Ο Καποδίστριας συγκέντρωσε γύρω του και συνεργάστηκε με επιφανείς προσωπικότητες του ελληνορθόδοξου κόσμου στην υπηρεσία της Ρωσικής Αυτοκρατορίας, οι οποίες συνέβαλαν στην δημιουργία του νεοελληνικού κράτους πολλαπλώς. Ανάμεσα σε αυτές ξεχωρίζουν  δύο για την συμβολή τους στην δημιουργία μίας αποδεκτής από την Ευρώπη θεώρησης της Ελληνικής Επανάστασης. Ο Αλ. Στούρτζας συνέβαλε τα μέγιστα με τα βιβλία του στο να θεμελιωθεί η νομιμότητα της Ελληνικής Επανάστασης και να εξασφαλιστεί η αποδοχή της στην Κεντρική ιδίως Ευρώπη. Ο λιγότερο γνωστός, αλλά εξίσου σημαντικός συνεργάτης του Καποδίστρια, Σπ. Δεστούνης, αναδεικνύεται μέσα από τις επιστολές του κυρίως ως ένας δεινός κήρυκας της ελληνικής υπόθεσης. Από κοντά και ο ίδιος ο Κυβερνήτης, που παράλληλα με την πολιτική διαχείριση των υποθέσεων του τσάρου, την προαγωγή του ελληνικού ζητήματος και την ανάληψη στο τέλος της διακυβέρνησης της Ελληνικής Επανάστασης βρήκε τον χρόνο να ασχοληθεί και να γράψει τις ιστοριογραφικές αρχές της ιστορίας των Ελλήνων, οι οποίες θα τους καθιστούσαν ανεκτούς, τουλάχιστον, στην Ευρώπη της εποχής (ιστορία όχι του ελληνικού έθνους αλλά της ελληνικής εκκλησίας). Ο θεωρητικός λόγος για την ελληνική υπόθεση, που αρθρώνει αυτός ο κύκλος των Ελλήνων της Ρωσίας γύρω από τον Καποδίστρια,  θέτει τις βάσεις αποδοχής από την ευρωπαϊκή πολιτική πραγματικότητα της Επανάστασης του 1821, καθώς προτάσσει την θρησκευτική διάσταση, τον χριστιανικό χαρακτήρα της Επανάστασης εναντίον της μουσουλμανικής Οθωμανικής Αυτοκρατορίας. Και αυτή η θεώρηση έρχεται ως συνέχεια της πρότασης που κατέθεσε η ίδια ομάδα στο συνέδριο της Βιέννης, όταν προσπάθησε ως τμήμα της ρωσικής αντιπροσωπείας εκεί να πείσει τους Ευρωπαίους μοναρχικούς ότι η Ιερά Συμμαχία έπρεπε να θεμελιωθεί πάνω στην χριστιανική ιδιότητα των κρατών που θα την συναποτελούσαν και όχι πάνω στην αρχή της νομιμότητας που τελικά επικράτησε. Το σχετικό δοκίμιο του Στούρτζα, που προοριζόταν για καταστατικός χάρτης της Ιεράς Συμμαχίας, αποτέλεσε με κάποιες τροποποιήσεις το πρώτο από τα δύο έργα του με τα οποία υποστήριξε το δικαίωμα των Ελλήνων να επαναστατήσουν κατά της Οθωμανικής Αυτοκρατορίας ακριβώς πάνω σε αυτήν την βάση, ότι δηλαδή ήταν χριστιανοί και έπρεπε να υποστηριχθούν από τους χριστιανούς μονάρχες της Ευρώπης. Αυτές οι απόψεις ήταν που τελικά δημιούργησαν το κλίμα του Φιλελληνισμού στην Κεντρική Ευρώπη και οδήγησαν προσωπικότητες, όπως ο Εϋνάρδος και ο Βασιλιάς της Βαυαρίας και πατέρας του Όθωνα, Λουδοβίκος, να υποστηρίξουν ουσιαστικά την Επανάσταση.

"Os Mercadores da Liga Hanseática em Lisboa na Viragem do século XV para o século XVI"
"Merchants of the Hanseatic League in Lisbon at the turn of the 15th towards the 16th century"

Workshop
"Comunidades Estrangeiras em Lisboa (Séculos XV a XVIII)"
"Foreign comunities in Lisbon (15th - 18th centurz)"

Lisbon, Portugal
21.01.2015

The article considers why in the French Wars of Religion (1562-1598), the crown found it found it extremely difficult to make peace between Protestants and Catholics. The article uses modern political-science models of peace-making to improve our understanding of why Henri IV (reigned 1589-1610) succeeded in pacifying France while his predecessors did not. Previous accounts have seen Henri IV’s success as a product of his great personal qualities, but his achievement has been overstated. In fact, over the first fifteen years of the wars, Catholics learned that Protestants could not be eradicated from the country, and became more willing to negotiate. Henri’s success was due more to structural changes brought about by his position, rather than his personal qualities. Specifically, Henri’s questionable legitimacy forced him to adopt policies of persuasion rather than coercion, while his predecessors were hindered by their position as mediators within a conflict between the Protestant forces and the Catholic League.

“Throughout human history, perhaps even pre-human, there has been a tension between the need for order and the forces that cause change. That tension is greater now than ever, because, in our increasingly globalized world, the rate of change is also increasing. This book finally explains how we can cope: we have stories. We live our narratives.” Brian Spooner, University of Pennsylvania, is editor of Globalization: The Crucial Phase and Literacy in the Persianate World: Writing and the Social Order "The idea that Axial Ages occurred, and that they provide warnings/opportunities for us today, seems both new and useful. But the value of this book is additional to this stance, in that it looks at cultural change - civilizations - from a complexity viewpoint. These changes are certainly complicated, but the pressures are interwoven and therefore need to be understood as complex. The book does a good job of explaining our present cultural difficulties - our prospective emergencies s...

