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Classics, European
(4,761 words)

1. Concept

All currents of literature, music, and fine arts in western culture that are called “classical,” from the Siglo de Oro in 16th/17th-century Spain to the 17th-century French époque classique to Weimar Classicism (around 1800), developed in the early modern period. Three key factors go towards explaining this phenomenon.

(1) The emergence of new, normative aesthetic and cultural canons that came to be called “classical” by later generations, sometimes even by contemporaries, w…

Cite this page
Lüsebrink, Hans-Jürgen, Nies, Fritz and Möller, Hartmut, “Classics, European”, in: Encyclopedia of Early Modern History Online, Editors of the English edition: Graeme Dunphy, Andrew Gow. Original German Edition: Enzyklopädie der Neuzeit. Im Auftrag des Kulturwissenschaftlichen Instituts (Essen) und in Verbindung mit den Fachherausgebern herausgegeben von Friedrich Jaeger. Copyright © J.B. Metzlersche Verlagsbuchhandlung und Carl Ernst Poeschel Verlag GmbH 2005–2012. Consulted online on 19 March 2024 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/2352-0272_emho_COM_022241>
First published online: 2015
First print edition: 20170206



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