You are here
Studies in Early Modern German History
This series emphasizes new and fresh approaches to German history during the early modern Period: ca. 1400-1800. Including works translated from German and original works in English, the series introduces readers to some of the most innovative and creative books on subjects ranging from the history of madness and witchcraft, to the culture of drinking, the most powerful German merchant family of Renaissance times, and early German reactions to the discovery of America. These are not the conventional topics taught in schools but examples of the vitality and variety offered by historians of the Holy Roman Empire (the German language area).
Series Editor: H. C. Erik Midelfort
UVP Editor: Nadine Zimmerli
Furnace and Fugue
A Digital Edition of Michael Maier's "Atalanta fugiens" (1618) with Scholarly CommentaryAn Innovative New Open-Access ResourceIn 1618, on the eve of the Thirty Years’ War, the German alchemist and physician Michael Maier published Atalanta fugiens, an intriguing and complex musical alchemical emblem book designed to engage the ear, eye, and intellect. The book unfolds as a... More
A German Barber-Surgeon in the Atlantic Slave Trade
The Seventeenth-Century Journal of Johann Peter OettingerAs he traveled across Germany and the Netherlands and sailed on Dutch and Brandenburg slave ships to the Caribbean and Africa from 1682 to 1696, the young German barber-surgeon Johann Peter Oettinger (1666–1746) recorded his experiences in a detailed journal, discovered by Roberto Zaugg and Craig... More
Furnace and Fugue
A Digital Edition of Michael Maier's "Atalanta fugiens" (1618) with Scholarly CommentaryAn Innovative New Open-Access ResourceIn 1618, on the eve of the Thirty Years’ War, the German alchemist and physician Michael Maier published Atalanta fugiens, an intriguing and complex musical alchemical emblem book designed to engage the ear, eye, and intellect. The book unfolds as a series of... More
The Devil's Art
Divination and Discipline in Early Modern GermanyIn early modern Germany, soothsayers known as wise women and men roamed the countryside. Fixtures of village life, they identified thieves and witches, read palms, and cast horoscopes. German villagers regularly consulted these fortune-tellers and practiced divination in their everyday lives. Jason... More
Four Fools in the Age of Reason
Laughter, Cruelty, and Power in Early Modern GermanyUnveiling the nearly lost world of the court fools of eighteenth-century Germany, Dorinda Outram shows that laughter was an essential instrument of power. Whether jovial or cruel, mirth altered social and political relations.Outram takes us first to the court of Frederick William I of Prussia, who... More
The Executioner's Journal
Meister Frantz Schmidt of the Imperial City of NurembergDuring a career lasting nearly half a century, Meister Frantz Schmidt (1554-1634) personally put to death 392 individuals and tortured, flogged, or disfigured hundreds more. The remarkable number of victims, as well as the officially sanctioned context in which they suffered at Schmidt’s hands, was... More
Hometown Religion
Regimes of Coexistence in Early Modern WestphaliaThe pluralization of Christian religion was the defining fact of cultural life in sixteenth-century Europe. Everywhere they took root, ideas of evangelical reform disturbed the unity of religious observance on which political community was founded. By the third quarter of the sixteenth century, one... More
Enlightenment Underground
Radical Germany, 1680-1720Online supplement, "Mulsow: Additions to Notes drawn from the 2002 edition of Moderne aus dem Untergrund": full versions of nearly 300 notes that were truncated in the print edition. Hosted on H. C. Erik Midelfort's website. Martin Mulsow’s seismic reinterpretation of the origins of the... More
Crossing the Boundaries of Belief
Geographies of Religious Conversion in Southern Germany, 1648-1800In early modern Germany, religious conversion was a profoundly social and political phenomenon rather than purely an act of private conscience. Because social norms and legal requirements demanded that every subject declare membership in one of the state-sanctioned Christian churches, the act of... More
Crime and Culture in Early Modern Germany
With the growth of printing in early modern Germany, crime quickly became a subject of wide public discourse. Sensational crime reports, often featuring multiple murders within families, proliferated as authors probed horrific events for religious meaning. Coinciding with heightened witch panics... More
Cautio Criminalis, or a Book on Witch Trials
In 1631, at the epicenter of the worst excesses of the European witch-hunts, Friedrich Spee, a Jesuit priest, published the Cautio Criminalis, a book speaking out against the trials that were sending thousands of innocent people to gruesome deaths. Spee, who had himself ministered to women accused... More
The Fuggers of Augsburg
Pursuing Wealth and Honor in Renaissance GermanyAs the wealthiest German merchant family of the sixteenth century, the Fuggers have attracted wide scholarly attention. In contrast to the other famous merchant family of the period, the Medici of Florence, however, no English-language work on them has been available until now. The Fuggers of... More
Witchcraft and the Papacy
An Account Drawing on the Formerly Secret Records of the Roman InquisitionWhen Rainer Decker was researching a sensational seventeenth-century German witchcraft trial, he discovered, much to his surprise, that in this case the papacy functioned as a force of skepticism and restraint. His curiosity piqued, he tried unsuccessfully to gain access to a secret Vatican archive... More
"Evil People"
A Comparative Study of Witch Hunts in Swabian Austria and the Electorate of TrierInspired by recent efforts to understand the dynamics of the early modern witch hunt, Johannes Dillinger has produced a powerful synthesis based on careful comparisons. Narrowing his focus to two specific regions—Swabian Austria and the Electorate of Trier—he provides a nuanced explanation of how... More
The German Discovery of the World
Renaissance Encounters with the Strange and MarvelousCurrent historiography suggests that European nations regarded the New World as an inassimilable "other" that posed fundamental challenges to the accepted ideas of Renaissance culture. The German Discovery of the World presents a new interpretation that emphasizes the ways in which the new lands... More
Bacchus and Civic Order
The Culture of Drink in Early Modern GermanyLining the streets inside the city's gates, clustered in its center, and thinly scattered among its back quarters were Augsburg's taverns and drinking rooms. These institutions ranged from the poorly lit rooms of backstreet wine sellers to the elaborate marble halls frequented by society's most... More
Shaman of Oberstdorf
Chonrad Stoeckhlin and the Phantoms of the NightShaman of Oberstdorf tells the fascinating story of a sixteenth-century mountain village caught in a panic of its own making. Four hundred years ago the Bavarian alpine town of Oberstdorf, surrounded by the towering peaks of the Vorarlberg, was awash in legends and rumors of prophets and healers,... More
Obedient Germans? A Rebuttal
A New View of German HistoryObedient Germans? A Rebuttal is a concise book, brimming with smart ideas and important, little-known information. It lays to rest the notion that ordinary people passively let 'history' sweep over them, instead of actively creating their own history. It is also a powerful antidote to some of the... More
Lost Worlds
How Our European Ancestors Coped with Everyday Life and Why Life Is So Hard TodayPublication of Lost Worlds introduces to English-speaking readers one of the most original and engaging historians in Germany today. Known for his work in historical demography, Arthur E. Imhof here branches out into folklore, religion, anthropology, psychology, and the history of art. Rooted in... More
Mad Princes of Renaissance Germany
During the sixteenth century close to thirty German dukes, landgraves, and counts, plus one Holy Roman emperor, were known as mad- so mentally disordered that serious steps had to be taken to remove them from office or to obtain medical care for them. This book is the first study these princes, and... More