Download as pdf or txt
Download as pdf or txt
You are on page 1of 44

Lives Uncovered: A Sourcebook of

Early Modern Europe Nicholas Terpstra


Visit to download the full and correct content document:
https://ebookmass.com/product/lives-uncovered-a-sourcebook-of-early-modern-europ
e-nicholas-terpstra/
More products digital (pdf, epub, mobi) instant
download maybe you interests ...

Global Reformations Sourcebook: Convergence,


Conversion, and Conflict in Early Modern Religious
Encounters Nicholas Terpstra

https://ebookmass.com/product/global-reformations-sourcebook-
convergence-conversion-and-conflict-in-early-modern-religious-
encounters-nicholas-terpstra/

The Dialectics of Orientalism in Early Modern Europe


1st Edition Marcus Keller

https://ebookmass.com/product/the-dialectics-of-orientalism-in-
early-modern-europe-1st-edition-marcus-keller/

Architecture and the Politics of Gender in Early Modern


Europe 1st Edition Helen Hills (Editor)

https://ebookmass.com/product/architecture-and-the-politics-of-
gender-in-early-modern-europe-1st-edition-helen-hills-editor/

A Sourcebook of Early Modern European History: Life,


Death, and Everything in Between Ute Lotz-Heumann

https://ebookmass.com/product/a-sourcebook-of-early-modern-
european-history-life-death-and-everything-in-between-ute-lotz-
heumann/
Economies of Literature and Knowledge in Early Modern
Europe: Change and Exchange Subha Mukherji

https://ebookmass.com/product/economies-of-literature-and-
knowledge-in-early-modern-europe-change-and-exchange-subha-
mukherji/

Prophecy, Madness, and Holy War in Early Modern Europe


Leigh T.I. Penman

https://ebookmass.com/product/prophecy-madness-and-holy-war-in-
early-modern-europe-leigh-t-i-penman/

Historicizing Life-Writing and Egodocuments in Early


Modern Europe James R. Farr

https://ebookmass.com/product/historicizing-life-writing-and-
egodocuments-in-early-modern-europe-james-r-farr/

Love's Wounds: Violence and the Politics of Poetry in


Early Modern Europe 1st Edition Nazarian

https://ebookmass.com/product/loves-wounds-violence-and-the-
politics-of-poetry-in-early-modern-europe-1st-edition-nazarian/

Women’s Private Practices of Knowledge Production in


Early Modern Europe 1st Edition Natacha Klein Käfer

https://ebookmass.com/product/womens-private-practices-of-
knowledge-production-in-early-modern-europe-1st-edition-natacha-
klein-kafer/
LIVES
UNCOVERED
A SOURCEBOOK OF
EARLY MODERN EUROPE
LIVES
UNCOVERED
A SOURCEBOOK OF
EARLY MODERN EUROPE

EDITED BY NICHOLAS TERPSTRA


© University of Toronto Press 2019
Toronto Buffalo London
utorontopress.com
Printed in Canada

All rightsofreserved.
© University The2019
Toronto Press use of any part of this publication reproduced, transmitted in any form or
by any means,
Toronto electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, or stored in a retrieval
Buffalo London
system, without prior written consent of the publisher—or in the case of photocopying, a licence
utorontopress.com
from Access
Printed Copyright (the Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency) 320–56 Wellesley Street West,
in Canada
Toronto, Ontario, M5S 2S3—is an infringement of the copyright law.
All rights reserved. The use of any part of this publication reproduced, transmitted in any form or
by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, or stored in a retrieval
Library
system, and Archives
without Canada
prior written consentCataloguing in Publication
of the publisher—or in the case of photocopying, a licence
from Access Copyright (the Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency) 320–56 Wellesley Street West,
Title: Lives
Toronto, uncovered
Ontario, M5S 2S3—is: a sourcebook of early
an infringement of the modern
copyright Europe
law. / edited by Nicholas Terpstra.
Names: Terpstra, Nicholas, editor.
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Description: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers:
Title: Canadiana
Global ecopolitics 20190091096
: crisis, governance,|and
ISBN 9781442607323
justice / Peter J. Stoett (softcover) | ISBN 9781487594510
with Shane Mulligan.
(hardcover)
Names: Stoett, Peter J. (Peter John), 1965–, author. | Mulligan, Shane, 1970–, author.
Description: Second Life
Subjects: LCSH: edition. | Includes
cycle, Human bibliographical
– History –references
Sources.and index. Europe – Social conditions –
| LCSH:
Identifiers:
Sources.Canadiana
| LCSH:20190049162 | ISBN 9781487587895
Europe – History – 1492–1648 –(softcover)
Sources.| ISBN 9781487587901
(hardcover)
Classification: LCC HN373 L58 2019 | DDC 306.094 – dc23
Subjects: LCSH: Environmental policy – Case studies. | LCSH: Environmental policy – International
cooperation – Case studies. | LCSH: Environmental justice – International cooperation – Case
We welcome comments and suggestions regarding any aspect of our publications—please feel free
studies. | LCSH: Political ecology – Case studies. | LCGFT: Case studies.
Classification:us
to contact at news@utorontopress.com
LCC JA75.8 .S76 2019 | DDC 304.2or– visit
dc23 our Internet site at utorontopress.com.

