Biographies of a Reformation


Book Description

Introduction: A Royal Visit -- 1:Lorenz Heidenreich (1480-1557), Oswald Pergener (1490s-1546) and the Many Faces of the Lusatian Reformation -- 2:Johannes Hass (c. 1476-1544): History Writing and Divine Intervention in the Early Reformation -- 3:Andreas Günther (1502-1570): Religion, Politics and Power in the Lusatian League -- 4:Bartholomäus Scultetus (1540-1614): Learning, Teaching and Remembering in the Towns of the Lusatian League -- 5:Johann Leisentrit (1527-1586): Redefining Catholicism in a Lutheran Region -- 6:Sigismund Suevus (1526-1596): Sharing Spaces and Objects -- 7:Martin Moller (1547-1606): Possibilities and Limits of Toleration -- 8:Friedrich Fischer (1558-1623): Repositioning Lutheranism and Negotiating Ways Forward -- Conclusion: The Lusatian Reformation.




Foundations of Old Prussian


Book Description

The Old Prussian language has always puzzled linguists. While other Baltic languages, such as Lithuanian and Latvian, have remained in use to the present day, Old Prussian was extinguished at the beginning of eighteenth century, and the extant Old Prussian linguistic corpus is quite limited in scope. Drawing on two bilingual vocabularies and three Lutheran Catechisms (as well as onomastic evidence and several other minor texts), this work critically explores the linguistic and historiographical contours of Old Prussian.




Living I Was Your Plague


Book Description

From the author of the acclaimed biography Martin Luther: Renegade and Prophet, new perspectives on how Luther and others crafted his larger-than-life image Martin Luther was a controversial figure during his lifetime, eliciting strong emotions in friends and enemies alike, and his outsized persona has left an indelible mark on the world today. Living I Was Your Plague explores how Luther carefully crafted his own image and how he has been portrayed in his own times and ours, painting a unique portrait of the man who set in motion a revolution that sundered Western Christendom. Renowned Luther biographer Lyndal Roper examines how the painter Lucas Cranach produced images that made the reformer an instantly recognizable character whose biography became part of Lutheran devotional culture. She reveals what Luther's dreams have to say about his relationships and discusses how his masculinity was on the line in his devastatingly crude and often funny polemical attacks. Roper shows how Luther's hostility to the papacy was unshaken to the day he died, how his deep-rooted anti-Semitism infused his theology, and how his memorialization has given rise to a remarkable flood of kitsch, from "Here I Stand" socks to Playmobil Luther. Lavishly illustrated, Living I Was Your Plague is a splendid work of cultural history that sheds new light on the complex and enduring legacy of Luther and his image.




Print Culture at the Crossroads


Book Description

This book investigates the importance of printing in early-modern Central Europe, revealing a complicated web of connections linking printers and scholars, Jews and Christians, from the Baltic to the Adriatic.




Protestant Empires


Book Description

Through its wide geographical and chronological scope, Protestant Empires advances a novel perspective on the nature and impact of the Protestant Reformations.




Hilma Af Klint


Book Description

A highly anticipated biography of the enigmatic and popular Swedish painter. The Swedish painter Hilma af Klint (1862–1944) was forty-four years old when she broke with the academic tradition in which she had been trained to produce a body of radical, abstract works the likes of which had never been seen before. Today, it is widely accepted that af Klint was one of the earliest abstract academic painters in Europe. But this is only part of her story. Not only was she a working female artist, she was also an avowed clairvoyant and mystic. Like many of the artists at the turn of the twentieth century who developed some version of abstract painting, af Klint studied Theosophy, which holds that science, art, and religion are all reflections of an underlying life-form that can be harnessed through meditation, study, and experimentation. Well before Kandinsky, Mondrian, and Malevich declared themselves the inventors of abstraction, af Klint was working in a nonrepresentational mode, producing a powerful visual language that continues to speak to audiences today. The exhibition of her work in 2018 at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City attracted more than 600,000 visitors, making it the most-attended show in the history of the institution. Despite her enormous popularity, there has not yet been a biography of af Klint—until now. Inspired by her first encounter with the artist’s work in 2008, Julia Voss set out to learn Swedish and research af Klint’s life—not only who the artist was but what drove and inspired her. The result is a fascinating biography of an artist who is as great as she is enigmatic.




