Ritual Group Violence

Seminar Questions

What effect did group participation have on acts of violence in the early modern period?
What role did gender play in the rituals of collective violence?
How was ritual group violence represented in contemporary sources?

Required Reading

All students should read

Zemon Davis, Natalie, ‘The Rites of Violence’ in Society and Culture in Early Modern FranceLink opens in a new window (Stanford, 1975), pp. 97-123, 152-187. [For the writing and influence of this seminal essay, see Graeme Murdock, Penny Roberts and Andrew Spicer, 'Ritual and ViolenceLink opens in a new window', Past & Present 214/7 (2012)]

AND

Roberts, Penny, 'Intercommunal Violence in Europe', in Robert J. Antony, Stuart Carroll, and Caroline Dodds Pennock, eds, The Cambridge World History of Violence: 1500-1800 CELink opens in a new window (Cambridge, 2020), pp. 531-52.

All students should also analyse EITHER

Anonymous, The Massacre of Saint BartholomewLink opens in a new window, c. 1572 AND François Dubois, The Massacre of Saint BartholomewLink opens in a new window, c. 1572-c. 1584

OR

Maximilien de Béthune, duc de Sully, Memoirs of the Duke of SullyLink opens in a new window, 4 vols (London, 1856), vol. 1, pp. 85-88 AND Jacques Auguste de Thou, 'The St Bartholomew Day's MassacreLink opens in a new window', in J.H. Robinson, Readings In European History, 2 vols. (Boston, 1906), vol. 2, pp. 180-183

E-Resources

Further Reading

General

Almansa y Mendoza, Andres, Tvvo royall entertainments, lately giuen to the most illustrious Prince Charles, Prince of Great Britaine, by the high and mighty Philip the fourth King of SpaineLink opens in a new window (London, 1623)

Bale, Anthony, Feeling Persecuted: Christians, Jews and Images of Violence in the Middle Ages (London, 2010)

Broomhall, Susan, 'Reasons and identities to remember: composing personal accounts of religious violence in sixteenth-century FranceLink opens in a new window', French History 27/1 (2013), 1-20.

Davis, Robert C., 'The Trouble with Bulls: The Cacce dei Tori in Early Modern VeniceLink opens in a new window', Histoire Sociale - Social History 29 (1996), 275-290.

Davis, Robert C., The War of the Fists: Popular Culture and Public Violence in Late Renaissance VeniceLink opens in a new window (Oxford, 1994)

Hanlon, Gregory, 'Glorifying War in a Peaceful City: Festive Representation of Combat in Baroque SienaLink opens in a new window', War In History 11 (2004), 249-277

Muir, Edward, Ritual in Early Modern EuropeLink opens in a new window, 2nd ed. (Cambridge, 2005)

Perry, Mary Elizabeth, Crime and Society in Early Modern SevilleLink opens in a new window (Hanover, NH, 1980)

Roberts, Benjamin B., Sex and Drugs Before Rock 'n' Roll: Youth Culture and Masculinity During Holland's Golden Age (Amsterdam, 2014)

Roberts, Penny, Graeme Murdock and Andrew Spicer, eds, Ritual and Violence: Natalie Zemon Davis and Early Modern France (Oxford, 2012)

Rosenthal, David, 'Big Piero, the Empire of the Meadow, and the Parish of Santa Lucia', Journal of Urban History 32 (2006), 677-692

Rosenthal, David, ‘The Genealogy of Empires: Ritual Politics and State Building in Early Modern Florence’, I Tatti StudiesLink opens in a new window 8 (1999), 197-234.

Rosenthal, David, 'The Spaces of Plebeian Ritual and the Boundaries of Transgression', in Roger J. Crum and John T. Paoletti, eds, Renaissance Florence: A Social HistoryLink opens in a new window (Cambridge, 2006), pp. 161-181.