We welcome
North comments and suggestions regarding any aspect
America of our publications—please
UK, Ireland, and continental feel free
Europe
to contact
5201 us at news@utorontopress.com
Dufferin Street or visit our internet
NBN site at utorontopress.com.
International
North
North York, Ontario, Canada, M3H 5T8UK, Ireland,
America Estover Road, Plymouth,
and continental Europe PL6 7PY, UK
5201 Dufferin Street orders phone: 44 (0) 1752 202301
NBN International
2250 York,
North Military Road
Ontario, Canada, M3H 5T8 orders
Estover Road, fax:PL6
Plymouth, 44 (0)
7PY,1752
UK 202333
Tonawanda, New York, USA, 14150 orders
orders phone: e-mail
44 (0) 1752 202301
: enquiries@nbninternational.com
2250
ordersMilitary Road : 1–800–565–9523
phone orders fax: 44 (0) 1752 202333
Tonawanda, New York, USA,
orders fax: 1–800–221–9985 14150 orders e-mail: enquiries@nbninternational.com
orders phone: 1–800–565–9523
orders e-mail: utpbooks@utpress.utoronto.ca
orders fax: 1–800–221–9985
orders e-mail: utpbooks@utpress.utoronto.ca
Every effort has been made to contact copyright holders; in the event of an error or omission, please
Every
notifyeffort
the has been made to contact copyright holders; in the event of an error or omission, please
publisher.
notify the publisher.
University
This of Toronto
book is printed Press
on paper acknowledges
containing the financial
100% post-consumer assistance to its publishing program of
fibre.
the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council, an agency of the Government of
University
Ontario. of Toronto Press acknowledges the financial assistance to its publishing program of the
Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council, an agency of the Government of Ontario.
Contents
List of Figures xi
Acknowledgements xiii

I How to Read a Primary Source 1

II Lives Uncovered: Life Cycles in the Early Modern Period 5

III Body and Spirit, Sickness and Health 9


3.1 The Cosmic Human (1531) 9
3.2 The Human Animal (1561) 11
3.3 You Are What You Eat, or You Eat What You Are? (1656) 14
3.4 Cooking Comfort Foods (1570) 18
3.5 A Balanced Diet (1587) 19
3.6 New Food: Tomato (1692) 20
3.7 Depression as a Spiritual Imbalance (1643) 21
3.8 Combatting Inner Demons (1653) 22
3.9 Self-Medicating with Alcohol (1682) 23
3.10 A New Addiction: Coffee (1732–34) 25
3.11 A New Vice: Tobacco (1605) 27
Reading Questions 27

IV Conception, Contraception, and Birth 29


4.1 A Woman’s Advice on Conceiving a Child (1671) 29
4.2 A Man’s Advice on Conceiving a Child (1612) 30
4.3 Menstruation (1671) 32
4.4 How to Have a Healthy Childbirth (1513) 33
4.5 Boys and Girls in the Womb (1587; 1669) 35
4.6 One Sex or Two? Women and Men as Mirrors of Each Other (1671) 37
4.7 How to Prevent Miscarriage (1656; 1671) 37
4.8 Diary of a Dutch Midwife (1693–1702) 38
4.9 Diary of a Florentine Father (1404–31) 42

v
Contents

4.10 Diary of an English Mother (1648–68) 44


4.11 Penalties for Abortion and Infanticide (1555) 45
4.12 Miscarriage and Abortion (1671) 46
4.13 Trials for Infanticide (1677; 1679) 47
4.14 Trying to Understand Birth Defects (1575) 48
4.15 The Business of Wet Nursing (1420s) 49
4.16 Wet Nursing Carnival Songs (1400s) 50
4.17 Breastfeeding Is Good, and Mother’s Milk Is Best (1622) 51
4.18 A Jewish Circumcision (1580–81) 52
Reading Questions 54

