Encyclopedia of Early Modern History Online

1. GeneralToday laboratories are privileged places for experimentation in all the natural sciences. In the early modern period, by contrast, experiments were carried out in a variety of places: public assembly rooms, coffee houses, private salons, kitchens, and only in one specific area in laboratories as well.In the late 17th century, one of the most famous early modern experimentalists, Robert Hooke, did not work in a laboratory but in his private residence and in the assembly rooms of the Royal Society, which did not have its own labo…

See Work | Market

The term rural laborer (or  agricultural laborer; French  ouvrier agricole, German Landarbeiter, Italian  lavoratore agricolo) emerged as a specific social category in the socio-political and social-scientific debates of the late 19th century [3]; [6]. It denotes members of a social group who earned their living exclusively or primarily by wage labor in agriculture, often throughout the year and their entire working life. Rural laborers were employed at short notice as day laborers or with weekly or monthly labor contracts; …

1. Basic characteristics and variant terminologyIn the sub-peasant spectrum of rural society, the unlanded laborers (German Einlieger) comprised those persons who, though they had no real assets, unlike the servants in husbandry rented living quarters (and sometimes commercial space) and were able establish an independent household and live in wedlock (Marriage; Family). In the social fabric, the fact that they did not own any buildings distinguished unlanded laborers from cottagers. In the sources, the term  Einlieger appears throughout the territory of northwes…

See Market

1. Concept and terminologyThe term labor movement refers to the organised representation of the interests of workers in an industrial society by trade unions and by one or more political parties of their own. After emerging as a social mass movement in the second half of the 19th century the labor movement reached its political zenith in the 20th century, based on universal suffrage. In all the European countries (but not in the United States of America) workers’ parties repeatedly participated in …

See Strike | Protest

See Organized labor, prohibition of | Strike

1. Definition and manufactureLace (French  dentelles, Dutch kant, German  Spitze, Italian  merletto) is a collective term for decorative elements made of thread or thread and fabric (Textiles). In all its forms it is openwork: spaces of various sizes between the threads constitute a pattern. Lace must not be confused with embroidery (Textile technology). Its origins probably go back to the decorative treatment of hems by the darning, knotting, or braiding of warp threads.Technically there are two kinds of lace: needle lace and bobbin lace. In the former, threads a…

1. Definition and functionIn highly developed societies, women belonging to the elite were entitled to their own staff and attendants who saw to their physical and mental needs. The term ladies’ court denotes the group of ladies-in-waiting, dignitaries, and domestics (Servant) that were in service to a princess.The functions of the early modern ladies’ court were multifaceted and closely associated with the status of its mistress. Besides supplying material provisions to the princess and her retinue, especially in periods of medieval itine…

1. Definition and organization In a broad sense, the term ladies’ foundation (also  house of canonesses,  women's convent,  secular foundation) denotes a community of women who led a religious life without being tied to a monastic community [10] (Monasticism; Monastery). The question whether such foundations were reserved exclusively to the (high) nobility or included women from different estates (Estates, society of) is a matter of scholarly debate. Ladies’ foundations existed since the early Middle Ages, especially in Saxony, …

See Jewish languages

See Dame | Gender roles

See Court | Ladies’ court

See Usury

1. DefinitionThe maxim laissez-faire probably goes back to a French businessman named Legendre. Asked by Jean-Baptiste Colbert, the finance minister of Louis XIV, what would be the best economic policy for the state to follow, he is said to have replied “Laissez-nous faire” (“Leave it to us”) [3. 211]. In 1734 the French writer René d’Argenson used the same formula in his unpublished memoirs and repeated it in 1751 in a contribution to the  Journal œconomique. But the maxim became popular primarily among the physiocrats (Physiocracy) in the form  laissez faire et laissez passer (“L…

