Encyclopedia of Early Modern History Online

1. Holy Roman Empire The word cabinet (German Kabinett), derived from the French cabinet, originally meant a small and intimate room. From the 17th century in the German-speaking world, it began to be used in place of Kammer (“chamber”) to denote the work and council chamber of the ruler and, in a figurative sense, the apparatus of supreme executive power. Zedler’s Universal-Lexikon, for instance, defined Cabinet as the sanctuarium principis (“sanctum of the prince”), which “great lords have set aside for when they wish to discuss and negotiate the most secret an…

Cabinets of curiosities (also Kunstkammer, Wunderkammer, cabinets of wonder, wonder-rooms, etcetera) were a form of collection that had their heyday in the Renaissance and Baroque periods, and faded into obscurity in the 18th and 19th centuries. Unlike the later, specialist museum and learned scholarly collection in the stricter sense, cabinets of curiosities assembled objects from a wide variety of spheres, including art objects, naturalia, mechanical and scientific instruments, and everyday objects from other cultures.According to [7], the earliest antecedents of the…

1. Term and concept Cacique was a term first borrowed into Spanish from Arawak by Columbus, and it originally denoted the Taíno chieftains ( kassequa) of the island of Hispaniola. During the Conquista and the Spanish colonial period (Colonial empire), it came to be used to categorize authorities and rulers of all kinds and degrees of power in the subjugated indigenous societies of Latin America [1].The title cacique was used differently from region to region. At first, the local populace continued to use their specific local terms to refer to the cacique, e.g. kuraka in the Andes, latoan…

A cadaster is a register and (usually) a mapping of owned land by extent, use and yield for the purposes of raising taxes. In the early phase, cadasters often also included other objects of ownership and taxability (cattle, goods). Since the 18th century many European states set up cadaster so as to gain direct knowledge of the possessions (Possession [law]) of their subjects and thus a uniform key for calculations of tax liability. Previously the raising of taxes, where it was in the hands of t…

1. Terminology Cadastral areas are the usable agrarian land in a defined area: fields, meadows and pastures, which are allocated in parcels of land to individual agricultural business units. Gardens, areas of  common land and enclosed woodland (Forest) are not generally counted as belonging to the cadastral area [3]. In common usage, the entire area used for agriculture is referred to as “open land” (German  Flur, as for a cadastral area) as distinct from woodland.The fundamental structural element of a cadastral area is the parcel, which can be regarded as a parcel …

1. Concept and purpose Cadet schools (from the French cadet, “younger son”) trained successive generations of officer corps in early modern military systems, after the latter had taken on the form of standing armies. The objective was to create a continuously maintained potential leadership for the regiments with better schooling including military training. The schooling part of this goal was rooted in the knight academy, the general/nobility canon of education for this (foreign languages, riding, fenci…

1. Origins The core of the calculus of variations in its simplest form lies in finding a function that maximizes or minimizes a fixed definite integral.. The term calculus of variations was proposed in the 18th century by Leonhard Euler, following Joseph Louis de Lagrange, and refers to the procedure of using extremal conditions to identify the function in question in such a way that the value of the integral changes only minimally with small variations in the function. As a …

1. Term The word calendar derives from the name of the first day of the month in Ancient Rome (Latin Kalendae). From Latin kalendarium (‘debt-book’), it later came to refer to the whole system of reckoning time (Time, reckoning of). All known calendars are based on the alternation of day and night, the recurrent phases of the Moon (OE mona = “Moon”; monađ = “month”), and the course of the seasons through the solar year.Wolfgang Behringer 2. Chronology: early manifestations In all cultures, astronomical phenomena (Astronomy) determine the chronological units of year, month,…

1. Background The Christian calendar, a hybrid of solar and lunar reckoning, combines two functions. First, it serves the reckoning of time (Time, reckoning of) on an astronomical basis (date reckoning). Secondly, it facilitates the reckoning of religious festival. In Christian chronology and computus (the science of calendar reckoning), it was vital to have as astronomically exact a calendar as possible in order to calculate correctly the church holidays, which were tied to the course of the sun …