V Childhood and Adolescence 55


5.1 What Boys and Girls Need to Learn (c. 1654) 55
5.2 Bad Dreams and Bedwetting (1653) 57
5.3 Training of a Renaissance Feminist (1488) 58
5.4 A Man’s Idea of a School for Girls (1671) 60
5.5 A Woman’s Idea of a School for Girls (1694) 62
5.6 A Feminist Instructs Her Brothers (1485) 63
5.7 Raising Muslim and Jewish Children in Algiers—A Portuguese Priest’s View (1612) 64
5.8 Writing Home: An Obedient Son (1578) 66
5.9 Writing Home: A Wily Son (1629–36) 68
5.10 Youth Rules the Night (c. 1670) 72
5.11 Life of a University Student (1550s) 73
Reading Questions 77

VI Working Life 79
6.1 Instructions for the Ideal Servant—An Employer’s View (1681) 79
6.2 Learning a Trade on the Job (1525) 80
6.3 The Apprentice’s Overseer (1795) 82
6.4 Peasant Protest and Rebellion (1502; 1525) 83
6.5 Workers and Employers at Odds (c. 1465) 86
6.6 Women and the Guilds: Gold Spinners in Germany (1500s) 88
6.7 Apprenticeship Contract for a Daughter in France (1610) 89
6.8 Apprenticeship Contract for a Female Orphan (1700) 90
6.9 Protecting Local Industry (1687) 92
6.10 The Rural Woman’s Guide to Hard Work (1550) 93
Reading Questions 94

VII Marriage: Making and Ending It 95


7.1 A Contested Marriage in Court: Richard Tymond vs. Margery Sheppard (1487) 95
7.2 A Contested Marriage in Court: Alice Parker vs. Richard Tenwinter (1488) 96
7.3 Marrying Your Own (1540) 97
7.4 A Man Describes the Perfect Wife (1583) 98
7.5 Domestic Assault (1598) 99
7.6 Marrying to Breed (1654) 100
7.7 Italian Marriage Negotiations (1400s) 100

vi
Contents

7.8 German Marriage Negotiations (1533) 104


7.9 English Marriage Negotiations (1680–81) 106
7.10 Marriage Night Conversation (1699) 107
7.11 Fertility Curses and Cures (1500s) 108
7.12 French Marriage Negotiations: Contract for a Second Marriage (1540) 109
7.13 A Woman’s Critique of Married Life (1600) 110
7.14 “Happy the Woman without a Man” (1500s) 112
7.15 A Man’s Critique of Married Life (1682) 114
7.16 Calculating Adultery (1700) 116
7.17 Marriage and Divorce in Muslim Spain (1438; 1474) 117
7.18 A Woman’s Response to Bigamy—Recovering Independence (1539) 119
7.19 Impotence and Divorce (1635) 120
7.20 Muslim Marriage Ceremonies in Algiers—A Portuguese Priest’s View (1612) 121
7.21 Marriage without Rituals—The Quaker Option (1685) 123
7.22 A Woman Reflects on Marriage (1703) 124
Reading Questions 125

VIII Sex, Gender, and Prostitution 127


8.1 A Morisca Prostitute in Valencia (1491) 127
8.2 A Catalogue of London Prostitutes (1691) 128
8.3 City Government Establishing a Brothel (1460) 131
8.4 Same-Sex Relations and Cross-Dressing (1477) 133
8.5 Warning Parents about Same-Sex Relations among Girls (1771) 134
8.6 A Transvestite Prostitute (1385) 134
8.7 Prosecuting a Priest for Same-Sex Relations (1651) 135
8.8 Socially Acceptable—and Unacceptable—Same-Sex Relations among Men (1509) 137
8.9 Sex and the Convent (1661) 138
8.10 Prosecuting Rape (1675) 140
Reading Questions 140

