1st Edition
The Ashgate Research Companion to the Counter-Reformation
'In the last two decades, the history of the Counter-Reformation has been stretched and re-shaped in numerous directions. Reflecting the variety and innovation that characterize studies of early modern Catholicism today, this volume incorporates topics as diverse as life cycle and community, science and the senses, the performing and visual arts, material objects and print culture, war and the state, sacred landscapes and urban structures. Moreover, it challenges the conventional chronological parameters of the Counter-Reformation and introduces the reader to the latest research on global Catholicism. The Ashgate Research Companion to the Counter-Reformation presents a comprehensive examination of recent scholarship on early modern Catholicism in its many guises. It examines how the Tridentine reforms inspired conflict and conversion, and evaluates lives and identities, spirituality, culture and religious change. This wide-ranging and original research guide is a unique resource for scholars and students of European and transnational history.
Biography
Alexandra Bamji is Lecturer in Early Modern History in the School of History, University of Leeds, UK. She is a cultural historian of early modern Europe, with particular interests in cities, religion and the history of medicine. Geert H. Janssen is a Special Lecturer in early modern Dutch history at Oxford University and Fellow of Corpus Christi College. He is the author of Princely Power in the Dutch Republic: Patronage and William Frederick of Nassau (1613-64) and is currently working on a book about Catholic Exile in the Dutch Revolt. Mary Laven is University Senior Lecturer in Early Modern European History, University of Cambridge, UK. She is the author of Virgins of Venice: Enclosed Lives and Broken Vows in the Renaissance Convent, winner of the 2002 John Llewellyn Rhys Prize, and Mission to China: Matteo Ricci and the Jesuit Encounter with the East.
'This handbook is an excellent survey of current research trends in early modern Catholicism... Recommended. Upper-level undergraduates through researchers/faculty.' Choice 'The Ashgate Research Companion to the Counter-Reformation ... is an extremely useful tool for those in the academy wishing to instruct the next generation of scholars and also a helpful resource for the experienced scholar. It is an outstanding piece of work. ... The editors and contributors associated with this volume deserve considerable praise and commendation.' Sixteenth Century Journal ’This new companion by a formidable array of early modern historians will breathe new and exciting life into the understanding of this crucial era, disrupting the tendency to impose easy uniformity on the massively complex tapestry of the Reformation narrative. No mere compilation of diverse essays, the work constitutes a highly original drama of intellectual ideas. The editors have orchestrated a remarkable unity out of a pluralism of interwoven perspectives, each fascinating in its own right and yet contributing to the integrity of the whole. The story this book tells is of an era rich in local diversity, exceptions, paradoxes, seminal influences and telling narratives. Highly readable, remarkable in its range of scholarship, this study is set to become an essential text for the early modern period.’ John Cornwell, Cambridge University, UK 'The Ashgate Research Companion to the Counter-Reformation is a valuable handbook for all scholars and students of early modern Catholicism. Leading scholars take on a wide variety of topics and relate important directions in current research, while the work as a whole expands the concept of Counter-Reformation. Comprehensive in scope, the volume focuses on the varieties of religious experience and highlights the complexities of Catholic identities during a dynamic age. This is a work that makes sense of recent scholarship and sends it in new directions.' Charles