See Cotton

1. Theology 1.1. Terminology and geographical spreadThe term Calvinism was originally coined in a pejorative sense by J. Westphal, a Hamburg pastor and disciple of Luther. Besides the work and impact of the Geneva Reformer John Calvin (1509-1564), he extended it to include the influence of the Zürich Reformation movement led by Ulrich Zwingli (1484-1531) and his followers. Thus Calvinist can be used as a synonym of Reformed, for example in the legal language of the Empire after the Peace of Westphalia (1648).Outside Switzerland, Calvinism became influential during the 16t…

See Gemmology

1. Terminology and historiography The term  cameralism is used in two senses. First, it denotes the economic policy and administration of the public finances of the German territorial state in the age of absolutism.  In this sense, cameralism can be considered the German variant of mercantilism. It is correspondingly difficult to distinguish it from the latter (as a European phenomenon) and from the general political science of public administrations in the 17th and 18th centuries (as a specifically German concern; see Polizeiwissenschaft) [8]; [18]. Second,  cameralism and …

The Italian term camerata, meaning “place of assembly” (derived from the Latin/Italian camera), is attested referring to various gatherings and associations akin to academies around 1600. In the strict sense in the context of musical literature,  camerata has become established as referring to the circle that met in the Florentine palace of Giovanni Maria de’ Bardi, Conte di Vernio, in the 1570s and 1580s. This circle shared a common interest in literature, ancient music, and music theory. The theoretical discussions and practical experiments conducted within the  camerata are re…

1. Concept and research Canal is a non-specific term for a water conduit or conveyance system for traffic and transport, provision, clearance or communication. Ship canals (Shipping) are artificial water courses constructed with methods of hydraulic engineering in or between economic areas. Depending on their situation and function a distinction is made between feeder canals, spur and works canals, connecting canals (between rivers or two lakes), navigations (parallel to a river), summit …

1. Term and background The term cannibalism, which Columbus coined in 1492 on his first American voyage, is the early modern equivalent to the older word ‘anthropophagy’ (from Greek ánthrōpos, ‘person’, and phageín, ‘to eat’). In the early modern period, both denoted the consumption of human flesh. The scholarly literature distinguishes between endocannibalism and exocannibalism, the former being the eating of members of one’s own group, the latter of other groups. Authenticated cases of endocannibalism in recent indigenous so…

See Artillery | Gunpowder | Weapon

1. Term The Greek word kanṓn (orig. craftsman’s ‘measure’, ‘standard’) had a range of meanings in Antiquity, all of which referred to a generally valid norm. In art, for instance, it denoted from around the time of Polyclitus (5th century BCE) the proportion theory of the human body. In music, beginning with the Pythagoreans (5th century BCE) it was a twelve-part measuring instrument for determining the intervals. In epistemology from Democritus (4th century BCE) it was the sense of truth and the fac…

See Ladies' foundation

Canon law (from the Gr. kanṓn, Lat. canon, “rule, standard”) is the academic discipline of ecclesiastical law. So-called classical canon law began with Gratian's Decretum ( ca. 1140). In the modern period on the the continent of Europe, the term was primarily applied to the discipline of Catholic church law, while "ecclesiastical law" is predominantly preferred parlance in Protestant churches.So-called classical canon law came to an end in the mid-14th century, to be followed by a period displaying elements of consolidation and stagnation; this lasted…

See Bänkelsang

1. Term and genre in the early 17th century The concept of the cantata (Italian cantata or cantada, from Latin/Italian cantare, ‘to sing’), unlike that of the madrigal, for instance, is poetologically vague and permits no valid generic criteria to be proposed. In the early 17th century, the term cantata appeared in imitation of the word sonata, and at first it referred to Italian vocal compositions (Vocal music), the common musical features of which extend no further than their setting texts for between one and three solo voices with a figured bass accompaniment.The first attestation …

The term canton system denotes the recruitment system of the Prussian army, which from the 1730s to 1806 assigned to each regiment an exclusive domestic recruiting district (canton). After the recruitment of foreign mercenaries was stopped, the canton system was the sole recruitment system in Prussia from 1806 to 1813, when it was replaced by universal conscription. It lived on to some extent in administrative usage until the late 19th century. The canton system developed like comparable recruitmen…

1. Definition and development Cantorate in the early modern period primarily denoted the office of cantor as it gradually emerged as a structure within a municipal community during the Reformation in Lutheran regions of Germany, and to some extent in the Baltic, Scandinavia, and Slovakia. There was no equivalent Catholic office. The key responsibilities of the cantor were to provide musical and scholarly instruction at the local Latin school, for which his own academic studies were an important prec…

