Posts from the ‘Reformation’ Category

maj 31

Europa Jagellonica

Art and culture of Central Europe during the dynasty of the Jagellonians 1386 -1572

The key dynastic group of Late Medieval Central and Eastern Europe was without doubt the Jagellons. Progenitor was the Grand Duke of Lithuania, Vladislaus II (1351 -1434) who annexed the kingdom of Poland in 1386. His grandsons ended up as rulers of not only the Lithuania and Poland, but Hungary and Bohemia as well. How to get a grasp this dynastic entity, however, is complicated business.

To a start, one of the odd characteristics of Eastern European History is this focus on the concept of “dynasties” or “ruling houses”. Although such dynasties might encompass several distinct rulers of diverse landscapes or kingdoms, in terms of Eastern European History they were (and still are) considered belonging to the same “ruling dynasty”; which then is made to imply that these kingdoms were indeed ruled together, constituting an “realm” or an “empire”.

To what extent the situation should rather be viewed as comparable to the German, where duchies and free cities created an amalgamated patchwork, kept together by the Holy Roman Emperor and the regular diets, is an open question. However, Polish historians favour a more nationalistic point of view, stressing the empirical character of the ruling dynasty, not least because the Hapsburgs were always considered the archenemy.

How to get behind these different perspectives and figure out how state formation took place – and not least the cultural significance – has been the subject of a large research project housed at the University of Leipzig. While we are still waiting waiting for the large “Buch” (two volumes with 53 interdisciplinary articles written by theologians, historians, art historians, musicologists etc. and accompanied by 250 biographies to be published in 2013 or 2014), the chance is now to see an important traveling exhibition.

The exhibition showcases the art and culture of Central and Eastern Europe – more precisely Lithuania, Poland, Hungary and Bohemia during the years 1386 -1572. Focus is more precisely on the period around 1500. More than 200 grand pieces of art will be on show. The exhibition will travel between three locations, each complimenting the core of exhibited art with a more local context. In Kuttenberg, where it opened on the 19^th of May, the indsurty connected with the silver mines are presenting us with the perspective. Moving to Warsaw, architecture and culture will be at the centre. In Postdam the dynastic relations with amongst other families, the Hohenzollern, will provide the context.

On show will be:

Panels, drawings and prints by Albrecht Dürer, Lucas Cranach the Elder, Hans Elfelser, Hans Krell, Holbein, Hans Süss von Kulmbach and others
Richly illuminated manuscripts by the Krakow court painter, Stanislaw Samostrseelnik as well as royal and municipal charters, precious incunabula etc.
Sculptures and relief of wood and stone by Veit Stoss and others
The work of Jewellers and Goldsmiths like Melchior Beier, Marcin Marcinic etc.
Coins, small-scale-sculpture and medals
Liturgical and secular textiles
Astrological tools and globes
Amours, weapons and much else…

In short all the paraphernalia of the ruling classes of Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe.

The scientific catalogue will be published in January 2013

The official homepage - www.europajagellonica.eu – is unfortunately only in Polish.

However, the curators has prepared and English presentation which might be downloaded here

The venues for the exhibition(s):

19. 05.2012–30.09.2012  GASK – Galerie Středočeského kraje | Mittelböhmische Galerie Kuttenberg

29.10.2012–27.01.2013  Zamek Królewski w Warszawie | Königliches Schloss Warschau Museum Narodowe w Warzawie | Nationalmuseum Warschau

1. 03.2013–16.06.2013  Haus der Brandenburgisch-Preußischen Geschichte, Potsdam

maj 31

Tudor Obsession

The term ‘Tudor’ was hardly used in the 16th Century and its obsessive modern use by historians and writers generally gives us a misleading impression of the period, an Oxford historian has found.

Cliff Davies of Oxford University’s History Faculty has scoured official papers, chronicles, poems, plays and pamphlets for the ‘Tudor’ name, but have found it was hardly ever used as a designation of the monarchy. Not until the last years of Elizabeth’s reign, and even then sparingly. For instance of the many poems written to mark the death of Elizabeth and the accession of James I in 1603, only one talks of a change from ‘Tudor’ to ‘Stuart’.

Davies suggests that terms like ‘Tudor England’ and ‘Tudor monarchy’ used by historians and in TV and film dramas give a false impression of glamour and unity to the period from Henry VII to Elizabeth I, and that historians need to rethink many assumptions about 16th Century England.

In an interview to the Oxford University Media, he claims that ‘The word ‘Tudor’ is used obsessively by historians, often as a quite unnecessary reinforcing adjective to add an appropriate ‘period flavour’ to their work, but it was almost unknown at the time”.

According to Davies, the Tudor name was deliberately played down, because it was an embarrassment in England; Henry VIII would rather boast of the “Union”, of the families of Lancaster and York, which he embodied through his mother.

– ‘Periods’ are artificial constructions by historians. What makes the concept of the ‘Tudor period’ so seductive is that we believe it to have been current at the time. This was not the case. We need to revise our concepts, says Davies, who is obviously a bit annoyed by the “Tudor Craze” apparent in films, television series and the Living History re-enactments flourishing around the countryside each summer.

