In recent years scholars have increasingly challenged and reassessed the once established concept of the 'crisis of the nobility' in early-modern Europe. Offering a range of case studies from countries across Europe this collection further expands our understanding of just how the nobility adapted to the rapidly changing social, political, religious and cultural circumstances around them. By allowing readers to compare and contrast a variety of case studies across a range of national and disciplinary boundaries, a fuller - if more complex - picture emerges of the strategies and actions employed by nobles to retain their influence and wealth. The nobility exploited Renaissance science and education, disruptions caused by war and religious strife, changing political ideas and concepts, the growth of a market economy, and the evolution of centralized states in order to maintain their lineage, reputation, and position. Through an examination of the differing strategies utilized to protect their status, this collection reveals much about the fundamental role of the 'second order' in European history and how they had to redefine the social and cultural 'spaces' in which they found themselves. By using a transnational and comparative approach to the study of the European nobility, the volume offers exciting new perspectives on this important, if often misunderstood, social group.

In recent years scholars have increasingly challenged and reassessed the once established concept of the 'crisis of the nobility' in early-modern Europe. Offering a range of case studies from countries across Europe this collection further expands our understanding of just how the nobility adapted to the rapidly changing social, political, religious and cultural circumstances around them. By allowing readers to compare and contrast a variety of case studies across a range of national and disciplinary boundaries, a fuller - if more complex - picture emerges of the strategies and actions employed by nobles to retain their influence and wealth. The nobility exploited Renaissance science and education, disruptions caused by war and religious strife, changing political ideas and concepts, the growth of a market economy, and the evolution of centralized states in order to maintain their lineage, reputation, and position. Through an examination of the differing strategies utilized to protect their status, this collection reveals much about the fundamental role of the 'second order' in European history and how they had to redefine the social and cultural 'spaces' in which they found themselves. By using a transnational and comparative approach to the study of the European nobility, the volume offers exciting new perspectives on this important, if often misunderstood, social group.

Examining the societies of the hundreds of small states that made up most of Europe before the 19th century, this text takes as its focus the Duchy of Lorraine.

The image of the debauched French aristocrat of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries is one that still has power over the international public imagination, from the unending fascination with the Marquis de Sade to the successes of the film Ridicule. Drawing on memoirs, letters, popular songs and pamphlets, and political treatises, The Enlightened and Depraved: Decadence, Radicalism, and the Early Modern French Nobility traces the origins of this powerful stereotype from between the reign of Louis XIV and the Terror of the French Revolution. The decadent and enlightened noble of early modern France, the libertine, was born in a push to transform the nobility from a warrior caste into an intelligentsia. Education itself had become a power through which the privileged could set themselves free from old social and religious restraints. However, by the late eighteenth century, the libertine noble was already falling under attack by changing attitudes toward gender, an emphasis on economic utility over courtly service, and ironically the very revolutionary forces that the enlightened nobility of the court and Paris helped awaken. In the end, the libertine nobility would not survive the French Revolution, but the basic idea of knowledge as a liberating force would endure in modernity, divorced from a single class.

The full spectrum of society springs to life in the detailed etchings of Jacques Callot (1592-1635). This acclaimed French printmaker trained in Italy and later worked as a court artist for Cosimo II de' Medici in Florence. Callot revolutionized printmaking by developing the process of hard-ground etching, and he applied his technical skills to depicting the world around him. The extraordinary etchings featured in this book testify to Callot's mastery of sacred and profane imagery. The authors delve into Callot's techniques and subjects, ranging from humorous scenes inspired by commedia dell'arte to noble feasts, biblical events, and even the horrors of war. They also explore how the artist used characters from opposite ends of society to expose the complexities and injustices of his time. With his keen sense of observation, Callot held a mirror to European culture of the early 1600s, revealing both its tragic and humorous aspects.

Many of the contributors to this volume focus on the links between women and the architecture of religion in Europe.

Der Band enthalt 36 Beitrage in deutscher, franzosischer und englischer Sprache. Die Themenvielfalt reicht von der judischen Gemeinde in Lyon zur Zeit der Karolinger, Giftschriften des spaten Mittelalters und digitale Editionsprojekte mittelalterlicher Urkunden uber Ritter, Feldherren und Schauspieler der Fruhen Neuzeit, die Aufnahme der Hugenotten im Reich und franzosische Adelsmemoiren des 17. Jahrhunderts bis zu den Beitragen einer Tagung uber die Vorgeschichte des Ersten Weltkriegs.