Conclusion

The systemic role of families in the production of much literature and learning in the early modern period needs greater recognition. Countless works were shaped by families’ practice of hunting in packs to maximize their place in society. This production of works was just one of many planks within the broader transgenerational strategies of families, commoner as well as noble. Works were woven into the wider webs of families’ inheritance and legacy practices. They helped families imagine their own futures and steer a course into it, even if that course subsequently swerved, forked, or faded. These families did not, however, represent society as a whole. They belonged overwhelmingly to social elites, whether noble or commoner. However, family literature was often rooted in anxiety, disappointment, and conflict as well as in hope and a sense of vocation, mission, or entitlement to power.