1. TerminologyThe early modern terms laicism and  laicity, like laity itself, go back to Greek  laós (“people”), but belong to the context of the specifically early modern process of secularization. The English words translated the 19th-century French neologism laïcité and its negative variant  laïcisme [1]. In Romance countries,  laicity is synonymous with “secularization,” but in the English-, Scandinavian-, and German-speaking world it generally denotes its political aspect, namely the distinction between the secular and religious sp…

Lamaism is a blend of original Buddhist ideals with rituals from Tantrism and practices of the ancient Tibetan Bön religion. Alongside the Mahayana (the “Great Vehicle”) and Theravada (Hinayana, the “Smaller Vehicle”), it is considered the third “vehicle” of Buddhism. The term  Lamaism derives from the outstanding status of the monastic abbot or teacher, the lama. Besides its homeland Tibet, Lamaism is also found today in the southern and western mountain valleys of the Himalaya, in Mongolia, and from there into eastern Siberia. Thro…

See Lighting

See Land rights

The German word Einöde, from Germanic ôd, OHG  uodil, means “property,” “allodium.” The Einöde is the realigned property, with clearly defined boundaries, of an individual outside the village;  Vereinödung (“land consolidation”) is the process that produced such an estate [6]. It went hand in hand with the elimination of mandatory cadastral districts (Cadastral area) and grazing easements, consolidation of plots, the expansion of farms outside the village into the open countryside, and the introduction of impartible inheritance (Rural inheritance practice) [7]. There…

See Territorial sovereignty (Holy Roman Empire)

From the end of the Middle Ages, the Landesjudenschaften (“territorial Jewish organizations”; Hebrew bne medina or kehal medina) were Jewish organizations linking local communities in various regions of the Holy Roman Empire [5. 188–198]. A distinction must be made between the “territories” (Hebrew  medinot; sing. medina) formed by Jews, which to begin with at least were only loosely related to the political boundaries of the day, and the formation or resolution of Landesjudenschaften as territorial corporations [4. 53–58]. Assemblies of German Jews on territorial or…

By the end of the 18th century, most of the territories of the Holy Roman Empire were homogeneous in confession and religion (excepting the toleration of the Jews in many places; cf. Ius reformandi; Confessionalization). So too were most of the Swiss cantons and European kingdoms (Protestant: Scandinavian kingdoms; Catholic: France, Spain). As a rule, civic rights depended on membership of the one official confession or “religion” of the territory, so these can be said to have been “established churches”.Besides the free imperial cities (Augsburg, Biberach) that were o…

See Territorial law code

1. DefinitionThe Landespost (“territorial mail”) was a form of mail service, peculiar to the Holy Roman Empire, that unlike the empire-wide Reichspost was limited to a single princely territory or group of territories. Competition between the two institutions was a consequence of the dualistic structure of the Holy Roman Empire and the transfer of most regalities to the territorial princes. The contradiction did not arise in empires or monarchies with strong central authority, such as the Ottoman …

1. Concept Landjuden (“country Jews”) was the term used in the early modern German-speaking world to denote Jews living outside major urban centers. Because rural life was the predominant way of life for Jews in the Empire and the hereditary Habsburg lands from the urban expulsions of the late Middle Ages to emancipation in the early 19th century, German scholars sometimes refer to the Phase des Landjudentums (“Age of Country Jewry”). Besides the spatial and temporal dimension, there is also an inherent aspect here of equating Landjuden with non-elites as an indication of the …

A land market first emerged in the medieval towns; during the late Middle Ages and the early modern period, it also spread to the countryside. In many parts of Europe, this institution – together with enfeoffment (Feudalism), seigneurial tenure (Peasant property rights), mortgage, and lease – regulated the transfer of ownership of plots of ground and entire estates, even among the nobility and peasants [3]. As defined by economists, we cannot speak of a fully developed land market until supply and demand alone determined prices [4] (Market).After the high Middle Ages, suc…

See Mortgage

See Manorialism

1. GeneralIn the early modern period, rural land ownership stands at the intersection of several semantic fields. In this era, the catchword  land ownership belonged at least as much to the history of discourse regarding the social order as to actual economic and social history. Historically, rural land ownership occupied a key position in the transition from an agrarian society to the industrial world, from the domination of the nobility to the legal equality of 19th-century civil society (Bourgeois society) and from…

