DEPARTMENT OF History
module handbook
2008-2009
violence in early modern europe
Convenors: Dr Jonathan Davies / Dr Penny Roberts
Table of Contents
Context of Module 3
Module Aims 3
Intended Learning Outcomes 3
Syllabus:
Seminar 1: The Problem of Violence in Early Modern Europe 4
Seminar 2: Verbal Representations of Violence 5 Seminar 3: Visual Representation of Violence 7 Seminar 4: States, Arms and Armies 8 Seminar 5: Justice 10
Seminar 6: The Discourse of Interpersonal Violence 13 Seminar 7: Ritual Group Violence 15 Seminar 8: Popular Protest 16
Seminar 9: Organised Crime 17
Illustrative Bibliography 18
Context of Module
This module, taught in the Spring term, may be taken by students on the MA in Religious and Social History, the MA in History or any taught Master's student outside the History Department.
Module Aims
The module aims to provide an introduction to the methodological and theoretical issues involved in researching and writing on violence in Europe between c. 1500 and c. 1700. It serves both to encourage students to think in theoretical terms about the ways in which the experience of violence can be historically reconstructed and to expose them to the opportunities and problems presented by a variety of evidence. These sources include letters, diaries, broadsheets, pamphlets, newspapers, chronicles, histories, songs, plays, engravings, woodcuts, and paintings, as well as legislation and court records. The module will draw on insights from neighbouring disciplines including anthropology, gender studies, history of art, law, literary criticism, politics, sociology and social theory.
Intended Learning Outcomes
By the end of the module the student should be able to:
§ Identify and evaluate the most frequently used sources (archival, literary, and visual) for the study of violence.
§ Communicate ideas and findings about violence in a comparative context, both orally and in writing, to peers and to tutors.
§ Engage in the analysis of a body of primary and secondary source material including relevant information technology.
§ Analyse and evaluate the contributions made by existing interdisciplinary scholarship on violence.
§ Develop the ability to contextualise violence as a subject of historical enquiry
Seminar 1: The Problem of Violence in Early Modern Europe (JD/PR)
Readings:
Key Texts
Ø Carroll, Stuart, 'Introduction', in Stuart Carroll, ed., Cultures of Violence: Interpersonal Violence in Historical Perspective (Basingstoke, 2007), pp. 1-43.
Ø Carter Wood, John, 'Conceptualizing Cultures of Violence and Cultural Change', in Stuart Carroll, ed., Cultures of Violence: Interpersonal Violence in Historical Perspective (Basingstoke, 2007), pp.79-96.
Ø Hale, J.R., 'Violence in the Late Middle Ages: A Background', in Lauro Martines, ed., Violence and Disorder in Italian Cities, 1200-1500 (Berkeley, 1972), pp. 19-37.
Ø Ruff, Julius R., Violence in Early Modern Europe 1500-1800 (Cambridge, 2001), Introduction
Further Reading
Ø Besteman, Catherine, ed., Violence: A Reader (Basingstoke, 2002)
Ø Body-Gendrot, Sophie, and Pieter Spierenburg, eds, Violence in Europe: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives (New York, 2008)
Ø Elias, Norbert, The Civilizing Process, trans. Edmond Jephcott, 2 vols (New York, 1978-82)
Ø Lacour, Eva, ‘Faces of Violence Revisited. A Typology of Violence in Early Modern Rural Germany’, Journal of Social History 34/3 (2001), 649-667.
Ø Spierenburg, Pieter, ed., Men and Violence: Gender, Honor and Rituals in Modern Europe and America (Columbus OH 1998)
Ø Spierenburg, Pieter,'Punishment, Power, and History: Foucault and Elias', Social Science History 28 (2004), 607-636.
Ø Tilly, Charles, The Politics of Collective Violence (Cambridge, 2003)
Seminar 2 : Verbal Representations of Violence (PR)
Readings:
Key Texts
Ø Ruff, Julius R., Violence in Early Modern Europe 1500-1800 (Cambridge, 2001), Chapter 1.
