Davenant’s (1656–1714) pamphlet 'Essay upon the Ballance of Power' can be interpreted in this context, which was published in the first half of 1701 with the author’s two other political pamphlets in one edition, 'Essay upon the Right of Making War, Peace, and Alliances', and 'Essay upon the Universal Monarchy'. My paper intends to analyse the contemporary incorporation of the concept of balance of power into English political thought with the analysis of these three political pamphlets. My analysis is trying to point out how the principle of balance of power began to play an increasingly important role in European great power politics as well as in English domestic and foreign policy in the decades before the Peace of Utrecht (1713), and how Davenant’s political pamphlets can fit in this context.

This lecture in German is dealing with the preconditions and evolution oft the propaganda pamphlets during the Reformation.

"Beyßig sein tut Nutz und Not" - To be acrimonious is indispensable! No, this saying is not the new motto in the political debate of Philipp Amthor and Co. with the new media. Rather, the motto dates back to a long departed Era, which was also caught red-handed by a media change: the time of the Reformation and pamphlets and broadsheets.
The 'new medium' of printing with movable types had already been established by 1515. Not only a hundred copies of indulgence letters or pictures of saints, news written in lyrics and stately letters and notices guaranteed the printers their livelihood. Even extremely successful, illustrated satirical writings, which dealt with both abuses of profane and clerical grievances enjoyed great popularity.
In the confessional controversy especially the followers of the Reformation adapted many of the well-established concepts for their own purposes. Even famous anti-Lutheran authors could not compete with the Lutheran propaganda compositions, in particular from the cooperation project of Cranach and Luther.
In the evolving denominational dispute, both sides used the new medium, less so for a factual discussion, but rather to defame the adversary. Since Wittenberg was said to be a withered dullsville, not worth three halfpennies and Luther was even figuratively sunk in the crapper, while the Lutheran followers blamed the pope-loyal Christians that they would be guided by the smell of a crap, as popes and cardinals would be the spawn of demons.
The reflection of the Reformation period with its rude writing and imagery thus provides ample material for exciting historical comparisons. Unfortunately, under the time pressure of the curriculum, which is concentrated on modern times and the still codified personal history, only a distorted picture of historical events is offered. The classification into the temporal and historical context can not be achieved under the current circumstances.
In the worst case, the historical myths and legends rather are taught than a critical historical approach and methodology; as will be shown in the example of the “Devil playing bagpipes”, which is reinterpreted in many schoolbooks and works of reference as “Luther as the Devils bagpipes”.

This essay deals with Thomas Nashe’s pamphlet on
nightmares, The Terrors of the Night (1594). It argues that Nashe’swork, instead of developing the didactic and moralizing potential of dreamaccounts, explores the diversity and moral ambiguity of dreams through its own narrative. Rejecting the common early modern view of dream narration as an act of divination which intervenes ethically in the world, the work also refrains from investing the act of narrating dreams with a negative moral or political value. Thus, contextualizing the work from the point of view of early modern dream analyses and interpretations, this essay suggests that Nashe’s work exposes the problems in seeing literary texts as didactic containers rather than arenas of competing ethical values.

Over the last years, the development of the periodical press in early modern Germany and Europe attracted a lot of scholarly attention. This report is dedicated to highlight and discuss the current state of research on the early modern periodical press in German speaking Europe. From the relevant literature on the topic published between 2000-2013 both the most ambitious and dedicated studies, and the most characteristic activities in the field have been selectively chosen and reported on.


Die Erforschung der periodischen Presse in der Frühen Neuzeit hat in den letzten Jahren, insbesondere bezogen auf den deutschen Sprachraum Europas, erheblich an Konturen gewonnen. Der vorliegende Forschungsbericht zeigt jüngere, charakteristische historiographische Tendenzen in der Erforschung und Kontextualisierung der im deutschen Sprachraum periodisch-seriell erschienenen Druckerzeugnisse seit circa dem frühen 17. Jahrhundert auf; der Berichtzeitraum umfasst, mit wenigen Ausnahmen, die Jahre 2000-2013. Als Gliederungen für den Forschungsbericht dienen vier bedeutsame pressehistoriographische Tendenzen, welche mit den Schlagworten ›Grundlagenarbeit‹, ›Vernetzungsarbeit‹, ›Zeitschriften‹ und ›Theorie‹ gekennzeichnet sind.

