Journal articles on the topic 'Dorothea Herbert'

This paper is purely theoretical in which I have illustrated the contributions of the founding theorist of Western sociology, by focusing on how they addressed (or didn’t address) organizations. Then, I have discussed (in brief) the development of organizational theory and how organizational theorists are responding to the emergence of challenges to the traditional rational approaches to understanding organizations. These analyses are situated on the historical contexts include major contributions of each theorist. This research is solely based on the secondary information. Paper contents four Sections: first the work of the three founding theorists of Western Sociology, Karl Marx; Émile Durkheim and Max Weber, secondly, I have exemplified the development of organizational theory and the emergence of challenges to the traditional rational approaches to understand the organization; where I have analyzed the work of Classical theorists- Max Weber, Henri Fayol, Frederick Taylor, Luther Halsey Gulick, Herbert A. Simon, Berton H. Kaplan, modern theorist- Michel Foucault, Jurgen Habermas, Jacques Derrida, Jurgen Habermas etc. Third Section covers the contemporary theories and perspectives. In this section I have exemplified how Philip Selznick, Peter Blau, James David Thompson and Charles Perrow incorporated the Weber notion of bureaucracy followed by DiMaggio, Paul, J. and Walter W. Powell etc. and in forth section, covers the feminist approach in theory building with focus of organizational analysis (with the focus of Arlene Daniels, Dorothy Smith, Marjorie DeVault, Gisela Bock and Susan James, Martha Calas, Linda Smircich etc. work). This paper has detailed footnotes quoted from the original sources and contents useful reference of the sociological theory and practices for concerned social scientist to build their knowledge base and research direction.

Introduction Ireland did not have a tradition of printed cookbooks prior to the 20th century. As a consequence, Irish culinary manuscripts from before this period are an important primary source for historians. This paper makes the case that the manuscripts are a unique way of accessing voices that have quotidian concerns seldom heard above the dominant narratives of conquest, colonisation and famine (Higgins; Dawson). Three manuscripts are examined to see how they contribute to an understanding of Irish social and culinary history. The Irish banking crisis of 2008 is a reminder that comments such as the one in the title of this paper may be more then a casual remark, indicating rather an underlying anxiety. Equally important is the evidence in the manuscripts that Ireland had a domestic culinary tradition sited within the culinary traditions of the British Isles. The terms “vernacular”, representing localised needs and traditions, and “polite”, representing stylistic features incorporated for aesthetic reasons, are more usually applied in the architectural world. As terms, they reflect in a politically neutral way the culinary divide witnessed in the manuscripts under discussion here. Two of the three manuscripts are anonymous, but all are written from the perspective of a well-provisioned house. The class background is elite and as such these manuscripts are not representative of the vernacular, which in culinary terms is likely to be a tradition recorded orally (Gold). The first manuscript (NLI, Tervoe) and second manuscript (NLI, Limerick) show the levels of impact of French culinary influence through their recipes for “cullis”. The Limerick manuscript also opens the discussion to wider social concerns. The third manuscript (NLI, Baker) is unusual in that the author, Mrs. Baker, goes to great lengths to record the provenance of the recipes and as such the collection affords a glimpse into the private “polite” world of the landed gentry in Ireland with its multiplicity of familial and societal connections. Cookbooks and Cuisine in Ireland in the 19th Century During the course of the 18th century, there were 136 new cookery book titles and 287 reprints published in Britain (Lehmann, Housewife 383). From the start of the 18th to the end of the 19th century only three cookbooks of Irish, or Anglo-Irish, authorship have been identified. The Lady’s Companion: or Accomplish’d Director In the whole Art of Cookery was published in 1767 by John Mitchell in Skinner-Row, under the pseudonym “Ceres,” while the Countess of Caledon’s Cheap Receipts and Hints on Cookery: Collected for Distribution Amongst the Irish Peasantry was printed in Armagh by J. M. Watters for private circulation in 1847. The modern sounding Dinners at Home, published in London in 1878 under the pseudonym “Short”, appears to be of Irish authorship, a review in The Irish Times describing it as being written by a “Dublin lady”, the inference being that she was known to the reviewer (Farmer). English Copyright Law was extended to Ireland in July 1801 after the Act of Union between Great Britain and Ireland in 1800 (Ferguson). Prior to this, many titles were pirated in Ireland, a cause of confusion alluded to by Lehmann when she comments regarding the Ceres book that it “does not appear to be simply a