No description available.

No description available.

This thesis begins by examining an unexplored contextual background for sixteenth century local maps. It argues that the architectural drawing techniques developed by master masons in the late twelfth century continued to be taught to the King’s masons well into the sixteenth, and that these drawing techniques lie behind the innovations in sixteenth century topographical mapping. Having provided a history of the craft skills that were adapted to make sixteenth century local maps this thesis moves on to consider why masons adapted craft skills traditionally used in full scale drawings on stone and plaster surfaces to make small, paper maps in the sixteenth century. It examines the way in which sixteenth century local maps were used and argues that the changing demands of patrons put pressure on master masons to alter the way in which local maps portrayed their subjects. The surviving archival evidence suggests that Henry VIII was the principle patron of local maps and my research examines the influence of the king over the shifting form of the map. It uses the letters and drawings sent between Henry VIII and his craftsmen to examine the decisive changes that Henry VIII made to the nature of the relationship between patron and builder, and the consequent effects of these changes over the forms of the image used to communicate between them. My argument suggests that Henry employs and promotes the craftsmen whose drawings allow him the greatest level of design control over the works he finances and that through this system maps and plans rapidly advance to include the technical drawing techniques which had, during the Middle Ages, been used exclusively among masons as on-site, working drawings. This thesis focuses attention on the technical aspects of map making, examining the material skills used to construct Henrician local maps and arguing that sixteenth centry local maps need to be related back to the craft skills of an older tradition of masonic drawing. It also suggests that map historians needs to look more closely at the correspondence sent between the king and his craftsmen and it argues this archival evidence provides a new contextual background with which to understand the changing forms of the Henrican local map.

No description available.

The reigns of the five Tudor monarchs were the context of vast changes in the nature of religion and government in England. This study explores the way in which these changes were reflected in sermons preached before the princes. Five preachers have been selected, one from each reign. All the sermons were delivered before the reigning monarch in English, and were printed and published shortly afterwards. The Introduction gives a general overview of the thesis. The subject matter of Chapter 1 is concerned with the funeral oration at the obsequies of Henry VII. Bishop John Fisher focuses his attention on the death of Henry, his contrition for his sins, and his reliance on God, through Holy Church, for the assurance of forgiveness. Chapter II examines a Good Friday sermon preached at Greenwich Palace before Henry VIII and Queen Anne Boleyn in 1536 by the King's confessor, John Longland. Longland promotes the beliefs and practises of Holy Church notwithstanding Henry's rejection of papal authority. In Chapter III, Hugh Latimer, the 'Prophet to the English,' preached a series of sermons before Edward VI in the Preaching Place at Whitehall during Lent 1549. Latimer's aim is to show Edward the path to true kingship and to promote justice in the realm. The sermons of Thomas Watson, Dean of Lincoln, before Queen Mary at Greenwich in Lent 1554 are the subject of Chapter IV. Watson supported the Queen in her efforts to return England to the true faith. Chapter V analyses the sermon John Whitgift, Dean of Lincoln, preached before Elizabeth I at Greenwich in Lent 1574. Whitgift refuted Catholic beliefs but reserved his greatest attacks for the radical Protestants.

While excavating a late fourth-century Roman merchantman off the coast of Yassiada, Turkey in 1967, archaeologists discovered another, more recent wreck lying across the stern of the Roman wreck. The artifact assemblage, dendrochronology, and carbon-14 dating indicated that the wreck was of Ottoman origin and dated to the late sixteenth-century. In 1982 and 1983, archaeologists under the auspices of the Institute of Nautical Archaeology at Texas A&M University returned to the site to fully excavate the vessel and raise its timbers for detailed study and conservation at the Bodrum Museum of Underwater Archaeology in Turkey. The purpose of this thesis is to analyze the remains of the hull by building upon previous preliminary reconstruction efforts to determine the ship's intended form and function. To accomplish this task, 1:10 scale drawings of the timbers were used to construct a half breadth model of the ship. By matching the nail holes on the recovered planking to the preserved remains of the ship's framing, it was possible to assess the hull's contours through transfer to a lines drawing. The resulting drawings show a moderately sized vessel with a wide flat bottom. In order to place the reconstruction into perspective, archaeological remains of similar shipwrecks and period iconography were consulted in order to suggest the ship's type and function. Four shipwrecks were found that have similar construction features to those on the Ottoman wreck. Three of the wrecks had the same unusual knuckle joints used in securing futtocks to frames that the Ottoman wreck has, shedding light on design and construction philosophy of ships in the eastern Mediterranean. The preliminary analysis of period iconography in conjunction with the remains of similar shipwrecks indicated that the vessel was a cargo carrier that may have ties to the Ottoman navy. Four types of ships from the same general period, the felluca, polacre, and shebek were found to have similar design features to the Ottoman wreck, but the closest iconographic parallel was the saique, which was a two-masted cargo carrier found in the Black Sea and the west coast of Turkey between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries.

