Description
Book Synopsis"A fascinating study of the movements and ambivalent meanings of gifts in the political culture of the fifteenth and early sixteenth century... Valentin Groebner's book ... provides us with a new way of understanding the meanings and uses of 'corruption.'"-Natalie Zemon Davis, Sixteenth Century Journal
Trade Review"This is an important book, highly original, innovative, and convincing. Groebner's scholarship is wide-ranging and superb." * David Nirenberg, Johns Hopkins University *
"A fascinating study of the movements and ambivalent meanings of gifts in the political culture of the fifteenth and early sixteenth century. . . . Valentin Groebner's book thus brings us a richly drawn portrait of the deep values and practices of republican political culture, and provides us with a new way of understanding the meanings and uses of 'corruption,' a subject of great currency in our world today." * Natalie Zemon Davis,
Sixteenth Century Journal *
"Groebner bridges the traditional divide between elite and popular histories, enriching traditional German administrative history with a wide-ranging infusion of social and cultural history." *
Choice *
"A fascinating book on a fascinating subject." *
The Medieval Review *
Table of ContentsIntroduction: Speaking of Gifts
1. Liquids and Pronouncements
2. Offices
3. Manners of Speaking
4. Pensions
5. Pensions in Basel, 1501-1522
6. Instruments
Appendix
List of Abbreviations
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Acknowledgments