1. Preliminary remarksThe German phrase  Großgrundbesitz (large-scale land ownership)  combines descriptive elements  with notions of social order. It both denotes the largest agricultural operations and suggests normative ideas of a proper, politically desirable, or supposedly “healthy” allocation of land ownership. Such assessments point to the conception of social order presupposed by contemporaries, especially the social and political role of land ownership in 19th-century civil society (Bourgeois society).Axel Flügel2. Definition by agricultural statisti…

1. OriginsIn general the Landrat was a mid-level government official ( Kreis, “district”; Local administration; Territorial authorities [Holy Roman Empire]). From the historical perspective, in the public mind this office – besides its continuation in today’s government – is associated primarily with 18th- and 19th-century Prussia. Nevertheless there were  Landräte long before this “classical” phase of early Prussian history – and not just in the territories of the Hohenzollern monarchy.In the 16th century, in several German principalities officials bore…

See Territorial law

1. IntroductionA land register consists of the records kept by an official in which all legal transactions are entered so as to ensure that the legal status of land is kept clear and well ordered (Land ownership). The fact that these records are kept officially ensures public confidence in them, whereby they enjoy advantages as evidence in litigation (Trial procedure) and protect those who acquire property in good faith, trusting in the correctness of the records.Christian Neschwara2. Medieval originsThe idea of keeping track of property transactions in generally accessib…

1. IntroductionThe origins, transfer, and lapse of land rights in early modern Europe, that is rights pertaining to real estate – such as ownership (Property), easements, and mortgages – were shaped by Roman legal models (Ius commune). With respect to their formal nature, however, early modern influences can be increasingly identified. Two groups of rights, which may be summarized as rights of use and rights of exploitation, were the most important land rights across Europe.Louis Pahlow2. Rights of useUnder ius commune, so-called servitudes (Latin, servitutes, easements),…

1. Cultural phenomenonAs a cultural phenomenon, the landscape is a complex “integral system” [2. 14], in which looking at, depicting, and feeling the landscape are as important as its design and ecology (see below, 2.). Landscape in the early modern period (the word “landscape” itself was originally borrowed into English from Dutch  landschap in its artistic sense, extending to the wider sense in the 19th century; Landscape painting) was closely related to the concepts of garden and nature, which together reflect two different ideas and structura…

1. Concept Landscape paintings are pictures or pictorial fantasies of the diverse manifestations of nature as it surrounds people. As the designation of a specific form of picture, the term landscape was a late coinage. In his handwritten diary, Albrecht Dürer in 1521 called his Antwerp colleague Joachim Patinir a “good landscape painter” ( gut landschafft mahler). In Venice in the same period, Marcantonio Michiel described the “many small landscapes” ( molte tauolette de paesi) in the collection of Cardinal Grimani. In 1606, the Englishman Henry Peacham the Younger…

Landschaft (German, “territoriality”) in the Holy Roman Empire was a correlate of political authority, the term being attested in this sense from the 14th century until the abolition of the Empire in 1806. The  Landschaft was corporative in character, and as such it denoted the totality of the  Landstände (“territorial estates”) of a territory immediate to the Empire. Additionally, where a territory lacked nobility and clergy as estates of the realm, Landschaft could also denote the representatives (Representation) of subjects, in this case those in towns and…

In the course of the military revolution that began in the late Middle Ages, a long-term structural change began within the military, which gradually shifted the focus of combat from the mounted knights in armor to the infantry [2. 13–38]. This transformation took place most successfully in the Swiss Confederation: in the 14th and 15th centuries, the drafting of masses of foot-soldiers and the simple but effective tactic of fighting in a closed formation (a square armed with long pikes) enabled the Swiss mercenaries (Reisläufer)…

See Constitution of territorial estates | Estates of the realm | Landscape | Landtag | Territorial sovereignty (Holy Roman Empire)

