Recent Publications

Abstract:

This major new study of Elizabethan and Jacobean royal entertainments, including country house entertainments, tiltyard speeches, and court masques, is the first to look in detail at the evidence provided by the surviving material texts. Drafts, royal presentation manuscripts, widely-circulating scribal copies, and printed pamphlets are all carefully placed in their cultural context, and the medium of manuscript is shown to have been at least as important as print for these texts' circulation. From the close collaboration between commissioning host and hired writer, to the varied interpretations imposed by copyists and publishers, entertainments were written and read within a complex social nexus: far from being royal propaganda, they reflected the distinct and sometimes competing agendas of monarchs, commissioning hosts, authors, publishers, scribal intermediaries, and readers.

Contents include:

The first part of the book looks at Elizabethan entertainments: the Woodstock entertainment of 1575 (Chapter I); tiltyard speeches (Chapter II); and the distinctive features of printed pamphlets and scribal copies, notably of the 1602 Harefield entertainment (Chapter III). The second part of the book is mostly concerned with Ben Jonson's work for the Jacobean court, with chapters on the Merchant Taylors' entertainment (Chapter IV) and the Theobalds' entertainment (Chapter V). The final chapter looks at the texts of court masques, especially in the light of Jonson's understanding of the poet's elevated role. The book's conclusion takes the story of these material texts beyond the early modern period and looks at how they have been collected, bought, and sold over the centuries.

Details:

Author(s): Gabriel Heaton

Title: Writing and Reading Royal Entertainments: From George Gascoigne to Ben Jonson

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Date: June 2010

Place of Publication: Great Britain

ISBN: 978-0-19-921311-5

Abstract: 

This volume makes available for the first time a selection of the diverse printed and visual materials relating to the elevation of Prussia to monarchic status at the start of the eighteenth century. In their introduction to the documents, the editors explore the historical, political and cultural context of the rise of the Hohenzollerns and the significance of the 1701 coronation of Friedrich III as King in Prussia. The materials provided in the original, as well as in English translation, are wide-ranging. Points of focus include the dynasty's cultivation of the arts and learning, its festive culture, the structure of the court and the nature of Friedrich's reign. Particular attention is given to the ceremonial procedure and festivities surrounding his coronation recorded by the court poet, Johann von Besser.

This collection of materials acts as a commentary on Baroque kingship, revealing the manner in which the early eighteenth-century monarch wished to present himself to the outside world and enhance his legitimacy among European rulers. It also offers valuable insights into a key stage in the political and cultural history of Brandenburg-Prussia, the consequences of which exercised a crucial impact on the development of Germany and the history of Europe.

Contents include:

The power of crowns: the Prussian coronation of 1701 in context; The cultivation of monarchy; Documents: Verse by Johann von Besser; Besser's description of the inauguration of the University of Halle (1694); Besser's description of the Berlin wedding of 1700; The founding of the Berlin Society of Sciences in 1700; Besser's History of the Coronation; Statutes of the Royal Prussian Order of the Black Eagle; John Toland's account of the court of Prussia (1702); Pontifical Mischief against the Crown in Prussia (1702); Royal Prussian precedence regulations (1705); Besser's The Triumph of Beauty over the Heroes – a court ballet and opera (1706); Christoph Count von Dohna's memoirs on the reign and court of Freidrich I.

Details:

Author(s): Karin Friedrich and Sara Smart (eds.)

Title: The Cultivation of Monarchy and the Rise of Berlin: Brandenburg-Prussia 1700

Publisher: Ashgate

Date: April 2010

Place of Publication: Great Britain

ISBN: 978-0-7546-0997-1

Abstract: 

This collection of articles explores changes in images of the French monarchy propagated in ceremonies that townspeople and officials created for their kings. Bryant looks at royal entrées as massive processional and street theatres, in which members of the kingdom both discoursed with and exalted the king in a multiplicity of ritual forms, symbolism and public art. These ceremonies personalized the idea of the state as embodied in the king, and they publicized rights and authority, new historical or mythological themes, innovative styles of monumental architecture and art, and theories of ideal and shared government.

Contents include:

From ephemeral to perdurable rituals and ceremonies; Parlementaire political theory in the Parisian royal entry ceremony; The medieval entry ceremony at Paris; Configurations of the community in late medieval spectacles: Paris and London during the dual monarchy; Extravagance and royal authority in Louis XI's ceremonies; Politics, ceremonies, and the embodiments of majesty in Henry II's France; Making history: ceremonial texts, royal space, and political theory in the 16th century; Graphic history: what readers knew and were taught in the Quarante Tableaux of Perrissin and Tortorel; From communal ritual to royal spectacle: some observations on the staging of royal entries (1450–1600); Royal ceremony and the revolutionary strategies of the Third Estate.

Author(s): Lawrence M. Bryant

Title: Ritual, Ceremony and the Changing Monarchy in France, 1350-1789

Publisher: Ashgate Variorum

Date: December 2009

Place of Publication: Great Britain

ISBN: 978-0-7546-6846-6

Abstract: 

Europa Triumphans is a two-volume collection of Renaissance Festival Books, edited by J. R. Mulryne, Helen Watanabe-O’Kelly and Margaret Shewring. It is a monumental piece of scholarly work, comprising 1135 pages, with 44 texts of differing length in 9 languages, and 145 black and white and 23 colour illustrations. All texts are given in their original languages, with an en face translation into English, and each of the eight groups of texts is prefaced with an introductory essay and accompanied by a detailed commentary. In addition to the General Editors and Associate General Editors there are 33 further principal contributors from universities across Europe and the USA, and more than 20 other contributors, including translators.

Following its success as a printed two-volume collection, Europa Triumphans is now available as an ebook. With additional features to the now out of print original collection, this landmark in the study of early modern Europe makes available the most important texts from court and civic festival books.  

Reviews of the printed version:

'...will be a priceless resource.' - Sehepunkte 5

'The methodology established by the editors and its execution by the contributors is exemplary.' - English Historical Review

'...the editors deserve the highest praise for the ambitious, two volume production that includes contributions from thirty-nine well-published scholars. The beautifully designed tomes...the editors are to be congratulated.' - Sixteenth Century Journal

About the ebook:

The ebook is a user-friendly resource for busy researchers, and comprises:

• Fully searchable text
• Two volumes combined to give enhanced usability, and to save time
• Fully hyperlinked Table of Contents
• Search terms hyperlinked to their references within the text
• An index of search terms enabling those looking at particular 'types' of festival participants to do so quickly and easily e.g. groups of actors, musicians, writers, dancers etc. 

Author(s): J. R. Mulryne, Helen Watanabe-O’Kelly and Margaret Shewring (eds.)

Title: Europa Triumphans: Court and Civic Festivals in Early Modern Europe

Publisher: Ashgate

Date: December 2009

Place of publication/ISBN: See http://www.ashgate.com/default.aspx?page=3790⟨=cy-gb