Gift-Giving and Materiality in Europe, 1300-1600
Gift-Giving and Materiality in Europe, 1300-1600

Author: Lars Kjaer

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2022-10-06

Total Pages: 273

ISBN-13: 1350183695

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Gift-giving played an important role in political, social and religious life in medieval and early modern Europe. This volume explores an under-examined and often-overlooked aspect of this phenomenon: the material nature of the gift. Drawing on examples from both medieval and early modern Europe, the authors from the UK and across Europe explore the craftsmanship involved in the production of gifts and the use of exotic objects and animals, from elephant bones to polar bears and 'living' holy objects, to communicate power, class and allegiance. Gifts were publicly given, displayed and worn and so the book explores the ways in which, as tangible objects, gifts could help to construct religious and social worlds. But the beauty and material richness of the gift could also provoke anxieties. Classical and Christian authorities agreed that, in gift-giving, it was supposed to be the thought that counted and consequently wealth and grandeur raised worries about greed and corruption: was a valuable ring payment for sexual services or a token of love and a promise of marriage? Over three centuries, Gift-Giving and Materiality in Europe, 1300-1600: Gifts as Objects reflects on the possibilities, practicalities and concerns raised by the material character of gifts.

Gift-Giving and Materiality in Europe, 1300-1600
Gift-Giving and Materiality in Europe, 1300-1600

Author: Lars Kjaer

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2022-09-08

Total Pages: 273

ISBN-13: 1350183717

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Gift-giving played an important role in political, social and religious life in medieval and early modern Europe. This volume explores an under-examined and often-overlooked aspect of this phenomenon: the material nature of the gift. Drawing on examples from both medieval and early modern Europe, the authors from the UK and across Europe explore the craftsmanship involved in the production of gifts and the use of exotic objects and animals, from elephant bones to polar bears and 'living' holy objects, to communicate power, class and allegiance. Gifts were publicly given, displayed and worn and so the book explores the ways in which, as tangible objects, gifts could help to construct religious and social worlds. But the beauty and material richness of the gift could also provoke anxieties. Classical and Christian authorities agreed that, in gift-giving, it was supposed to be the thought that counted and consequently wealth and grandeur raised worries about greed and corruption: was a valuable ring payment for sexual services or a token of love and a promise of marriage? Over three centuries, Gift-Giving and Materiality in Europe, 1300-1600: Gifts as Objects reflects on the possibilities, practicalities and concerns raised by the material character of gifts.

Cosmos and Materiality in Early Modern Prague
Cosmos and Materiality in Early Modern Prague

Author: Suzanna Ivanič

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2021

Total Pages: 257

ISBN-13: 0192898981

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In the seventeenth century Prague was the setting for a complex and shifting spiritual world. By studying the city's material culture, this book presents a bold alternative understanding of early modern religion in central Europe.

Food in Early Modern Europe
Food in Early Modern Europe

Author: Ken Albala

Publisher: Greenwood

Published: 2003-02-28

Total Pages: 288

ISBN-13:

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This unique book examines food's importance during the massive evolution of Europe following the Middle Ages.

The Dutch East India Company in Early Modern Japan
The Dutch East India Company in Early Modern Japan

Author: Michael Laver

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2020-04-16

Total Pages: 180

ISBN-13: 1350126055

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Michael Laver examines how the giving of exotic gifts in early modern Japan facilitated Dutch trade by ascribing legitimacy to the shogunal government and by playing into the shogun's desire to create a worldview centered on a Japanese tributary state. The book reveals how formal and informal gift exchange also created a smooth working relationship between the Dutch and the Japanese bureaucracy, allowing the politically charged issue of foreign trade to proceed relatively uninterrupted for over two centuries. Based mainly on Dutch diaries and official Dutch East India Company records, as well as exhaustive secondary research conducted in Dutch, English, and Japanese, this new study fills an important gap in our knowledge of European-Japanese relations. It will also be of great interest to anyone studying the history of material culture and cross-cultural relations in a global context.

Power and Ceremony in European History
Power and Ceremony in European History

Author: Anna Kalinowska

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2021-09-09

Total Pages: 250

ISBN-13: 135015220X

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From oaths and hand-kissing to coronations and baptisms, Power and Ceremony in European History considers the governing practices, courtly rituals, and expressions of power prevalent in Europe and the Ottoman Empire from the medieval age to the modern era. Bringing together political and art historical approaches to the study of power, this book reveals how ceremonies and rituals - far from simply being ostentatious displays of wealth - served as a primary means of communication between different participants in political and courtly life. It explores how ceremonial culture changed over time and in different regions to provide readers with a nuanced comparative understanding of rituals and ceremonies since the middle ages, showing how such performances were integral to the evolution of the state in Europe. This collection of essays is of immense value to both historians and art historians interested in representations of power and the political culture of Europe from 1450 onwards.