See Argot

1. Contexts of meaning Three contexts of meaning are associated with the term cantus firmus (Latin, also:  cantus prius factus; Italian canto fermo, “fixed/enduring/unadorned song”). By the Middle Ages, in monodic sacredmusic, it had already come to denote a melody that advanced in tones of equal duration. As polyphony developed, cantus firmus also came to refer to a pre-existing melody that formed the basis for a composition. The term also occurs in a blend of both senses in music theory. There, since the 16th centu…

See Linen

See Person

1. Definition The colony at the Cape of Good Hope existed from 1652 until 1910. It was a Dutch colony until 1795/1806, thereafter British (Colonial empire). During the 17th and 18th centuries, it expanded from Tafelbaai/Table Bay and Kaapstad/Cape Town northwards (to the Oranjerivier/Orange River) and east (to the Groot-Visrivier/Great Fish River), before growing further in both directions through annexations in the 19th century. In 1910, renamed Cape Province, it became the largest province of the new Union (Republic from 1961) of South Africa.Christoph Marx 2. History…

1. Concept When they speak of capital accumulation, economists mean the increase of an economy’s capital stock through new investments [10. 9], for example investment in means of production (i.e. machinery, tools, or buildings) and inventory build-up. These can be financed either through savings, i.e. earlier reduction in consumption, or through credit. Historians have primarily discussed the role of capital accumulation in industrialization (see 3. below). Here two perspectives have played a central role: (1) th…

1. Functions and origins The capital, which in the modern constitutional state is the seat of the head of state, the government, and parliament, was in the pre-constitutional era of the early modern period generally the place of the prince’s permanent residence, and always the venue of central government functions. Besides this political function, a “true capital” is also the urban hub of the country (Metropolis) and an economic center, and it exerts a considerable power of cultural integration [1. 2 f.]. Where these political and economic or cultural aspects diverge, “secr…

1. History of the term The term  capitalism is comparatively recent [6]; [11]. Unlike  capital and capitalist, which are found in the language of commerce and business as early as the late Middle Ages, capitalism first appeared in French in the mid-19th century – already with critical overtones. From the 1870s on, it became popular in Germany as a negative characterization of the social situation brought on by the Panic of 1873 and the subsequent Great Depression, drawing conceptually on the works of Karl Marx ( Manifest der Kommunistischen Partei, 1848; Das Kapital, 1867-1895) [3…

See Economic ethic

1. Definition Generally speaking, the capital market is understood as a market for long-term asset-backed securities (capital), while the money is a market for short-term funds. Historically, however, the two have only rarely been sharply distinguished; therefore the expression “financial market” was coined as a common umbrella term. While the demand of trade for short-term credit (maturity in three months or less) was met on the money market by means of bills of exchange (Bill of exchange) or end…

1. Definition The term  capital mobility denotes movements of monetary capital (portfolio investments, credit; see 2.-3. below) and production capital (direct investments; see 4 below). Prior to the second half of the 19th century, there were no national economies with central monetary control (Bank of issue); therefore in our period the term does not refer to capital exports and imports of entire national economies but to capital transfers between geographically separated business locations, especially between different financial and trade centers. Michael North 2. Trade In…

See Capital market | Capital mobility | Capital, accumulation of

1. Definition In the early modern period, the term  capitulation generally referred to a treaty or  of mutual obligation, in which one party undertook certain obligations or made concessions to the other party. On the level of constitutional law, an example is electoral capitulation, in which, for example, the individual to be elected Roman emperor recognized the special rights of the electors (Elector) and the other Reichsstände (Reichstag; Estates, assembly of). A capitulation could also regulate the l…

See Visionary architecture

See War, captivity in

1. Introduction Before the innovations in navigation technology in the 14th and 15th centuries and the subsequent voyages of discovery, long-distance trade between global regions mostly took the land route. The arid regions of the Asian interior, the Orient, and the Sahara presented considerable obstacles here, and traders had to deal with extreme fluctuations of temperature, scarcity of food and water, and a terrain that generally offered few navigational landmarks. From Antiquity until the 20th…

See Occupational mobility

1. Concept Already by the early modern period, key institutions like the State, University, and church (Church) relied on highly specialized “migrants” recruited in an international marketplace. For most of them, relocating was an inescapable condition of their careers, so that this particular form of Emigration is called institutional career migration. Depending on the particular institution involved, a state, academic, or ecclesiastical career for scholars, professors, clergy, civil servants, an…

