Encyclopedia of Early Modern History Online

1. ConceptA fable is typically a short narrative text. Its fictional events involve ‘non-human’ but anthropomorphized animals, plants, or objects of inanimate nature and culture. These have human faculties of consciousness, language, and action. A defining feature of the fable is a reference of practical application, the “moral” or “lesson” (Latin fabula docet). Set out in advance as a promythium or declared afterwards as an epimythium, the moral either makes clear that the story is a particular case in point, or else signals that the whole story…

See Factory discipline

1. ConceptAdopted in English from the French façade coined by Philibert de l'Orme (1567), the term connotes the frontage of a building [1]. Both the word as used in English and its etymology (from Latin facies, “face”; Italian  facciata, “front”) make clear that the concept includes more than merely the exterior of the building in a technical sense of construction. It connotes a specific design task in architecture (Architectural theory), and one which, although already addressed in the Middle Ages, for instance on cathedral tow…

In contrast to schools that provide a general education, in Germany the term Fachschule or   Gewerbeschule (“professional school” or “vocational school”) is used for all kinds of educational institutions attended voluntarily for practical vocational training. Within this preprofessional educational sector there are three groups: (1) higher-level institutions, similar to universities (for example mining academies, forestry academies, academies of arts. and military academies, which as practice-centered specia…

1. Introduction Fachwerk in a general sense is a truss, that is, a framework that bears the weight of a building, usually made of wood (in more recent times also metal) (Building materials). It takes its name (literally “compartment work”) from the compartments ( Gefache) contained within the timber fill in the frame and thus forming the walls. Fachwerk refers to a basic style of timber framing in wood construction, known in nearly all European cultures and many outside of Europe from the Neolithic period on.In the stricter sense referring to Central Europe in the early …

See Partisan

1. Definition The term  factory discipline denotes a specific behavioral disposition of the workers in an industrial factory (Factory [industrial]), which is understood to be the result of efforts at socialization and is considered one of the essential requirements for the successful operation of a factory. In the 18th and 19th centuries, the process of establishing this discipline included adapting the behavior of the factory workers to two essential elements of the new production system: centraliza…

1. Terminology The term  factory in its modern sense – a site of centralized production, where a great number of workers produce large quantities of uniform goods for sale, in a process that makes use of division of labor and machines not powered by humans (Force) – does not appear (as  Fabrik) in the German-language literature of economics and political science until the early 1840s. Defining characteristics of factories are the large capital investment needed for the use of processing machines and power machines in comparison to the facto…

1. Europe The term  factory was much more common in Europe in the high and late Middle Ages than in the early modern period. The Italian word  fattoria, the etymon of the loanword, first appears in connection with the great Tuscan trading companies of the high Middle Ages; it denoted a fortified outpost or “branch” of a trading company in a foreign commercial center, headed by a factor (Italian  fattore) [6]. The network of factories of the great South German companies (Fugger family; Welser) with permanent offices in the major European commercial centers (A…

1. Definition and characteristics The term factory workers denoting the work force employed in a centralized and mechanized production center did not come into use until the term factory (Factory [industrial]) in its modern meaning had gained acceptance. In other words, the factory worker is a figure of mature capitalism; a central characteristic is that factory workers earn their living by wage labor, do not own any means of production, and are therefore proletarians (Underclass). As participants in a mature market econo…

In the late Middle Ages, faculties (Latin  facultas, German  Fakultät, French  faculté) were already well-defined administrative components of universities, reflecting the organization of knowledge. As the member bodies constituting the university, however, the faculties could largely act autonomously, given their unique legal status – similar initially to that of the student  nationes, which were often organized regionally. The corporative character of faculties (Academic freedom), of which both the academic staff (Professor) and the students…

See Travel aids

1. Concept and technologyThe term faïence originated in France, and derives from the name of the Italian town of Faenza. Faïence denotes all northern European tin-glazed pottery. The term maiolica is also used, chiefly for wares from Spain and Italy. Maiolica probably derives from the Italian name for the island of Majorca ( maiorica), which in the 15th century was the main transhipment point for the faïence trade in southern Europe. It refers only to faïence colored by means of high-fire paints, that is, in the underglaze.Faïence refers to earthenware in which the pot is cov…

1. Introduction An annual fair (German Jahrmarkt), also called kermis, was a market with a regional catchment area, held once or several times a year and thereby distinguished both from the weekly market [9. 147, 149] and from the trade fair, whose focus was wider, even international. Like the trade fair (German  Messe), the annual fair - which took place at a designated marketplace and sometimes had its own specific market area, even its own buildings - was associated with a church festival (dedicated to Christ, Mary, or a saint) and took p…

See Criminal defense | Rechtsstaat

The term ‘fairy’ is derived, via French, from the Vulgar Latin fata (“goddess of destiny”; fatum = fate). The most intensive transmission of the fairy concept, which incorporates traditions from Classical Antiquity and elsewhere in the Indo-European world, has been in Celtic literature, where the enchantress Morgan le Fay (hence  “Fata Morgana”) in the world of Arthurian legend represents its most famous manifestation. The fairy tradition, already apparent in Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales (14th century), was rediscovered in the 16th century and given new dire…