IX Poverty and Poor Relief 141


9.1 Rural Poverty in France (1484) 141
9.2 Poor Consumers Protesting Adulterated Food (1484; 1494) 143
9.3 Unworthy Poor and Worthy Rich (1524) 145
9.4 Chasing the Deadbeat Dad (1696) 146
9.5 Civic Help = Self Help (1526) 147
9.6 The Common Chest and the Common Good (1522) 149
9.7 Women in the Economy of Makeshifts (1600s) 150
9.8 Urban Poverty in France (1530s) 151
9.9 Sheltering and “Improving” Orphans and Abandoned Children (1686) 154
9.10 The Challenge of Keeping an Orphanage Open (1600s) 156
9.11 Better Schools for “Better” Children (1683–84) 156
9.12 Getting the Poor Out of Sight (1608) 158
Reading Questions 159

vii
Contents

X Crime and Punishment 161


10.1 Selling Murder and Mayhem (1661) 161
10.2 Punishing Women Who Brawl (1690) 163
10.3 Deception, Social Climbing, ... and Death (1697) 163
10.4 Frustrated Lovers Separated by Convent Walls (1585) 165
10.5 Close Call: A Near-Execution for Sodomy (1667) 166
10.6 Preparing for Execution (1400s–1500s) 168
10.7 The Execution of Two Nobles (1568) 172
10.8 The Theater of Execution in Rome (1581) 174
10.9 Ritual Execution of an Alleged Rapist and Robber in Venice (1513) 175
10.10 A Burning for Heresy (1553) 175
10.11 The Galleys in Marseilles (late 1500s) 177
10.12 Appointment of an Executioner: Charles Sanson in Paris (1700s) 178
10.13 Diary of an Executioner: Franz Schmidt of Nuremberg (1500s) 180
10.14 Public Penance and Punishment in Spain—Heresy and Inquisition (1486) 182
10.15 Confessions on the Scaffold (1700) 183
Reading Questions 184

XI Holy and Unholy: Mystics, Nuns, and Witches 185


11.1 Men Enclosing Women behind Convent Walls (1654) 185
11.2 Nuns in the Reformation (1547) 186
11.3 Trials of an Educated Nun (1682) 188
11.4 Nuns Possessed in Loudon (1643) 188
11.5 Nuns and Demons: Possession or Pretension? (1643) 189
11.6 Authorizing the Witch Hunt (1484) 191
11.7 Why Become a Witch? (1486) 192
11.8 Husband and Wife Witch Team (c. 1437) 192
11.9 Judgment on the Witch Walpurga Hausmännin (1587) 194
11.10 Witchcraft as a Problem for Political Leaders (1580) 196
11.11 A Miller Faces the Inquisition (1584–86) 199
Reading Questions 203

XII Living Apart Together: Jews, Muslims, and Christians 205


12.1 Expelling the Jews from Spain: The Official Order (1492) 205
12.2 Going into Exile: Iberian Jews around the Mediterranean (1495) 208
12.3 A Jewish Ghetto in Southern France (late 1500s) 210
12.4 How to Be a Practicing Muslim in a Catholic Country (1400s) 211
12.5 Living Undercover (1504) 212
12.6 You Are What You Wear—Or Are You? (1567) 215
12.7 Conversion: A Jew in Italy Converts to Christianity (1569) 216
12.8 Doubting Conversion: The Spanish Inquisition Investigates a Morisco (1622) 217
12.9 A Jewish Woman in Germany (late 1600s– early 1700s) 221
12.10 Targeting Refugees: The Dutch Threat to London (1593) 222
12.11 Observing the Ottomans in Istanbul (1562) 223
12.12 In Awe and Fear of “The Great Turk” (1601) 225

viii
Contents

12.13 Allowing the Jews to Return to England (1649) 226


12.14 Toleration—Or Conversion? (c. 1650) 228
12.15 The Jewish Community in Algiers—A Portuguese Priest’s View (1612) 229
Reading Questions 230

XIII Other Worlds: Migration and Emigration 231


13.1 Black and White Enslaved Peoples in Africa (1600) 231
13.2 Into India: Making Unfamiliar Worlds Familiar (1497) 234
13.3 Into America—Unfamiliar Worlds and Peoples (1497) 238
13.4 Tense Encounters: Early Portuguese Travellers in China (1500s) 241
13.5 Protesting Exploitation of Indigenous People (1552) 243
13.6 An Immigrant Writes Home (1574) 245
13.7 Encouraging Migration from New England to Jamaica (1656) 247
13.8 A Portuguese Missionary’s First Impressions of Japan (1549) 248
13.9 A Young Black Nobleman in the British Empire (1734) 251
Reading Questions 255