Further Reading
Ø Becker, Lucinda M., Death and the Early Modern Englishwoman (Aldershot, 2003)
Ø Clark, Sandra, Women and Crime in the Street Literature of Early Modern England (Basingstoke, 2003)
Ø Foakes, R.A., Shakespeare and Violence (Cambridge, 2003)
Ø von Grimmelshausen, Hans Jakob Christoffel, Simplicissimus, trans. Michael Mitchell (Sawtry, 1999)
Ø Hale, J.R., 'Sixteenth-Century Explanations of War and Violence', Past and Present 51 (1971), 3-26
Ø Herrick, Marvin, Italian Tragedy in the Renaissance (Urbana, 1965)
Ø Kane, S.A., 'Wives With Knives: Early Modern Murder Ballads and the Transgressive Commodity,' Criticism 38 (1996), 219-238.
Ø Larson, Donald R., The Honor Plays of Lope de Vega (Cambridge, Mass., 1977)
Ø Low, Jennifer A., Manhood and the Duel: Masculinity in Early Modern Drama and Culture (Basingstoke, 2003)
Ø Martin, Randall, ed., Women and Murder in Early Modern News Pamphlets and Broadside Ballads, 1573-1697 (Aldershot, 2005)
Ø Medici, Lorenzino de’, Apology for a Murder, trans. Andrew Brown, with a foreword by Tim Parks (London, 2004)
Ø Robertson, Elizabeth, and Christine M. Rose, eds, Representing Rape in Medieval and Early Modern Literature (Basingstoke, 2001)
Ø Vega, Lope de, 'Punishment Without Revenge,' in Lope de Vega, Three Major Plays, ed. and trans. Gwynne Edwards (Oxford, 1999), pp. 169-265.
Seminar 3 : Visual Representations of Violence (JD)
Readings:
Key Texts
Ø Groebner, Valentin, Defaced: The Visual Culture of Violence in the Late Middle Ages, trans. Pamela Selwyn (New York. 2004)
Ø Ruff, Julius R., Violence in Early Modern Europe 1500-1800 (Cambridge, 2001), Chapter 1.
E Resources
The Web Gallery of Art
See also the e-resources for the seminar on justice.
Further Reading
Ø Cuneo, Pia, ed., Artful Armies, Beautiful Battles: Art and Warfare in Early Modern Europe (Leiden, 2002)
Ø Hale, J.R., Artists and Warfare in the Renaissance (New Haven, 1990)
Ø Kunzle, David, The Early Comic Strip: Narrative Strips and Picture Stories in the European Broadsheet from c.1450 to 1825 (Berkeley, 1973)
Ø Kunzle, David, From Criminal to Courtier: The Soldier in Netherlandish Art 1550-1672 (Leiden, 2002)
Ø Merback, Mitchell B., The Thief, the Cross and the Wheel: Pain and the Spectacle of Punishment in Medieval and Renaissance Europe (London, 2001)
Ø Puttfarken, Thomas, 'Caravaggio and the Representation of Violence', Umění / Art 55 (2007), 183-195.
Ø Puttfarken, Thomas, Titian and Tragic Painting: Aristotle's Poetics and the Rise of the Modern Artist (New Haven, 2005)
Seminar 4 : States, Arms and Armies (JD)
Readings:
Key Texts
Ø Ruff, Julius R., Violence in Early Modern Europe 1500-1800 (Cambridge, 2001), Chapter 2.
Further Reading
Ø Carlton, Charles, Going to the Wars: The Experience of the British Civil Wars, 1638-1651 (London, 1992)
Ø von Grimmelshausen, Hans Jakob Christoffel, Simplicissimus, trans. Michael Mitchell (Sawtry, 1999)
Ø Glete, Jan, War and the State in Early Modern Europe: Spain, the Dutch Republic and Sweden as Fiscal-Military States, 1500-1660 (London, 2002)
Ø Hale, J.R., War and Society in Renaissance Europe, 1450-1620 (London, 1985)
Ø Kunzle, David, From Criminal to Courtier: The Soldier in Netherlandish Art 1550-1672 (Leiden, 2002)
Ø Mortimer, Geoff, Eyewitness Accounts of the Thirty Years War (Basingstoke, 2002)
Ø Murphey, Rhoads, Ottoman Warfare, 1500-1700 (London, 1999)
Ø Redlich, Fritz, De praeda militari. Looting and booty, 1500-1815 (Wiesbaden, 1956)
Ø Rogers, Clifford, J., ed., The Military Revolution Debate: Readings on the Military Transformation of Early Modern Europe (Boulder, CO, 1995)
Ø Tallett, Frank, War and Society in Early-Modern Europe (London, 1992)
Ø Thomson, Janice, E., Mercenaries, Pirates, and Sovereigns: State-Building and Extraterritorial Violence in Early Modern Europe (Princeton, N.J, 1994)
Ø Tilly, Charles, ‘War-Making and State-Making as Organized Crime’, in Peter B. Evans et al. (eds), Bringing the State Back In (Cambridge, 1995), pp. 169-191
Ø Zmora, Hillary, State and Nobility in Early Modern Germany: The Knightly Feud in Franconia, 1440-1567 (Cambridge, 1997)
Seminar 5 : Justice (PR)
Readings:
Key Texts
Ø Ruff, Julius R., Violence in Early Modern Europe 1500-1800 (Cambridge, 2001), Chapter 3.