See Itinerancy | Vagabond

Sources using the term  Landtag go back to the 13th century. Originally it denoted the convening of what were originally comital regional courts; from the 15th century on, however, it meant the assembly of the estates (Estates, assembly of) in the territories of the Holy Roman Empire. Since the early 19th century, the new parliaments of the German states have also been called  Landtage.The old Landtag of the estates (Latin  comitia provincialia or conventus provincialis) was the central institution of the constitution of territorial estates, as an assembly of …

1. Definition Land transport is defined as distinct from transport (Traffic and transport) by water or air, particularly referring to the transportation of goods or passengers over longer distances (Passenger transportation). Flight was of no significant practical value before the 20th century, despite the development of balloon flight from the 1770s. Water transport, on the other hand, played a key role in European trade from ancient times (cf. Inland navigation; Deep sea navigation; C…

1. DefinitionThe phrase  land use system denotes the manner in which productive land is used for agriculture. It includes the way an area is used, for example for timber production (Wood), pasture, meadow, or agricultural cropland. For cropland, the land use system includes the spatial disposition of the plants and crop rotation. In combination with the agrarian constitution and agricultural technology, the land use system determines the parameters of agricultural production.Early modern land use systems are studied in the borderland between history and historic…

See Conscription | Military

1. ConceptNatural language is a typically human and also a social phenomenon. It is the most important and species-specific human means of communication. Language facilitates the exchange of information, and fulfills cognitive (regarding knowledge), epistemic (regarding the organization of thought), and affective (regarding feelings) functions. The innate capacity to acquire a language (the native or primary language), that is, to understand and appropriately produce linguistic utterances, develo…

1. ConceptThe term “history of language” has two meanings: (1) the evolution of a language over time; (2) the discipline investigating these processes: the study of language history.The units of a language (phonemes/graphemes, morphemes, lexemes, syntactic patterns, text forms), ordered hierarchically with fluid boundaries, are also a subject of language history research. Accordingly there is a species of language history that primarily consists in the history of phonemes, morphemes, lexemes, syntax, or text. This is de…

1. Introduction 1.1. PrinciplesA literary language, also known as an official, high, standard, cultural, or art language, language of literature, etcetera, is a language used in literature shaped by aesthetic considerations. The development of literary languages in the early modern period displays two fundamental dimensions. First, in the transition from the Middle Ages to the early modern period there was an increasing use of the vernacular in place of Latin in literary texts, and secondly specifi…

1. Definition Manners of language (German Sprachstile; Spanish  maneras de hablar; Italian  questione della lingua; French  façons de parler et d'escrire) as a concept encompasses the spoken, written, and printed word and the “eloquence of the body” (body language) [22], and denotes individual and collective styles of expression within transregionally valid verbal and non-verbal sense systems, which may be regional languages or vernaculars, or, later, national languages (cf. Language). The term style also references styles of behavi…

See Linguistics | Semiotics

See Dialect | Language | Language, literary

1. Terminology and structure As platforms for the study and conservation of vernacular languages across a range of fields, language societies and related associations were important early modern literary institutions, primarily on the European continent. Instead of “language society” [1], recent scholarship tends to prefer the term “literary society,” to distinguish them from the efforts in the early 19th century to found traditions of national philology and to avoid the perception that the activities of such associations in the e…

1. PrinciplesAs a reflective and systematic engagement with language, language theory in the early modern period was found in two forms:(1) In one variant concerned with the individual national languages, language theory anticipated practical work on language and formed the basis for the creation of language-related texts including grammars, dictionaries, and manuals of rhetoric (Linguistics). Texts of this type served to codify the language concerned and to guarantee its function as a serviceable standard language…

1. Renaissance and Humanism Humanism and the Renaissance brought sweeping changes in language teaching in terms of what was taught, how, and to whom. During the late Middle Ages, the European vernacular languages were studied mainly for practical reasons, for example by traveling merchants, craftsmen, and scholars, participants in pilgrimages, and nobles, and acquisition was done in private tuition or self-study (Foreign languages, competence in). Latin teaching, on …

