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1. Concepts and definitions“Craft” denotes skilled manufacture (Latin  opus manu factum), “trade” in this sense an occupation of exercising such a craft. The German Handwerk historically combines the sense of both. Grimm's Deutsches Wörterbuch defines Handwerk (Latin  opificium or  ars manuaria) as “work of the hands,” and in the strict sense limits it to “a trade continually conducted” ("ein dauernd betriebenes Gewerbe”), the accomplishment of which, as distinct from art or basic manual work, requires manual skill ( ars mechanica) (vol. 10, 424). Johann Beckmann in …

In the foreword to the 19th edition of the Brockhaus (1896), refuse was treated “as a key concept of our age,” and waste disposal was included among the 240 lemmata “that characterize our present intellectual and social situation.” A historical analysis of relevant lemmata in 18th and 19th-century encyclopedias reveals highly diverse conceptual fields [8]. In 1732, J.H. Zedler included under  Abfall (refuse, waste, but also decline) infidelity towards God and rulers, differences in level in watercourses, and the decline in ore content in mining [5]. Even in the middle of …

1. SurveyEarly modern writing instruments in the narrower sense were the stylus, pen, and pencil. The (slate) stylus was used to make quick notes and drafts on a wax or slate tablet, which could also be written on with chalk. Children learned with the aid of wax and slate tablets (the latter until well into the 20th century) [9. 68]. Parchment as a writing material was expensive. Wax tablets began to give way to paper in the 15th century [9. 30]. To this day, the pen stands figuratively for writing instruments in general; like Germen  Feder, the word denotes an ink pen [9. 19]. The us…

1. Technique Fulling, or waulking (German: walken), refers to the treading, beating, or pressing of textiles in water with the addition of fuller’s earth (fine clay), urine, and/or soap to achieve greater thickness, resistance, and cleanliness. The process felted the cloth so that it could be shrunk by up to a third [1]. Fulling by means of foot-treading is known as far back as ancient Pompeii.Fulling mills were already mechanized in the High Middle Ages through the use of cam shafts that enabled rotation in a linear up-and-down or back-and-forth motion. …

1. ConceptThe term  innovation denotes a process by which new products and new technologies are introduced into the economic system [19. 149 f.]; [18. 339]. Historians of technology, however, initially showed interest in innovations in processes and procedures primarily in the context of the “industrial revolution of the late Middle Ages,” mining, and finally industrialization. An understanding of technology as applied natural science narrowed their perspective to science and technology in the sense of production an…

1. GeneralIn the early modern period, how laundry was done varied depending on the social context [6]; [9]; [4]. In the estates of the nobility (Gutsherrschaft) as well as in patrician or upper-class households that had a substantial supply of textiles, a “big wash” was performed several times a year. Sometimes there was a separate laundry room along with a washing area and a drying area; additional washerwomen were hired, whose pay was sometimes specified in schedules of fees [12. 333]. In addition there would be more frequent “small washes.” The household account bo…

1. Concept Arcanum (Latin, ‘secret’; plural arcana) is found in various contexts of meaning, firstly denoting secrets of nature, and in alchemy secret or confidential knowledge, especially as an appellation for the Philosopher’s Stone, where “arcane language” (see also Argot) refers to the language of alchemists and “arcane discipline’ to the teachings of alchemy. “Arcane discipline” (Latin  disciplina arcani) also denotes crucial and secret beliefs and cult practices in the Hellenistic mystery religions and early Christianity.Reinhold Reith 2. Religious and ph…

1. DefinitionThe term resource can stand for all production factors, but modern resource economics defines (natural) resources as materials provided by the environment. The technology of the 18th century called these resources  materia technologica. These were the materials taken from the three kingdoms of nature or produced by primary production (agriculture, forestry, hunting, fisheries, mining) to be processed further in the industrial trades and crafts or households.The high cost of such resources or raw materials resulted from the low productivity…

1. DefinitionTramping was a result of the differentiation of the professional career (Profession) into apprentice, journeyman (Journeymen), and master. As a specific form of occupational migration in German-speaking Europe, it usually followed apprenticeship . In England, the journeyman, after a seven-year apprenticeship, was not required to wander. As a labor market, London exerted a powerful attraction; only after it lost this dominance after 1660 (to new centers in the Midlands and the North), did an inter-regional tramping system develop in the 18th century [6]. The…

1. Significance and diffusion In the development of formal and informal associations or corporations of craftsmen, shopkeepers, merchants, and families, gathering places like taverns played a central role [2]. Guilds reserved rooms in public houses and rented or purchased halls to use for social and also business purposes [4. 441]. The purchase of guildhalls, beginning in the second half of the 14th century, illustrates the social and political importance of the guilds as well as their self-confidence [10. 250].The public representation of a guild by its guildhall was esp…

1. DefinitionSustainability is a central concept in today’s discussion of the environment; it relates to the way we human beings deal with natural resources. Ever since the Brundtland Report (1987), sustainability has been understood as use of resources appropriate to the needs of a generation without endangering the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. In 1992, the United Nations included sustainable development as a general social principle in its  Agenda 21. The finite nature of resources (“limits to growth”) had already been pointed out in 1…