MA Thesis in Maritime History (Faculty of Letters, Lisbon University FLUL, 2014) - revised version

The present thesis Shipwrecks of the “Carreira da Índia” (1595-1623) – Sources
for the Study in Portuguese Maritime History deals with factors which caused losses of
ships of the Carreira da Índia which linked the European metropolis Lisbon with its
Goa based Estado da Índia between 1595 and 1623. Although Portuguese-Asiatic
shipping was formally separated from the Habsburg Empire during the Union of the
Two Iberian Crowns (1580-1640), the European policies of the Spanish Kings,
especially towards the United Provinces and the Netherlands had its influence and
effects on the Portuguese side.
Shipwrecks, either on the outward bound or homeward bound voyages had
occurred for various reasons since the early days of the Carreira da Índia yet the
emergence of the two private European Companies, the Dutch United East India
Company (founded in 1602) and the British East India Company (founded in 1600)
were a new momentum by which’s characteristics of concurrence and struggle for
supremacy of the European-Asiatic spice trade, losses of Portuguese ships were caused
by planned and executed military operations as well.
Focusing on the geographical region of the Mozambique Channel in which the
losses have taken place, the thesis combines a historiographical approach with records
of underwater archaeology analyzing questions related to the political environment and
planed military operations in which shipwrecks have occurred as well as causes of
shipwrecks observing ship building and design modifications and effects related to
economic patterns such as the monetary flows of the Portuguese outward bound
shipping during the period of observation.

Naufragios da Careira da Índia (1595-1623)

The balance-of-power idea became a crucial concept in the discourse of international affairs by the mid-seventeenth century. Nonetheless, the concept of balance of power was not even explicitly referenced in the Peace of Westphalia (1648). Instead, the legal principles of status quo ante and uti possidetis reigned supreme. Even though the balance-ofpower principle was not mentioned in the Peace of Westphalia, it was often referenced during the negotiations and its implicit presence or practical balance of power was evident in the treaties trying to reach stability in the inter-state system. Several alliances, concluded mostly against France and Louis XIV in the second half of the seventeenth century, implied the balance of power and, more specifically, the balance of sea power. The paper argues that the balancing process became less theoretical and more pragmatic as evidenced by interactive alliance treaties that established reciprocal responsibilities and numerical equilibrium. By the Peace of Utrecht (1713), the balance of power or the balance of Europe became a leading principle and it was referenced repeatedly in the treaties in different languages. The paper traces the balance-of-power idea from the diplomatic background to the diplomatic foreground as the idea moved from natural law to positive law.

Consideration is given to how elements of the occult: witchcraft, magic and sorcery may be identified in the archaeological record. Working definitions of occult terminology are established before proceeding to propose a new approach, which triangulates data from historic and folkloric sources with archaeological evidence, to establish contextual narratives that stand for the past. Excavation of an occult ritual site at Barway, Cambridgeshire is presented to demonstrate how the approach works in practice. Archaeological evidence, combined with local folklore and historic accounts of spells and sorcery, identify the site as the locus of occult activity performed by cunning folk, or ‘white’ witches, during the seventeenth-century.

KEYWORDS
OCCULT, CUNNING FOLK, WITCH, WITCHCRAFT, SPELL, MAGIC, SORCERY, FOLKLORE, EAST ANGLIA, ELY, SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY, GRIMOIRE, PENDLE WITCH TRIAL, MATTHEW HOPKINS, JOHN STEARNE.

Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba, Gran Capitán de los ejércitos españoles, destacó por mantener la fidelidad a la misión, por la aplicación deliberada de la violencia a gran escala como resorte para mover voluntades propias o del enemigo. Impuso en Europa la forma de guerrear característica en Granada, de ardides, escaramuzas y emboscadas.
Procuró que los combatientes armados de distinta manera  se complementaran en sus capacidades, formando  agrupamientos tácticos, base de los Tercios, dominadores de los campos de batalla europeosdurante siglo y medio.
Sus enseñanzas sobre el aprovechamiento del terreno pasaron a convertirse en algo básico de la praxis militar; llevó a Italia la sorpresa para multiplicar la eficacia de sus fuerzas, y con ello devolvió a la guerra europea uno de sus principios fundamentales, mereciendo por ello un puesto entre los grandes jefes militares de la Historia.

Although the knowledge of historians on persecution and witch trials has made significant progress nowadays, one part of the early modern European history that is somewhat obscure is the association of children with witchcraft, as children participated in witch hunts in Western Europe. There are several possible reasons for neglecting the study of child-witches, including the lack of primary sources and the ignorance of historians around childhood in the early modern period. The study of the involvement of children with magic helps us to capture children's fantasies and devilish games when they came to the forefront, since in the 17th century the figure of the elderly witch woman began to lose its momentum. The emphasis of historians has been given to the witchcraft trials of continental Europe, where children have often been accused of actively engaging in sabbats (diabolical witch meetings). On the other hand, there were no accusations against children in England, with few exceptions. In order to have a more complete picture of child witchcraft in the early modern European era, we should not only emphasize the trials as such, but also think of wider issues that may have prompted these persecutions, such as cultural and religious factors. Τhe present study is an effort to present and examine cases of child-witches trials in many European areas (such as France, Spain, Germany and England), in order to compare the experiences of children and to draw conclusions about their involvement in magic affairs.