"Frühneuzeitliche urbane Öffentlichkeit war geprägt von "fliegenden Blättern" in allen Variationen – Flugpublizistik im weitesten Sinne. Mehrblättrige Flugschriften, obrigkeitliche Einblattdrucke, illustrierte Flugblätter, selbst handgeschriebene "Zettelchen" flogen wortwörtlich durch die Straßen der Städte und prägten so das Meinungs- und Politikklima. Mit den teils fingierten, anonymen und pseudonymen Publikationen wurde Öffentlichkeit von einer Vielzahl von Akteuren opportun organisiert, wenn nötig inszeniert, teilweise kämpferisch behauptet oder auch korrigiert. Als papiernen Gegenwartsbeschleunigern kam Flugpublizistik in urbanen Räumen um 1700 eine Verstärkerfunktion zu: als mediale Impulse dynamisierten Flugdrucke die innerstädtische Politiksphäre, da sie räsonnementanregend auf illiterati und literati wirkten. Auf Basis eines Quellenkorpus von rund 600 Flugdrucken, das im Medienverbund samt seinen Akteuren kontextualisiert wird, leistet Daniel Bellingradt einen Beitrag zur Historisierung des Öffentlichkeitsbegriffes der Frühen Neuzeit. Städtische Öffentlichkeit um 1700 skizziert er als ein mit Stadtmauern umgebenes mediales Räsonierforum, auf das Flugpublizistik aktivierend einwirkte.


„Der bemerkenswerten Arbeit Bellingradts ist eine breite Rezeption zu wünschen...“
Holger Böning in Jahrbuch für Kommunikationsgeschichte 13 (2011), S. 186f.

„Wer sich für die Entstehung von Öffentlichkeit interessiert und sich nicht nur auf die bis zur Erschöpfung wiedergekäuten fachtheoretischen Klassiker beziehen möchte, dem sei die Studie ebenso wie allen kommunikations- und pressehistorisch Interessierten wärmstens empfohlen.“
Rudolf Stöber in Publizistik 56 (2011), S. 485f.

„The author provides an important contribution on the development of the public sphere in early modern times, the making of early modern urban politics and printing culture. (...) The book is of interest to anyone working on the history of media and print, early modern urban politics and political culture, or the public sphere.“
Christian Preuße in German History 30,2 (2012), S. 294f.

„Das Verdienst, erstmals eine angemessene Idee von der Vernetzung der verschiedensten medialen Öffentlichkeiten in der deutschen Stadt in der Frühen Neuzeit vermittelt zu haben, gebührt der Untersuchung von Daniel Bellingradt.“
Gerd Schwerhoff in Stadt und Öffentlichkeit in der Frühen Neuzeit (Köln 2011), S. 22.

„[Eine] Stärke der Arbeit ist der konsequente Ansatz, dem medienspezifischen Tunnelblick durch die Einbeziehung der zeitgenössischen Multi- und Intermedialität entgegenzutreten. (...) Bellingradts Dissertation [ist] eine anregende und lesenswerte Arbeit, die nachdrücklich zu einer breiter angelegten frühneuzeitlichen Mediengeschichte und vor allem zur stärkeren Berücksichtigung der ‚fliegenden Blätter’ auffordert.“
Kai Lohsträter in H-Soz-u-Kult [27.03.2012]

„Imponerend (...) Bellingradt’s bronnenonderzoek is inderdaad vlekkeloos.“
Freya Sierhuis in Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis 124 (2011), S. 570-572.

„Selon les travaux largement diffusés de Jürgen Habermas, une opinion publique politisée n’apparaît dans le Saint-Empire qu’à la fin du XVIIIe siècle, en lien avec la constitution d’une société civile. Pour Daniel Bellingradt, il y a des indices qui permettent de situer l’émergence de ce phénomène au moins un siècle plus tôt. (...) Ces études portant sur la situation de quatre villes allemandes permettent à l’auteur d’étayer son argumentation: il y avait en Allemagne, dès les années 1700, une opinion publique bien informée en matière politique, capable de discussion, d’argumentation et de raisonnement. Et la naissance de cette opinion publique fut favorisée, plus que par le livre ou la gazette, par la multitude des »petites pièces«, outil efficace et mobile permettant de réagir à chaud aux événements, de susciter et d’alimenter des débats et d’installer ceux-ci de manière visible dans l’espace public.“
Jean Schillinger in Francia-Recensio, 2012-2 [9.8.2012]
URL: http://www.perspectivia.net:8403/perspectivia/content/publikationen/francia/francia-recensio/2012-2/FN/bellingradt_schillinger