1. Craftsmen 1.1. TerminologyWhile earlier studies that dealt with forms of cultural performance on the part of craftsmen treated them as Sitte (convention) and  Brauch (custom) [4], in the 1930s the term  Brauchtum (tradition) came to prevail [5], sometimes even alleged to have ancient Germanic roots [12]. The crafts and trades were credited with maintaining a “tenacious loyalty to tradition over the centuries,” even when referring to 19th-century “invented traditions”: a homogeneous streak was said to run through all the ind…

1. OriginsParchment is made by dehairing and drying the skins of various animals, and has since ancient times been used as a writing material. Ancient authors (e.g. Pliny the Elder, Naturalis historia 13,70) report that Eumenes II of Pergamum in the 2nd century BCE reacted to the lack of papyrus while he was assembling his library by “inventing” parchment. The earliest surviving documents written on parchment, however, date only from the 3rd century BCE, in the region of the Euphrates.From their introduction in the early 4th century CE, parchment codices (with sheets st…

1. Survey and history of studiesWages are remuneration for work performed for others; wage labor is any labor performed for wages that – unlike forced labor – is based on a free labor contract.The question whether wage labor is a fundamental phenomenon of the early modern period has not been clearly answered by scholars. In 1849, Karl Marx saw wage labor as a phenomenon of capitalism: “Labor was not always wage labor, i.e., free labor. The slave did not sell his labor-power to the slave owner. ... The serf sells only …

1. Begriff und historiographische Traditionslinien 1.1. Ältere AnsätzeDer Begriff T. W. hat in der technikhistor. Forschung jenen des »technischen (= techn.) Fortschritts« weitgehend verdrängt [53. 19 f.]. Letzterer – oft Hand in Hand mit der Identifizierung von techn. »Revolutionen« verwendet – stand in der technik- und wirtschaftshistor. Forschung meist in Verbindung mit dem Produktivitäts-Paradigma bzw. der Erforschung des Wirtschaftswachstums. Der Blick galt – in der Tradition des Taylorismus bzw. mehr noch des Fordismus – v. a. der Erhöhung…

1. BegriffI. kann als freiwilliger Bruch mit Gewohnheiten durch die Anwendung neuer Verfahren oder Objekte verstanden werden. Ihr liegt eine überlegte Vorgehensweise zugrunde, die als Resultat einer in die Praxis umgesetzten Idee auch ein gewisses Risiko hinsichtlich ihrer Effizienz beinhaltet. Der Begriff I. löste in den 1960er Jahren die Bezeichnungen »Neuerung« und lat. inventio (»Erfindung«) ab. Er wurde aus dem Angelsächsischen übernommen, in Anlehnung an die Definition Joseph A. Schumpeters: I. is a process by which new products and techniques are introduced…

1. AllgemeinIn der Nz. war die Eigenanfertigung von Kleidung in der Hauswirtschaft auf einfache Bereiche und Stoffe beschränkt. Da höherwertiges Tuch teuer und die Gefahr, es durch unsachgemäße Schnitte zu entwerten, groß war, zog man dafür Spezialisten heran [16. 153 f.]. Der alltägliche Bedarf bedingte ein umfangreiches Bekleidungsgewerbe; dementsprechend bildeten die Sch. (engl. tailors, franz. tailleurs, ital. sarti) in der Nz. eines der größten städt. Handwerke, bes. in Ballungszentren: In Paris arbeiteten z. B. zum Ende der 1770er Jahre beinahe 2 000 Sch.-M…

1. AllgemeinesMit einem Fachgebiet »Umwelt und techn. Wandel« stehen in der EdN zwei vergleichsweise junge Subdisziplinen der Geschichtswissenschaft – Umweltgeschichte (= Ug.) und Technikgeschichte (= Tg.) – neben etablierten Fächern wie der polit. Geschichte, der Religions- oder der Literaturgeschichte. Dies ist erfreulich sowohl mit Blick auf eine stärkere Verankerung technik- und umwelthistorischer Themen in der allgemeinen Frühneuzeit- bzw. Neuzeit-Forschung als auch mit Blick auf die Tg. und Ug. selbs…

1. Landwirtschaft Landwirtschaftliche S. als stark arbeitsteilige Produktion von Agrargütern wird für MA und Frühe Nz. eher auf regionaler als auf betrieblicher Ebene diskutiert. Zunächst wirkten naturräumliche Bedingungen als Grundlage landwirtschaftlicher S. (Nutzungssysteme; Ökotypen). So war etwa in Gegenden mit schlechten ackerbaulichen Voraussetzungen bereits im HochMA vermehrt Viehwirtschaft angesiedelt. Im Alpen- und Voralpenraum kam es zur Gründung sog. Schweighöfe, die auf die Erzeugung von Milch-Produkten spezialisiert waren und auf Getreide…

1. Allgemeine Tendenzen T. F. im Sinne mündlich tradierter Bezeichnungen für technische (= techn.) Artefakte und deren Bestandteile sowie für techn. Herstellungsverfahren gab und gibt es in allen Kulturen. In Europa erlaubt schon die techn. Literatur der Antike und des MA entsprechende Einblicke, wenn auch meist aus Sicht des gelehrten Diskurses und nicht der Alltagssprache der Praktiker. Neue Impulse für die Ausdifferenzierung der T. F. im Verlauf der Nz. ergaben sich in dreierlei Hinsicht: (1) Im Zuge des techn. Wandels waren neue Artefakte oder Verfahrensweisen begri…