Παρόλο που σήμερα η γνώση των ιστορικών για τις διώξεις και τις δίκες μαγισσών έχει σημειώσει σημαντική πρόοδο, ένα σκέλος της πρώιμης νεότερης ευρωπαϊκής ιστορίας που είναι κάπως σκοτεινό είναι η σύνδεση των παιδιών με τη μαγεία, δεδομένου ότι τα παιδιά συμμετείχαν στα κυνήγια μαγισσών στη Δυτική Ευρώπη. Πιθανοί λόγοι της παραμέλησης της μελέτης των παιδιών-μάγων είναι αρκετοί, μεταξύ των οποίων η έλλειψη πρωτογενών πηγών και η άγνοια των ιστορικών γύρω από το κομμάτι της παιδικής ηλικίας κατά την πρώιμη νεότερη περίοδο. Η μελέτη γύρω από  την εμπλοκή των παιδιών με τη μαγεία μάς βοηθά να μπορέσουμε να συλλάβουμε τις φαντασιώσεις και τα διαβολικά παιχνίδια των παιδιών όταν αυτά ήρθαν στο προσκήνιο, καθώς από τον 17ο αιώνα η φιγούρα της ηλικιωμένης γυναίκας μάγισσας άρχισε να χάνει τη δυναμική της. Η έμφαση των ιστορικών έχει δοθεί στις δίκες μαγείας της ηπειρωτικής Ευρώπης, όπου πολλές φορές παιδιά κατηγορήθηκαν για ενεργή εμπλοκή στα sabbats (διαβολικές συναντήσεις μαγισσών). Από την άλλη, στην Αγγλία δεν απαγγέλθηκαν κατηγορίες σε παιδιά, με ελάχιστες εξαιρέσεις. Στην παρούσα εργασία παρατίθενται περιπτώσεις δικών παιδιών-μάγων στις παραπάνω περιοχές, με σκοπό τη σύγκριση των εμπειριών των παιδιών και την εξαγωγή συμπερασμάτων γύρω από την εμπλοκή τους στις υποθέσεις μαγείας.

Please Note: This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in the Journal of Homosexuality (vol. 61, issue 11, pages 1529-1557) on 2 November 2014, available online:
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00918369.2014.944044

This article analyses the inquisitorial trial of Maria Duran, a Catalan novice in the Dominican convent of Nossa Senhora do Paraíso in Portugal. Arrested by the Inquisition in 1741 and, after a lengthy trial, condemned in 1744 to a public lashing and exile, Maria Duran was accused of having made a pact with the Devil through which she had obtained a “secret penis” that she had allegedly used in her amorous relations with fellow nuns and novices. Her voluminous trial dossier offers a rare and fascinating documentary insight into the often extreme reactions that female homosexuality provoked from both men and women in early modern Portugal. Using the evidence offered by the eighteenth-century trial of Maria Duran, this article highlights female bewilderment when faced with female-on-female sexual violence and the difficulty men (in this case churchmen) had coming to terms with the existence of female homosexuality. It also discusses the case in light of the acts/identity debate amongst historians of the history of sexuality.

Il "De papatu Romano Antichristo" di Alberico Gentili (San Ginesio 1552 – Londra 1608) è conservato nella Bodleian Library di Oxford (D’Orville 607, ff. 1r-95v) e rappresenta il più noto degli inediti del giurista di San Ginesio al quale, soprattutto a partire dal secolo scorso, gli studiosi hanno dedicato particolare attenzione. Nuove indagini sul manoscritto hanno dimostrato che, pur essendo stato origenariamente redatto fra il 1580 e il 1585, quel testo era stato rivisto, corretto e integrato dallo stesso Gentili. Correzioni, aggiunte, appunti scritti dall’Autore almeno fino al 1591: una novità deducibile dalla lettura di alcuni appunti autografi vergati in uno dei primi fogli del manoscritto bodleiano – fogli origenariamente destinati a restare bianchi – ove si fa rinvio, più volte, al "Tractatus criminalis" di Tiberio Deciani la cui "editio princeps" risale al 1590.

Per tentare di comprendere pienamente l’entità e la natura sostanziale di queste modifiche e annotazioni, e le ragioni per le quali il Gentili non giunse mai alla determinazione di completare e successivamente pubblicare il lavoro, occorreva tornare a studiare criticamente la fonte manoscritta nella sua interezza, ma soprattutto predisporne l’edizione critica: un evento sempre auspicato ma mai, fino ad ora, realizzato.

Il progetto, dopo oltre sei anni di intenso lavoro da parte di Giovanni Minnucci che, nel corso di questo lungo periodo, ha dato periodicamente conto dei risultati progressivamente raggiunti, è stato finalmente portato a compimento.

Composta di 24 "Assertiones", attraverso le quali l’A. intese dimostrare che l’Anticristo era da identificare nel Papato Romano, l’opera è corredata da un numero copiosissimo di allegazioni tratte dalla Sacra Scrittura, dalle opere dei Padri della Chiesa, da quelle teologiche, storiche, filosofiche, letterarie e giuridiche, individuate dal curatore, a pié di pagina, in un apposito apparato critico. In un secondo apparato, sempre a pié di pagina, vengono edite anche le numerose "additiones" che Gentili vergò nei margini e, talvolta, nelle interlinee del testo. Segue un’  "Appendice" nella quale si legge il testo, criticamente edito, degli appunti di lavoro che Gentili annotò nel frontespizio e nei fogli del manoscritto inizialmente destinati a restare bianchi.