„Die große Leistung des Buches liegt in der gründlichen Untersuchung städtischer, konflikt-bezogener Flugpublizistik mit zahlreichen detaillierten Aussagen zu Auflagen, Preisen, Nach-drucken, Raubdrucken, Vertriebswegen und Zensurproblemen.“
Andreas Würgler in Vierteljahrschrift für Sozial- und Wirtschaftsgeschichte 99,3 (2012), S. 363-365.

„... una lettura senz’altro obbligata per quanti si occupino, con particolare riferimento alla Germania, di Illuminismo radicale, Frühaufklärung e Pietismo, di storia dell’università e della vita studentesca.“
Riccarda Suitner in Nuova Informazione Bibliografica 9,4 (2012), 868-870.

Chapter 1 (Introduction) can be found here: http://www.steiner-verlag.de/uploads/tx_crondavtitel/datei-datei/9783515098106_p.pdf

The early modern period is characterized by a lively culture of written and printed participation that almost constantly stimulated new streams of commenting, correcting, answering and observing (paper-based) media in extenso. However, at the other end of the increased use of publications we see censoring activities like book burnings aimed to punish certain „unwanted“ voices. This article deals with the material problems of these public book burning ceremonies. Missing books, very small books, reduced numbers of books available, or books subjected to limiting-quotas, and, in general, too fast burning paper made these events to happenings of shortage. Through the use of additional ceremonial aspects, the organizers of book burnings tried to solve the shortages. In so doing, it was almost always the case that the less paper was available, the more effort was exerted in the rituals. As is demonstrated by eighteenth-century Frankfurt (Main), Cologne, Hamburg and Rome, the situations of shortage motivated the organizers to extend the ceremonial procedure by either ripping the publication to pieces before burning or often using gallows or pillories in order to make the ceremony happen at all.


Zusammenfassung
Die europäische Epoche der Frühen Neuzeit ist maßgeblich gekennzeichnet durch eine Publikationsfreudigkeit: Beobachtungen, Meinungen, Widerlegungen, Korrekturen, Anmerkungen oder Antworten auf vorherig Publiziertes führten zu immer neuen Akten der Verschriftlichung und Drucklegung. Am anderen Ende der epochentypischen Publizität stand, wie schon in Antike und im Mittelalter, die zensural-motivierte Verbrennung ausgewählter Publikationen als "ungewollte" Stimmen. In diesem Aufsatz geht es um die typischen materiellen Probleme dieser als Strafe konzipierten und zeremoniell inszenierten Bücherverbrennungen, die sich im Modus des öffentlichen Spektakels vollzogen. Absentes, reduziertes, kontingentiertes oder zu flüchtig verbrennendes (bedrucktes) Papier machte diese symbolisch aufgeladenen Ereignisse nämlich zu Veranstaltungen im Zeichen des Mangels. Mittels zusätzlicher inszenatorischer bzw. zeremonieller Aspekte versuchten die Ausrichter das Problem kompensatorisch zu lösen: Tendenziell galt hierbei, je weniger Papier verfügbar war, desto mehr Aufwand musste betrieben werden. Fallbeispiele aus Frankfurt am Main, Köln, Hamburg und Rom zeigen die Logik des materiellen Mangels in Zeremonie-Verlängerungen (durch separates Zerreißen von Publikationen), Zeremonie-Ausweitungen (durch Galgen- oder Prangernutzung) sowie in angesammelten kollektiven Buchverbrennungen, um überhaupt eine Zeremonie gewährleisten zu können.