1. DefinitionThe term “fairy tale” denotes a story, which may be short or long and transmitted orally or in writing, that takes place in a world removed from the ordinary reality of space and time and its causal order, and that makes no claim to believability. It may contain motifs specific to a culture or common to many cultures. The status of non-reality crucial to the establishment of a “fairytale” atmosphere (going beyond the bounds of fairy tale as a genre) has, over the long reception histo…

1. Definition In Judaism and Christianity, faith denotes the relationship to God as Creator, sustainer, and goal of human life that conforms to human destiny. In both the Jewish and the Christian tradition, the early modern development of the concept of faith depended critically on the philosophical formation of theology in the Middle Ages and the various evolving constellations of piety. (On the understanding of faith in Judaism and the specific differences between the Jewish and Christian concepts, see also Jewish theology).Friederike Nüssel 2. Christianity 2.1. Refor…

See Sin

Letting fields lie fallow was a defining element of agriculture prior to the epochal changes called the agricultural revolution. Generally a year was integrated into the crop rotation in which a fixed proportion of the acreage remained unplanted (half in two-field rotation, a third in three-field rotation, etc.) [2. 13 f.]. The dormant phase enabled soil-biological processes of regeneration and the introduction of nitrogen from the atmosphere (Soil). Plowing up the fallow (cf. German  Felge, “plowed-up fallow land”), carried on in June (also called fallow-month)…

See Forgery

1. IntroductionThe family rests on the biological fact that every individual has a mother and a father, and that a relationship of provision and emotion generally exists beyond childbirth at least between the mother and child (Parental love; see below, 6.1.). The family is also a social institution through which much of not only the biological, but also social reproduction in a society comes about. Work, the distribution and consumption of food (Dining), education, and sociability all largely too…

The history of coats of arms begins in the Middle Ages. From the 12th century, the easily visible colored markings on knights' armor, helmets, and weapons, which originally merely served to tell them apart in their anonymous protective gear, began to develop into a heritable “badge” (designed in accordance with the rules of heraldry (Arms)) for a person, corporation, family, or city. The family and clan coats of arms of the nobility were particularly important: like tombs, funerary inscriptions …

1. Scope Family law consists of the key norms that govern personal and property relations within the family. The areas of law that family law covered varied over time as the underlying understanding of the social concept of the family changed. In the early modern period, following ancient models, the family was understood broadly as an economic unit to which every member of household contributed. The definition of the family in the  Codex Maximilianeus Bavaricus Civilis of 1756 (part 1, chap. 4  § 1) is characteristic:  “a family [is] … the totality of people living t…

Of the extant family libraries, those of the nobility that survive across Europe offer an inexhaustible treasure trove for historians of culture and cultivation. This is particularly true of the great book collections, which besides utilitarian legal literature and many scholarly and scientific works from the fields of geography, history, medicine, and theology, also contain apodemica and literary works, such as Ariosto's  Orlando furioso (1521) and manuscripts.Noble libraries differ greatly in size and scope, ranging from a few dozen works to tens of …

To historians of the family, the term “family life cycle” refers to the fact that families pass through different phases, entailing specific respective tasks, forms, and functions in family coexistence, in connection with the life cycles of family members. In the contemporary European family, a general distinction is made between a phase in which a couple has children and brings them up, and a later phase determined by cohabitation with the adolescent children, followed by an “empty nest” phase,…

See Contraception

See Fertility

See Autograph book

1. Concepts, terminological history, approachesFamine and food crisis are not peculiar to early modern Europe, but are global phenomena that have occurred in all historical periods. As short-term periodical disturbances to the food and supply system in a region or society, a food crisis is categorically distinct from persistent, structural, or chronic hunger.The term food crisis (or hunger crisis) was developed among historians and social scientists in the 20th century. It has become established as a widespread general technical term that is wid…

See Political movements | Schwärmer (radical reformer)

The musical term “fantasia” eludes precise definition. As a key term of the Renaissance, it is associated with freedom and play, a concept deriving from Marsilio Ficino (cf. Imagination). As a title for free instrumental pieces composed in an improvisatory style, the term is attested dating back to the early 16th century. Such pieces were also called  tiento or ensalada in Spain, and “voluntary” or “division” in England. As well as such terms peculiar to certain countries, others also emerged by the 17th century that drew attention to particular as…

See Imagination

1. Characteristics of the genreThe emergence of a text type of fantastical narrative literature can be traced from the 18th century, and the genre has attained a high profile. Notable authors of world literature, such as Horace Walpole, C.S. Lewis, Ludwig Tieck, E.T.A. Hoffmann, Edgar Allan Poe, Théophile Gautier, H.P. Lovecraft, and J.R.R. Tolkien are among its exponents. Interest in fantasy literature today is not confined to scholars of literary science, but also those of interdisciplinary specia…