Dublin-printed edition of an English book” (Housewife 403). This attribution is based on the dedication in the preface: “To The Ladies of Dublin.” From her statement that she had a “great deal of experience in business of this kind”, one may conclude that Ceres had worked as a housekeeper or cook. Cheap Receipts and Hints on Cookery was the second of two books by Catherine Alexander, Countess of Caledon. While many commentators were offering advice to Irish people on how to alleviate their poverty, in Friendly Advice to Irish Mothers on Training their Children, Alexander was unusual in addressing her book specifically to its intended audience (Bourke). In this cookbook, the tone is of a practical didactic nature, the philosophy that of enablement. Given the paucity of printed material, manuscripts provide the main primary source regarding the existence of an indigenous culinary tradition. Attitudes regarding this tradition lie along the spectrum exemplified by the comments of an Irish journalist, Kevin Myers, and an eminent Irish historian, Louis Cullen. Myers describes Irish cuisine as a “travesty” and claims that the cuisine of “Old Ireland, in texture and in flavour, generally resembles the cinders after the suttee of a very large, but not very tasty widow”, Cullen makes the case that Irish cuisine is “one of the most interesting culinary traditions in Europe” (141). It is not proposed to investigate the ideological standpoints behind the various comments on Irish food. Indeed, the use of the term “Irish” in this context is fraught with difficulty and it should be noted that in the three manuscripts proposed here, the cuisine is that of the gentry class and representative of a particular stratum of society more accurately described as belonging to the Anglo-Irish tradition. It is also questionable how the authors of the three manuscripts discussed would have described themselves in terms of nationality. The anxiety surrounding this issue of identity is abating as scholarship has moved from viewing the cultural artifacts and buildings inherited from this class, not as symbols of an alien heritage, but rather as part of the narrative of a complex country (Rees). The antagonistic attitude towards this heritage could be seen as reaching its apogee in the late 1950s when the then Government minister, Kevin Boland, greeted the decision to demolish a row of Georgian houses in Dublin with jubilation, saying that they stood for everything that he despised, and describing the Georgian Society, who had campaigned for their preservation, as “the preserve of the idle rich and belted earls” (Foster 160). Mac Con Iomaire notes that there has been no comprehensive study of the history of Irish food, and the implications this has for opinions held, drawing attention to the lack of recognition that a “parallel Anglo-Irish cuisine existed among the Protestant elite” (43). To this must be added the observation that Myrtle Allen, the doyenne of the Irish culinary world, made when she observed that while we have an Irish identity in food, “we belong to a geographical and culinary group with Wales, England, and Scotland as all counties share their traditions with their next door neighbour” (1983). Three Irish Culinary Manuscripts The three manuscripts discussed here are held in the National Library of Ireland (NLI). The manuscript known as Tervoe has 402 folio pages with a 22-page index. The National Library purchased the manuscript at auction in December 2011. Although unattributed, it is believed to come from Tervoe House in County Limerick (O’Daly). Built in 1776 by Colonel W.T. Monsell (b.1754), the Monsell family lived there until 1951 (see, Fig. 1). The house was demolished in 1953 (Bence-Jones). William Monsell, 1st Lord Emly (1812–94) could be described as the most distinguished of the family. Raised in an atmosphere of devotion to the Union (with Great Britain), loyalty to the Church of Ireland, and adherence to the Tory Party, he converted in 1850 to the Roman Catholic religion, under the influence of Cardinal Newman and the Oxford Movement, changing his political allegiance from Tory to Whig. It is believed that this change took place as a result of the events surrounding the Great Irish Famine of 1845–50 (Potter). The Tervoe manuscript is catalogued as 18th century, and as the house was built in the last quarter of the century, it would be reasonable to surmise that its conception coincided with that period. It is a handsome volume with original green vellum binding, which has been conserved. Fig. 1. Tervoe House, home of the Monsell family. In terms of culinary prowess, the scope of the Tervoe manuscript is extensive. For the purpose of this discussion, one recipe is of particular interest. The recipe, To make a Cullis for Flesh Soups, instructs the reader to take the fat off four pounds of the best beef, roast the beef, pound it to a paste with crusts of bread and the carcasses of partridges or other fowl “that you have by you” (NLI, Tervoe). This mixture should then be moistened with best gravy, and strong broth, and seasoned with pepper, thyme, cloves, and lemon, then sieved for use with the soup. In 1747 Hannah Glasse published The Art of Cookery, Made Plain