Salgado, James, An impartial and brief description of the plaza, or sumptuous market-place of Madrid, and the bull-baiting there Link opens in a new window(London, 1683)

Semmens, Justine, 'Plague, Propaganda and Prophetic Violence in Sixteenth-Century Lyon' in Jonathan Davies (ed.), Aspects of Violence in Renaissance EuropeLink opens in a new window (Farnham, 2013), pp. 83-104.

Tilly, Charles, The Politics of Collective ViolenceLink opens in a new window (Cambridge, 2003)

Trexler, Richard C., Public Life in Renaissance Florence Link opens in a new window(Ithaca, 1991)

Williams, James, 'Sport and the Elite in Early Modern EnglandLink opens in a new window', Sport in History 28 (2008), 389-413

Wood, Andy, 'Collective Violence, Social Drama, and Rituals of Rebellion in Late Medieval and Early Modern England', in Stuart Carroll, ed., Cultures of Violence: Interpersonal Violence in Historical PerspectiveLink opens in a new window (Basingstoke, 2007), pp. 99-116.

Carnival

Bakhtin, Mihhail, Rabelais and his WorldLink opens in a new window, trans. Hélène Iswolsky (Bloomington, IN, 1984)

Carroll, Linda L., 'Carnival Rites as Vehicles of Protest in Renaissance VeniceLink opens in a new window', Sixteenth Century Journal 16/4 (1985), 487-502

Ciappelli, Giovanni, Carnevale e Quaresima: comportamenti sociali e cultura a Firenze nel RinascimentoLink opens in a new window (Rome, 1997)

Kinser, Samuel, 'Presentation and Representation: Carnival at Nuremberg, 1450-1550Link opens in a new window', Representations 13 (1986), 1-41

Kott, Jan, The Bottom Translation: Marlowe and Shakespeare and the Carnival TraditionLink opens in a new window, trans. Daniela Miedzyrzecka and Lillian Vallee (Evanston, Ill., 1987)

Le Roy Ladurie, Emmanuel, Carnival: A People's Uprising at Romans 1579-1580Link opens in a new window, trans. Mary Feeney (London, 1980)

Plaisance, Michel, Florence in the Time of the Medici: Public Celebrations, Politics, and Literature in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries, trans. Nicole Carew-Reid (Toronto, 2008)

Charivari

Beik, William, 'The Violence of the French Crowd from Charivari to RevolutionLink opens in a new window', Past and Present 197 (2007), 75-110.

Cashmere, John, 'The Social Uses of Violence in Ritual: Charivari or Religious Persecution?' European History Quarterly 21 (1991), 291-319.

Ingram, Martin, 'Charivari and Shame Punishments: Folk Justice and State Justice in Early Modern England', in Herman Roodenburg and Pieter Spierenburg, eds, Social Control in Europe: 1500-1800Link opens in a new window (Ohio, 2004), pp. 288-308

Ingram, Martin, 'Ridings, Rough Music and the "Reform of Popular Culture" in Early Modern EnglandLink opens in a new window', Past and Present 105 (1984), 79-113

Thompson, E. P., 'Rough Music ReconsideredLink opens in a new window', Folklore 103 (1992), 3-26

Massacres

Beaver, Daniel C. 'The Great Deer Massacre: animals, honor, and communication in early modern EnglandLink opens in a new window,' Journal of British Studies 38 (1999), 187-216

Carroll, Stuart, 'Political Justice and the Outbreak of the Wars of ReligionLink opens in a new window', French History 33/2 (2019), 177–198

Crouzet, Denis, La nuit de la Saint-Barthélemy: un rêve perdu de la RenaissanceLink opens in a new window (Paris, 1994)

Darnton, Robert, The Great Cat MassacreLink opens in a new window (Harmondsworth, 2001)

Diefendorf, Barbara, Beneath the Cross: Catholics and Huguenots in Sixteenth Century ParisLink opens in a new window (Oxford, 1991)

Goethals, Jessica, 'Spectators of the Sack: Rhetorical ‘Particularity’ and Graphic Violence in Luigi Guicciardini’s Historia del sacco di RomaLink opens in a new window', Italian Studies 68/2 (2013), 175-201.