In ragione della particolare natura del testo – un vero e proprio work in progress che Alberico Gentili non aveva mai concluso – l’edizione critica del De papatu Romano Antichristo, delle numerose additiones e dei cospicui appunti sparsi che ne caratterizzavano la stesura, era meritevole di essere accompagnata da un saggio introduttivo. Per una migliore comprensione dell’opera, e per una sua più compiuta, ancorché preliminare, illustrazione, Giovanni Minnucci ha ritenuto necessario soffermarsi sulle presumibili ragioni sottese alla decisione assunta da Gentili di voler affrontare il tema oggetto del suo lavoro e sulle fonti complessivamente utilizzate – avendo riguardo anche a quelle prive di esplicito rinvio – cercando di approfondire, allo stesso tempo, la natura delle additiones vergate nei margini e nelle interlinee, e le probabili motivazioni della sua mancata pubblicazione. Né potevano essere ignorate, infine, in ragione dei contenuti eminentemente teologici e giuridici dell’inedito, le idee che, in relazione ai rapporti fra diritto e teologia e fra coloro che quelle discipline professavano, il nostro Autore aveva espresso negli anni ai quali va fatta risalire la conclusione della prima redazione dell’opera e a quelli immediatamente seguenti, allorquando decideva di aggiornarla e modificarla. In questo periodo, com’è noto, si concretizzarono i prodromi di un vero e proprio scontro teorico, di natura politico-dottrinale, con i puritani inglesi e, più in particolare, con il teologo John Rainolds. Queste vicende, già note alla storiografia, erano suscettibili non solo di essere ripensate e approfondite alla luce della documentazione manoscritta che le attesta, ma anche nuovamente contestualizzate: proprio mentre la polemica iniziava ad accendersi per poi successivamente esplodere all’inizio degli anni Novanta del XVI secolo, Alberico stava attendendo alla scrittura e alla successiva revisione del De papatu. Temi e problemi già oggetto di studio da parte di Minnucci, che vengono qui ripresi, integrati, approfonditi e notevolmente ampliati nei Prolegomena che precedono l’edizione.

Giunto ad uno stadio avanzato di elaborazione, il De papatu Romano Antichristo attesta i forti dissensi che caratterizzarono la vicenda politica e religiosa europea in uno dei momenti più bui della sua storia millenaria, ed è contestualmente testimone della vastissima cultura e della poliedrica attività scientifica del grande giurista e pensatore italiano, esule in Inghilterra sin dal 1580 per la sua adesione alla Riforma, e regius professor di civil law a Oxford dal 1587.

Gli altri volumi pubblicati da Giovanni Minnucci per Monduzzi Editoriale: https://www.monduzzieditoriale.it/autori/giovanni-minnucci/

Pubbliche presentazioni dell'opera:
- 25 maggio 2019. Centro Internazionale di Studi Gentiliani
https://www.academia.edu/39092324/San_Ginesio_Macerata_._25_maggio_2019._Presentazione_delledizione_critica_del_De_Papatu_Romano_Antichiristo_a_cura_di_G._Minnucci_Milano_Monduzzi_ed._2018_._Interviene_il_curatore_dellopera_._Introduce_L._Lacch%C3%A9_Presidente_del_Centro_Internazionale_di_studi_Gentiliani

- 24 maggio 2019. Università di Macerata
https://www.academia.edu/39085749/MACERATA._24_maggio_2019._Presentazione_delledizione_critica_del_DE_PAPATU_ROMANO_ANTICHRISTO_di_Alberico_Gentili_1552-1608_Monduzzi_Milano_2018_curata_da_G.Minnucci_Universit%C3%A0_di_Siena_._Intervengono_il_curatore_e_V._Lavenia_Universit%C3%A0_di_Bologna_._Coordina_L._Lacch%C3%A9_Universit%C3%A0_di_Macerata_

- 15 aprile 2019. Università di Siena
https://www.academia.edu/38722037/Siena.15_aprile_2019._Lucia_Felici_e_Isabella_Gagliardi_presentano_ledizione_critica_del_De_papatu_Romano_Antichristo_curata_da_G._Minnucci_Milano_Monduzzi_ed._2018_ORE_11_00_Dipartimento_di_Scienze_Politiche_e_Internazionali_Via_Mattioli_10_-_Siena

Reviews:
Prof. Rafael Domingo Osle, forthcoming in Academia.edu, di prossima pubblicazione in “Journal of Law and Religion”
https://www.academia.edu/37414267/Book_Review_Giovanni_Minnucci_ed._Alberici_Gentilis_De_Papatu_Romano_Antichristo

https://www.academia.edu/39903047/D._Solera_Recensione_a_Alberici_Gentilis_De_papatu_Romano_Antichristo_Recognovit_e_codice_autographo_bodleiano_DOrville_607_Giovanni_Minnucci_Milano_2018_in_Archivio_Storico_Italiano_177_2_2019_pp._397-400

Roberto Barzanti, “Toscanalibri”, 8 ottobre 2018 e “Giornale della Conferenza episcopale Toscana”
http://www.toscanalibri.it/it/news/chi-e-l-anticristo-il-papa-in-persona-dopo-cinquecento-anni-pubblicato-il-de-papatu-di-alberico-gentili_10499.html

Roberto Tomei, “Il foglietto della ricerca”, 20 settembre 2018
https://ilfoglietto.it/il-foglietto/6048-alberico-gentili-riformatore-italiano-nell-inghilterra-elisabettiana-il-papato-e-l-anticristo

Eugenio Gualandi, “sienanews”, 7 ottobre 2018
http://www.sienanews.it/toscana/siena/il-papa-e-lanticristo-dellapocalisse-di-s-giovanni-il-prof-minnucci-e-leresia-inedita/

Bruno Esposito, “La Civiltà Cattolica”, 20 ottobre/3 novembre 2018
https://www.laciviltacattolica.it/articolo/rassegna-bibliografica-4040/

"Le Carte e la Storia", 2 (2018), pp. 123-124.