and Easy. The 1983 facsimile edition explains the term “cullis” as an Anglicisation of the French word coulis, “a preparation for thickening soups and stews” (182). The coulis was one of the essential components of the nouvelle cuisine of the 18th century. This movement sought to separate itself from “the conspicuous consumption of profusion” to one where the impression created was one of refinement and elegance (Lehmann, Housewife 210). Reactions in England to this French culinary innovation were strong, if not strident. Glasse derides French “tricks”, along with French cooks, and the coulis was singled out for particular opprobrium. In reality, Glasse bestrides both sides of the divide by giving the much-hated recipe and commenting on it. She provides another example of this in her recipe for The French Way of Dressing Partridges to which she adds the comment: “this dish I do not recommend; for I think it an odd jumble of thrash, by that time the Cullis, the Essence of Ham, and all other Ingredients are reckoned, the Partridges will come to a fine penny; but such Receipts as this, is what you have in most Books of Cookery yet printed” (53). When Daniel Defoe in The Complete English Tradesman of 1726 criticised French tradesmen for spending so much on the facades of their shops that they were unable to offer their customers a varied stock within, we can see the antipathy spilling over into other creative fields (Craske). As a critical strategy, it is not dissimilar to Glasse when she comments “now compute the expense, and see if this dish cannot be dressed full as well without this expense” at the end of a recipe for the supposedly despised Cullis for all Sorts of Ragoo (53). Food had become part of the defining image of Britain as an aggressively Protestant culture in opposition to Catholic France (Lehmann Politics 75). The author of the Tervoe manuscript makes no comment about the dish other than “A Cullis is a mixture of things, strained off.” This is in marked contrast to the second manuscript (NLI, Limerick). The author of this anonymous manuscript, from which the title of this paper is taken, is considerably perplexed by the term cullis, despite the manuscript dating 1811 (Fig. 2). Of Limerick provenance also, but considerably more modest in binding and scope, the manuscript was added to for twenty years, entries terminating around 1831. The recipe for Beef Stake (sic) Pie is an exact transcription of a recipe in John Simpson’s A Complete System of Cookery, published in 1806, and reads Cut some beef steaks thin, butter a pan (or as Lord Buckingham’s cook, from whom these rects are taken, calls it a soutis pan, ? [sic] (what does he mean, is it a saucepan) [sic] sprinkle the pan with pepper and salt, shallots thyme and parsley, put the beef steaks in and the pan on the fire for a few minutes then put them to cool, when quite cold put them in the fire, scrape all the herbs in over the fire and ornament as you please, it will take an hour and half, when done take the top off and put in some coulis (what is that?) [sic]. Fig. 2. Beef Stake Pie (NLI, Limerick). Courtesy of the National Library of Ireland. Simpson was cook to Lord Buckingham for at least a year in 1796, and may indeed have travelled to Ireland with the Duke who had several connections there. A feature of this manuscript are the number of Cholera remedies that it contains, including the “Rect for the cholera sent by Dr Shanfer from Warsaw to the Brussels Government”. Cholera had reached Germany by 1830, and England by 1831. By March 1832, it had struck Belfast and Dublin, the following month being noted in Cork, in the south of the country. Lasting a year, the epidemic claimed 50,000 lives in Ireland (Fenning). On 29 April 1832, the diarist Amhlaoibh Ó Súilleabháin notes, “we had a meeting today to keep the cholera from Callan. May God help us” (De Bhaldraithe 132). By 18 June, the cholera is “wrecking destruction in Ennis, Limerick and Tullamore” (135) and on 26 November, “Seed being sown. The end of the month wet and windy. The cholera came to Callan at the beginning of the month. Twenty people went down with it and it left the town then” (139). This situation was obviously of great concern and this is registered in the manuscript. Another concern is that highlighted by the recommendation that “this receipt is as good as the bank. It has been obligingly given to Mrs Hawkesworth by the chief book keeper at the Bank of Ireland” (NLI, Limerick). The Bank of Ireland commenced business at St. Mary’s Abbey in Dublin in June 1783, having been established under the protection of the Irish Parliament as a chartered rather then a central bank. As such, it supplied a currency of solidity. The charter establishing the bank, however, contained a prohibitory clause preventing (until 1824 when it was repealed) more then six persons forming themselves into a company to carry on the business of banking. This led to the formation, especially outside Dublin, of many “small private banks whose failure was the cause of immense wretchedness to all classes of the population” (Gilbert 19). The collapse that caused the most distress was that of the Ffrench bank in 1814, founded eleven years previously by the