E Resources
Ø Old Bailey Online
Ø Jusepe de Ribera, The Duel of Isabella de Carazzi and Diambra de Pottinella, 1636.
Ø The estrapade/strappado from Jean Milles de Souvigny, Praxis criminis persequendi (Paris, 1541)
Ø The water torture from Joost de Damhoudere, Praxis rerum criminalium (Antwerp, 1556)
Ø The movable iron cage from Sebastian Munster, Cosmographie Universelle (Basle, 1552)
Ø Beheading from Sebastian Munster, Cosmographie Universelle (Basle, 1552)
Ø Empalement from Sebastian Munster, Cosmographie Universelle (Basle, 1552)
Ø Public executions from Jean Milles de Souvigny, Praxis criminis persequendi (Paris, 1541)
Ø The gibbet of Montfaucon from the Topography of Paris, in the Cabinet des Estampes.
Further Reading
Ø Astarita, Tommaso, Village Justice: Community, Family, and Popular Culture in Early Modern Italy (Baltimore, 1999)
Ø Barahona, Renato, Sex Crimes, Honour, and the Law in Early Modern Spain: Vizcaya, 1528-1735 (Toronto, 2003)
Ø Billaçois, François, The Duel: Its Rise and Fall in Early Modern France, trans. Trista Selous (New Haven, 1990)
Ø Brown, Keith, M., Bloodfeud in Scotland 1573-1625: Violence, Justice and Politics in an Early Modern Society (Edinburgh, 1986)
Ø Carroll, Stuart, Blood and Violence in Early Modern France (Oxford, 2006)
Ø Carroll, Stuart, ed., Cultures of Violence: Interpersonal Violence in Historical Perspective (Basingstoke, 2007)
Ø Cohen, Thomas V., Love and Death in Renaissance Italy (Chicago, 2004)
Ø Davis, Natalie Zemon, Fiction in the Archives: Pardon Tales and their Tellers in Sixteenth-Century France (Cambridge, 1987)
Ø Dülmen, Richard van, Theatre of Horror: Crime and Punishment in Early Modern Germany, trans. Elisabeth Neu (Oxford, 1990)
Ø Evans, Richard J., Rituals of Retribution: Capital Punishment in Germany, 1600-1987 (Oxford, 1996)
Ø Farr, James R., A Tale of Two Murders: Passion and Power in Seventeenth-Century France (Durham, NC, 2005)
Gaskill, Malcolm, 'Reporting Murder: Fiction in the Archives in Early Modern England,' Social History 23 (1998), 1-30.
Gaskill, Malcolm, Crime and Mentalities in Early Modern England (Cambridge, 2000)
Ø Greenshields, Malcolm, An Economy of Violence in Early Modern France: Crime and Justice in the Haute Auvergne, 1587-1664 (University Park, PA, 1994)
Ø Hitchcock, Tim, and Robert Shoemaker, Tales from the Hanging Court (London, 2006)
Ø Kiernan. V.G., The Duel in European History: Honour and the Reign of Aristocracy (Oxford, 1988)
Ø Merback, Mitchell B., The Thief, the Cross and the Wheel: Pain and the Spectacle of Punishment in Medieval and Renaissance Europe (London, 2001)
Ø Muir, Edward, Mad Blood Stirring: Vendetta in Renaissance Italy (Baltimore, 1998)
Ø Peltonen, Markku, The Duel in Early Modern England. Civility, Politeness and Honour (Cambridge, 2003)
Ø Peters, Edward, Torture (Philadelphia, 1996)
Ø Quint, David, ‘Duelling and Civility in Sixteenth-Century Italy’, I Tatti Studies 7 (1997), 231-275.