The Mainspring of Politics: Party Narratives and the Logic of Moral Politics in the Age of Liberty

This thesis examines the moral conflict permeating the politics of Sweden’s Age of Liberty around 1740 – a conflict that also structured the politics of the time in relation to a particular political logic based on moral. This logic was based on the absolute and normatively immutable nature of the social order, but also on a number of deep pre-modern experiences and expectations of man as unable to overcome his corrupt nature. This logic structured the political polemics through a metanarrative of how the citizens, who had been entrusted to maintain and defend the fragile moral social order, over time came to be morally corrupted; resulting in them instead starting to tear down said order. The moral of the narrative was that those citizens still virtuous must identify, reintegrate and, if necessary, oust the immoral ones, before they themselves were corrupted and before the order was completely torn apart. This logic led to the politics of the time being characterized by mistrust, concerns regarding dissimulation and a high level of conflict.

The two party narratives studied in this thesis, using a method of narrative analysis, represent two versions of this metanarrative. In connection to Reinhart Koselleck, I argue that this political logic based on moral must be understood as distinctly pre-modern and fundamentally different from modern politics, which was instead structured in relation to various competing social visions. The analysis shows that the party narratives were periodized in a pre-modern, circular and past manner. The thesis is a contribution to three different fields of research studying the early modern period: citizenship and virtue; views on mankind and society, with a particular focus on Lutheran and republican notions; the party politics and politicization of the Age of Liberty. A variety of different kinds of materials (e.g., handwritten pamphlets, libels, parliamentary speeches, sermons, newspapers) are examined in the thesis.

EN: The Interdict crisis of 1606-1607 was the culmination of centuries of tension between Venice and the Papacy has been the object of continuous interest by historians. Considering this tradition of studies and the latest contributions on this subject, the present research tries to explore the role played in the crisis
by the territories that were under venetian rule. Paul V’s decision to prohibit the celebration of the sacraments throughout the venetian dominions, in response to legislation considered detrimental to the freedom of the Church, was a further attempt to putting subjects against rulers and bringing the Serenissima face to face with the risk of internal collapse. The spiritual censures, and the nature of ‘war of scriptures’ that the conflict was to assume, meant that the subjects of the Serenissima became privileged interlocutors for the Princes involved in the dispute. The purpose of the present contribution is to analyse the forms and rhetoric of this dialogue, considering unpublished documents. Particular attention has been paid to the very first communications – both written and oral – occurred between Venice and the subject communities after the explosion of the crisis.

IT: La crisi dell’Interdetto del 1606-1607, deflagrazione di secolari tensioni tra Venezia e il Papato, ha riscosso un ininterrotto interesse storiografico. A partire da questa tradizione di studi e dai più recenti contributi sull’argomento, la presente ricerca intende interrogarsi sul ruolo giocato nei frangenti della crisi dalle comunità sottoposte alla Serenissima. La scelta di papa Paolo V di vietare la celebrazione dei sacramenti nei domini della Repubblica in risposta a leggi lesive
della libertà ecclesiastica si riproponeva di sollevare i governati contro i governanti, ponendo la Serenissima di fronte al rischio di un collasso interno. La sanzione spirituale e la dimensione di “guerra delle scritture” assunta dal conflitto fecero dei sudditi della Serenissima degli interlocutori privilegiati per i Principi
in contesa. Il presente contributo intende analizzare forme e retoriche di questo dialogo a partire dall’analisi delle prime comunicazioni – scritte e orali – intercorse tra Venezia e le comunità suddite nei primissimi giorni della crisi.

During the 1501 restoration of Palazzo Orsini (now Palazzo Braschi), Cardinal Oliviero Carafa placed an ancient statue-found nearby a few years earlieron the side of the building.1 No one in Rome could have predicted the political and cultural repercussions of his actions. Unwittingly, the people of the time were witnessing the birth of one of the most feared and everlasting champions of anonymous European propaganda of the modern era. Rechristened Pasquino, the statue became a celebrity in its own right and its success went hand in hand with that of polemicist Pietro Aretino. Although of excellent workmanship, this marble group from the Hellenistic age was badly damaged, so much so as to make the features of the two characters portrayed unrecognizable. Although for a long time the two male figures were believed to be Menelaus and Patroclus, more recent studies have shown them to be Ajax in the act of holding the body of Achilles.2 Having been placed in the Parione neighborhood, very close to Piazza Navona, the statue was also adjacent to the street

Fliegende Blätter sind seit mehr als 500 Jahren in Europa feste Bestandteile der medialen Alltagskultur und Politiksphären. Flugblätter verarbeiten und prägen seit dem 15. Jahrhundert in Text und Bild die beobachtete oder imaginierte Lebenswelt der Zeitgenossen. Als historische Quellen sind die für den Unterricht interessant, weil sie Einblicke in vergangene Kommunikationssituationen gewähren: Sie zeigen Momente der kulturellen Erschaffung von Informations-, Orientierungs- und Deutungsangeboten sowie deren Nachfrage nach diesen.