family of Lord Ffrench, one of the leading Catholic peers, based in Connacht in the west of Ireland. The bank issued notes in exchange for Bank of Ireland notes. Loans from Irish banks were in the form of paper money which were essentially printed promises to pay the amount stated and these notes were used in ordinary transactions. So great was the confidence in the Ffrench bank that their notes were held by the public in preference to Bank of Ireland notes, most particularly in Connacht. On 27 June 1814, there was a run on the bank leading to collapse. The devastation spread through society, from business through tenant farmers to the great estates, and notably so in Galway. Lord Ffrench shot himself in despair (Tennison). Williams and Finn, founded in Kilkenny in 1805, entered bankruptcy proceedings in 1816, and the last private bank outside Dublin, Delacours in Mallow, failed in 1835 (Barrow). The issue of bank failure is commented on by writers of the period, notably so in Dickens, Thackery, and Gaskill, and Edgeworth in Ireland. Following on the Ffrench collapse, notes from the Bank of Ireland were accorded increased respect, reflected in the comment in this recipe. The receipt in question is one for making White Currant Wine, with the unusual addition of a slice of bacon suspended from the bunghole when the wine is turned, for the purpose of enriching it. The recipe was provided to “Mrs Hawkesworth by the chief book keeper of the bank” (NLI, Limerick). In 1812, a John Hawkesworth, agent to Lord CastleCoote, was living at Forest Lodge, Mountrath, County Laois (Ennis Chronicle). The Coote family, although settling in County Laois in the seventeenth century, had strong connections with Limerick through a descendent of the younger brother of the first Earl of Mountrath (Landed Estates). The last manuscript for discussion is the manuscript book of Mrs Abraham Whyte Baker of Ballytobin House, County Kilkenny, 1810 (NLI, Baker). Ballytobin, or more correctly Ballaghtobin, is a townland in the barony of Kells, four miles from the previously mentioned Callan. The land was confiscated from the Tobin family during the Cromwellian campaign in Ireland of 1649–52, and was reputedly purchased by a Captain Baker, to establish what became the estate of Ballaghtobin (Fig. 3) To this day, it is a functioning estate, remaining in the family, twice passing down through the female line. In its heyday, there were two acres of walled gardens from which the house would have drawn for its own provisions (Ballaghtobin). Fig. 3. Ballaghtobin 2013. At the time of writing the manuscript, Mrs. Sophia Baker was widowed and living at Ballaghtobin with her son and daughter-in-law, Charity who was “no beauty, but tall, slight” (Herbert 414). On the succession of her husband to the estate, Charity became mistress of Ballaghtobin, leaving Sophia with time on what were her obviously very capable hands (Nevin). Sophia Baker was the daughter of Sir John Blunden of Castle Blunden and Lucinda Cuffe, daughter of the first Baron Desart. Sophia was also first cousin of the diarist Dorothea Herbert, whose mother was Lucinda’s sister, Martha. Sophia Baker and Dorothea Herbert have left for posterity a record of life in the landed gentry class in rural Georgian Ireland, Dorothea describing Mrs. Baker as “full of life and spirits” (Herbert 70). Their close relationship allows the two manuscripts to converse with each other in a unique way. Mrs. Baker’s detailing of the provenance of her recipes goes beyond the norm, so that what she has left us is not just a remarkable work of culinary history but also a palimpsest of her family and social circle. Among the people she references are: “my grandmother”; Dorothea Beresford, half sister to the Earl of Tyrone, who lived in the nearby Curraghmore House; Lady Tyrone; and Aunt Howth, the sister of Dorothea Beresford, married to William St Lawrence, Lord Howth, and described by Johnathan Swift as “his blue eyed nymph” (195). Other attributions include Lady Anne Fitzgerald, wife of Maurice Fitzgerald, 16th knight of Kerry, Sir William Parsons, Major Labilen, and a Mrs. Beaufort (Fig. 4). Fig. 4. Mrs. Beauforts Rect. (NLI, Baker). Courtesy of the National Library of Ireland. That this Mrs. Beaufort was the wife of Daniel Augustus Beaufort, mother of the hydrographer Sir Francis Beaufort, may be deduced from the succeeding recipe supplied by a Mrs. Waller. Mrs. Beaufort’s maiden name was Waller. Fanny Beaufort, the elder sister of Sir Francis, was Richard Edgeworth’s fourth wife and close friend and confidante of his daughter Maria, the novelist. There are also entries for “Miss Herbert” and “Aunt Herbert.” While the Baker manuscript is of interest for the fact that it intersects the worlds of the novelist Maria Edgeworth and the diarist Dorothea Herbert, and for the societal references that it documents, it is also a fine collection of recipes that date back to the mid-18th century. An example of this is a recipe for Sligo pickled salmon that Mrs. Baker, nee Blunden, refers to in an index that she gives to a second volume. Unfortunately this second volume is not known to be extant. This recipe features in a Blunden family manuscript of 1760 as referred to in