See Eschatology

1. Definition The term Late Humanism is frequently applied to a cultural epoch between Humanism and Baroque, but it is seldom defined. All current usages agree on just one thing: that it should be viewed as both a social phenomenon and an ensemble of cultural and educational phenomena. Still in common use only in German-language scholarship, it was introduced into literary studies in 1931 by Erich Trunz [12], who described Late Humanism as a “class culture” of mostly Protestant scholars in the Old Empire around 1600. The historian Gerhard Oestreich extende…

1. Modernity and the late modern periodThe transition from the early to the late modern period, in the sense defined in the introductory chapter to this encyclopedia, came as a result of the range of profound changes - political, economic, technological, social, and cultural - that took place in the first half of the 19th century, culminating in the “year of revolutions” of 1848/49. Those changes came to define “modernity” in a new sense that endures to this day. To claim validity as a term for an epo…

1. GeneralLate Scholasticism, a school of thought widespread in European universities from the 15th century to the 17th, built critically on medieval Scholasticism, continuing its content, methodology, and institutions. The characteristic features of Scholasticism included (1) a tendency to develop the systematic rigor of a scientific approach strengthened by the reception of Aristotle (Aristotelianism); (2) a focus on authoritative texts (Latin  auctoritates) with a special claim to truth and validity, such as the Bible, statements of the church fathers and the magisteri…

1. Early forms Even before the dawn of the early modern period, lathes had been developed for various purposes, such as turning column drums and brass castings. The Nuremberg Hausbuch der Mendelschen Zwölfbrüderstiftung, for example, contains illustrations produced between 1425 and 1436 of turners, pewterers, and rosary makers at their lathes, driven by a pedal and a spring mounted on a pole or a hand crank (see fig. 1) [7]. The earliest French illustrations (miniatures and stained-glass windows) date from second half of the 13th century, after lathes became widespread after 1250 [6…

See Hacienda | Land ownership, large scale

1. Survey: definition and scopeIn Europe and the territories of European expansionism overseas and in Asia, Latin, the language of the  Imperium Romanum, was the primary, though not exclusive, medium of written communication of a not clearly definable transnational community from late antiquity until well into the 19th century; the members of this community counted on a shared language that transcended ,the ideological alignments of the moment, making it possible for them to communicate about the widest possible ra…

1. IntroductionThe Latin American Wars of Independence (1808/10-1826/30) belong to the context of the revolutions and liberation movements of the 18th and 19th centuries [17]. They grew out of an interaction between the growing alienation of members of colonial elites born in the Americas - American Spanish and American Portuguese (the so-called Creoles) - from their ancestral European countries, the development of a patriotism focused on the local region in the colonies rather than on the distant “homeland,” and …

1. Definition and varietyThe term  Latin school denotes all non-university schools where – in contrast to the German  Schreib- und Rechenschulen (Elementary school) –  instruction was primarily (though not exclusively) in Latin, so that  “a firm grasp of confessional religion and the language of scholars” [10. vol. 1, 465] was a central goal of instruction. These institutions of secondary education were extremely heterogeneous in size and structure and therefore were also called by a wide variety of names, including particular school, tr…

1. SurveyIn the early modern period, Latin was a language in active use in diplomacy, science, and the educational system (Bildung) and was therefore a living language. This circumstance favoured the scholarly study of the language only to a certain extent. Before the 19th century, it was studied less for its own sake than for practical purposes: to be able to write and speak better, to be familiar with the (still obligatory) canon of classical literature, to understand Roman law, which was still in effect, and to share in the greatness of ancient Rome (Antiquity, reception of).Lati…

See Cartography

1. Concept and developmentThe lauda [spirituale] (from Latin  laudare, “to praise”; plur. laude) is a monophonic or polyphonic sacred song in Italian or Latin. During the 13th century, lay confraternities singing such songs in their devotions were founded with the support of the mendicant orders, particularly in Tuscan towns. The singing of laude was also widespread among the fervently pious lay movement known as the  disciplinati (“flagellants”). Early in the 15th century, it was also introduced in a reformed Benedictine congregation in Venice (Religious…