Eine von der Berner Literaturgeschichtsschreibung allzu lange versäumte Replik auf Ferdinand Vetters Aufsatz von 1904, in welchem er nachweisen wollte, dass die beiden sowohl in den alten Drucken als auch in der Berner Reformationschronik des Valerius Anshelm auf 1522 datierten Spiele in Wahrheit erst 1523 aufgeführt worden sein können. Dieser in der Forschung seither allgemein akzeptierte Nachweis hat als misslungen zu gelten.

La crisi dell’Interdetto del 1606-1607, momento di deflagrazione dei secolari attriti tra Venezia e la Santa Sede, è stata percepita come una svolta periodizzante nella storia della Repubblica di Venezia e dei suoi Domini. Scostandosi in parte da questa lettura, i più recenti contributi sul tema hanno ravvisato nella crisi veneto-pontificia un punto di osservazione privilegiato per comprendere i meccanismi sottesi alla comunicazione politica in età moderna. Un simile approccio ha l’indubbio merito di contestualizzare in maniera più pregnante quella definizione di guerra delle scritture attribuita all’Interdetto già dai suoi contemporanei: il conflitto del 1606-1607 fu infatti combattuto a colpi di scritti e libelli destinati a un pubblico eterogeneo e sempre più vasto. In aperto contrasto con quel principio di segretezza che costituiva un assioma della prassi e della teoria di governo dell’epoca, i Principi in contesa si trovarono costretti ad aprire un dialogo con i sudditi: il Papato per esortare i fedeli all’applicazione delle sanzioni spirituali comminate
alla Serenissima, Venezia per difendere le sue ragioni e delegittimare l’ingerenza romana nella sua attività legislativa e giudiziaria. La polemica fu talmente pervasiva da coinvolgere testi non specificatamente pensati per contribuire ad essa, come le orazioni tributate dalle comunità suddite al doge Leonardo Donà, eletto in concomitanza della crisi. Nel presente articolo si tenterà di comprendere il contributo – più o meno volontario – dato da questi testi e dai loro estensori alla guerra delle scritture: a tal fine si è scelto di prendere in analisi l’orazione presentata per conto di Capodistria dall’ambasciatore giustinopolitano Niccolò Manzuoli e recitata a Venezia il 9 aprile 1606.

Following Henry’s VIII break with Rome, executed via Parliament, Parliament felt increasingly responsible for the common weal. The House of Commons in particular grew more and more confident when it came to criticizing the monarch, if it thought he or she acted against the common good. This is especially visible during the long reign of Elizabeth I. The Commons – and occasionally the Lords as well – criticized her lack of a successor, her marriage policy, her religious policy, and her course of action with regard to Mary Stuart among other things.
This essay analyses the different techniques of criticism used by both Houses of Parliament: There was open as well as hidden criticism in the debates on bills and taxes. Sometimes the approval of taxes was delayed in order to allow longer debates on controversial subjects. A central medium of criticism was the petition that directly addressed the monarch and asked for a certain course of action. Here criticism and praise were mingled in order to make the petition acceptable. Moreover, bills in itself could mean criticism, as for example the laws of high treason showed. Although they seemed to be aimed at enforcing the queen’s security, they directly contradicted her policy with regard to Mary Stuart. We have to look beyond these forms of criticism expressed in Parliament: Special sermons were held during the opening and closing of Parliament that could add to the general message from Parliament. Moreover, several members of the House of Commons participated in the plays of the Inns of Court occasionally performed at court before the queen. This means that parliamentary criticism has to be analysed within the wider context of early modern criticism of government which took place in different public spheres.