Anelecta Hibernica (McLysaght). The recipe has also appeared in Cookery and Cures of Old Kilkenny (St. Canices’s 24). Unlike the Tervoe and Limerick manuscripts, Mrs. Baker is unconcerned with recipes for “cullis”. Conclusion The three manuscripts that have been examined here are from the period before the famine of 1845–50, known as An Gorta Mór, translated as “the big hunger”. The famine preceding this, Bliain an Áir (the year of carnage) in 1740–1 was caused by extremely cold and rainy weather that wiped out the harvest (Ó Gráda 15). This earlier famine, almost forgotten today, was more severe than the subsequent one, causing the death of an eight of the population of the island over one and a half years (McBride). These manuscripts are written in living memory of both events. Within the world that they inhabit, it may appear there is little said about hunger or social conditions beyond the walls of their estates. Subjected to closer analysis, however, it is evident that they are loquacious in their own unique way, and make an important contribution to the narrative of cookbooks. Through the three manuscripts discussed here, we find evidence of the culinary hegemony of France and how practitioners in Ireland commented on this in comparatively neutral fashion. An awareness of cholera and bank collapses have been communicated in a singular fashion, while a conversation between diarist and culinary networker has allowed a glimpse into the world of the landed gentry in Ireland during the Georgian period. References Allen, M. “Statement by Myrtle Allen at the opening of Ballymaloe Cookery School.” 14 Nov. 1983. Ballaghtobin. “The Grounds”. nd. 13 Mar. 2013. ‹http://www.ballaghtobin.com/gardens.html›. Barrow, G.L. “Some Dublin Private Banks.” Dublin Historical Record 25.2 (1972): 38–53. Bence-Jones, M. A Guide to Irish Country Houses. London: Constable, 1988. Bourke, A. Ed. Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing Vol V. Cork: Cork UP, 2002. Craske, M. “Design and the Competitive Spirit in Early and Mid 18th Century England”, Journal of Design History 12.3 (1999): 187–216. Cullen, L. The Emergence of Modern Ireland. London: Batsford, 1981. Dawson, Graham. “Trauma, Memory, Politics. The Irish Troubles.” Trauma: Life Stories of Survivors. Ed. Kim Lacy Rogers, Selma Leydesdorff and Graham Dawson. New Jersey: Transaction P, 2004. De Bhaldraithe,T. Ed. Cín Lae Amhlaoibh. Cork: Mercier P, 1979. Ennis Chronicle. 12–23 Feb 1812. 10 Feb. 2013 ‹http://astheywere.blogspot.ie/2012/12/ennis-chronicle-1812-feb-23-feb-12.html› Farmar, A. E-mail correspondence between Farmar and Dr M. Mac Con Iomaire, 26 Jan. 2011. Fenning, H. “The Cholera Epidemic in Ireland 1832–3: Priests, Ministers, Doctors”. Archivium Hibernicum 57 (2003): 77–125. Ferguson, F. “The Industrialisation of Irish Book Production 1790-1900.” The Oxford History of the Irish Book, Vol. IV The Irish Book in English 1800-1891. Ed. J. Murphy. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2011. Foster, R.F. Luck and the Irish: A Brief History of Change from 1970. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2008. Gilbert, James William. The History of Banking in Ireland. London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, Green, and Longman, 1836. Glasse, Hannah. The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy by a Lady: Facsimile Edition. Devon: Prospect, 1983. Gold, C. Danish Cookbooks. Seattle: U of Washington P, 2007. Herbert, D. Retrospections of an Outcast or the Life of Dorothea Herbert. London: Gerald Howe, 1929. Higgins, Michael D. “Remarks by President Michael D. Higgins reflecting on the Gorta Mór: the Great famine of Ireland.” Famine Commemoration, Boston, 12 May 2012. 18 Feb. 2013 ‹http://www.president.ie/speeches/ › Landed Estates Database, National University of Galway, Moore Institute for Research, 10 Feb. 2013 ‹http://landedestates.nuigalway.ie/LandedEstates/jsp/family-show.jsp?id=633.› Lehmann, G. The British Housewife: Cookery books, cooking and society in eighteenth-century Britain. Totnes: Prospect, 1993. ---. “Politics in the Kitchen.” 18th Century Life 23.2 (1999): 71–83. Mac Con Iomaire, M. “The Emergence, Development and Influence of French Haute Cuisine on Public Dining in Dublin Restaurants 1900-2000: An Oral History”. Vol. 2. PhD thesis. Dublin Institute of Technology. 2009. 8 Mar. 2013 ‹http://arrow.dit.ie/tourdoc/12›. McBride, Ian. Eighteenth Century Ireland: The Isle of Slaves. Dublin: Gill and Macmillan, 2009. McLysaght, E.A. Anelecta Hibernica 15. Dublin: Irish Manuscripts Commission, 1944. Myers, K. “Dinner is served ... But in Our Culinary Dessert it may be Korean.” The Irish Independent 30 Jun. 2006. Nevin, M. “A County Kilkenny Georgian Household Notebook.” Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 109 (1979): 5–18. (NLI) National Library of Ireland. Baker. 19th century manuscript. MS 34,952. ---. Limerick. 19th century manuscript. MS 42,105. ---. Tervoe. 18th century manuscript. MS 42,134. Ó Gráda, C. Famine: A Short History. New Jersey: Princeton UP, 2009. O’Daly, C. E-mail correspondence between Colette O’Daly, Assistant Keeper, Dept. of Manuscripts, National Library of Ireland and Dorothy Cashman. 8 Dec. 2011. Potter, M. William Monsell of Tervoe 1812-1894. Dublin: Irish Academic P, 2009. Rees, Catherine. “Irish Anxiety, Identity and Narrative in the Plays of McDonagh and Jones.” Redefinitions of Irish Identity: A Postnationalist Approach. Eds. Irene Gilsenan Nordin and Carmen Zamorano Llena. Bern: Peter Lang, 2010. St. Canice’s. Cookery and Cures of Old Kilkenny. Kilkenny: Boethius P, 1983. Swift, J. The Works of the Rev Dr J Swift Vol. XIX Dublin: Faulkner, 1772. 8 Feb. 2013. ‹http://www.google.ie/search?tbm=bks&hl=en&q=works+of+jonathan+swift+Vol+XIX+&btnG=› Tennison, C.M. “The Old Dublin Bankers.” Journal of the Cork Historical and Archeological Society 1.2 (1895): 36–9.

