Maria Mirabilis: Beholding Mary in the Miracles†

In medieval miracles of the Virgin Mary that feature images, gazing at Mary and being seen by her can shape or change the identity of the miracle's protagonist. Such miracles often feature figures who have the potential to be adult male Christians but do not yet hold that status; they are transformed by their encounters with the malleable materiality of Marian images. Narratives of a Muslim devoted to a Marian statue and an English child who has to have an image of the Crucifixion explained to him show how questioning the nature of such images, and their material implications, could lead to belief. The widely popular story of “The Jewish Boy” extends the power of the image to suggest that merely looking upon it without understanding is sufficient to create a circuit of likeness and recognition that ultimately leads to conversion. In such miracles, an ostensibly surface-oriented or simplistic mode of religious devotion engages with gendered bodies in powerfully transformative ways that touch on complex theological issues.     

Neither a Discipline nor a Colony: Renaissance and Re-imagination in Economic History

After years in the wilderness, economic history is becoming fashionable once more. Intellectual shifts by its parent disciplines of history and economics, the failed experiment of economic history as a separate discipline, and the impact of major economic events have conspired to produce a renaissance in the field of study in the last decade and a half. We explain these changes and show that economic history derives its main strength from its role as an interdisciplinary research field that draws upon and integrates with its closest disciplines. We analyse the nature and recent progress of economic history in Australia and offer a prospective for its future role.     

Suffolk Place,Southwark, London: a Tudor palace and its terracotta architectural decoration

Suffolk Place (c. 1518–22), Southwark, was the London residence of Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk. This majestic palace is visible in the foreground of Wyngaerde’s London panorama (c. 1544), from which it can be inferred that it possessed a double courtyard plan. The southern and eastern ranges of the outer courtyard of Suffolk Place were apparently adorned with architectural terracottas at both entablature and parapet level. As the palace was demolished in 1557–58, the finds of ex-situ terracottas are a key source of information concerning the decorative scheme of this vanished palace. Petrological study and other research indicates that the terracottas were locally manufactured, implying the existence of a London-area workshop.     

European Union Competition Policy and the European Territorial Cohesion Agenda: An Impossible Reconciliation? State Aid Rules and Public Service Liberalization through the European Spatial Planning Lens

The territorial and spatial planning impacts of European Union (EU) economic and competition policies have remained under-researched in the field of European spatial planning, in contrast to other EU policy fields. This briefing explores how two elements of the EU competition policy, the regulation of “state aid” and the liberalization of “services of general interest (SGI)”, have significant implications for the pursuit of the objective of territorial cohesion through spatial planning and territorial development policies at different scales. The paper first reviews the development of the concept of territorial cohesion in the EU discourse and policy agenda since the mid-1990s, as well as the contribution of public services (Services of General Interest, or SGI in EU jargon) to it. It, then, reviews how the EU state aid rules and liberalization policies affect the state's ability to intervene (i) in support of sub-national territories which are lagging behind or suffering decline, and (ii) in the provision of public services across the national territory, specifically in peripheral regions or areas where the provision is not catered for by the market. The conclusion of the paper outlines the additional challenges to the pursuit of territorial cohesion in the EU posed by the post-2008 economic crisis and suggests avenues for future research.     

War,Gender and National Mourning: The Significance of the Death and Commemoration of Edith Cavell in Britain

This article takes as a case study Edith Cavell, arguably the most prominent British female war casualty of the First World War. It builds on the existing work on Cavell by situating her commemoration within the context of the commemoration of British war casualties, both male and female, with particular reference to the commemoration of Captain Charles Fryatt, the British merchant seaman executed by the Germans in Belgium in 1916 whose death initially caused an outcry in Britain similar to that caused by the execution of Cavell.

résumé ?Cet article se penche sur le cas d'Edith Cavell, la victime britannique la plus célèbre de la première guerre mondiale, pour contextualiser son historiographie dans le contexte de la commémoration des victimes de guerre et en la comparant au cas du capitaine Charles Fryatt, de la marine marchande, exécuté en Belgique en 1916.     