Jenner, Mark S. R., 'The Great Dog Massacre' in William G. Naphy and Penny Roberts, eds, Fear in Early Modern SocietyLink opens in a new window (Manchester, 1997), pp. 44-61.

Kingdon, R.M., Myths about the Saint Bartholomew's Day Massacres, 1572-76Link opens in a new window (Cambridge, Mass., 1988)

Levene, Mark, and Penny Roberts, eds, The Massacre in HistoryLink opens in a new window (New York, 1999)

Roberts, Penny, 'Violence by Royal Command: A Judicial 'Moment' (1574-1575)Link opens in a new window', French History 33/2 (2019), 199–217

Rollo-Koster, Joëlle, 'The Politics of Transition: Pillaging and the 1527 Sack of Rome', in Jonathan Davies (ed.), Aspects of Violence in Renaissance EuropeLink opens in a new window (Farnham, 2013), pp. 41-60.

Soman, Alfred, (ed.), The Massacre of Saint Bartholomew: Reappraisals and DocumentsLink opens in a new window (The Hague, 1974)

Witchcraft and the Witch-Hunts

Apps, Lara, and Andrew Gow, Male Witches in Early Modern EuropeLink opens in a new window (Manchester, 2003)

Barry, Jonathan, and Owen Davies, eds, Palgrave Advances in Witchcraft Historiography (Basingstoke, 2007)

Bever, Edward Watts Morton, ‘Witchcraft, Female Aggression, and Power in the Early Modern Community’Link opens in a new window, Journal of Social History 35 (2002), 955-88.

Briggs, Robin, Witches and Neighbours : the Social and Cultural Context of European WitchcraftLink opens in a new window (London, 1996)

Clark, Stuart, ed., Languages of Witchcraft: Narrative, Ideology, and Meaning in Early Modern CultureLink opens in a new window (Basingstoke, 2001)

Clark, Stuart, Thinking with Demons: the Idea of Witchcraft in Early Modern EuropeLink opens in a new window (Oxford, 1997)

Ferber, Sarah, Demonic Possession and Exorcism in Early Modern FranceLink opens in a new window (London, 2004)

Jackson, Louise, ‘Witches, Wives and Mothers: Witchcraft Persecution and Women’s Confessions in Seventeenth-Century England’Link opens in a new window, Women’s History Review 4 (1995), 63-83.

Kors, Alan Charles, and Edward Peters, eds, Witchcraft in Europe, 400-1700: A Documentary HistoryLink opens in a new window (Philadelphia, 2001)

Levack, Brian P., ed., New Perspectives on Witchcraft, Magic, and DemonologyLink opens in a new window, 6 vols (London, 2001)

Levack, Brian P., The Witch-Hunt in Early Modern Europe, 3rd ed. (London, 2006)

MacMillan, Ken, (ed.), Stories of True Crime in Tudor and Stuart England (London, 2015)

Oldridge, Darren, ed., The Witchcraft ReaderLink opens in a new window, 2nd ed. (London, 2008)

Purkiss, Diane, The Witch in History: Early Modern and Twentieth-Century RepresentationsLink opens in a new window (London, 1996)

Purkiss, Diane, ‘Women’s Stories of Witchcraft in Early Modern England: The House, the Body, the Child’, Gender and HistoryLink opens in a new window 7 (1995), 408-32.

Roper, Lyndal, Witch Craze: Terror and Fantasy in Baroque GermanyLink opens in a new window (New Haven, 2004)

Walinski-Kiehl, Robert, ‘Males, “Masculine Honor,” and Witch Hunting in Seventeenth-Century Germany’Link opens in a new window, Men and Masculinities 6 (2004), 254-71.

Whitney, Elspeth, ‘International Trends: The Witch “She”/The Historian “He”: Gender and the Historiography of the European Witch Hunts’Link opens in a new window, Journal of Women’s History 7 (1995), 77-101.

Willis, Deborah, Malevolent Nurture: Witch-Hunting and Maternal Power in Early Modern EnglandLink opens in a new window (Ithaca, 1995)