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The English Crown and the Church, c.1200–c.1550, Woodbridge / Rochester 2018, York Medieval Press, XIII u. 220 S. / Abb., £ 60,00. (Stefan G. Holz, Heidelberg / Stuttgart) Salih, Sarah, Imagining the Pagan in Late Medieval England, Cambridge 2019, D. S. Brewer, XIII u. 207 S. / Abb., £ 60,00. (Hans-Werner Goetz, Hamburg) Burchard, Bernadette, Kirchenschatz und Schicksal im Mittelalter. Zum Verhältnis von Materialität, Schatzimaginationen und -praktiken am Beispiel des Kathedralschatzes von Münster (Westfalen in der Vormoderne, 32), Münster 2019, Aschendorff, 287 S. / Abb., € 46,00. (Lucas Burkart, Basel) Foerster, Anne, Die Witwe des Königs. Zu Vorstellung, Anspruch und Performanz im englischen und deutschen Hochmittelalter (Mittelalter-Forschung, 57), Ostfildern 2018, Thorbecke, 352 S. / Abb., € 49,00. (Sebastian Roebert, Leipzig) Holste-Massoth, Anuschka, Ludwig II. Pfalzgraf bei Rhein und Herzog von Bayern. Felder fürstlichen Handelns im 13. 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Scientific Networks in the Early Modern World, London / New York 2019, Routledge, XVII u. 394 S. / Abb., £ 120,00. (Bettina Dietz, Hongkong) Lavenia, Vincenzo / Stefania Pastore / Sabina Pavone / Chiara Petrolini (Hrsg.), Compel People to Come In. Violence and Catholic Conversion in the Non-European World (Viella Historical Research, 9), Rom 2018, Viella, 211 S. / Abb., € 45,00. (Tobias Winnerling, Düsseldorf) Ntewusu, Samuel / Nina Paarmann (Hrsg.), Jenseits von Dichotomien. Aspekte von Geschichte, Gender und Kultur in Afrika und Europa / Beyond Dichotomies. Aspects of History, Gender and Culture in Africa and Europe. Festschrift Bea Lundt (Kulturwissenschaften, 62), Berlin / Münster 2020, Lit, 660 S. / Abb., € 69,90. (Wolfgang Reinhard, Freiburg i. Br.) Siebenhüner, Kim, Die Spur der Juwelen. Materielle Kultur und transkontinentale Verbindungen zwischen Indien und Europa in der Frühen Neuzeit (Ding, Materialität, Geschichte, 3), Köln / Weimar 2018, Böhlau, 425 S. / Abb., € 60,00. (Anne Sophie Overkamp, Tübingen) Rohdewald, Stefan / Stephan Conermann / Albrecht Fuess (Hrsg.), Transottomanica – Osteuropäisch-osmanisch-persische Mobilitätsdynamiken. Perspektiven und Forschungsstand (Transottomanica, 1), Göttingen 2019, V&R unipress, 279 S., € 45,00 (auch Open Access). (Stefan Hanß, Manchester) Sawilla, Jan M. / Rudolf Schlögl (Hrsg.), Jenseits der Ordnung? Zur Mächtigkeit der Vielen in der Frühen Neuzeit, Berlin 2019, Neofelis Verlag, 437 S. / Abb., € 32,00. (Mark Häberlein, Bamberg) Rospocher, Massimo / Jeroen Salman / Hannu Salmi (Hrsg.), Crossing Borders, Crossing Cultures. Popular Print in Europe (1450 – 1900) (Studies in Early Modern and Contemporary European History, 1), Berlin / Boston 2019, de Gruyter Oldenbourg, VI u. 296 S. / Abb., € 89,95. (Doris Gruber, Salzburg / Wien) Schaefer, Christina / Simon Zeisberg (Hrsg.), Das Haus schreiben. Bewegungen ökonomischen Wissens in der Literatur der Frühen Neuzeit (Episteme in Bewegung, 13), Wiesbaden 2018, Harrassowitz, 300 S. / Abb., € 68,00. (Justus Nipperdey, Saarbrücken) Amslinger, Julia / Franz Fromholzer / Jörg Wesche (Hrsg.), Lose Leute. Figuren, Schauplätze und Künste des Vaganten in der Frühen Neuzeit, Paderborn 2019, Fink, 206 S. / Abb., € 79,00. (Sabine Ullmann, Eichstätt) Schnettger, Matthias, Kaiser und Reich. Eine Verfassungsgeschichte (1500 – 1806), Stuttgart 2020, Kohlhammer, 406 S. / Abb., € 29,00. (Tobias Schenk, Wien) Meyer, Thomas H., „Rute“ Gottes und „Beschiß“ des Teufels. Theologische Magie- und Hexenlehre an der Universität Tübingen in der frühen Neuzeit, Hamburg 2019, tredition, XI u. 372 S. / Abb., € 24,00. (Andreas Flurschütz da Cruz, Bamberg) Rinke, Stefan, Conquistadoren und Azteken. Cortés und die Eroberung Mexikos, München 2019, Beck, 399 S. / Abb., € 28,00. (Arndt Brendecke, München) Kleinehagenbrock, Frank / Dorothea Klein / Anuschka Tischer / Joachim Hamm (Hrsg.), Reformation und katholische Reform. Zwischen Kontinuität und Innovation (Publikationen aus dem Kolleg „Mittelalter und Frühe Neuzeit“, 7), Würzburg 2019, Königshausen & Neumann, VIII u. 602 S. / Abb., € 68,00. (Marc Mudrak, Berlin) Wendebourg, Dorothea / Euan Cameron / Martin Ohst (Hrsg.), Sister Reformations III. From Reformation Movements to Reformation Churches in the Holy Roman Empire and on the British Isles / Schwesterreformationen III. Von der reformatorischen Bewegung zur Kirche im Heiligen Römischen Reich und auf den britischen Inseln, Tübingen 2019, Mohr Siebeck, XXIII u. 630 S., € 184,00. (Tobias