Historical research has described every-day life in the Early Modern period as being part of a kind of permanent social public sphere in which honour and reputation were essential ingredients. The aim of this essay is to show how these concepts of honour and reputation constituted, not only social life, but also political life, through a public culture of honour. By studying the rich body of political literature of the early Age of Liberty through this lens, it becomes clear that this culture of honour played an important role for the overall transformation of the Swedish political public sphere at the time.

By focusing on the oral character of the written sources, this essay analyses the political, defamatory and libellous pamphlets in the public sphere of the 1730´s and 40´s. Despite the fact that few anonymous authors were identified and convicted, the empirical results suggest that the political actors, who were the objects of the public assaults, were drawn into a public debate through a moral and social obligation to defy the allegations and defend their honour, effectively by responding in a similar offensive manner while at the same time accentuating their honour. Voluntarily or involuntarily, and regardless of whether the insults were aimed at men or women this made all involved actors conform to the normative rules of the public sphere, thereby following the patterns played out in the social sphere.

Although the political actors may have refused to accept the legitimacy of this political interaction, this essay shows that they were all in fact acting on a stage—ruled by honour—and that they could not ignore the fact that an illegitimate domestic—or a threatening foreign—public were taking an increasing interest in this interaction. Politics, and the public culture of honour that made up its epicentre, became a public concern that an increasing number of people identified themselves as being part of.

Pitiless Mothers and Cruel Fathers. Infanticide as a Tool of Religious Propaganda in Early Modern Popular Prints
The article is focused on the phenomena of early modern infanticide on the basis of the analysis of three popular prints belonging to the genre of broadsheet literature. Broadsheet literature (single-sheet prints, pamphlets and broadside ballads) as well as prescriptive texts were not only closely connected with critique of improper mothers and fathers but also participated in escalation of arguments among churches. A propagandistic purpose of broadsheets covering infanticide is quite logical, not only because broadsheets dealing with the subject of violence were sold well, but at the same time, for their specifi c reception which included a public representation and repeated publication of similar issues. Whereas the oldest print, Ein erschrockenlich grausam unerhört Mord (1556), is seemingly confessionally ambivalent text, from the context of individual versions, there is an apparent protestant critique of a bad farmer as the most signifi cant character of an early modern household. Other analysed broadsheets, A Pittilesse Mother (1616), or Pravdivá zpráva (1695), represent quite off ensive texts; the fi rst print criticizes a  pernicious infl uence of the Catholic Church on a  Presbyterian family and the second ballad attacks disharmony in marriage together with a wide range of sins. A comparison of these shock horror stories shows some interesting associations, penetration of issues as well as totally opposite meaning in various areas.
Keywords: Infanticide, Early Modern period, pamphlet, broadsheet, broadside ballad, propaganda, reformation, female criminality, violence, confessionalisation, prescriptive literature

The honour of the polity, closely tied to military success, was of great importance in seventeenth-century European international relations. This article provides an analysis of the importance of the honour of the polity in the early Dutch Republic – the late sixteenth and first half of the seventeenth-century – and the role of military success and failure as crucial matters in this. It also contributes to the debate about the position of the Republic, now no longer seen as an anomaly, in European relations. In existing research scant attention is paid to the role of military glory in this. A military defeat, the loss of Breda in 1625, functions as an analytical tool. Analysing the manner in which this defeat was dealt with enables an assessment of the importance of the Republic's honour in a 'national' and international context.

In the seventeenth century music printing was still an expensive enterprise. Nevertheless, the print media was attractive to composers when issuing music that they had
written for special occasions. The flexibility of print media allowed them to adjust publications to fit the exact purposes that they had in mind when issuing occasional
music. They could take advantage of the media for many different purposes and make their music accessible and attractive to a certain group of readers they wanted
to address. The paper investigates occasinal music published in Rostock in the first half of the seventeenth century. Here, composers that had their occasional works printed had different strategies when approaching potential readers. Some prints were not presented to the public, but circulated only privately around the composer and his acquaintances. Other prints were distributed widely to the public. Also the status of the music, whether occasional or not, could be controlled through the prints. In some cases, the composers put an effort in emphasizing the fact that a piece of music was composed for a certain occasion; in other cases, they tried to disguise it.