C.S.L. Davies is Keeper of the Archives at Wadham College and a distinguished “Tudor” Historian, as it somewhat ironically says on the blurb of a selection of essays, which were presented to him in 2002 (Authority and Consent in Tudor England: essays presented to C.S.L. Davies. Ed. by G. W. Bernard and S. J. Gunn. Ashgate 2002). His main work is a detailed and generally very admired study of “Peace, Print and Protestantism 1450-1558”, published at Hart-Davis MacGibbon, 1976.

C.S.L. Davies has published the background for these reflections in an article:
Information, disinformation and political knowledge under Henry VII and early Henry VIII (pages 228–253) in: Historical Research, May 2012, Vol. 85, issue 228: pp. 228 – 253

Read more at Oxford University Media

apr 26

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Royal Devotion

This year sees the celebration of the 350^th anniversary of the Book of Common Prayer

The Book of Common Prayer has had an enormous influence upon the language and the traditions of the English people. Not only did it present the nation with a treasured collection of texts and words by which people were obliged to perform their daily rites of faith as well as rites of birth, christening, confirmation, marriages and burials. It also presented the English Nation with an iconic text at the same time symbolising unity and strife. And it became the primary vehicle for the exportation of the English Language and way of life to the British Empire and later the Commonwealth.

The story of how the Book of Common Prayer came to be is both circuitous and painful. In its first version, it was famously written by Thomas Cranmer and officially inaugurated at Whitsun in St. Pauls Cathedral in London in 1549. In 1553 it was officially banished, when Mary I was crowned queen of England and the realm reverted to Roman Catholicism. However, in 1552 her successor, Elisabeth I, once again reversed religious policy and in 1559 she and Parliament passed an Act of Uniformity and provided for a new edition of the seminal text. Never quite protestant enough nor satisfyingly Calvinist in its leanings, the Book of Common Prayer later became one of the key symbols of the division between the warring parties during the English Civil War. As such it was abolished in 1645. After the 1660 restoration, the book once again became the cornerstone of the Church of England, although in a new and revised edition. It is the anniversary of this “Book of Common Prayer” which is celebrated 2012.

Royal Devotion
Lambeth Palace is the London seat of the Archbishop of Canterbury. The library – housed in the Great Hall – contains more than 120.000 manuscripts, books and letters. “Royal Devotion” is the name of the exhibition this summer, which runs from the 1^st May to the 14^th of July. The exhibition showcases a number of books relating to the connection between the English Monarchy and the Book of Common Prayer. The centrepiece of the exhibition will be the 1662 revision of the Book of Common Prayer. However, other highlights of the exhibition will include a 1549 printing of the Book of Common Prayer plus Medieval illuminated manuscripts such as the Book of Hours of Richard III, Queen Elizabeth I’s personal prayer book and a copy of the book of private devotions compiled for Queen Elizabeth II in preparation for her coronation. Another more recent item is the personal copy of the prayer book of The Prince of Wales, which was given to him by his godfather, Earl Mountbatten of Burma, who was killed by an IRA bomb in 1979. The exhibition will also include the silk and silver-thread gloves worn by Charles I at his execution in 1649 and an ornate ivory chalice belonging to his close friend, the Archbishop of Canterbury, William Laud. He is believed to have taken his final communion from the chalice at the Tower of London on the morning before he was executed in January 1645, a few days after the Puritans abolished the Book of Common Prayer.

Choral Evensong
Another flagship event of the celebrations this year (most of which are local) is the Choral Evensong in St. Paul’s Cathedral on the 2^nd of May 2012 at 5.00 PM, followed by a reception in the Crypt (Tickets required in advance).

Seminal publication
Recently the three early texts of the Book of Common Prayer, more precisely the texts from 1549, 1559 and 1662, were edited by Brian Cummings, professor of English at the University of Sussex. This edition not only provides the reader with a meticulous edition of the three texts, but also presents him or her with an enjoyable introduction to this centrepiece of Englishness.

Popular history
However, if the interest lies more in the overall picture, the Prayer Book Society recently published a more popular introduction edited by Prudence Dailey. “The Book of Common Prayer: Past, Present and Future: A 350th Anniversary Celebration” is accompanied by a foreword by The Prince of Wales, while the afterword is by the Bishop of London, respectively Lay and Ecclesiastical Patrons of the Prayer Book Society. Prudence Dailey has edited this varied, nicely produced, inexpensive and very readable collection of essays, which also holds and appendix by Terry Waite, the well known Anglican and Quaker, who spent almost five years in captivity in Beirut. The book is in four sections, dealing in turn with the history, language, liturgy and mission of the Book of Common Prayer. A booklet with the story has also been published in connection with the anniversary.

The Prayer Book Society

The Book of Common Prayer 350

The Lambeth Palace Library and the exhibition “Royal Devotion”

The Book of Common Prayer. The Texts of 1549,1559 and 1662. Ed: Brian Cummings. Oxford University Press 2011.

The Book of Common Prayer: Past, Present & Future. Ed. by Prudence Dailey. Continuum Publishing Corporation 2011

Booklet: Celebrating 350 years of the 1662 BCP

Lambeth Palace Library: Treasures from the Collection of the Archbishops of Canterbury. Scala Publishers 2010