See Pastoral care

The caricature is an art form of amusement and pictorial wit. The word caricatura (from Italian caricare, ‘to exaggerate,’ ‘to overload’) originally referred to an exaggerated imitation of nature in the portrait. In caricature, the artist demonstrates quickness of design, graphic skill, and pictorial wit. As a situational work of art, a caricature is primarily a domain of drawing. Until the 18th century, caricatures circulated in private or semi-public circles, and were not used in graphic reproduction. Early …

See Charity | Ethics

The carmen figuratum “is a multimedia composition of text and image in which a block of text, generally versified and poetic in the widest sense, is constrained to a particular graphic shape that is mimetic in character and fulfills a pictographic function coordinated with the content of the verbal utterance” [8. 7]. The illustration formed by the text can either be the silhouette of an object (figurative poetry) or integrate the image into a text (e.g. carmen cancellatum, literally ‘lattice poetry’).Not all the possible forms of the carmen figuratum that developed in Antiq…

See Dye

See Erotica | Sensualism | Sexuality

1. Term Carnival is derived from the Latin carnislevamen and Italian carnelevare (‘removal of meat’) or simply the jocular Latin interjection carne vale (‘Meat, farewell!’), and denotes abstention from all “fleshly” pleasures at the beginning of the Lenten fast. The term carnival is widely used in the Romance languages and English, and since the 17th century in the Rhineland (German Karneval). Elsewhere in the German-speaking world, the usual terms are Fastnacht or Fasnet, and in Bavaria and Austria Fasching is commonplace (from MHG vast-schanc, the last drink before Lent).Wolfga…

See Constitutio Criminalis Carolina

With the increasing use of wood to furnish early modern dwellings, buildings, and facilities, specialized occupational groups of carpenters (joiners, cabinet makers, woodworkers) split off from the framing carpenters (Building trade) [13]. Their products ranged from ornate pieces (Crafts) to simple everyday objects, from wainscoting, doors, and railings through furniture and church interiors to chopping boards, board games, sleds, coffins, and trellises for gardens [9]. The work performed by these specialists included dressing, preparing, and planing wo…

1. Introduction Terminology varies in commercial documents and inventories of the early modern period for the trade in carpets. A distinction in manufacture type must be drawn between the Oriental knotted carpet and the European woven carpet (tapestry) [4. 9]; [10. 3 f.]; [1]. The channels of distribution for the two categories were quite different, so that it is sensible also to distinguish two market systems.Heinrich Lang 2. Oriental knotted carpets Visual sources, especially Renaissance paintings, attest to the widespread use of Oriental knotted carpets as fl…

See Cart | Carter | Coach | Travel aids

1. Definition Carts are wagons with one or two axles, pulled by animals (e.g. donkey, horse or cattle) and used for the transportation(Passenger transportation; Traffic and transport; Transport network) of goods. The first carts were built around 3500 BCE in Mesopotamia - present-day Iraq - and in Central Europe. While in Neolithic times these were carts and wagons with one-piece disk wheels, the Bronze Age brought technical innovations like the three-part disk wheel, the braced wheel and the spok…

1. Concept and terms The terms referring to the professions of cartwright, wheelwright and carter go back to the most important products of the trade: the waggon, the frame of the waggon or plow and the wheel[5. 244]. The area of work also comprised carts, sleds or sleighs, rack waggons and harrows. Christoph Weigel’s books of estates mentions in 1698 wheelbarrows and Schanzkarren, the plough and common carts as well as the four-wheel carts, “to which belong, besides the little rattling brewers’ waggons, the trucks and carriers’ carts / long distance and…

1. Definition Cartesianism is the term for the philosophical movements of the 17th and 18th centuries that ascribed to the philosophy of René Descartes (Latinized: Cartesius; 1596-1650) and, especially, who developed his method and physics further. Accordingly, Cartesianism is defined by three sets of topics: (1) by adoption of the Cartesian doctrine of method, which by means of methodological doubt explains the self-thinking ego (Lat. cogito) as the starting-point for a philosophy that operates strictly deductively; (2) by a dualism of substances, the “t…