Ø Silverman, Lisa, Tortured Subjects: Pain, Truth, and the Body in Early Modern France (Chicago, 2001)
Ø Spierenburg, Pieter, The Prison Experience: Disciplinary Institutions and their Inmates in Early Modern Europe (New Brunswick, 1991)
Ø Stolleis, Michael, et al, eds, Policey im Europa der frühen Neuzeit (Frankfurt am Main, 1996)
Ø Zmora, Hillary, State and Nobility in Early Modern Germany: The Knightly Feud in Franconia, 1440-1567 (Cambridge, 1997)
Seminar 6 : The Discourse of Interpersonal Violence (JD)
Readings:
Key Texts
Ø Eisner, Manuel, 'Long-Term Historical Trends in Violent Crime', Crime and Justice 30 (2003), 83-142.
Ø Medici, Lorenzino de’, Apology for a Murder, trans. Andrew Brown, with a foreword by Tim Parks (London, 2004)
Ø Ruff, Julius R., Violence in Early Modern Europe 1500-1800 (Cambridge, 2001), Chapter 4.
Further Reading
Ø Astarita, Tommaso, Village Justice: Community, Family, and Popular Culture in Early Modern Italy (Baltimore, 1999)
Ø Carroll, Stuart, ed., Cultures of Violence: Interpersonal Violence in Historical Perspective (Basingstoke, 2007)
Ø Farr, James R., A Tale of Two Murders: Passion and Power in Seventeenth-Century France (Durham, NC, 2005)
Ø Greenshields, Malcolm, An Economy of Violence in Early Modern France: Crime and Justice in the Haute Auvergne, 1587-1664 (University Park, PA, 1994)
Ø Hurl-Eamon, Jennine, Gender and Petty Violence in London, 1680-1720 (Columbus, OH, 2005)
Ø Jackson, Mark, ed., Infanticide: Historical Perspectives on Child Murder and Concealment, 1550-2000 (Aldershot, 2002)
Ø Kaiser, Daniel H., ‘“He Said, She Said”: Rape and Gender Discourse in Early Modern Russia,” Kritika 3/2 (2002), 197-216.
Ø Laitinen, Rtta, 'Nighttime Street Fighting and the Meaning of Place: A Homicide in a Seventeenth-Century Swedish Provincial Town', Journal of Urban History 33 (2007), 602-619.
Ø Muchembled, Robert, La Violence au Village: Sociabilité et comportements populaires en Artois du XVe au XVIIe siècle (Turnhout, 1989)
Ø Taylor, Scott K., 'Women, Honor, and Violence in a Castilian Town, 1600-1650', The Sixteenth Century Journal 35/4 (2004), 1079-1100.
Ø Weinstein, Donald, The Captain's Concubine: Love, Honor, and Violence in Renaissance Tuscany (Baltimore, 2000)
Seminar 7 : Ritual Group Violence (PR)
Readings:
Key Texts
Ø Ruff, Julius R., Violence in Early Modern Europe 1500-1800 (Cambridge, 2001), Chapter 5.
Ø Zemon Davis, Natalie, ‘The Reasons of Misrule’ and ‘The Rites of Violence’ in Society and Culture in Early Modern France (Stanford, 1975), pp. 97-123, 152-187.
Further Reading
Ø Beik, William, 'The Violence of the French Crowd from Charivari to Revolution', Past and Present 197 (2007), 75-110.
Ø Cashmere, John, 'The Social Uses of Violence in Ritual: Charivari or Religious Persecution?' European History Quarterly 21 (1991), 291-319.
Ø Davis, Robert C., The War of the Fists: Popular Culture and Public Violence in Late Renaissance Venice (Oxford, 1994)
Ø Le Roy Ladurie, Emmanuel, Carnival: A People's Uprising at Romans 1579-1580, trans. Mary Feeney (London, 1980)
Ø Po-chia Hsia, R., The Myth of Ritual Murder: Jews and Magic in Reformation Germany (New Haven, 1990)
Ø Rosenthal, David, ‘The Genealogy of Empires: Ritual Politics and State Building in Early Modern Florence’, I Tatti Studies 8 (1999), 197-234.