XIV Danger, Disease, and Death 257


14.1 Death on the Road: The Dangers of Travel (1550s) 257
14.2 How to Survive into Old Age (1683) 258
14.3 Death of a Jewish Rabbi (1509) 260
14.4 Fighting Plague (1541) 261
14.5 Stealing Bodies from the Grave (1554) 263
14.6 Visitors from Beyond Death (1572) 265
14.7 Muslim and Jewish Rituals around Death and Burial in Algiers—A Portuguese Priest’s View
(1612) 265
14.8 Popular Burial Customs in Spain (1500s) 268
Reading Questions 269

Sources 271
Index 277

ix
Figures
3.1 Bloodletting Points 12
3.2 Cupping 13
3.3 Beer Drinking 24
4.1 Positions of the Foetus in the Womb 41
4.2 The Nursery 53
5.1 The Idle Apprentice 67
6.1 Ale Wife 85
6.2 Women Spinning Silk 91
7.1 The Marriage Balance 103
7.2 Signing a Marriage Contract 107
7.3 The Wandering Husband 118
8.1 Master of Anthony of Burgundy, German Bathhouse (c. 1470) 130
8.2 Venetian Public Prostitute 132
9.1 Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, Beggar Boys Eating Grapes and Melon (c. 1650) 144
9.2 Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, The Young Beggar (c. 1650) 157
10.1 Seven Men on the Gallows 173
10.2 The Death of Thomas Cranmer at the Stake, Burned for Heresy in 1556 177
10.3 Executioner Franz Schmidt Executing Hans Fröschel on 18 May 1591 179
11.1 Renouncing Christ to Follow the Devil 190
11.2 Witches Roasting Babies 193
11.3 Witches Destroy a Town 198
12.1 A Morisca and Her Daughter (1529) 214
12.2 The Wandering Jew (1640) 227
13.1 King of Kongo Giving Audience to the Portuguese and His Subjects (1400s) 233
13.2 Portolan Chart (1492) 240
13.3 Job, Son of Solomon, High Priest of Bonda (1734) 250
14.1 The Dance of Death at Basle 262
14.2 The Dissection of the Body of Tom Nero 264

xi
Acknowledgements
The readings here represent voices from the past that sometimes seem distant and some-
times strangely familiar. I’d like to acknowledge that these midwives, students, merchants,
nuns, philosophers, and sailors had no sense of how their words and lives might be pub-
lished in a distant future they could hardly imagine. We share their private letters and public
accounts so that students now can gain a deeper sense of a distant past and of frequently
difficult lives that many find equally hard to imagine. I’ve been privileged to see in many
classes what happens when voices past and present engage together—we’ve had intense
discussions, puzzled queries, and many “aha!” moments when things suddenly came in to
focus. My thanks to students in Regina, Toronto, Siena, Oxford, and Tours who shortened
the distance between past and present and who made the conversations live with their curi-
osity and excitement. Thanks as well to Allison Graham and Alexandra Logue for seeking
out some of these voices, to John Christopoulos and Kristina Francescutti for researching
their contexts, and to Sienna Lee-Coughlin, Spirit Rose Waite, and Sarah Patterson for
helping to organize them. The idea to turn an informal course reader into a more formal
published collection came from Natalie Fingerhut of University of Toronto Press, and I
would like to thank her for her ongoing support and above all for her great patience in a
journey that took a little longer than any of us anticipated.