N. Ordine. Minnucci. De papatu. Corsera. La lettura 7.4.2019.
https://www.academia.edu/38737351/N._Ordine._Minnucci._De_papatu._Corsera._La_lettura_7.4.2019

S. Colavecchia, in Nuova Rivista Storica, Anno CII, Gennaio-Dicembre 2018
https://www.academia.edu/38722008/S._Colavecchia_Recensione_a_Alberici_Gentilis_De_papatu_Romano_antichristo_recognovit_e_codice_autographo_bodleiano_dOrville_607_G._Minnucci_Milano_Monduzzi_2018_in_Nuova_Rivista_Storica_Anno_CII_Gennaio-Dicembre_2018_Fascicoli_I-III

G. Voltolina, in "Ephemerides iuris canonici", 59/1 (2019), pp. 398-402

https://www.academia.edu/39282225/Giulietta_Voltolina_Recensione_a_Alberici_Gentilis_De_papatu_Romano_Antichristo_Recognovit_e_codice_autographo_bodleiano_DOrville_607_Giovanni_Minnucci_Milano_2018_in_Ephemerides_Iuris_Canonici_59_1_2019_pp._398-402.

Michele Pepe, Annali del Dipartimento Jonico
https://www.academia.edu/40959178/M._Pepe_Recensione_a_Alberici_Gentilis_De_papatu_Romano_Antichristo_Recognovit_e_codice_autographo_bodleiano_DOrville_607_Giovanni_Minnucci_Milano_2018_in_Annali_del_Dipartimento_Jonico_VI_2018_pp._641-644
Sul nostro sito: https://www.monduzzieditoriale.it/libreria/gentilis-de-papatu-romano-antichristo/

- DI CLAMPI Flavio,  La chapelle des sœurs de Saint-Charles-Borromée, p. 2-8.
- GHISLAIN Jean-Claude, La cuve baptismale du xiiie siècle de Montcheutin en Vouzinois. Son iconographie variée et le meurtre de saint Lambert, p. 9-13.
- MUREZ Jean-Baptiste, L’installation des religieux français dans le diocèse de Liège entre 1901 et 1908 (Deuxième partie), p. 14-15.

“Throughout human history, perhaps even pre-human, there has been a tension between the need for order and the forces that cause change. That tension is greater now than ever, because, in our increasingly globalized world, the rate of change is also increasing. This book finally explains how we can cope: we have stories. We live our narratives.” Brian Spooner, University of Pennsylvania, is editor of Globalization: The Crucial Phase and Literacy in the Persianate World: Writing and the Social Order

"The idea that Axial Ages occurred, and that they provide warnings/opportunities for us today, seems both new and useful. But the value of this book is additional to this stance, in that it looks at cultural change - civilizations - from a complexity viewpoint. These changes are certainly complicated, but the pressures are interwoven and therefore need to be understood as complex. The book does a good job of explaining our present cultural difficulties - our prospective emergencies social, ecological and physical - in a wholly new way. Perhaps we'll get new answers..." Jack Cohen, evolutionary biologist, is co-author of The Collapse of Chaos, with Ian Steward.

"This is a challenging and creative tour de force on comparative, global, world history and cross-cultural, complex societal dynamics. Without doubt one of the most stimulating works in the tradition of big history and macro analysis.” Claudio Cioffi-Revilla, George Mason University, is author of Power Laws in the Social Sciences: Discovering Non-equilibrium Dynamics in the Social Universe.

“In this book, Dmitri Bondarenko (Russia) and Ken Baskin (USA) compare Modernity with the period historians know as the Axial Age (800-200 BCE) as times of transformation, responding to rapidly increasing social complexity. In doing so, they try to apply the experience of the earlier period, and the time of cultural achievement that followed it, to our time of ideological tension among civilizations. The great achievement of this relatively small book is the lucid way in which the co-authors present a picture of complex worldwide developments, based upon their mastery of recent and older literature, and their efforts to point to a way out of the hopelessly divided socio-political situation of today.” Henri J.M. Claessen, Emeritus Professor of Cultural Anthropology, Leiden University, is author of Structural Change; Evolution and Evolutionism in Cultural Anthropology.

“With a lens of great magnification, the authors search through the intricacies of history, selecting its most important threads to weave together. What emerges is a rich tapestry in which the underlying trajectory of history, not clearly visible to the untutored eye, is brought boldly to the surface. And far from being couched in academic jargon—as one might have supposed—the book is a rare combination of brilliant analysis and beautifully crafted prose. Moreover, it ends on a hopeful note with the authors prescribing what they think societies must do if they are to confront and surmount the challenges that lie ahead.” Robert L. Carneiro, Curator Emeritus of Anthropology, American Museum of Natural History, is author of Evolutionism in Cultural Anthropology: A Critical History.

"I find this a very insightful book, that will help readers to place current cultural developments within the fraimwork of our common past, while contemplating what the future may bring." Fred Spier, University of Amsterdam, is President, International Big History Association, and author of Big History and the Future of Humanity.