Parsemées en menus paragraphes semblant autant de capsules (certains parleraient aujourd’hui de tweets), les notes constitutives de Sur la Belgique tissent la trame embryonnaire d’un pamphlet qui ne vit jamais le jour, du fait de la santé fragile de l’auteur. Leur aspect parcellaire, inachevé et, pour tout dire, parfois schématique dans leur propos ne doit pas pour autant, nous semble-t-il, amener la critique contemporaine à déconsidérer ce méli-mélo allant du croquis à la caricature et de la mosaïque au guide touristique – ainsi que le formulait Michel Butor : « tout livre achevé, plein, fermé, est ainsi un masque, une façade ; le livre véritable, le livre juste, est nécessairement, lui-même, ruine, délabrement, découvreur » (Babel en creux).
De fait, c’est bien de leur brièveté et de leur concision mêmes (renforcées par leur inachèvement) que ces satires tirent l’effet le plus abrasif. Il semble que la pratique du trait, de la pointe et de la chute permette en effet au style de Baudelaire de tourner pleinement en dérision l’esprit pesant et pataud qu’il croit identifier chez le Belge, ce choix esthétique visant à mettre en relief les procédés d’ironie et de sarcasme qui sont les siens – bien loin, donc, de tout discours construit, structuré et argumenté. Cependant, l’humour baudelairien ne s’arrête pas là. En effet, par l’enchaînement glissant de leurs aphorismes, par leur ponctuation particulièrement expressive qui désarticule parfois le propos, par leur esthétique pointilliste qui donne au phrasé une allure de zigzag permanent et sidère le lecteur, les feuillets de Sur la Belgique semblent même parfois offrir (comble d’ironie !) un exemple patent et non dénué d’une autodérision diabolique de ce que Baudelaire reproche précisément à l’esprit belge : son passage du coq à l’âne, ses « incongruités », sa « maladresse » voire ses « contrefaçons » – sans parler d’une certaine « présomption » sous couvert de nombreux « barbarismes ». Une posture doublement désenchantée, donc, que nous nous proposons d’approfondir dans cette communication et qui – si l’on en croit Verlaine – a peut-être, loin de l’image du « poète impeccable », pour « profonde originalité de […] représenter puissamment et essentiellement l’homme moderne » (« Charles Baudelaire », in Articles et préfaces).

The first decades of the seventeenth century witnessed the rapid mercantilization of the poetic product. The rise of a more commercial outlook could be observed in the way texts increasingly dealt with the question of literary self-consciousness; that is, the various ways in which a text may foreground its author’s creative investment in it. The significance of this new understanding of the written work cannot be overemphasised. Authority and its implications for the production and reception of literature are fundamentally related to the question of literary self-consciousness, thus showing the paramount importance of a work’s paratext —the interface where the personal and public facets of a text, intention and reception, converge.

This chapter considers manifestations of literary self-consciousness in this new social climate, by published male and female writers alike, thus from a comparative stance. More specifically, the chapter reflects on the similarities, not just differences, between the promotion of male-authored and female-authored texts during the first half of the seventeenth century.

Cet article étudie l’articulation entre la figure de la marchande de modes et la circulation des « petites brochures » au XVIIIe siècle, en montrant comment une poétique des modes permet de renégocier les valeurs respectives de la littérature et de la mode.

This paper analyses the articulation between the figure of the 'marchande de modes' and the circulation of small brochures in eighteenth-century France, in order to show how a poetic of fashion revaluates both fashion and literature.

The murder of a popular and high-ranking Lutheran cleric in May 1726 in the residential city of the Electorate of Saxony, Dresden, by a Catholic foreigner triggered both urban turmoil and a process of intense media recycling. This article is concerned not so much with the murder case in detail but with the 'publishing of the murder case' by the lively local and regional print industries. It will be argued that these publishing processes were moments of economically driven media recycling that had effects on the censorship regime. Analyzing the contemporary perception of circulating prints by the Saxon authorities shows clearly a very low level of censorship activity. When connecting the bits of evidence, it seems evident that the inactivity must have been caused by more than just the usual level of administrational incompetence: the relevant Saxon authorities were Lutheran officials working for a Catholic King, and they chose inactivity deliberately.