xiii
I

How to Read a
Primary Source
This section helps students recognize different kinds of primary sources—diaries, letters,
laws, poems, and so on—and think about how these sources are written for different
purposes and audiences. It introduces the idea of reading with a few critical questions in
mind: who wrote a piece, what it is, why it was written, who it was written to or for, when
it was written, and what it says. Students learn what kinds of information to expect from
different kinds of sources and how to read those sources critically.
Every time we write a note, a message, a list, or an essay, we have someone in mind that
we are writing to. It may be hundreds or thousands of friends on social media, or a couple
of teachers or professors for an essay, or an employer for a report, or a single person for a
private card or letter. We may even write to ourselves, with a quickly scrawled shopping
list, or a note reminding us of things we need to do today, or a diary of what we actually
did. Sometimes we write to persuade our reader, sometimes to record our likes or dislikes,
and sometimes to express private things we don’t want or expect anyone else to read. Our
writing may be “official” or personal; it may be public or private; it may be something we
want the world to remember or something we want everyone to forget.
We change the tone of what we write depending on who we are writing to, when we
are writing, and what we are writing for. With public writing, we know that readers will
get a sense of who we are through what we write, so we think more about the impact of
what we write: What do we want to tell our readers? What details have to be included? If
some group that we are part of appoints us to write something on behalf of the group—a
petition, a set of rules, minutes of a meeting, or a report on an event—then we may be less
personal and more formal in what we write. We may think more about reporting fairly and
clearly, and we may even have to include some views of the group that we don’t personally
share. When we write privately, that seldom happens—we are free to write what we think
and feel. But do we always do that? What we share with a parent or grandparent will be
different from what we share with someone we love in a more intimate way—or someone
we hate. We may hide some things we don’t want them to know, or exaggerate other things
if we want to please or impress them. Whether we write publicly or privately, we know that
those who read us will get some sense of who we are.
People living in Europe in the early modern period, roughly 1500–1700, wrote for much
the same purposes and in much the same way. They argued, boasted, and bragged. They
recorded details carefully or made them up entirely. They wrote what they believed to be
true or what they knew to be false. They wrote letters, diaries, rules, proposals, newspaper

1
LIVES UNCOVERED

reports, stories, and poems. Reading what they wrote opens a window into what they
thought about—what worried them or excited them or amazed them about each other and
about their world. These are the people whose daily lives made up the history we study.
A letter from a woman in Peru to her brother in Spain trying to convince him to take the
long voyage to join her. A midwife giving advice on how to conceive a boy or girl and how
to have a healthy pregnancy. A young student on his way to university who has to think
quickly to avoid getting beaten up and robbed. A lawyer giving instructions to judges on
how to prosecute a witch. A mother telling her son who he must marry, or a son telling
his mother why he married the girl he loved instead. A dying father leaving instructions
on how he wants his children to be raised, or a guardian making promises on how he will
care for an orphan.
Reading these letters, wills, and diaries narrows the distance between early modern
people and ourselves, because we see that sometimes they expressed hopes and fears that
we can easily identify with. Sometimes it does the opposite, as when we read medical
advice about how to keep our bodies cool by eating chicken or hot by choosing cabbage.
We have to read carefully so that we don’t misunderstand things that seem very close to
our own experience or misinterpret things that seem very different.
If we read with a few questions in mind, we can get more out of reading documents
written a few hundred years ago:

• Who was writing it?


• Who was reading it?
• Why was it written?
• When was it written?
• What does it say?

As we play with these questions, and go back and forth from one to the other, we will
find that each casts a bit of light on the others. What may seem like simple words on a page
can take on different meaning if they are written by a woman or a man, if they are written
for a child or an adult, if they are written to persuade the reader to do something, or if
they are written to report on what others have done. And while today we avoid plagiarism,
many early moderns embraced it—some of the authors here borrowed freely from other
authors, and sometimes from other languages, often without acknowledgment. This makes
critical reading all the more complicated and all the more necessary.
Some sources offer advice, set down rules, or advocate a course of action; since they pre-
scribe actions, we often call these prescriptive. Medical treatises, laws, sermons, and advice
literature all count as prescriptive examples. Other sources offer accounts of events that
have taken place; since they describe actions, we often call these descriptive. Court records,
letters, diaries, and chronicles are examples of descriptive writings. But not all documents
fall neatly into these two categories: A mother writing a letter to her son will move back and
forth from description to prescription as she gives news about a sibling and advice about a
cold. A doctor writing a medical treatise may offer advice about childbirth that combines
dictates from the respected Islamic authority Avicenna with eye-witness experiences of
a local midwife. And even within these categories, we have to read critically with an eye
and an ear to who is writing and why. A court reporter’s transcript of an interrogation
may not overtly show how an illiterate peasant defendant is awed or cowed by the learned
magistrates posing their questions. The voice of the accused was filtered initially through
the learned judicial system and is filtered again in our modern translations. When we
read that transcript in modern English, we have to work to pick up the subtle differences
between questions asked in formal French, German, or Spanish (or Latin) and answers