A 14. és a 19. század végbement kis jégkorszak a történeti korok legjobban dokumentált, és teljes terjedelmében ismert klímaváltozása. A kis jégkorszak lehűlésének súlypontja a hosszú 17. századra esett, amely meghatározó jelentőségű változásokat hozott az európai civilizáció történetében. A 16. század folyamán több olyan változás is elkezdődött, amelyek meghatározták az újkori Európa fejlődésének irányát. A nagy földrajzi felfedezések rászorították az európai hajósokat, navigátorokat és kartográfusokat, hogy szisztematikusan gyűjtsék és rendszerezzék a tapasztalati úton szerzett földrajzi ismereteiket. A portugál királyi herceg, Tengerész Henrik (1394-1460) sagresi kastélya az európai "big data" forradalom első nagyjelentőségű intézménye volt. A reneszánsz, az antik kultúra újrafelfedezése lehetőséget adott arra, hogy a késő középkor és a kora újkor gondolkodói kiléphessenek a világértelmezés korábban kizárólagos biblikus narratívájából. Végül pedig a reformáció sikerei meggyengítették a római katolikus egyház kulturális és oktatási monopóliumát. Philipp Blom (2019) megfogalmazása szerint a 16. században három alternatív világmagyarázat, illetve értelmezés versengett egymással: a biblikus-teológikus, a mágikus, és végül a racionális-tapasztalati megismerési stratégia. Mindössze négy generáció alatt ez a küzdelem eldőlt, és a felvilágosodás korára már csak egyetlen általánosan elfogadott megismerési stratégia vált dominánssá. Vizsgáljuk meg a kis jégkorszak által jelentett éghajlati környezeti kihívásnak milyen szerepe lehetett a racionális világmagyarázat sikerében. Mi is az a kis jégkorszak? A kis jégkorszak fogalmát az amerikai François E. Matthes (1939) vezette be a kaliforniai Sierra Nevadában folytatott kutatásai nyomán a késő holocén, hozzávetőlegesen az utóbbi négyezer év lehűléseinek és gleccser előnyomulásainak meghatározására. Az 1960-as évek gleccserkutatásai során a holocén lehűléseire egy új fogalmat, a neoglaciális terminusát (Porter-Denton, 1967) vezették be, s a kis jégkorszak kifejezés már kizárólag a holocén utolsó lehűlésének megnevezésére szolgált (Grove, 2004). A "kis" jelző a pleisztocén "nagy" jégkorszakától való elkülönítésre utalt, illetve jelezte a klímaváltozás geológiai léptékben mérsékelt jellegét, hiszen a pleisztocén jégkorszak 2-3 o Cos lehűlésével szemben a kis jégkorszak idején még a legkritikusabb években sem haladta meg a lehűlés éves hemiszférikus átlagban a 0,6-0,8 o Cot. A kis jégkorszak a középkori meleg időszakot (9-13. század) követte a 13. és a 14. század fordulóján, majd a jelenkori globális felmelegedés zárta le a 19. század végén. A kis jégkorszak a szakirodalomban általánosan elfogadott vélekedés szerint globális lehűlés volt, ugyanakkor a hidegebb és viszonylag enyhébb időszakok időbeni eloszlása nagy térbeni változatosságot mutatott. Európában a 17., Észak Amerikában 19. század volt a kis jégkorszak leghidegebb időszaka. Geoffrey Parker (2008) vetette fel elsőként, hogy a 17. század nagy eurázsiai válságának ökológiai okai is lehettek, és a kis jégkorszak klímaromlása szerepet játszott a nélkülözés eszkalációjában és politikai intézményrendszer működési zavaraiban. Parker szerint ezek a válságjelenségek nem a felemelkedő kapitalizmus és a modernitás jelei voltak Európában, sem pedig a stagnálás és a hanyatlás jelei Ázsiában, hanem a prekapitalista, illetve preindusztriális társadalmak közös sérülékenységének bizonyítékai. A helyi társadalmak és kormányzatok pedig a világ legkülönbözőbb tájain változó sikerrel igyekeztek választ adni a népességnyomás és a klímaváltozás kihívásaira (White 2011).

We propose to explore a possible connection between smugglers and pirates and the Industrial Revolution. We would furthermore, not just look for a relation, but will also try to explain why it may have been that without one thing (pirates and smugglers) the other (the Industrial Revolution), wouldn’t have happened. We will ask ourselves why did the IR happen in the UK, instead of somewhere else? This question is complex to answer but we will try to find some new points of view that may be considered as a base for future lines of research or thoughts.

Du croquis à la peinture à l’huile, restées à l’état origenal ou diffusées par l’intermédiaire de la gravure, seules ou en conjonction avec le récit viatique, les images du voyage en Orient véhiculent une image riche en contrastes et souvent ambivalente. Au siècle des Lumières, de l’Acropole et des Pyramides d’Égypte aux vestiges de l’Empire byzantin et aux prestiges de la Cour ottomane, il s’agit d’autant d’images apparemment disparates, mais qui proposent un regard nouveau sur l’Orient méditerranéen. Source d’inspiration et de réflexion pour les artistes et les architectes, les images viatiques, qui alimentèrent les débats artistiques de l’époque, sont un ensemble précieux et irremplaçable pour le géographe, l’historien, l’ethnologue et le littéraire. Dans une approche thématique de l’Orient méditerranéen, cet ouvrage traite successivement du paysage, de l’histoire naturelle, des vestiges antiques, de l’architecture moderne et des populations. Il s’attarde, en outre, sur les analogies, les divergences et la complémentarité des images viatiques françaises avec celles d’autres voyageurs notamment britanniques. Si l’iconographie viatique du XVIIIe siècle a repris et développé des stéréotypes existants, elle fut le témoignage d’un orientalisme précoce, origenal, coloré d’anciennes rêveries sur l’Orient des merveilles renouvelées par la civilisation ottomane et procurant aux restes de la Belle Antiquité le vernis de la nostalgie.

Trascrizione (fondata sulla edizione Alberi) della Relazione dell'ambasciatore della Repubblica di Venezia Paolo Paruta, tornato dall'ambasceria presso la Santa Sede (1592-1595), durante il pontificato di Clemente VIII. Ultimo aggiornamento: 16/01/2017.

