Description
Book SynopsisIn the seventeenth century Prague was the setting for a complex and shifting spiritual world. By studying the city's material culture, this book presents a bold alternative understanding of early modern religion in central Europe.
Trade ReviewIvanic's monograph is an important and revitalizing contribution to the study of material culture in early modern (East) Central Europe. After a long period of scepticism in 1he scholarship of the post linguistic turn towards supposedly less narrative and more object orientcd historical sources, such as inventories, lists and catalogues, Suzanna Ivanic succeeds in rehabilitating the study of this underestimated archival material. Moreover, she situates that material within cutting edge academic discussions and reveals inspiring ways to explore the sources against the grain, raising valuable new questions. * Veronika Capska, Acta Comeniana *
Divided into three parts, Cosmos and Materiality opens with an Introduction in which Ivanič lays out her concept, arguments, and the structure of the volume. A succinct synthesis of urban history is also presented. The rest of the book, six chapters, is divided into two parts. In Part I 'A Shared Cosmos', Ivanič starts with a chapter that analyzes the notions of sympathies, harmonies, and correspondences between the visible and invisible, the profane and the sacred. * R. Po-Chia Hsia, The Journal of the Social History Society *
Religious studies of seventeenth-century Prague can, too often, treat the city's rich and changing religious culture as homogenic, in which individuals took up the spiritual directives of their leaders as a matter of course. Ivanič's meticulous and absorbing study of the personal possessions of a range of Prague's Burghers across the century confronts, complicates and ultimately dismantles this narrative. * Eleanor Janega, Department of International History, The London School of Economics, SEER *
A lively study * Joseph Davis, Journal of Early Modern History *
Table of ContentsIntroduction: Prague - An Urban Cosmos Part I: A Shared Cosmos 1: Natural Matter 2: A Matter of Kinship 3: A Cosmos in the Making Part II: The Cosmos and Confessions 4: The Clockmaker's Cosmos 5: Fracturing Universal Christianity 6: Domesticating the Baroque Conclusion
