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Early Modern History Class Notes
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A complete and in-depth summary of all the lectures (week 1 to 7) of the course of Early Modern History. My exam grade: 8.3
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Early Modern History Seminars (werkcollege) - The European World
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Book Summary Early Modern History - The European World
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Lecture 1 - Europe ca. 1500What is Europe? Ca. 1500
○ Broad overview of European history in a global context
○ Not a world history
○ Cartography reinforces/ creates idea of Europe
○ Europe as a diverse and populous place
→ Problem of periodization: EU in the World 1500-1800
● Francesco Petrarca (1304-1374) - painter
○ Clock time begins 1350s → mechanical clock and hourglass → changed
the ways people thought about time, behaved, structured their lives
○ Part of Renaissance movement → discovered and used letters from
Cicero
○ Ancient, Medieval, (Modern)
■ Recovery of ancient glory
■ Lost during dark middle ages
■ Renaissance ends the middle ages/ sharp break or transition
● Early modern → Continuity or break? - transition
○ term is recent - came up in the 1960s’: division between Medieval and
Modern period
○ some historians think that there is no Early Modern, but there is just a
“Late Medieval”
■ So there are 3 different medieval period and modern straight after
○ shifts emphasis from (political events) to socio-cultural processes
● When does the early modern period begin? Black death - 1350? Tudors in 1485?
● Concepts can vary regionally
● How did people see themselves in this period? Were they aware of their
moderness? Or rather early modernity?
Renaissance (1350-1650)
● Coined in 19th century → Jules Michelet (1798-1874)
● Renaissance seen as sharp break in 19th century
○ context = 19th century social, political turmoil
○ French political historian Jules Michelet
○ Swiss cultural historian Jacob Burckhardt - The Civilization of
Renaissance Italy
■ (political) competition and rivalry leads to secularism and
individualism + artistic and cultural creativity
■ Renaissance as sharp break with Middle Ages - first step towards
modernity - spread from Italy
, Humanism
→ Chief strand of culture 1550-1650
→ New value attributed to Studia humanitatis (grammar, rhetoric, poetry, history, moral
philosophy)
→ Movement of recover, emulation of classical antiquity
→ Movement of self-cultivation:
→→ “Humans are not born but formed through education” - Erasmus 1529
○ Difference between humans and animals is education
○ Application of principles, texts from classical antiquity to contemporary
life
○ Education as potential to improve oneself and humankind, then use the
knowledge in daily applications
○ Influences continued especially in european elites well into 20th century
○ Affirmed value of human activity
○ Created lay culture
○ Interwoven with religious reforms
○ Invented tools of modern scholarship
Phases of Humanism:
1. Recovery of classical texts + philological scholarship + codification of laws,
texts
2. Active application of classical knowledge to civic and political life + age of
diplomats, oratores
3. Rival of neo-platonism and stoicism (search for hidden correspondences and
harmonies) + close observation of nature + striving for certainty, beauty, order
Seen as a period of transition, especially in 19th century
○ Renaissance, Reformation and Enlightenment
■ State formation
■ E.g. Leopold von Ranke (1795-1886)
● German History in the Age of Reformation (1855-57)
■ Looking for origins of national history
○ From feudalism to capitalism
■ Marx (1818-1883)
■ Social and economic structures
○ Rise of rationalism and secularism
■ Max Weber (1864-1920)
○ Modernization theory (1950s and 60s)
○ Shaped way we thought about early modern until 60s and 70s
● “Early Modern”
○ Takes of in 60s and 70s
○ Move away from great religious and political events
○ Shift towards processes, transformations, transitions
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