Controversial Poetry 1400–1625


Book Description

Controversial poetry played a crucial role in dealing with religious, political, and scholarly conflicts from 1400 until 1625. This volume analyses roles and functions of Latin, Italian, Dutch, German, Scots, and Hungarian poetry in specific historical controversies. A media theory of poetical impact is proposed by Franz-Josef Holznagel and Dieuwke van der Poel. Levente Seláf, Philipp Steinkamp, and Guillaume van Gemert examine the genres sung in wars, and in rulers’ controversies. Judith Keßler, Dirk Coigneau, Juliette Groenland, and Regina Toepfer analyse how female and male rhetoricians and humanists use verse in religious, municipal, and educational conflicts. Signe Rotter-Broman, Samuel Pakucs Willcocks†, and Alasdair A. MacDonald explain how reception strategies can shape cultural and political identities. Controversial Poetry 1400-1625 diskutiert den entscheidenden Einfluss von Controversial Poetry, Kontrovers-Dichtung, in Konflikten zwischen 1400 und 1625. Dafür werden die Rollen und Funktionen lateinischer, italienischer, niederländischer, deutscher, schottischer und ungarischer Dichtung in konkreten historischen Kontroversen analysiert. Eine Medientheorie der Beeinflussung durch Dichtung entwerfen Franz-Josef Holznagel and Dieuwke van der Poel. Levente Seláf, Philipp Steinkamp, and Guillaume van Gemert untersuchen verschiedene Gattungen gesungener Politik in Kriegen und Auseinandersetzungen von Herrschern. Judith Keßler, Dirk Coigneau, Juliette Groenland und Regina Töpfer analysieren, wie weibliche und männliche rederijkers und Humanisten Verse in konfessionellen, städtischen und Bildungs-Konflikten verwenden. Signe Rotter-Broman, Samuel Pakucs Willcocks† und Alasdair MacDonald erklären, wie Rezeptions-Strategien kulturelle und politische Identitäten gestalten können.




Publishers, Censors and Collectors in the European Book Trade, 1650–1750


Book Description

This edited volume explores the development of the European book world between 1650 and 1750, concentrating on changes in publishing strategies, practices of censorship, the circulation of second-hand books and the building of libraries. Its essays discuss this critical, but much neglected period of print history through case studies from Spain, Italy, France, the Holy Roman Empire, Britain and the Netherlands. Ranging from the posthumous publication of Galileo to the regulation of the book auction market, this volume demonstrates that the century between 1650 and 1750 was a transformative period for the history of the printed book.




Northern European Reformations


Book Description

This book examines the experiences and interconnections of the Reformations, principally in Denmark-Norway and Britain and Ireland (but with an eye to the broader Scandinavian landscape as well), and also discusses instances of similarities between the Reformations in both realms. The volume features a comprehensive introduction, and provides a broad survey of the beginnings and progress of the Catholic and Protestant Reformations in Northern Europe, while also highlighting themes of comparison that are common to all of the bloc under consideration, which will be of interest to Reformation scholars across this geographical region.




Die "andere" Reformation im Alten Reich / The "other" Reformation in the Old Empire


Book Description

Die Reformationsgeschichte der Stadt Bremen unterscheidet sich von vielen anderen Reformationen im Alten Reich, ist aber, auch in der intensiven Forschung während der Reformationsdekade, kaum einmal berücksichtigt worden. Sie ist deutlich "anders" als die Reformation in den "Kernlanden" und in den Städten. In der ersten, lutherischen Phase ist manches vergleichbar: die grundstürzenden Ideen, die ihre Legitimation aus Gottes Wort ziehen, kodifiziert in der Heiligen Schrift, Antiklerikalismus, Provokation, Gewalt und Beschwichtigung. Ab der Jahrhundertmitte gibt es aber ein Vorwärtsdrängen zu einer entschiedeneren zweiten Phase. Ziel des Bandes ist es, Bremen in der Reformationsgeschichtsforschung das verdiente Gewicht zu geben. Mit Beiträgen von Christoph Auffarth, Erik A. de Boer, Robert J. Christman, Gerald Dörner, Konrad Elmshäuser, Johannes Göhler, Monika Göhler, Andrea Hauser, Fred van Lieburg, Jan van de Kamp, Frank van der Pol, Pieter L. Rouwendal, Leo van Santen, Ruth Schilling, Stavros Vlachos, Manfred B. Wischnewsky und Regine Wolters. [The "other" Reformation in the Old Empire. Bremen and North-West Europe] The history of the Reformation in the city of Bremen differs from many other Reformation processes in the Old Empire. Yet it has hardly been addressed, not even in the decade of lively commemoration of the Reformation. Bremen's was a "different" Reformation in comparison with similar developments in the "core territories" of the Reformation, as well as in the cities. In the first, Lutheran, phase of Bremen's Reformation, many aspects were similar to those elsewhere: the groundbreaking ideas, which were legitimated by reference to the Word of God, as codified in Holy Scripture; anticlericalism; provocative stances; violence and appeasement. From about 1550 onwards, however, Bremen's Reformation proceeded towards a more uncompromising second phase. The aim of this volume is to give Bremen its due within the field of Reformation research.