Early modern societies were pervaded by smells and odours, but few traces have survived that offer a glimpse of the olfactory experience. This essay reconstructs this lost early modern ‘smellscape’, focusing on the smell of disease and death in the late medieval Antwerp Church of Our Lady (c. 1450-1559). Bustling cathedrals and parish churches could be a minefield of life-threatening odours, as there was a strong interaction between externally perceived body odour and a person’s inner sweetness. Through devotional objects and liturgical rituals, however, it was possible to protect oneself from the stench of both living and dead parishioners. Exemplary markers for the shared discourse of smell on a medical and spiritual level were aromatic prayer beads and purifying incense.
{"title":"Smelling Disease and Death in the Antwerp Church of Our Lady, c. 1450-1559","authors":"Wendy Wauters","doi":"10.51750/emlc10006","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.51750/emlc10006","url":null,"abstract":"Early modern societies were pervaded by smells and odours, but few traces have survived that offer a glimpse of the olfactory experience. This essay reconstructs this lost early modern ‘smellscape’, focusing on the smell of disease and death in the late medieval Antwerp Church of Our Lady (c. 1450-1559). Bustling cathedrals and parish churches could be a minefield of life-threatening odours, as there was a strong interaction between externally perceived body odour and a person’s inner sweetness. Through devotional objects and liturgical rituals, however, it was possible to protect oneself from the stench of both living and dead parishioners. Exemplary markers for the shared discourse of smell on a medical and spiritual level were aromatic prayer beads and purifying incense.","PeriodicalId":37252,"journal":{"name":"Early Modern Low Countries","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-06-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46575021","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Christopher Joby, The Dutch Language in Japan (1600-1900). A Cultural and Sociolinguistic Study of Dutch as a Contact Language in Tokugawa and Meiji Japan","authors":"L. Nespoli","doi":"10.51750/emlc10015","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.51750/emlc10015","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":37252,"journal":{"name":"Early Modern Low Countries","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-06-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42057978","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Claudia Swan, Rarities of These Lands. Art, Trade, and Diplomacy in the Dutch Republic","authors":"M. Prak","doi":"10.51750/emlc10016","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.51750/emlc10016","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":37252,"journal":{"name":"Early Modern Low Countries","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-06-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43799646","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This contribution assesses the impact of the Protestant Reformation and iconoclasm on the memorial culture of tombs, epitaphs, and rituals in the Low Countries (c. 1520-1585), and analyses the consequences these events had on ancestral remembrance. Demonstrating how Protestant critiques and iconoclastic attacks fundamentally endangered the archival function of churches, it argues that this imminent threat to memory provoked a heightened awareness of the ancestral past in the later sixteenth century. Most significantly, it shows that this precarious situation led to the genesis of a new type of commemorative manuscript, the épitaphier, in which heraldic, genealogical, and other information on various types of memorial monuments in churches was recorded. In tracing the production and dissemination of these épitaphiers, the article casts new light on the pan-European heraldic and ‘genealogical craze’ in this period: while English scholars have emphasized social dynamics as explanation, this essay puts forward the religious debates as a hitherto neglected factor, and demonstrates how the two interlocked.
{"title":"Ancestral Monuments, Iconoclasm, and Memorial Culture in the Sixteenth-Century Low Countries","authors":"R. Suykerbuyk","doi":"10.51750/emlc10007","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.51750/emlc10007","url":null,"abstract":"This contribution assesses the impact of the Protestant Reformation and iconoclasm on the memorial culture of tombs, epitaphs, and rituals in the Low Countries (c. 1520-1585), and analyses the consequences these events had on ancestral remembrance. Demonstrating how Protestant critiques and iconoclastic attacks fundamentally endangered the archival function of churches, it argues that this imminent threat to memory provoked a heightened awareness of the ancestral past in the later sixteenth century. Most significantly, it shows that this precarious situation led to the genesis of a new type of commemorative manuscript, the épitaphier, in which heraldic, genealogical, and other information on various types of memorial monuments in churches was recorded. In tracing the production and dissemination of these épitaphiers, the article casts new light on the pan-European heraldic and ‘genealogical craze’ in this period: while English scholars have emphasized social dynamics as explanation, this essay puts forward the religious debates as a hitherto neglected factor, and demonstrates how the two interlocked.","PeriodicalId":37252,"journal":{"name":"Early Modern Low Countries","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-06-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47777681","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Jan de Vries, The Price of Bread. Regulating the Market in the Dutch Republic","authors":"A. Feenstra","doi":"10.51750/emlc10012","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.51750/emlc10012","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":37252,"journal":{"name":"Early Modern Low Countries","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-06-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47047626","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Although we are frequently confronted with an image of early modern Dutch women as existing primarily, if not exclusively, within the realm of household management, the reality was far more nuanced. A case study of Agnes Block (1629-1704) shows that by focusing on relationships, she succeeded in participating in the creation and dissemination of knowledge of botany in the public sphere and achieved recognition in that sphere, notwithstanding the institutional limits imposed upon her due to her gender. By adapting our methodological and analytical frameworks, in this case by looking to social networks and the power of print media, we can recover the stories of early modern women that are otherwise obscured in the archives and write them into history.
{"title":"Locating Early Modern Women’s Participation in the Public Sphere of Botany: Agnes Block (1629-1704) and Networks in Print","authors":"C. Powell","doi":"10.18352/emlc.147","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.18352/emlc.147","url":null,"abstract":"Although we are frequently confronted with an image of early modern Dutch women as existing primarily, if not exclusively, within the realm of household management, the reality was far more nuanced. A case study of Agnes Block (1629-1704) shows that by focusing on relationships, she succeeded in participating in the creation and dissemination of knowledge of botany in the public sphere and achieved recognition in that sphere, notwithstanding the institutional limits imposed upon her due to her gender. By adapting our methodological and analytical frameworks, in this case by looking to social networks and the power of print media, we can recover the stories of early modern women that are otherwise obscured in the archives and write them into history.","PeriodicalId":37252,"journal":{"name":"Early Modern Low Countries","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-12-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44797080","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Amber Oomen-Delhaye, De Amsterdamse Schouwburg als politiek strijdtoneel. Theater, opinievorming en de (r)evolutie van Romeinse helden (1780-1801)","authors":"W. Velema","doi":"10.18352/emlc.153","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.18352/emlc.153","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":37252,"journal":{"name":"Early Modern Low Countries","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-12-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44306387","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Daniel Bellingradt, Vernetzte Papiermärkte. Einblicke in den Amsterdamer Handel mit Papier im 18. Jahrhundert","authors":"Frank Birkenholz","doi":"10.18352/emlc.148","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.18352/emlc.148","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":37252,"journal":{"name":"Early Modern Low Countries","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-12-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44848826","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Petra Groen, Olaf van Nimwegen, Ronald Prud’homme van Reine, Louis Sicking, and Adri van Vliet, The Eighty Years War. From Revolt to Regular War 1568-1648","authors":"J. Rotteveel","doi":"10.18352/emlc.151","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.18352/emlc.151","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":37252,"journal":{"name":"Early Modern Low Countries","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-12-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47636893","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Jan Simonis, Jaap Kottman, and Hans van Bemmel (eds.) Elsenburg, de verdwenen buitenplaats. Het ontstaan van het buitenleven aan de Vecht","authors":"Alette Fleischer","doi":"10.18352/emlc.150","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.18352/emlc.150","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":37252,"journal":{"name":"Early Modern Low Countries","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-12-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47200615","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}