Encyclopedia of Early Modern History Online

1. IntroductionThe term miasma derives from the Greek ( míasma; “stain,” “defilement”) and was used to refer to a pollution of the air originating in vapors arising from the soil, rotting organic material, or human body odor, and believed to be a cause of disease (cf. Smell). Although wrong from the perspective of present-day science, this was an explanatory paradigm for illness, especially epidemics, that remained highly influential for many centuries. The harmful effects attributed to air pollution are…

1. Early history Simple magnifying glasses were used from at least the 13th century. The real history of the microscope (an optical magnification system consisting of lenses contained in a tube) began around 1600, at roughly the same time as that of the telescope (cf. Optics). The first accounts came from the Netherlands. Microscopes were soon also being built and used in England, Italy, and France. The best-known microscopists of the 17th century were the Dutchmen Antony van Leeuwenhoek…

1. Concept and problem The term “reception of the Middle Ages” denotes the appropriation, adaptation, and transmission of products of European culture dating from between around 500 and 1500 CE. Because the epoch name “Middle Ages” came into general use only in the 18th century as part of the periodic triad antiquity-Middle Ages-modern age, a distinction must be made between such reception before and after the “invention” of the Middle Ages. Indeed, the very construction of the “Middle Ag…

1. Definition The term Wirtschaftsbürgertum (literally “economic bourgeoisie”; here simply “middle class”) was coined by German-speaking scholars to denote members of the early modern bourgeoisie who were independent and enjoyed substantial economic success. Functional equivalents in other languages include English middle class, French and English  entrepreneurs and  bourgeoisie. The term refers to especially innovative or wealthy sectors of the productive industrial trades and crafts, merchants (Trade), and the financial system (Bank)…

See Chinese world

See Jewish literature

1. ConceptMidwifery is one of the oldest female occupations of all (Professions, women’s). The term “midwife” dates from the 14th century, and consists of the Middle English mid, “with,” and wyf, “woman”, that is, the “woman who is with [the mother]” (cf. Latin obstetrix, literally “woman who stands over [the mother]”; German Hebamme, from Old High German  hev(i)anna, “old woman who lifts [the newborn child from the floor]"; regionally also  Höbmutter, Hebemutter). English and especially German abound in dialect terms, such as Bademutter (“bath mother”), Kindermutter (“child m…

See Childbirth | Gynecology | Midwife | Obstetrics

1. Concept Migrants (Mobility; Immigration; Emigration; Settler migration, European) in early modern Europe often established their own religious communities, especially when their religion was not institutionally represented in the area of settlement. Even if it was, many immigrants still preferred to worship among themselves, for reasons of familiarity and language. Examples of the latter case include the German Catholic Church in Rome [7] and the Protestant Walloon churches of the French-speaking migrants in the Netherlands, German states, and British…

See Emigration | Mobility | Temporary migration | Urban migration

See Emigration | Settler colony

See Occupational migration

See Immigration | Mobility | Reclamation | Settler migration, European

See Peregrinatio academica

1. Definition Migrant laborers in the early modern period were a type of mobile workforce that, voluntarily and for primarily economic reasons, took up temporary work (usually for less than one year) at a place other than their normal abode (Occupational migration). Their temporary migration  necessitated specific arrangements with the other members of their household, with their co-workers, and sometimes with the entire rural community from which they came. The migration season in agri…

1. Terminology 1.1. Roots in AntiquityThe lexical field of military goes back to the various codifications of Roman military law, as preserved, for example, in the fragmentary De re militari (“On Warfare”; 1st century BCE) of Lucius Cincius. Far more significant for the development of warfare in the West was the Epitome rei militaris (“Outline of Warfare”; ca. 390) of Vegetius Renatus; some 150 manuscripts of this text survive, written between the 10th and 15th centuries [16]. The first Italian translations appeared in the second half of the 13th century, French and …

Military academies were institutes for training future officers. The term (German Militärakademie,  Kriegsschule; French  académie militaire, etc.) covered a wide range of different institutions, so that its appearance in sources is of limited value as evidence. In the late 18th century in particular, the spectrum ranged from the theoretical ideal of a place founded on the original academy concept and devoted to the furtherance of military thought by specialists [3] to the lower end of the scale where the term was used as a euphemism, referring to elementar…

1. Definition The tasks of military administration include the formation, arming, and supply of armed forces. These tasks were fulfilled in a range of different ways in the early modern period. Fundamental distinctions in this period were those between a military administration dominated by private enterprise and one bound to a state, and between one that was non-institutionalized and limited in time and one that was established as a permanent institution. Military administration was no…

A military contractor, generally known in the early modern period by the French term entrepreneur, was in the strict sense a private entrepreneur (or a capital company) whose business was to obtain and/or produce foodstuffs, weaponry, and equipment for a (standing) army (Military). However, the term  entrepreneurs was also used in the 17th and 18th century to refer to contractors involved on behalf of territorial rulers or municipalities in fortification [1] and (especially in France from the early 18th century) the construction of barracks.Certain towns and regions by the…

1. ConceptIn important respects, warfare in the 16th and 17th centuries still had characteristics predating centralized state government. Soldiers were not recruited, equipped, and paid by officers of the ruler beholden to his orders, but by military enterprisers, relatively autonomous mercenary leaders who had enough capital (or credit) and prestige to raise troops on their own account (Recruitment). Their forces were usually single units of the order of a company in strength, or perhaps an enti…