Roger Smith has noted that theology has been overlooked within studies looking at early modern contructions of personhood. This thesis looks at the Lutheran pastor Christian Scriver’s (1629-1693) Gottholds zufälliger Andachten (1667), a popular seventeenth-century devotional, in order to investigate the way in which the author utilized his understanding of theology in order to help the people under his spiritual care refashion a sense of both self and identity within the turbulent decades following the Thirty Years’ War. This study challenges current historiographies which either marginalize the place of theology within early modern discussions of personhood and identity, or which treat theology’s contribution as being nothing more than a fostering of a radical affective-interiority. It also complicates the received historiographical caricature of Scriver as an uncritical proponent of Arndtian spirituality. Scriver’s zufälliger Andachten illustrate a rich social and interpersonal conception of what it means to be human, built upon the foundations of a Lutheran theological anthropology. Combined with Scriver’s adaptation of medieval exemplarism, and set within Luther’s reformation of the medieval practice of devotional reading, Scriver’s Andachten offer a useful glimpse into the way in which early modern devotional writings contributed to the creation of confessional identities through a process of what Lance Lazar has called “devotional modeling.” At the same time, I argue for a more thorough engagement with theology among historians as a formative part of early modern cultural discourse.

Roger Smith has noted that theology has been overlooked within studies looking at early modern contructions of personhood. This thesis looks at the Lutheran pastor Christian Scriver’s (1629-1693) Gottholds zufälliger Andachten (1667), a popular seventeenth-century devotional, in order to investigate the way in which the author utilized his understanding of theology in order to help the people under his spiritual care refashion a sense of both self and identity within the turbulent decades following the Thirty Years’ War. This study challenges current historiographies which either marginalize the place of theology within early modern discussions of personhood and identity, or which treat theology’s contribution as being nothing more than a fostering of a radical affective-interiority. It also complicates the received historiographical caricature of Scriver as an uncritical proponent of Arndtian spirituality. Scriver’s zufälliger Andachten illustrate a rich social and interpersonal conception of what it means to be human, built upon the foundations of a Lutheran theological anthropology. Combined with Scriver’s adaptation of medieval exemplarism, and set within Luther’s reformation of the medieval practice of devotional reading, Scriver’s Andachten offer a useful glimpse into the way in which early modern devotional writings contributed to the creation of confessional identities through a process of what Lance Lazar has called “devotional modeling.” At the same time, I argue for a more thorough engagement with theology among historians as a formative part of early modern cultural discourse.

N/A / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA)

This dissertation explores the history of women and litigation in the Spanish-Mediterranean city of Valencia between 1550 and 1600 through the examination of 114 civil suits filed in the appellate court of the Real Audiencia (Royal Supreme Court of the kingdom of Valencia). During this time, one-third of all legal cases reviewed by the Royal Supreme Court involved a female litigant as either the primary supplicant or defendant, and in some cases, women were both. Widows, wives, and daughters of Valencian artisans and merchants, farmers, and the elite initiated litigation over various socio-economic issues including disputed inheritances, dowries, yearly incomes, and urban and agricultural property. As good Valencian citizens, female litigants utilized the judicial system, particularly civil law courts, in order to negotiate their financial welfare during a time of economic prosperity in the city. In so doing, they demonstrated an understanding of local legal customs as well as their socio-economic rights, which they confidently defended. Historians have characterized early modern Spain as a litigious society, but there are few studies of Spanish litigation that focus primarily on the legal pursuits of women in civil court. Instead, scholarship has addressed Spanish women's involvement in criminal trials, an emphasis which tends to portray women as marginal to Spanish society. Civil litigation, however, presents women as individuals actively making daily decisions that impacted others from throughout their community. Moreover, the subject of women and litigation in Valencia reveals the degree to which local courts and the urban community, including men, supported women's legal and economic interests during the sixteenth century. Such local support further illustrates that women were central as opposed to marginal in early modern Spanish society.