Encyclopedia of Early Modern History Online

1. Absolutist prison and political myth The French word bastille originally meant any fortification consisting of a circuit of several towers connected by walls. One such bastille was that built in Paris between 1370 and 1382. This generic term only became a significant and particular name, indeed a catchword, from the time when Richelieu started (ca. 1627) to use the Bastille in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine in Paris, not to guard the city, but as a prison in which the government could incarcerate suspects indefinitely without trial and without specifying why, with the authority of royal l…

Bathing in the early modern period belongs in the context of ideas about Health. People went to the bath-house to wash, but it was above all a place for social contact, and sometimes a practical venue for meeting prostitutes (Prostitution; Bathkeeper). People did swim, but this was rare and regarded as somewhat eccentric behavior. Continental courtesy books, such as Faret’s Honnête homme, honnête femme and Castiglione’s Cortegiano (see also Conduct literature) do list swimming as an acceptable leisure activity, but without particularly recommending it. Britis…

1. Bathkeepers as providers of an early “wellness culture” Bathing became popular in medieval Europe under the influence of cultural encounters (via Crusades and long-distance trade). Urbanization brought the establishment of public baths, at first in towns (e.g. Fulda, mid-12th century), then in the country (14th century). These establishments were run, either as leaseholder or proprietor, by a bathkeeper (German Bader, Badstover, Badstübner; Latin balneator; French étuviste, baigneur) [10]. To begin with, the profession was also open to women. The public bath [2], housed i…

1. From the bath-house to the thermal spring The decline of the medieval urban bathing culture and the souring of its reputation probably came about primarily because of the rapid spread of syphilis from the late 15th century In many places, this led to the closure of town bath-houses (Bathkeeper), which were held to be dangerous reservoirs of infection (Illness). As this was happening, however, rising timber prices stimulated by increasing construction in towns and the growth of mining, which consumed …

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1. Early modern term and job description Originally, a beadle (Old English bydel  from beodan, 'to proclaim'; Old High German  poto, putil; Middle High German  Bütel; Middle Low German bodel, boddel, Modern German Büttel) was a herald, then a warrant officer in secular administration. As a translation of the German term "Büttel", a beadle was a court bailiff in the Holy Roman Empire. In English, the word "beadle" is also used for an officer in the church.Through the course of the Late Middle Ages and the transition to the Early Modern Period, beadle became a generic ter…

1. Term Beauty (Anglo-French beute, Old French biauté, Vulgar Latin bellitas from Latin bellus, “pretty, charming”; compare German Schönheit; Greek kállos; also Latin pulchritudo) denotes the quality of an object that elicits pleasure in the viewer. The phenomenon includes the natural beauty found, for instance, in landscapes and bodies, and the artificial beauty created in the fine arts. The question arose at a very early date whether beauty was a subjective function of the perception of the beholder or a quality inh…

The European honey bee, classified by Linnaeus in 1758 as Apis mellifera (Latin, “honey-producing bee”), is indigenous to Europe, Western Asia, and Africa. It cannot live in the wild in regions where either cold or drought makes the blossom season too short for the colony to reproduce through swarming and subsequently stockpile food for winter [10]. Other honey bee species live in South and East Asia. At the dawn of the early modern period, the keeping of bees was restricted to regions where the species occurred naturally. British settlers then took…

1. Consumption Whereas wine consumption dominated Southern Europe and France in the early modern period, the consumption of beer was a fundamental constant of everyday life in the north and east of the continent (Everyday world). In these regions, beer was a staple foodstuff and – when brewed to greater strength - Lenten fare [1]. From the Late Middle Ages, there was a profound shift in habits of consumption in Central Europe, with wine replaced by beer as an everyday beverage. The reason for this was a process of technological innovation as hop…

The church’s high regard for poverty, for religious reasons, and the duty of Christians to help the undeservedly poor were queried for the first time around the middle of the 14th century. Although the notion of charity when dealing with beggars lived on throughout the entire early modern period, there was an increasingly critical way of looking at the associated problems. In the cities in particular from the 16th century there were enhanced efforts to deal with fraudulent begging [4. 49–52]. The sharpened criticism of “professional” and fraudulent collecting of alms led to…

Adherents to the teachings of the Silesian theosophist and mystic Jakob Böhme were already called “Behmenists” ( Böhmisten) in the polemical literature (Polemic, theological) of the 17th century. The Behmenists neither formed a special religious community of their own nor did they constitute a clearly definable philosophical school. From the very beginning, Böhme’s ideas merged with other traditions so that “Behmenism” represents a shifting phenomenon.Böhme’s impact came first through his theosophy. In the turmoil of the early modern period, many contemporar…

Any definition of the term Beigeordneter (“deputy mayor”) must on the one hand take account of different regional traditions of community constitution (especially mayor and magistrate constitution), and on the other had changes of meaning which the term has experienced in the past two centuries. From a historical perspective it must be noted that discrepancies occur between the Beigeordneter as analytical term and as source term. In the literature in modern administrative studies and also in a portion of the community constitutions in the Federal Repub…

1. Conceptualization The concept of the bel esprit (German  Schöngeist), which was developed in France in the 16th and 17th centuries, established itself as a powerfully effective social model promoting a specific ideal of cultured sociability. The bel esprit distinguished itself by extensive knowledge of all kinds of art and literature and in particular by a capacity for intellectually stimulating conversation as well as an impressive command of all questions of taste.The praise of the beautés d’esprit since the Renaissance, shaped paradigmatically by Joachim Du Bellay [11. 828…

1. Term The English word “bell” is onomatopoeic, like the Latin  tintinnabulum. The corresponding German term Glocke derives, like Irish cloch, Flemish klok, Swedish klocka, French cloche and presumably also Russian kolokal from MLat. clocca. Whether the latter goes back to a Celtic clocc is disputed. It too may be onomatopoeic.Wolfgang Behringer 2. Casting and suspension The casting of bells as the preferred form of manufacture extends back into the ancient Near Eastern Bronze Age. From the 6th century it spread through the whole of Europe, but not …

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1. Term Benediction is a performative act which seeks, by means of words or gestures, at least indirect contact to a supernatural being or power so as to bring about something good for persons or objects. The benediction or blessing (Lat. benedictio) is thus the opposite of the curse.In both the Protestant understanding and Catholic theology the effect of the benediction remains solely at God’s disposal. With the granting or refusal of the effect of the benediction he is following his plan of salvation, in which acknowledgment of human need i…

1. General The benefice (Latin  praebenda or beneficium) was the ecclesiastical office-related right of an incumbent member of the clergy to draw a regular income from a particular fund that was permanently dedicated to that office [2. 334 (§ I)]; [4. 188 (art. I/6]; [10. 577]. The benefice thus represented the material component of a church office. In accordance with Liber Extra of the Corpus Iuris Canonici (X,3,5,2), it was granted for the sake of, and regularly together with, the clerical office, so as to ensure the clergyman’s living (Clergy). From then on, with reference to Liber Sex…

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