County versus region? Migrational connections in the East Midlands, 1700–1830

Much literature on the industrial revolution has argued for the emergence of distinct, economically specialised regions during the eighteenth century. Large towns are thought to have played a vital part in drawing these industrial regions together, economically, socially and culturally. However, using the example of the East Midlands, this paper highlights the fact that neither industrialisation nor regional development was a uniform process. The East Midlands was significantly affected by industrialisation, but unlike ‘classic industrial regions’ such as the North-west or West Midlands, it did not experience a concomitant growth in regional integration and identity. Data on migration to Leicester, Nottingham and Derby in the period 1700–1830 are used to examine the nature and extent of social and economic linkages between these towns and their hinterlands and thus to explore the nature of urban-centred spatial integration in the East Midlands. It is argued that the apparent lack of region-wide integration can be explained, firstly, by the unusual dominance of the three county towns at the head of weak county urban networks, and secondly, by the persistence of a proto-industrial structure in the East Midlands' staple hosiery industry.     

From limestone caves to concrete graves: 3000 years of mortuary practice in the Palauan archipelago,Micronesia

Human skeletal remains have been discovered from a variety of contexts in the Palauan archipelago of western Micronesia. These include caves, rockshelters, earthen mounds, stone platforms, midden burials, crypts, sarcophagi, and historic period gravesites. Recent excavation of a prehistoric cemetery in a rockshelter on Orrak Island dating from ca 1000 BC–AD 200, combined with nearly contemporaneous surface finds in caves on both Orrak and other nearby islands, shed light on the earliest known burial practices in Palau. Interment in limestone caves and rockshelters was then replaced in succession by burial in earthwork terraces, beneath stone platforms, in middens, within limestone slab crypts and at least one known stone sarcophagus, and finally in Western or Asian‐style gravesites with headstones. Here we present the first major synthesis of mortuary patterns in Palau from the earliest periods of known settlement (ca. 1000 BC) to modern times. Understanding how these burial practices change over time provides valuable insight into changing sociocultural practices within Palauan society, including how contact with outsiders during the historical period drastically altered traditional mortuary behaviours. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Shepherds and plants in the Alps: multi-proxy archaeobotanical analysis of neolithic dung from “La Grande Rivoire” (Isère,France)

The analysis of phytoliths, pollen, charcoal and other macroremains was carried out in the neolithic shelter of “La Grande Rivoire”, Vercors massif (French Alps). The results show the predominance of tree species, in the form of phytoliths, clustered pollen, stomata, small branches charcoal, needles, bark, buds… The practice of leaf fodder is already known in the alpine and circum-alpine area from archaeological and historical sources. The analyses of the neolithic dung levels of “La Grande Rivoire” illustrate the use of leafy and flowering tree branches as fodder. The results also suggest that some species were used for special purpose in relation with the tending of livestock (litter, dietary supplement, veterinary practices).     

Anachronisms or failures? Family strategies in the sixteenth century, as drawn from collective biographies of solicitors in Aix-en-Provence

This article highlights the patterns that can be observed in the matrimonial alliances of solicitors in sixteenth-century Aix-en-Provence and family strategies understood as a corpus of rational decisions bearing on the long term. Defined this way, family strategies applied to sixteenth-century solicitors are an anachronism. The new and unstable context in which the sixteenth-century solicitor found himself prevented families from having a clear view of the objectives to achieve and from devising a rational strategy. The article presents the model that most of the solicitors' alliances followed and suggests the obstacles that appeared before the main actor in family planning, the one who wielded paternal authority, in the creation of these alliances. The example of the Maria family shows women who decided, against the will of their family, whom they would marry. This article highlights the historian's reconstruction of typical family behavior and the limited possibilities that families had to plan over the long term.