1. Concept and modern theoryViews of laughter and its forms vary by society and period. Laughter has its own codes, rituals, and venues. According to Jacques Le Goff, a phase in which laughter was suppressed and interrupted (4th-10th centuries CE) was followed by an era of liberation and control, running parallel to the development of literature in the vernacular [14]. Mikhail Bakhtin, in his theory of the culture of laughter, distinguished a popular tradition dominated by laughter from an official culture of church and scholarship that depe…

1. GeneralIn the early modern period, how laundry was done varied depending on the social context [6]; [9]; [4]. In the estates of the nobility (Gutsherrschaft) as well as in patrician or upper-class households that had a substantial supply of textiles, a “big wash” was performed several times a year. Sometimes there was a separate laundry room along with a washing area and a drying area; additional washerwomen were hired, whose pay was sometimes specified in schedules of fees [12. 333]. In addition there would be more frequent “small washes.” The household account bo…

1. Definition In the Middle Ages, law (Latin ius, French  droit, German  Recht - the German term, like English “right,” is a substantivization of the adjective  reht meaning “right,” “straight,” “correct,” attested since the 8th century) - originally indicating a statute like Latin  lex and French  loi - was a divine disposition [53. 249 f.]. With few exceptions (Municipal law), written legal collections were not viewed as normative. It was rather on account of the influence of the medieval law school at Bologna and the so-called learned …

Both law and ethics formulate cultural behavioral norms. The differentiation or distinction between these areas is thus a fundamental problem of juristic and philosophical thought. Usually, the view is taken that pre-state societies had not yet separated legal, ethical, and religious norms from one another; this did not happen until after the Enlightenment [9. 2 f.].Although the question of the distinction between natural law, ethics, and state law had already been raised in the Middle Ages (by Thomas Aquinas among others), it took on new and, in …

See Court of law; Judiciary (England)

See Jurisprudence

1. IntroductionLaw faculties were the administrative and knowledge-organizing elements (Faculty) of a university that were responsible for the training of jurists. Founded in the Middle Ages, they transformed in the early modern period under the influence of certain religious, political, and cultural movements. Across Europe, these trends led to the founding of numerous universities and, with them, faculties of law. Significant changes in the organization and instruction of law faculties can also be observed.Louis Pahlow2. Confessional and state influencesThe end of fait…

See Legal history

See Sharia

See Legal literature

1. DefinitionOf the various criteria for foreignness (e.g. religion, language, origin), one’s community affiliation or citizenship was decisive with respect to the law of aliens. This field of law determined the legal standing of foreigners in the state in which they resided. In Germany during the early modern period, the rights of Germans from another territory were determined by the law of aliens. The legal position of foreigners was determined by numerous regulations from territory to territory as well as by state treaties. It also differed in the various fields of law.Sibylle H…

See Natural law

See Public law

1. Ideas and developmentsThe idea of the publication of laws, which began in antiquity, is based on the notion that a law could only take effect in society once a legislator had expressed his will in the public sphere (Legislation). Various developments, depending on their constitutional framework (Constitutional law), can be traced in the early modern period: in England, the publication of laws was customary, but since the Middle Ages it was not necessary to publish resolutions of Parliament for t…

Law reports are a kind of “court records” typical of the Anglo-American legal sphere, which provide information about the proceedings and judicial decisions of a single case. They are usually composed by jurists who observe the trials and are often combined with further reports into compilations, which are also called law reports (also, “law reporters” in the USA). The authors and informants of law reports were and are often judges, lawyers, and clerks involved in the trials. In countries influe…