The Life of Romeyn de Hooghe 1645-1708
Prints, Pamphlets, and Politics in the Dutch Golden Age
by Henk van Nierop

Publisher: Amsterdam University Press
Series: Amsterdam Studies in the Dutch Golden Age: https://www.aup.nl/en/series/amsterdam-studies-in-the-dutch-golden-age

Romeyn de Hooghe was the most inventive and prolific etcher of the later Dutch Golden Age. The producer of wide-ranging book illustrations, newsprints, allegories, and satire, he is best known as the chief propaganda artist working for stadtholder and king William III. This study, the first book-length biography of de Hooghe, narrates how his reputation became badly tarnished when he was accused of pornography, fraud, larceny, and atheism. Traditionally regarded as a godless rogue, and more recently as an exponent of the Radical Enlightenment, de Hooghe emerges in this study as a successful entrepreneur, a social climber, and an Orangist spin doctor. A study in seventeenth-century political culture and patronage, focusing on spin and slander, this book explores how artists, politicians, and hacks employed literature and the visual arts in political discourse, and tried to capture their readership with satire, mockery, fun, and laughter.

"... the text surpassed my expectations: it is a truly outstanding and in every way excellent contribution to the history of the Golden Age. ... The author has succeeded in achieving what no one has succeeded in in doing previously - setting out a clear, detailed and convincing, well-supported account of the sometimes seemingly baffling shifts and swerves in De Hooghe's career, fortunes, reputation and political stance." - Jonathan Israel, professor emeritus, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton

"...offers a fascinating portrait of the etcher, pamphleteer, pornographer, provocateur, freethinker, spy, author, entrepreneur, husband and father, Romeyn de Hooghe. ... The book is also remarkably relevant in this age of international political machinations, propaganda, and the distortion and concealment of information by spin doctors and the media." - Huigen Leeflang, Rijksmuseum Amsterdam

Ericus Walten (1662-1697) kende van 1688 tot en met 1692 een korte, maar rumoerige carrière als broodschrijver en polemist.  Hij mengde zich met meer dan dertig werken in de discussies rond de Glorious Revolution waarmee stadhouder Willem III de Engelse troon besteeg, in de machtsstrijd tussen Amsterdam en de stadhouder, in de Rotterdamse stadspolitiek en in theologische en filosofische discussies. Juist de gevaarlijke combinatie van zijn felle aanvallen op de kerk en de inmenging in politieke zaken zorgden voor zijn uiteindelijke arrestatie. In 1693 zocht de Zuid-Hollandse synode naar goede redenen om hem te vervolgen wegens godslastering.  Een jaar later, in 1694, werd hij daadwerkelijk gearresteerd. Walten werd in de Haagse Gevangenpoort opgesloten, waar hij in 1697 overleed; vermoedelijk door zelfmoord.
Mededelingen van de Stichting Jacob Campo Weyerman, 36, 1 (2013): 35-43.

В статье рассматривается модель создания и распространения памфлетов, описывающих путешествия по Англии Джона Тейлора – «водного поэта», одного из наиболее коммерчески успешных авторов 1610–1640-х годов. Массовый успех памфлетам обеспечила удачно найденная маска «честного гребца», революционная для своего времени практика краудфандинга и особый вид нар-
ратива, в котором важное место занимают «предпринимательская модель производства дискурса», открытое обращение за поддержкой к читателю.

Ключевые слова: Джон Тейлор, «водный поэт», травелог, памфлет, предпринимательская модель производства дискурса, краудфандинг, раннее Новое время

Through a case study, the close reading of a pamphlet authored by the theologian Thomas Bedford (fl. 1633-1653) and dedicated to a pair of Siamese twins born in Plymouth at the end of 1635, the essay highlights the complex way the phenomenon of human monstrous births is observed in early modern England. In the suspension – both emotional and cognitive – between theological concern and scientific inquiry, what emerges is the coexistence of not fully harmonized paradigms, which characterizes the years immediately following the epistemological revolution promoted by Francis Bacon. On the one hand, Bedford still acknowledges a central role to the direct divine intervention on creation; on the other hand, the intensity of his inquisitive gaze, tempted by profane curiosity, almost leads him to the sacrilegious act of performing an autopsy. In early modern Europe, caught among Reformation, Counter-Reformation and Scientific Revolution, the monstrous birth becomes the touchstone of norm and deviance and illuminates with a specific polychromatic light the gray area between religion facing a growth crisis and evolving medicine.