Originally published in two volumes in 1980, The Printing Press as an Agent of Change is now issued in a paperback edition containing both volumes. The work is a full-scale historical treatment of the advent of printing and its importance as an agent of change. Professor Eisenstein begins by examining the general implications of the shift from script to print, and goes on to examine its part in three of the major movements of early modern times - the Renaissance, the Reformation, and the rise...

A small group of freethinkers from the Dutch Republic played a key role in the major intellectual changes of the Early Enlightenment (1640–1720). In the wake of Cartesianism, their rationalist ideas transformed debates about science, theology, medicine, and political theory. This book studies the position of four translators in these debates on the ‘New Philosophy’: Jan Hendriksz Glazemaker, Pieter Balling, Abraham van Berkel, and Stephan Blankaart. It presents a comparative history of ...

This is a book about some of the unexpected people and places involved in cultivating knowledge of the natural world and mastery of scientific apparatus around 1800, taking readers across continental Europe from the Enlightenment to the onset of academic professionalisation. The authors widen the horizon of inquiry by looking beyond the scientific elite of academies and prestigious science sponsored by princely courts, the focus of previous major studies of this time period. They consider peo...

This encyclopedia documents the presence and impact of nationalized cultural consciousness in European nationalism. It tracks how intellectuals, historians, philologists, novelists, poets, painters, folklorists, and composers, in an intensely collaborative transnational network, articulated the national identities and aspirations that would go on to determine European history and politics, with effects that are still felt today. This new revised edition includes more than 100 additional artic...

Vroegmoderne getuigenverslagen behoren tot de belangrijkste bronnen die we hebben om allerlei verborgen dimensies van het verleden te reconstrueren. Toch lieten historici ze tot voor kort vaak links liggen, omdat ze doorgaans moeilijk te raadplegen en te interpreteren waren voor onderzoekers zonder juridische expertise. Dankzij de ontwikkeling van nieuwe technieken en databanken krijgen we echter steeds beter inzicht in deze bronnen en daarmee ook in het alledaagse leven in de vroegmoderne ti...

Georg Marggrafe (1610-1643) is today hailed as the principal author of an influential account of the natural history of Northern Brazil and as compiler of the first accurate map of the area, which is considered as one of the most elegant products of seventeenth-century Dutch cartography. But initial he had the ambition to become known in astronomy. With the support Johan Maurits van Nassau-Siegen, then governor-general of colonial Dutch Brazil, he built in Recife the first European-style astr...

The remains of Dutch East India Company forts are scattered throughout littoral Asia and Africa. But how important were the specific characteristics of European bastion-trace fortifications to Early-Modern European expansion? Was European fortification design as important for Early-Modern expansion as has been argued? This book takes on these questions by studying the system of fortifications built and maintained by the Dutch East India Company (VOC) in present-day India and Sri Lanka. It unc...

Terwijl de tijd vervliegt, is ruimte weerbarstig. Dat bleek in het bijzonder in de Reformatietijd van de zestiende en zeventiende eeuw. Toen werd het religieuze landschap weliswaar grondig hertekend, maar ruimtes die van oudsher een sacrale status hadden (zoals kerken, koren en kerkhoven) bleven vaak ononderbroken in gebruik, al dan niet met een andere functie. Deze Nieuwe Tijdingen onderzoeken daarom het (her)gebruik van sacrale ruimtes in tijden van ingrijpende religieuze verandering, een t...

Julián Romero, Sancho Dávila, Cristóbal de Mondragón, and Francisco de Valdés were prominent Spanish military commanders during the first decade of the Revolt in the Low Countries (1567–1577). Occupying key positions in this conflict, they featured as central characters in various war narratives and episodical descriptions of the events they were involved in, ranging from chronicles, poems, theatre plays, engravings, and songs to news pamphlets. To this day, they still figure as protag...