1. Definition and etymology A distinction is made, in considering geographical depictions of the earth’s surface, between maps and map-like representations (see below, 2.3.). Maps are designed to translate the globe to a two-dimensional representation, using a graticule of circles of longitude passing through the poles and circles of horizontal latitude, combined with mathematical projections. The coordinates of the points entered in this graticule are determined by mathematics and astronomy. All da…

1. Definition Case law (Ger. Richterrecht) designates objective law  that is created by the verdict of a judgejudge or court of law and is considered valid from that moment on. In general, it is the sum of legal norms and principles created by judges when deciding individual cases without interpreting a given law or customary law. Case law continues to influence Anglo-American law to a considerable extent today, while statute law enjoys precedence in the legal world of continental Europe. The term pr…

1. South Asia 1.1. Principles and research The use of the term caste in relation to the social order of South Asia dates back to the early 16th century, when Portuguese travelers to India began to use the word casta (from Latin castus, ‘pure,’ ‘chaste’), borrowed from Spanish, to refer to certain groups within the indigenous population [3] (see below, 2.1.). At first, it was applied relatively indiscriminately to a wide range of large groups differentiated by religion, ethnicity, or social status. Its exclusive application to the Indian (especially H…

1. Term and concept In the strict sense, a castle is a building belonging to a territorial lord and having a residential function while physically embodying his sovereignty. The term is also used in England of aristocratic country houses that were built on the site of a former military installation (e.g. Castle Howard). Buildings belonging to the nobility in the early modern period were generally called Hall or House in England. This distinction, which did not apply at all in France but certainly did in the German-speaking world (where Castle = Schloss, House/Hall = Haus), became largel…

See Castrum doloris

In the language of sculpture (Sculpture, techniques of),  natural cast denotes a cast made from nature (usually of a person, animal, or plant). A natural cast differs from a plaster cast (Cast, plaster) in that in principle its template can be made from any material. It can be produced not only with plaster but with other plastic materials such as clay or wax. To produce a natural cast, first a negative mold must be made, using the lost wax or lost mold technique (so called because as a rule the mold must be broken to retrieve the cast).In the Renaissance, natural casting was employed fo…

Plaster casting is a mechanical means of reproducing three-dimensional works of art and natural objects (Sculpture [modeling]). The quality of such a cast depends on the negative mold, the making of which demands the highest craftsmanship. A distinction must be made between casting in which the mold is lost (one-time copying of a model) and casting using partial or elastic molds (multiple casts). Plaster casts were used as models or intermediate steps in the creation of works of art b…

1. Term and vocal characteristics The term castrato (Italian, from Latin castratus, ‘emasculated’) refers in general to a man who has been castrated, and in particular to a type of singer that appeared in European music between around 1550 and 1900. When carried out before puberty, castration restricts the growth of the larynx because of reduced testosterone production, so that it reaches a size about halfway between the averages for adult females and (uncastrated) males. This would certainly cause a muta…

1. Definition A  castrum doloris (‘castle of grief’; German Trauergerüst, in Grimm also Trauerburg, Trauerbühne – ‘sepulchral scaffold/tower/stage’ [1]) is an architectural structure that was increasingly used from the beginning of the early modern period for the public viewing of deceased prominent personalities or their effigies (see below, 2.). This was thus a form of ephemeral festival decoration as an element of sepulchral culture, since it was only put up for the duration of the funeral rites (exequies) inside a space that was generally consecrated and open to the public. The  c…

1. Definition A catalogue (from Greek  katálogos, “list,” “register”) is a register of the contents of a collection of objects available for personal inspection, arranged according to various organizing principles and usually published in book form. Besides living creatures and objects of all kinds, catalogues are particularly devoted to the print media. The Hellenistic scholar and librarian Callimachus of Cyrene (3rd century BCE) is usually considered the father of cataloguing.In the 16th century, the register of the works in a library and in the book trade w…

See Demographic Catastrophe | Natural catastrophe

The term “catechetics ” (for etymology see Catechism) denotes the academic discipline within Protestant and Catholic theology that is devoted to reflection on education and instruction in the Christian religion, to the extent that they are understood as the task of the church or its members (pastors, teachers, parents). Both the term and the discipline it represents are not documented in Germany and Austria until the last third of the 18th century. In the early modern period, no comparable form of…

