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Cosmos and Materiality in Early Modern Prague

Ivanic, Suzanna (2021) Cosmos and Materiality in Early Modern Prague. Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK, 256 pp. ISBN 978-0-19-289898-2. (doi:10.1093/oso/9780192898982.001.0001) (The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided) (KAR id:90021)

The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided. (Contact us about this Publication)
Official URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780192898982.001.00...

Abstract

Prague in the seventeenth century is known as home to a scintillating imperial court crammed with exotic goods, scientists, and artisans, receiving ambassadors from Persia, and also as a city suffering plagues, riots, and devastating military attacks. But Prague was also the setting for a complex and shifting spiritual world. At the beginning of the century it was a multiconfessional city, but by 1700 it represented one of the most archetypical Catholic cities in Europe. Through a material approach, Cosmos and Materiality pieces together how early modern men and women experienced this transformation on a daily basis.

Cosmos and Materiality in Early Modern Prague presents a bold alternative understanding of the history of early modern religion in Central Europe. The history of religion in the early modern period has overwhelmingly been analysed through a confessional lens, but this book shows how Prague's spiritual worlds were embedded in their natural environment and social relations as much if not more than in confessional identity in the seventeenth century. While texts in this period trace emerging discourses around notions of religion, superstition, magic, and what it was to be Catholic or Protestant, a material approach avoids these category mistakes being applied to everyday practice. It is through a rich seam of material evidence in Prague - spoons, glass beakers, and amulets as much as traditional devotional objects like rosaries and garnet encrusted crucifixes - that everyday beliefs, practices, and identities can be recovered.

Item Type: Book
DOI/Identification number: 10.1093/oso/9780192898982.001.0001
Uncontrolled keywords: Religion, Catholicism, Material Culture, Devotion, Inventories, Domestic, Early Modern, Prague, Cosmos
Subjects: D History General and Old World
D History General and Old World > DD Germany
Divisions: Divisions > Division of Arts and Humanities > School of History
Depositing User: Suzanna Ivanic
Date Deposited: 03 Sep 2021 10:57 UTC
Last Modified: 06 Sep 2021 12:09 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/90021 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

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