Synopses & Reviews
AGES OF WOMAN, AGES OF MAN
How did women and men live in early modern Europe?
This innovative collection brings together a wide range of written and visual sources, the vast majority of them directly from European archives and printed for the first time in any language, which provide evidence about life in Europe during the late Middle Ages, Renaissance, and early modern era.
The book is organized around two main principles: stages of life and gender, and is divided into eight chapters: childhood, youth and sexuality, courtship and weddings, married life, economic life, RELIGION, networks and communities, and widowhood and old age.
The diverse sources include materials from TWENTY different states, including Portugal, Iceland, Russia, Denmark, SERBIA, and the Ottoman Empire, along with Italy, Germany, Spain, France, and England. The sources address the numerous and varied ways in which women and men¿s notions of themselves affected their lives, and explore how concepts of masculine and feminine influenced social, economic, and religious change.
The editors have provided a general introduction and an introduction to each chapter, and have included questions for discussion at the end of each chapter. CONTRIBUTOR-TRANSLATORS WHO ARE SPECIALISTS IN THE AREA HAVE PROVIDED HEADNOTES TO EACH DOCUMENT. This text is a vital introduction to the age.
Monica Chojnacka is Associate Professor of History, University of Georgia.
Merry E. Wiesner-Hanks is Professor of History, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
Synopsis
"This broad focus source book brings together a wide and exciting range of written and visual sources from all over Europe - from Iceland and the Azores to Russia and the Ottoman Empire - and includes materials on men and masculinity along with women, making its focus truly gender and not women. The collection is organized around two main principles, stages of life and gender, and is divided into eight chapters: childhood, youth and sexuality, courtship and weddings, married life, economic life, networks and communities, and widowhood and old age. The sources address the numerous and varied ways in which women and men's notions of themselves affected their lives, and explores how accepted norms of masculine and feminine behavior influenced social, economic, and religious change. The authors include a wide range of types of documents rarely found in readers, including court cases involving same-sex relationships, Inquisition records regarding blasphemy, bigamy, and abandonment, a midwife's diary, love letters, popular stories, testimonies regarding spousal abuse, and healing spells. A sourcebook for writers, scholars, students or anyone interested in European history and specifically gender history.
Synopsis
The collection is organized around two main principles, stages of life and gender, and is divided into eight chapters: childhood, youth and sexuality, courtship and weddings, married life, economic life, networks and communities, and widowhood and old age. The sources address the numerous and varied ways in which women and men¿s notions of themselves affected their lives, and explore how accepted norms of masculine and feminine behaviour influenced social, economic, and religious change. Guided by a general editors' introduction and then an introduction to each chapter, the user will find this an invaluable reference companion to early modern gender history.
About the Author
Merry Wiesner Hanks has published several books on women in early modern Europe, including Christianity and Sexuality in the Early Modern World (Routledge, 2000) and is the co-editor of the Sixteenth Century Journal. She is Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin/Milwaukee. Monica Chojnacka is the author of Working Women of Early Modern Venice (Johns Hopkins, 2001). She is Associate Professor of History at the University of Georgia.
Table of Contents
Geographic table of contents Introduction I. CHILDHOOD 1. Birth and Infancy 2. Education and training 3. Orphans 4. Inheritance II. YOUTH, SEXUALITY, AND THE SINGLE LIFE 5. Advanced Education 6. Restrictions on single people 7. Sexuality 8. Images of Youth III. COURTSHIP, LOVE, AND WEDDINGS 9. Choosing a spouse 10. Engagement negotiations 11. Marriage contracts and agreements 12. Love 13. Weddings IV. MARRIED LIFE 14. Definitions of marital status 15. Love and companionship 16. Marriage as partnership 17. Conflict V. ECONOMIC LIFE 18. Ownership and management of property and goods 19. Sales and trade 20. Production 21. Medical care 22. Servants, soldiers, and slaves VI. RELIGION 23. Defining and maintaining orthodoxy 24. Religious activities 25. Competing traditions VII. NETWORKS 26. Family bonds 27. Friendship networks and neighborhoods 28. Professional networks 29. Religious communities 30. Conflict VIII. WIDOWHOOD AND OLD AGE 31. Carrying on the family business 32. Widows and widowers as financial administrators 33. Widowhood, age, and power 34. Hardship List of contributors