1. General In Late Antiquity, the term “catechism” (Latin  catechismus from Greek  katéchesis, “oral instruction”) came into use for the instruction of adult catechumens; when infant baptism was introducted in the 2nd/3rd century, it was applied to the instruction of the faithful (Catechetics). In the early modern era, the term came to be applied to systematically organized works designed for elementary religious instruction. Other terms used included  ench( e) iridion (Greek, “small handbook”),  institutio (Latin, “instruction”), and  summa (Latin, “sum”). Catec…

See Church architecture

See Catholicism | Roman Catholic Church

See Catholic Reformation

1. Term The concept of Catholic Enlightenment developed in German historiography from the early 20th century, and has since the 1970s established itself as a specialist term [3. 40–53]; [5. 76–85]. In its general and internationally current sense, it denotes all the efforts undertaken within European Catholicism before around 1820 to adapt the ideas and accomplishments of the Enlightenment and to implement them in culture, education, scholarship, economics, and political organization [1]; [6]. In the specific sense widely used in German scholarship, it refers above …

1. Definition Modern scholars use the term  Catholicism as a collective term for all the sociocultural manifestations of the Roman Catholic Church, from the forms of its institutional constitution through individual and collective manifestations of religiosity to ideal-typical ethicopolitical attitudes, patterns of economic behavior, artistic styles, interpretive mental models, and theological meanings. The first and most fundamental feature of Catholicism is probably its claim – unlike the “heretical …

See Thirty Years’ War

1. Terminology The response of the Catholic Church (usually called the “Old Church” in the Reformation period) to the Reformation began gradually. Historians have coined various terms for it. Today there is still no term that covers both the efforts at reform within the Church during the 16th century and the attempt to win back the Church’s lost socio-political terrain. The competing terms include  Catholic Reformation,   Counter-Reformation, Catholic confessionalization, and recatholization.The reaction of the Old Church (and the states and territories that …

1. Origins The ancestors of European domestic cattle came from Syria and Anatolia. They spread through Southern, Central, Northern, and Eastern Europe within just a few human generations. They are not descendants of the European aurochs, which was intensively hunted: the last individual died in a game park in Poland in 1627 [5. 264].Onno Poppinga 2. Use Where cattle were farmed on a large scale (e.g. Austria and Switzerland), beef was an important element in the diet and dining culture (Meat consumption). In southern Germany and the Alps in particular…

1. History of the concept The term caudillismo or caudillo (Span. for “chief, leader”) derives from Lat. caput (“head”) [8. 237 ff.]. C audillo originally meant generally the leader of an irregular army, as in the time of the reconquest of the Iberian Peninsula occupied by the Moors (Refugees of conscience; Conquista); around 1500 the term was applied to the Spanish Conquistadors in Latin America (Conquest). The term came back into widespread use in Latin America only in the 19th century in the context of theLatin…

1. Definition The question of what is meant when something is referred to as the cause “cause” (Lat. causa) of something else, and to what this might correspond in the things themselves, was studied already by the philosophers of Antiquity. For early modern discussion the predominant theories of causality employed the Aristotelian theory of four causes: causa formalis, materialis, finalis and efficiens (formal, material, final and efficient). However, there was no coherent, unified interpretation of Aristotle’s Philosophy (Aristotelianism). In the course …

1. General considerations Reflection on cause (Lat. causa, Fr. cause, G. Ursache) meant reflection on what holds the world together both internally and externally. Cause indicated the course of natural events, but also the possibilities of action in political and social contexts. Consideration of Aristotle’s two final causes, God and blessedness, was distinguished in the course of the early modern period from investigation of the efficient cause in the world and matter. Technology (Mechanics) and natural s…

See Death, cause of

1. General considerations While the early modern infantry developed as a weapon against late-medievalknight contingents, the cavalry stood in the latter’s tradition. As a weapon type of the land combat forces it gave force to the (Clausewitzian) “principle of movement” of the army campaigns, by carrying out its marches and combats on horseback (Horse) (Ital. cavallo, hence cavalleria; Ger. first "Haufen zu Ross" [troops on steed], Reiterei, from the 17th century Kavallerie). The acquisition and maintenance of horses  (Horse, Riding) and riding materials influence…

The Cecilian Movement was a movement initiated by Regensburg church musicians around the mid-19th century. Its aim was to reform Catholic church music in a secularized world, and to deepen its liturgical significance. In 1868, at a second attempt, the Allgemeine Caecilienverein (‘General Cecilian Association’) was founded, and Pope Pius IX recognized the new society in 1870. The ideas of the Cecilians were not rooted in new ideas of a conservative Regensburg circle, but deliberately drew on older traditions that seemed to be dying out in the wake of Secularization (legal).In fact, t…