2
I H o w t o R e a d a P ri m a r y S o u rc e

given in the simple vernacular or local dialect of 500 years ago. And on it goes: Pamphlets
and chronicles that reported news from the period almost never presented facts objectively
but instead had propagandistic purposes. The more questions we ask about these passages,
the closer we come to understanding their different levels of meaning.
The more levels of meaning we recognize, the better we understand how these sources
uncover lives that were often quite different from—or surprisingly similar to—our own.
What foods we eat and why; how we fall in love and whether we marry; what reactions
we may have to those from other cultures, cities, or social classes, and how our views and
values will then shape whether we help, punish, embrace, or flee the other—all of these
experiences are also found in the sources here. Reading them challenges us to see with the
eyes of those who wrote them and to understand their world from the inside: Why did so
many people fear witches? How did men understand women, and vice versa? What was
fair, or just, or good? Looking at these issues as they looked at them helps us understand
the societies they built. Each document fits into a larger picture or view of the world.
That view of the world extended beyond sight and the other four senses. It extended
beyond birth and death. Early modern people had a strong sense of the universe as a place
powered by forces and spirits. They believed in a God who created and sustained this uni-
verse, who knew them, and who held them accountable both for what they did and for what
they let their neighbors do. The readings here aim to open windows onto Christian, Jewish,
and Muslim experiences, and to show how much of daily life was shaped by a strong sense
that all actions by individuals, families, and societies would either please or anger God.
Who, what, when, where, and why. One question informs another, and as you go back
and forth between them you may find that a document says the opposite of what you first
thought. Don’t be frustrated—take this as a challenge and maybe even a mystery. The more
carefully you train your ear with these questions, the more clearly you will hear the voices
of those behind these letters, diaries, laws, and treatises, and the better you will understand
the world that they made.

3
II

Lives Uncovered:
Life Cycles in the Early
Modern Period
This reader is organized around the human life cycle, and it illustrates what realities and
concerns dominated at each stage of life from birth through youth and adulthood to death.
It offers overviews of the life cycles of males and females from different social classes and
different religious/racial groups in parts of Europe and notes the importance of other
themes such as sex and sexuality, poverty, crime and punishment, religious tension and
coexistence, and migration and emigration.
Our path from cradle to grave begins with some medical images about the body and
about health and illness. We then move through advice about conception, pregnancy, and
birth, and on through childhood, schooling, and adolescence before turning to marriage,
which most early modern people took to be the threshold into adult life. From here the path
diverges into some side areas. We’ll have already looked at work and workplaces by this
point, since most people began their working lives well before they reached their teenage
years. Many thought that they could not even consider marriage until they had developed
their skills, saved some money, and perhaps seen a bit of the world.
Their experiences as adults varied widely, and the readings aim to uncover many differ-
ent sides of life. Some may challenge our assumptions about early modern life, and others
may highlight unexpected similarities and differences between our life today and theirs
back then. We may suspect that gender roles were tightly defined, and that may in turn
make some of the practices around sex and prostitution a bit puzzling to us. The back-
ground for some of this was poverty: Most people could expect that they would spend at
least part of their lives in serious poverty, and often this followed the life cycle, too, with
childhood and old age being the most vulnerable times. All early modern societies aimed
to ease the way for children and the aged, whom they considered most deserving of care.
They could be quite harsh on others, like young men and women, who were thought to
have only themselves to blame if they didn’t have clothes, shelter, or a meal. It’s perhaps no
surprise that crime and violence were more common as a result, since some disadvantaged
men and women were forced to find by theft what they could not earn by work. Most
societies took a very hard view of crime and saw punishment as something that must give
lessons to more than just the one charged with a crime. They were far quicker to whip,

5
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
Cerebral arteries, atheroma, v. 991

meningeal hemorrhage, v. 710

paralysis, v. 917

veins and sinuses, thrombosis of, v. 982

vessels, occlusion of, v. 917, 946

Cervical sympathetic, diseases of, v. 1263

Cestodes or tape-worms, ii. 931

Chloasma, iv. 659


Chloral habit, the, v. 660

Chloroform, habitual addiction to, v. 667

Chlorosis, iii. 894

Cholera, i. 715

infantum, ii. 741

morbus, ii. 719

Chorea, v. 439
of the larynx, iii. 76

Chromidrosis, iv. 585

Chyluria, iv. 114

Cimex lectularius, iv. 733

Circulatory System, Diseases of, iii. 599

Clavus, iv. 663

Cocaine, habitual addiction to, v. 667


Cœliac axis, diseases of, iii. 841

Colic, hepatic, ii. 1058

intestinal, ii. 658

renal, iv. 42

Coma, v. 26, 382

Comedo, iv. 589

Constipation, ii. 638, 650


Convulsive disorders, local, v. 461

Copodyscinesia, v. 504

Corns, iv. 663

Cornu cutaneum, iv. 663

Coronary artery, diseases of, iii. 828

Coryza, iii. 41

Cough, nervous, iii. 71


Cranio-cerebral topography, v. 93

Cretinism, v. 138

Croup, spasmodic or false, iii. 70, 92

true, iii. 100

Culex, iv. 733

Cyanosis and Congenital Anomalies of Heart and Great Vessels, iii.