See Ius commune | Jurisprudence | Legisprudence | Reception of ius commune

See Sunni

See Jews, laws concerning

1. Classification The concept of a law is not limited to the legal sphere (see Law), but rather also appears in various other areas. In general, a law is understood to be the linguistic or mathematical formulation of an unvarying essential relationship between specific objects or phenomena that unequivocally determines their behavior or development and can be reproduced under identical conditions. Laws are established by investigating the nature of immediate phenomena. They represent an interpretation of the principles of order that underlie all phenomena.Scientific laws des…

1. IntroductionA lawsuit occurs when a plaintiff initiates legal proceedings before a court of law seeking recourse against a defendant. In connection with the spread of scholarly Roman law across Europe (Ius commune), lawsuits were increasingly formalized and refined as remedies according to civil procedure.Louis Pahlow 2. Early modern developments In contrast to medieval law, in which official judicial authority had not yet asserted itself over vigilante self-help [7] (Feud), in the early modern period convening a court became the norm. Lawsuits (Latin  actio; German Klage, …

See Jurist

A lawyer is “one versed in the law.” The term prevalent in German-speaking areas since the 15th century, Anwalt, originally designated someone who acted on behalf of another with official public or private authorization (Agency [law]); in the late Middle Ages, it was a legal term for authorized attorneys, who represented others in legal affairs both in court and outside the context of litigation (Trial procedure). In the 15th century, we encounter advocates and occasionally other counselors as legal experts who a…

1. IntroductionLay judges differ from trained judges particularly in that they are not professionally trained jurists. Although the term “lay judge” does not appear in the legal sources or in the laws of the early modern period, they enjoyed varying importance as judges,  Schöffen in German-speaking territories, and jurors. The significance of lay judges as members of  juries in the Anglo-American legal world was incomparably greater than in Continental Europe during the early modern period (Common law) [2].Louis Pahlow2. Decline in the early modern periodIn Germany, the sep…

See Sermon

1. DefinitionIn German the New Testament name  Lazarus was associated allegorically with the sick since the Middle Ages – initially lepers, later impoverished victims of any disease. In the Romance languages, a derived adjective (French  ladre, 12th century) is attested in the semantic field “wretched, infirm, leprous.” The German noun  Lazarett came into common use in the 16th century as a loanword from Italian  lazzaretto (Spanish  lazareto, French  lazaret); English  lazaret was borrowed from the French in the early 17th century. Initially it denoted an infi…

1. Mining and smeltingCompared with copper and iron, the most important - because most frequently used - non-precious metals of the early modern period, lead was a metal of lesser rank. With low production costs and a consequently favorable market price, it served as a malleable material for specialist artisans (Crafts and trades), such as glassmakers, organ-builders, and printers (typesetting). The early modern building trade used it, for instance, as a roofing material, for making pipes, and for …

1. DefinitionIn the early phase of industrialization, the economic growth of the industrial sector was generally extremely lopsided, being concentrated in a few areas, the so-called leading sectors. In the 1950s and 1960s, this observation led to the development of the concept of leading industrial sectors in the field of political economy [4]; [3. 10–14]. Leading industrial sectors are characterized by rapid technological change, which brings strong growth in the productivity of work and capital. In the early modern period, too, high product…

See Printed ephemera

See Ius commune

See Language society | Patriotic society | Society Movement

1. Legal aspects 1.1. DefinitionA lease (German Pacht) today is understood to be the contractual transfer of an object or right in exchange for money (cf. Interest [banking]), whereupon the recipient may use or – in contrast to rent and loans for use (commodatum) – enjoy the fruits of the object for a certain time. In contrast to a renter, the lessee is broadly responsible for the maintenance of the object of the lease. Leases based on loan contract, which could in theory be canceled at any time and la…

1. Procedures and centersBecause leather has so many applications (especially for apparel, but also for technological purposes, for example in mining), it was in great demand in the early modern period, which led to the development of extensive leather production in Europe. Beginning in the late Middle Ages, the process of tanning (i.e. treating hides mechanically or biochemically to render them durable while also preserving their material properties) spawned important forms of specialization. Init…

See Prayer | Sermon | Worship