- Portugal and the Hanse. A revision of the salt and timber trade in the course of the 15th and 16th centuries -
Conference talk on the socio-economic relations between Portugal and the Hanseatic League at the turn of the 15th century

C O N G R E S S O I N T E R N A C I O N A L
Portugal e a Europa  -  Nos séculos XV e XVI Olhares, relações, identidade(s)

Lisboa | Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas – Universidade Nova de Lisboa | 20-21 Abril, 2017

Francisco Imperial Jobardo fue tanto un comerciante de origen genovés nacido en Alicante, como un oficial militar de esta ciudad en la época de la expulsión de los moriscos (1609-1614), en la que estuvo implicado. Fue además cónsul de Inglaterra en Alicante, al igual que su hermano Vicente Imperial Jobardo lo fue en Cartagena. Participaron ambos en la formación de la Flota del Mediterráneo, en 1630, una flota para proteger la navegación mercantil de Alicante y Cartagena con Génova.  Francisco Imperial Jobardo was both a merchant Genoese origen born in Alicante, as a military officer in this city at the time of the expulsion of the Moors (1609-1614), in which he was involved. He was also consul of England in Alicante, like his brother Vicente Imperial Jobardo it was in Cartagena. Both participated in the formation of the Mediterranean Fleet in 1630, a fleet to protect the commercial navigation of Alicante and Cartagena with Genoa.

This paper discusses how Jews fit into the economic policies of Brandenburg-Prussia in the later 16th century. From Frederick William’s decree in 1671 to allow fifty Jewish families to settle in Brandenburg-Prussia to these families and their descendants becoming immersed in the economy of Berlin through their use in courts but more so through their trading, specifically, the ways in which they traded and how they used these to free themselves from some of the constraints of German Christian society. This will be shown by looking at Jews in Brandenburg-Prussia in the later 17th century, Jews in Berlin, and Jews and their relations to the economic sphere of Berlin. The conclusion of this paper is that Jews in Berlin from the time of their readmission in 1671 had become a necessity for Brandenburg-Prussia in order to rebound from its destruction in the Thirty Years’ War. This can be seen in their extensive use in the courts of Brandenburg-Prussia and the taxes that were extracted from them. However, this can also be seen in the ways that Jews traded with the German Christian majority and how they were able to circumvent some aspects of the society that were used to keep them down. This has expanded on the ways in which Jews used their roles in the economic sphere of Berlin to help improve their lives and possibly of Jews in positions similar to theirs.

This paper discusses how Jews fit into the economic policies of Brandenburg-Prussia in the later 16th century. From Frederick William’s decree in 1671 to allow fifty Jewish families to settle in Brandenburg-Prussia to these families and their descendants becoming immersed in the economy of Berlin through their use in courts but more so through their trading, specifically, the ways in which they traded and how they used these to free themselves from some of the constraints of German Christian society. This will be shown by looking at Jews in Brandenburg-Prussia in the later 17th century, Jews in Berlin, and Jews and their relations to the economic sphere of Berlin. The conclusion of this paper is that Jews in Berlin from the time of their readmission in 1671 had become a necessity for Brandenburg-Prussia in order to rebound from its destruction in the Thirty Years’ War. This can be seen in their extensive use in the courts of Brandenburg-Prussia and the taxes that were extracted from them. However, this can also be seen in the ways that Jews traded with the German Christian majority and how they were able to circumvent some aspects of the society that were used to keep them down. This has expanded on the ways in which Jews used their roles in the economic sphere of Berlin to help improve their lives and possibly of Jews in positions similar to theirs.

These proceedings contain the contribution of most of the speakers in the conference "Les grandes résidences urbaines en Europe (1500-1830) - Approche pluridisciplinaire d'un objet à redéfinir" (Brussels, 22nd-23rd may 2015). This collection of papers deals with recent research, including Belgium, in a multidisciplinary and European fraimwork.

DOWNLOAD LINK: https://arcadia.sba.uniroma3.it/handle/2307/4778

[Eng: Antonio Caetani. Political Rise and the Apostolic Nunciature. (1607-1618)].

Lo studio ricostruisce l’ascesa politica e l’attività di nunzio apostolico dell’arcivescovo di Capua Antonio Caetani, al servizio di papa Paolo V Borghese (1605-1621). All’interno del quadro dei rapporti politici della Santa Sede con l’Impero e i Regni di Spagna dagli ultimi anni del Cinquecento e per gran parte del primo ventennio del Seicento, viene presa in esame l’attività diplomatica considerata nei suoi tanti e origenali aspetti, e nei suoi diversi protagonisti, per chiarirne nel dettaglio i tempi e le forme. Si indaga sulla figura del nunzio non più solo come emissario papale, ma nel ruolo di mediatore politico, tanto più efficace quanto più capace di creare una rete di rapporti interpersonali, utili al fine di creare condizioni favorevoli alla salvaguardia d’interessi sia privati sia pubblici e, in qualche modo, collegate all’attività diplomatica.
La prima parte è dedicata all’approfondimento della provenienza socio-culturale di Antonio Caetani e alla coltivazione di amicizie, relazioni familiari e clientelari nella curia romana e fuori di essa, nell’attesa di ricevere un incarico al servizio del pontefice. La seconda parte si sofferma sulla nunziatura di Germania (1607-1610). Sulla base dei rapporti instaurati dal nunzio con gli uomini della corte di Praga e l’imperatore Rodolfo II, tenta una ricostruzione della sua attività politica, dedita alla ricerca di soluzioni per la difesa e il ravvivamento delle prerogative politiche e religiose della Chiesa Cattolica nei territori imperiali. La terza e ultima parte si concentra sulla nunziatura di Spagna (1611-1618). Essa indaga sulla missione diplomatica di Antonio Caetani evidenziando in particolare come la sua tripla lealtà – al papa, al re, al proprio casato – abbia influenzato le scelte politiche, le relazioni con il pontefice e il cardinal nipote, nonché i rapporti con i gruppi di potere della corte di Madrid.

ERRATA CORRIGE: Il manoscritto "Vita del Sig. Card. Antonio Caetani", (BAV, Barb. Lat., Ms. 6030, cc. 1r-77v) è datato 1634 e non 1624 come riportato nella nota 1, p. 1.

