The Latin term necessitas (Necessity) had various usages in the early modern period [1]. In everyday life, it took in a broad spectrum of basic needs, from concrete essentials, such as necessitas bibendi (“the need to drink”) and necessitas ad victum (“[things] necessary to life”; cf. German Notdurft, “basic need”; Sustenance), to abstractions, for example necessitas familiaritasque (“ties of amity and kinship”; Amicitia) or necessitas ultima (“death”) and extended senses, for example necess…