Jammerthal, Neuendettelsau) Labouvie, Eva (Hrsg.), Glaube und Geschlecht – Gender Reformation, Wien / Köln / Weimar 2019, Böhlau, 387 S. / Abb., € 60,00. (Heike Talkenberger, Stuttgart) Jensen, Mads L., A Humanist in Reformation Politics. Philipp Melanchthon on Political Philosophy and Natural Law (Early Modern Natural Law, 3), Leiden / Boston 2020, Brill, XII u. 222 S., € 103,95. (Jan-Hendryk de Boer, Essen) Hein, Markus / Armin Kohnle (Hrsg.), Die Leipziger Disputation von 1519. Ein theologisches Streitgespräch und seine Bedeutung für die frühe Reformation (Herbergen der Christenheit, Sonderband 25), Leipzig 2019, Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, 268 S. / Abb., € 34,00. (Richard Lüdicke, Münster) Mährle, Wolfgang (Hrsg.), Spätrenaissance in Schwaben. Wissen – Literatur – Kunst. Tagungen des Arbeitskreises für Landes- und Ortsgeschichte im Verband der württembergischen Geschichts- und Altertumsvereine am 26. November 2015 und am 10. März 2016 im Hauptstaatsarchiv Stuttgart (Geschichte Württembergs, 2), Stuttgart 2019, 508 S. / Abb., € 35,00. (Gudrun Emberger, Berlin) Mampieri, Martina, Living under the Evil Pope. The Hebrew „Chronicle of Pope Paul IV“ by Benjamin Neḥemiah ben Elnathan from Civitanova Marche (16th Cent.) (Studies in Jewish History and Culture, 58), Leiden / Boston 2020, Brill, XIX u. 400 S. / Abb., € 168,00. (Wolfgang Reinhard, Freiburg i. Br.) Kendrick, Jeff / Katherine S. Maynard (Hrsg.), Polemic and Literature surrounding the French Wars of Religion (Studies in Medieval and Early Modern Culture, 68), Boston / Berlin 2019, de Gruyter, VIII u. 208 S. / Abb., € 86,95. (Gabriele Haug-Moritz, Graz) Larminie, Vivienne (Hrsg.), Huguenot Networks, 1560 – 1780. The Interactions and Impact of a Protestant Minority in Europe (Politics and Culture in Europe, 1650 – 1750), New York / London 2018, Routledge, VI u. 233 S. / Abb., £ 96,00. (Alexander Schunka, Berlin) Gwynn, Robin, The Huguenots in Later Stuart Britain, Bd. 1: Crisis, Renewal, and the Ministers’ Dilemma, Brighton / Portland / Toronto 2015 [Paperback 2018], Sussex Academic Press, XVIII u. 481 S. / Abb., £ 37,50. (Alexander Schunka, Berlin) Gwynn, Robin, The Huguenots in Later Stuart Britain, Bd. 2: Settlement, Churches, and the Role of London, Brighton / Chicago / Toronto 2018 [Paperback 2019], Sussex Academic Press, XX u. 361 S. / Abb., £ 50,00. (Alexander Schunka, Berlin) Hilfiker, Franziska, Sea Spots. Perzeption und Repräsentation maritimer Räume im Kontext englischer und niederländischer Explorationen um 1600, Wien / Köln / Weimar 2019, Böhlau, 245 S. / Abb., € 39,00. (Patrick Schmidt, Rostock) McShea, Bronwen, Apostles of Empire. The Jesuits and New France (France Overseas), Lincoln 2019, University of Nebraska Press 2019, XXIX u. 331 S. / Abb., $ 60,00. (Markus Friedrich, Hamburg) Bravo Lozano, Christina, Spain and the Irish Mission, 1609 – 1707 (Routledge Studies in Renaissance and Early Modern Worlds of Knowledge), New York / London 2019, Routledge, XIX u. 289 S., £ 105,00. (Hanna Sonkajärvi, Rio de Janeiro / Würzburg) Molnár, Antal, Confessionalization on the Frontier. The Balkan Catholics between Roman Reform and Ottoman Reality (Interadria, 22), Rom 2019, Viella, 266 S. / Karten, € 40,00. (Ivan Parvev, Sofia) Lazer, Stephen A., State Formation in Early Modern Alsace, 1648 – 1789 (Changing Perspectives on Early Modern Europe), Rochester / Woodbridge 2019, University of Rochester Press, XI u. 256 S. / Abb., £ 80,00. (Christian Wenzel, Marburg) Berg, Dieter, Oliver Cromwell. England und Europa im 17. Jahrhundert, Stuttgart 2019, Kohlhammer, 242 S. / Abb., € 36,00. (Ronald G. Asch, Freiburg i. Br.) Sächsische Fürstentestamente 1652 – 1831. Edition der letztwilligen Verfügungen der regierenden albertinischen Wettiner mit ergänzenden Quellen, hrsg. v. Jochen Vötsch (Quellen und Materialien zur sächsischen Geschichte und Volkskunde, 6), Leipzig 2018, Leipziger Universitätsverlag, XXII u. 236 S. / Abb., € 80,00. (Silke Marburg, Dresden) Palladini, Fiammetta, Samuel Pufendorf Disciple of Hobbes. For a Re-Interpretation of Modern Natural Law, übers. v. David Saunders (Early Modern Natural Law, 2), Leiden / Boston 2020, Brill, XXXVII u. 254 S., € 124,00. (Peter Schröder, London) Kircher, Athanasius, Musaeum Celeberrimum (1678). Mit einer wissenschaftlichen Einleitung v. Tina Asmussen, Lucas Burkart u. Hole Rößler u. einem kommentierten Autoren- und Stellenregister v. Frank Böhling / Vita, kritisch hrsg. u. mit einer wissenschaftlichen Einleitung versehen v. Frank Böhling (Hauptwerke, 11), Hildesheim / Zürich / New York 2019, Olms-Weidmann, 318 S. / Abb., € 184,00. (Andreas Bähr, Frankfurt a. d. O.) Pizzoni, Giada, British Catholic Merchants in the Commercial Age, 1670 – 1714 (Studies in the Eighteenth Century), Woodbridge 2020, The Boydell Press, XVI u. 214 S. / Abb., £ 70,00. (Mark Häberlein, Bamberg) Heijmans, Elisabeth, The Agency of Empire. Connections and Strategies in French Overseas Expansion (1686 – 1746) (European Expansion and Indigenous Response, 32), Leiden / Boston 2020, Brill, XIV u. 243 S. / Abb., € 88,00. (Anna Dönecke, Bielefeld) Schunka, Alexander, Ein neuer Blick nach Westen. Deutsche Protestanten und Großbritannien (1688-1740) (Jabloniana, 10), Wiesbaden 