1. Agricultural system The central characteristics of an early moden farm are its limited size, an organization of labor that depended largely on family members, its place in estatist society, and its lifetime, which often extended for generations. In the early modern period, a farm was closely tied to the estate of the farmer (Estates of the realm) and his relationship to the landowner (Manorialism) and the village community. In estatist society (Estates, society of), a sub-farm (Cottager) with no communal rights (Common…

It is not easy to distinguish the farmhouse from other types of house or structure, since the social and economic data that would make it possible to provide a normative definition of a farm compound and hence of a farmhouse varied greatly socially, chronologically, and regionally. In Central Europe, at least, a farmhouse in the narrower sense is understood to be the dwelling of a farmer largely working independently or of him and his family together with dependent workers, but in a b…

See Rural inheritance practice

See Carnival | Weiberfastnacht

The term “fashion” derives from the Latin facere (“to make”) and is first attested in the sense of a popular style of dress, according to the OED, in 1568. The related term “mode” (from French mode, cf. German  Mode) comes from the Latin  modus, and thus relates to the “manner” in which something is done. It came to mean a “current fashion” in the 17th century. German Mode from the 17th century meanwhile referred exclusively to the design of apparel.People of Central Europe were, however, increasingly aware that their manner of clothing was subject to change from as ear…

See Carnival | Weiberfastnacht

Folklore studies formerly, and wrongly, related Fastnacht to the verb  faseln (“to flourish”, “to multiply”) and posited origins in pagan fertility cults (but cf. [10]). MHG vastnaht (also  vasnaht), however, meant the “Eve of Lent”, so that the  vasnacht spil (‘ Fastnacht play’; term first attested in the 15th century) was part of the culture of carnival. Associations with traditional plays of driving out winter and welcoming spring remain matters for speculation, but the origins of the secular plays in ecclesiastical contexts are reliably attested ( Salbenkrämerspiele, “…

1. Introduction Fats are an indispensable component of food. In the early modern period in Europe, besides animal fats like lard, bacon, suet, butter, and concentrated butter, vegetable fats were used, as a rule olive or nut oil (from walnuts), regionally also poppy-seed oil, flaxseed oil, rapeseed oil, and hemp oil. Until the late Middle Ages, the use of these fats in Europe was determined not only by their availability and peoples’ taste preferences or aversions but also by the fasting regulatio…

1. Meaning and conceptThe idea of fate or destiny (French  fortune, destin, destinée; Italian  fato, destino; Spanis  fortuna, suerte, destino; German Schicksal) became in the early modern period a preferred mode for discussing the relationship between autonomy and necessity, that is, the question of freedom of will, and the driving forces of history and politics, in a secular context. As a synonym for whatever was peculiar, unalterable, and perhaps inexplicable in the course of the history of an individual, a peopl…

1. ConceptThe Indo-European languages have a range of words for ‘father’, but they all share the “nucleus of power” [21. 259], including the metaphor of protection and nourishment (e.g. in English, lord = ‘loaf-guardian’, i.e. ‘keeper of the bread’). ‘Father’ was also used in titles of other persons of authority, such as Father for ‘abbot’, Latin pater as “spiritual father” (pastor, spiritual guide).Heide Wunder2. Father - child - motherFather is a term of relationship that is ambivalent in a number of respects.(1) The relationships between father and child and father a…

1. ConceptThe word Vaterland (“fatherland”) became established in the German territories from the beginning of the early modern period. The Romance languages exclusively use  patria (French  patrie). Dutch and the Scandinavian languages use cognates of Vaterland (Dutch  vaderland; Danish fædreland or fäderneland; Swedish  fädernesland). The term “fatherland” was coined in English early in the 19th century as a calque of the German, but the other parent is more usually invoked (“mother country”; “motherland”) [1]; [2].Gabriele Clemens2. Historical developmentThe terms pa…

1. Monarchical rule and the tradition of the favoriteMonocratic authority, whether exercised in the form of monarchy proper or in the form of a pronounced concentration of power in the hands of one individual under a technically republican constitution, as in presidential democracies, almost always produces specific court or quasi-court power structures characterized by the dialectic of favor and influence. Administrative and political decisions are often arrived at in the informal personal circle of th…

See Schwank

Febronianism is a distinctive theoretical manifestation of episcopalianism in the 18th-century church within the Holy Roman Empire. The term is derived from the pseudonym  Justinus Febronius under which Johann Nikolaus von Hontheim, the auxiliary bishop of Trier, published his 1763 book on the legitimate authority of the pope in the church ( De statu ecclesiae; “On the State of the Church”), to which he added several supplementary volumes in the years that followed [1].From 1719 to 1724, Hontheim studied law and theology at the universities of Trier, Leuven, an…

See German Confederation

1. DefinitionFederalism is the theory and practice of a permanent organizational union of more or less autonomous political entities in an overarching political and legal whole. Its principle forms are the federal state and confederation (States, confederation of) [4]; [7]. For historical purposes, however, this model, which is centered on the modern state, must be modified. Alliances and coalitions (cf. Bund) were key elements of the ruling structures of the early modern European society of estates; entitled persons, rulers, citie…