1. Concepts, venues, and themes Ceiling painting includes all forms of painted decoration that can be applied to the ceiling of a room (whether boxed-in roof tresses, flat ceiling, or vault). Ceiling painting is found in both the profane and sacred spheres, and thanks to its aesthetic design and iconographic/iconological significance, it was important throughout almost all phases of the early modern period. Themes were chosen according to the function and importance of the room.The prestige of ceiling painting is apparent from the fact that the leading painters of the…

See Jubilee (commemorative celebration) | Peace celebrations

1. Origins Celestial mechanics, the description of the movements of the celestial bodies in the Solar System on the basis of early modern mechanics, originated with Newton’s theory of gravitation (Weight), or, more precisely, with the questions he formulated and only partly answered in Book Three of the Principia mathematica (1687).The most demanding of these problems included the planetary perturbations that result from the interaction of the gravitational masses of the Solar System (Astronomy; Stars). Even today, it is difficult to predict t…

1. Concept and traditions Celibacy (from Lat. caelebs, “unwed,” “not married”) is a phenomenon of the history of religion, not confined to Christianity, meaning (in some cases temporary) abstinence from sexuality or a permanent unmarried state. The call to celibacy in many ancient cults followed the notion of “cultic purity”: Sexuality (like blood and sickness) had the effect of causing ritual impurity and rendered contact with the gods ineffective or dangerous. Only “pure” offerings (and correspondi…

See Procreation, theory of

See Suffrage, curial and censitary

1. General considerations Censorship (Lat. censura; “examination,” “judgment”) is now understood as the “authoritative monitoring of human utterances” [18. 3] and serves for communication monitoring, generally for the stabilization of a state or church system. This monitoring is realized by means of various different practical measures: by preventive censorship, which requires the submission for examination of manuscripts by relevant institutions before printing begins, or subsequent or repressive censorship, whi…

The history of the censorship of letters is closely related to the development of the mail. Wherever personal couriers delivered a message from A to B, the possibilities for intercepting, checking, and censoring letters were extremely limited (Messenger service; Courier). As fixed postal routes were established, it became easier to interfere with correspondence (Mail). The frequent bitterness of arguments over mail rights was therefore attributable not only to economic motives, but also to issues of the censorship of letters.The growing need for communication at the begi…

1. Precursors Precursors of the census in European history were registers of inhabitants of a town or region. These sporadically date back to the High Middle Ages, and became more widespread from the Renaissance. The sovereign power had such registers made primarily for purposes of taxation (e.g. the English Poll Tax of 1377), and they generally confined themselves to listing taxable households (Population 1.4.). One exception in terms of completeness and precision was the Florentine Cadaster (Italian catasto) of 1427, which listed all people living in the city and terr…

See Peripheries

1. Extent The Central African world is considered to include the greater part of modern Cameroon and the modern Central African Republic north of the vast tropical forest region, the river system of the Congo in the tropical rain forest, the extensive savanna landscapes of present-day Angola and Zambia, modern Zimbabwe, and Mozambique [3]; [4]; [18]. This region is characterized by five distinctive features.Helmut Bley 2. Developments within Africa (1) In the first place, the Central African world was profoundly affected by developments within Africa itself, espe…

See Bank of issue

See Government

See Perspective

1. Definition and prior history The century became established as a chronological convention towards the beginning of the early modern period in spite of the lack of any direct ancient or Christian tradition. It took hold in phases, particularly observable at the turns of certain centuries (1300, 1600, 1800, 1900). It is also possible to trace how the century developed from a unit of reckoning to a designation for a particular epoch.Century in this sense is an abbreviation of “century of years,” “century” itself deriving from the Latin centuria (“[group of one] hundred”). The mode…

See Potter

1. Definition and functionPolitical ceremonial is a medium whereby a political and social order is symbolically created and presented. It constitutes power relations and social ranks between rulers and ruled, or among rulers. Depending on the occasion and the circle of addressees, it creates different degrees of public sphere. Key ceremonial practices of the early modern period were enacted on occasions of succession (Election and Coronation) [19], the formal arrival of a ruler (Latin adventus) [14]; [15], homage, diplomatic negotiations (Diplomacy), and assembly of est…