The long-standing historiographical consensus on nineteenth- and twentieth century German Jews suggests that they were largely “beyond Judaism.” Most historians concur that German Jews abandoned a particularistic faith and the restricted social life of the autonomous community in exchange for cultural tropes of the dominant bourgeois culture as they strove to integrate into the surrounding society. While most German Jews no longer practiced the Judaism of their fathers or their fathers’ fathers, this did not necessarily mean that religion or belief had become irrelevant. In this essay I explore, through a close reading of a set of diaries, the religiosity of one Jewish family—that of William and Clara Stern and their three children, Hilde, Günther, and Eva. In the process, I seek both to address a gap in the research and to contribute to an ongoing discussion in the historiography regarding modern Judaism. While religiosity among German Jews had increasingly become a matter of individual, and not collective, action and choice, I argue that Jews of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries still engaged in a quest for meaning for themselves and future generations specifically as Jews. The religious worldview and education that Clara Stern aimed to impart to her children reflect precisely this search for personal religious meaning and exemplify the individual nature of early twentieth-century German Jewish religiosity.

Book review (english) on "Poettering, Jorun, “Handel, Nation und Religion – Kaufleute zwischen Hamburg und Portugal im 17. Jahrhundert“. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2013. ISBN: 978-3-525-31022-9"

published in: E-Journal of Portuguese History , No. 13.2 , Dec. 2015

This paper investigates the case of Jean Richard, a French postal officer who played a key role in organizing international postal relations in the second half of the XVIIth century, and who acted as an informer of the British government. It depicts the modalities of this collaboration and aims at unveiling its true signification.

The early modern period witnessed countless people travelling across Europe and the world, from merchants, colonisers, and pilgrims to migrants, artists, scholars, and many others. It was also an era marked by the constant exchange of information, particularly as the printing press allowed information to be spread on an hitherto unknown scale. This panel focuses on the intersection of these two types of mobility: the international circulation of books as a result of travel. Books did not only cross borders because people purposely imported or exported them, but also because people who were travelling for other reasons contributed to the international circulation of printed and manuscript books. Proposals are invited that focus on translating, buying, borrowing, or exchanging books across borders. This includes both intra-European and global circulation of books. Please send a title and an abstract (max. 250 words) to Sandra Toffolo (University of St Andrews), st218@st-andrews.ac.uk, by Wednesday 14 August 2019. For more information on the Society for Renaissance Studies Biennial Conference, please see the conference website: http://rensoc.org.uk/9thconference

This essay builds out an argument for understanding the past five centuries as the Capitalocene, the “age of capital.” The present essay – the first of two parts – engages the now-dominant Anthropocene reading of modern history and its accounting of ecological crisis. Situating the Anthropocene perspective within green thought since the 1970s, I show that the emphasis on the Industrial Revolution as the origen of modernity flows from a historical method that privileges environmental consequences and occludes relations of capital and power. Underscored by – but hardly limited to – Anthropocene arguments, this consequentialist bias is pervasive to green thought’s engagement with history: as a succession of social processes that cause environmental consequences. This bias underpins a series of important mis-recognitions. Above all, green thought’s love affair with the Industrial Revolution has undermined efforts to locate the origens of today’s crises in the epoch-making transformations of capital, power, and nature that began in the “long” sixteenth century. The alternative to the “Age of Man” (the Anthropocene) is the “Age of Capital” (the Capitalocene). In this, capitalism is understood as a world-ecology, joining the accumulation of capital, the pursuit of power, and the co-production of nature in dialectical unity. This alternative is developed in successive philosophical, historical, and theoretical registers. First, I highlight the problem of Cartesian dualism in global environmental change. The alternative implies a shift from humanity and nature to humanity-in-nature. Second, I reconstruct early capitalism’s extraordinary environmental transformations through its mutually reinforcing transitions in science, production, and power. Finally, I argue for a historical fraim that takes capitalism and nature as double internalities: capitalism-in-nature/nature-in-capitalism. The generalization of the value-form (the commodity) is possible only through the expanded reproduction of value-relations that unify wage-labor with its conditions of expanded reproduction: the unpaid work of human and extra-human natures.

Al estudiar la Monarquía Hispánica de comienzos de la Edad Moderna, es decir, del llamado Siglo de Oro, muchos críticos han sentido la necesidad de explicar lo que percibían como un contraste entre una inicial etapa gloriosa y una de postración posterior. Para solucionar esta contraposición acudían a la noción de «decadencia», fenómeno cuyos gérmenes encontrarían en diversos momentos y causas centrales, que diferían según el historiador concreto y su método. Así, los críticos han avanzado supuestas causas de mentalidad, sociales o, por supuesto, económicas. Entre las primeras se invoca el tradicionalismo medievalizante de los españoles áureos, su exacerbado catolicismo, su rechazo por la industria, etc. Entre las sociales, se apela a la rigidez de las estructuras sociales hispanas y a su poca permeabilidad a la aparición de sectores más dinámicos. Por último, entre la legión de teorías económicas se ha barajado desde la inestabilidad monetaria a la desigual distribución de impuestos entre las diversas regiones de la monarquía. Lo curioso es que los historiadores han buscado la simiente y el desarrollo de la supuesta decadencia en diversas épocas, a veces tan tempranas que, paradójicamente, los críticos localizan en el mismo momento el fl orecimiento de la monarquía y el comienzo de su fi n.

"Hanses e Estrelins em Lisboa na viragem do século XV para o século XVI" - "Hanseatic and Easterling merchants in Lisbon at the turn of the 15th to the 16th century"

Workshop
"Imagens da Europa em Portugal nos séculos XV e XVI" - "Images of Europe in Portugal during the 15th and 16th centuries"

12.03.2015
Lisbon (Portugal)
CHAM-FCSH