687, 712

Cysticercus cellulosæ, iv. 732


Cystitis, acute and chronic, iv. 126, 128

in women, iv. 341

D.

Deaf-mutism, iv. 840

Deafness after cerebro-spinal meningitis, mumps, scarlet fever, etc.,


iv. 839

Death, apparent, v. 385

Degenerations, i. 72
Dementia, v. 164

Demodex folliculorum, iv. 732

Dengue, i. 879

Dentition, morbid, ii. 371

Dermatalgia, iv. 711

Dermatitis, iv. 600, 604, 611, 623

Dermatolysis, iv. 675


Dermoid cyst of the ovary, iv. 299

Diabetes insipidus, iv. 27

Mellitus, ii. 195

Diagnosis, general, i. 148

Digestive System, Diseases of, ii. 319

Diphtheria, i. 656

Disease, causes and prevention of, i. 175


Diseases, General, i. 229

Distomum hepaticum, ii. 1109

Drainage and Sewerage in their Hygienic Relations, i. 213

Dreams, v. 368

Ductus communis choledochus, occlusion of, ii. 1082

Dura mater, cerebral, congestion of, v. 704


Dysentery, ii. 777

Dyslalia, v. 571

Dysmenorrhœa, iv. 192

Dyspepsia, functional and atonic, ii. 436

E.

Ear, internal, diseases of, iv. 835

middle, diseases of, iv. 817


Echinococcus of the liver, ii. 1101

Eclampsia, v. 464

Ecstasy, v. 339

Ecthyma, iv. 653

Eczema, iv. 625

marginatum, iv. 718

Effusions, i. 67
Elephantiasis, iv. 675

Embolism and Thrombosis, i. 56

of the spinal cord, v. 808

capillary, cerebral, v. 979

Emphysema, iii. 233, 249

Endocarditis, iii. 639, 640, 642, 643

Endometritis, acute and chronic, iv. 460, 462

Enteralgia, ii. 658


Enteritis, Pseudo-membranous, ii. 763

Entero-colitis, ii. 726

Epilepsy, v. 468

Epiglottis, inflammation and erosion of, iii. 109

Epithelioma, iv. 707

Epistaxis, iii. 50
Erythema, iv. 593, 595, 596

Erysipelas, i. 629

Ether, habitual addiction to, v. 667

Etiology, general, i. 125

Eye affections, from diseases of the digestive organs, iv. 749

diseases of the kidneys and skin, iv. 752

general system, iv. 800

nervous system, iv. 771, 796, 797, 799


respiratory organs, iv. 748

sexual organs, iv. 755

spinal cord, iv. 792

mental affections, iv. 791

Eye-ground and appendages, changes in, from diseases of the


circulatory apparatus, iv. 738

F.

Facial atrophy, progressive unilateral, v. 694

nerve, peripheral paralysis of, v. 1202

spasm, painless, v. 462


Fallopian tubes, dropsy of, iv. 295

Farcy, i. 909

Favus, iv. 715

Fibroma, iv. 686

Filaria medinensis, iv. 732

Fistulo in ano, ii. 897


Flea, common, iv. 733

Flea, sand-, iv. 732

Fluke-worms, iii. 946

Furunculus, iv. 604

of external auditory canal, iv. 813

of labia, iv. 362

G.

Gad-fly, iv. 732


Gall-stones, ii. 1058

Gangrene, symmetrical, v. 1257

Gastralgia, ii. 459, v. 1238

Gastric catarrh, acute and chronic, ii. 463, 470

Gastritis, acute and chronic, ii. 463, 470

Gastromalacia, ii. 618


Gastrorrhagia, ii, 580

Genito-urinary System, Diseases of, iv. 17

Glanders, i. 909

Glossanthrax, ii. 368

Glossitis, acute, ii. 354-366

chronic, ii. 366-368

Glottis, œdema of, iii. 112

spasm of, in adults, iii. 74

You might also like