State Ceremonial,Court Culture and Political Power in Early Modern Denmark, 1536-1746

In early modern Europe the court of a prince was many things: the household of a prince, a point of contact between the ruler and the elites, a cultural trendsetter, a focal point of patronage and an important institution of regional and international politics. In short, the court had many functions. In this article the focus is on the main lines of development in the court culture of early modern Denmark, from the Reformation (1536) until early Absolutism. Certain structural changes are highlighted and an attempt is made to explain them in political terms. As a prelude, I offer some theoretical reflections on the meaning of court culture in general and ceremonial culture in particular. Let me say from the outset that I have found my inspiration mainly in German and American historical scholarship, which for the past twenty years or so has witnessed a continuous and fruitful debate on the early modern court.     

近代早期英国贵族的富裕程度分析

近代早期英国贵族的富裕程度是英国贵族研究中的一个重要问题。以往的研究存在不足和偏颇之处。本文认为 ,近代早期英国贵族的经济状况呈下降趋势的观点值得商榷。这一时期 ,英国贵族的收入形式多样化 ,收入水平提高 ,消费能力和消费水平也大大超过以往 ,虽然乡绅和工商业者的经济地位不断提高 ,但在工业革命前 ,尚无人能够企及贵族的富裕程度。     

Supreme Court Advocacy in the Early Nineteenth Century

The early nineteenth century was transformative of the Supreme Court's practices. Yet understanding those fundamental changes requires some appreciation of practice before the Court in the late eighteenth century, and the developments in the early nineteenth century produced changes in the Court's practices that are still felt today. In this first half-century or so of the Court's existence, more dramatic developments and changes occurred in oral argument practice than in any other period of the Court's history. ¹     

Diseases in Early Modern Sweden

In early modern Scandinavia, the population’s sensitivity to disease and food supply shortages was great. Researchers have long been interested in the crises caused by these conditions, and the dominant causes of death have been well documented in Sweden since the late eighteenth century. But for the seventeenth and early eighteenth century, in the mortality regime preceding the initial stage of the demographic transition, our understanding of the infectious diseases is significantly limited. Through an analysis of causes of death and tithe levels, this article gives new insight regarding mortality rates, harvests and, above all, diseases in a parish located in a Swedish forested area during the mid- and late seventeenth century and first half of the eighteenth century. It presents new research about which diagnoses were most common, how often the more prevalent diseases of fevers, smallpox, and dysentery broke out, and the varying role of diseases on mortality rates during bad harvest years. The inhabitants in this parish presumably had a food supply buffer in their summer farm system, yet they remained vulnerable to bad harvests, and people in the area were just as susceptible to the common infectious diseases as the inhabitants in more tightly populated areas.