2019, Harrassowitz, 570 S. / graph. Darst., € 98,00. (Helmut Zedelmaier, München) Wallnig, Thomas, Critical Monks. The German Benedictines, 1680 – 1740 (Scientific and Learned Cultures and Their Institutions, 25), Leiden / Boston 2019, Brill, XIII u. 364 S., € 122,00. (Stefan Benz, Bayreuth) Marti, Hanspeter / Karin Marti-Weissenbach (Hrsg.), Traditionsbewusstsein und Aufbruch. Zu den Anfängen der Universität Halle, Wien / Köln / Weimar 2019, Böhlau, 157 S. / Abb., € 40,00. (Elizabeth Harding, Wolfenbüttel) Overhoff, Jürgen / Andreas Oberdorf (Hrsg.), Katholische Aufklärung in Europa und Nordamerika (Das achtzehnte Jahrhundert. Supplementa, 25), Göttingen 2019, Wallstein, 536 S. / Abb., € 49,00. (Michael Schaich, London) Bellingradt, Daniel, Vernetzte Papiermärkte. Einblicke in den Amsterdamer Handel mit Papier im 18. Jahrhundert, Köln 2020, Herbert von Halem Verlag, 250 S. / Abb., € 32,00. (Mark Häberlein, Bamberg) Blanning, Tim, Friedrich der Große. König von Preußen. Eine Biographie, aus dem Englischen übers. v. Andreas Nohl, München 2018, Beck, 718 S. / Abb., € 34,00. (Sven Externbrink, Heidelberg) Braun, Bettina / Jan Kusber / Matthias Schnettger (Hrsg.), Weibliche Herrschaft im 18. Jahrhundert. Maria Theresia und Katharina die Große (Mainzer Historische Kulturwissenschaften, 40), Bielefeld 2020, transcript, 441 S. /Abb., € 49,99. (Waltraud Schütz, Wien) Schennach, Martin P., Austria inventa? Zu den Anfängen der österreichischen Staatsrechtslehre (Studien zur europäischen Rechtsgeschichte, 324), Frankfurt a. M. 2020, Klostermann, XIII u. 589 S., € 98,00. (Tobias Schenk, Wien) Aspaas, Per P. / László Kontler, Maximilian Hell (1720 – 92) and the Ends of Jesuit Science in Enlightenment Europe (Jesuit Studies, 27), Leiden / Boston 2020, Brill, VIII u. 477 S. / Abb., € 155,00. (Simon Karstens, Trier) Banditt, Marc, Gelehrte – Republik – Gelehrtenrepublik. Der Strukturwandel der Naturforschenden Gesellschaft in Danzig 1743 bis 1820 und die Danziger Aufklärung (Veröffentlichungen des Nordost-Instituts, 24), Wiesbaden 2018, Harrassowitz, 305 S. / Abb., € 30,00. (Lisa Dannenberg-Markel, Aachen) Müller, Matthias, Das Entstehen neuer Freiräume. Vergnügen und Geselligkeit in Stralsund und Reval im 18. Jahrhundert (Veröffentlichungen der Historischen Kommission für Pommern. Reihe V: Forschungen zur pommerschen Geschichte, 51), Wien / Köln / Weimar 2019, Böhlau, 346 S. / graph. Darst., € 50,00. (Stefan Kroll, Rostock) Chacón Jiménez, Francisco / Gérard Delille (Hrsg.), Marriages and Alliance. Dissolution, Continuity and Strength of Kinship (ca. 1750 – ca. 1900) (Viella Historical Research, 13), Rom 2018, Viella, 157 S. / graph. Darst., € 40,00. (Christina Antenhofer, Salzburg) Aschauer, Lucia, Gebärende unter Beobachtung. Die Etablierung der männlichen Geburtshilfe in Frankreich (1750 – 1830) (Geschichte und Geschlechter, 71), Frankfurt a. M. / New York 2020, Campus, 344 S. / Abb., € 45,00. (Marina Hilber, Innsbruck) Kallenberg, Vera, Jüdinnen und Juden in der Frankfurter Strafjustiz 1780 – 1814. Die Nicht-Einheit der jüdischen Geschichte (Hamburger Beiträge zur Geschichte der deutschen Juden, 49), Göttingen 2018, Wallstein, 464 S., € 54,00. (Gudrun Emberger, Berlin) „Verehrungswürdiger, braver Vertheidiger der Menschenrechte!“ Der Briefwechsel zwischen Adolph Freiherrn Knigge und Sophie und Johann Albert Heinrich Reimarus 1791 – 1796, hrsg. v. Günter Jung / Michael Rüppel, Göttingen 2019, Wallstein, 294 S. / Abb., € 29,90. (Kai Bremer, Osnabrück) Maruschke, Megan / Matthias Middell (Hrsg.), The French Revolution as a Moment of Respatialization (Dialectics of the Global, 5), Berlin / Boston 2019, de Gruyter Oldenbourg, VIII u. 254 S. / graph. Darst., € 79,95. (Nina Pösch, Mühlhausen / Augsburg)

Bihrer, Andreas / Miriam Czock / Uta Kleine (Hrsg.), Der Wert des Heiligen. Spirituelle, materielle und ökonomische Verflechtungen (Beiträge zur Hagiographie, 23), Stuttgart 2020, Steiner, 234 S. / Abb., € 46,00. (Carola Jäggi, Zürich) Leinsle, Ulrich G., Die Prämonstratenser (Urban Taschenbücher; Geschichte der christlichen Orden), Stuttgart 2020, Kohlhammer, 250 S. / Abb., € 29,00. (Joachim Werz, Frankfurt a. M.) Gadebusch Bondio, Mariacarla / Beate Kellner / Ulrich Pfisterer (Hrsg.), Macht der Natur – gemachte Natur. Realitäten und Fiktionen des Herrscherkörpers zwischen Mittelalter und Früher Neuzeit (Micrologus Library, 92), Florenz 2019, Sismel, VI u. 345 S. / Abb., € 82,00. (Nadine Amsler, Berlin) Classen, Albrecht (Hrsg.), Pleasure and Leisure in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Age. Cultural-Historical Perspectives on Toys, Games, and Entertainment (Fundamentals of Medieval and Early Modern Culture, 23), Berlin / Boston 2019, de Gruyter, XIII u. 751 S. / Abb., € 147,95. (Adrina Schulz, Zürich) Potter, Harry, Shades of the Prison House. A History of Incarceration in the British Isles, Woodbridge 2019, The Boydell Press, XIII u. 558 S. / Abb., £ 25,00. (Gerd Schwerhoff, Dresden) Müller, Matthias / Sascha Winter (Hrsg.), Die Stadt im Schatten des Hofes? Bürgerlich-kommunale Repräsentation in Residenzstädten des Spätmittelalters und der Frühen Neuzeit (Residenzenforschung. Neue Folge: Stadt und Hof, 6), Ostfildern 2020, Thorbecke, 335 S. / Abb., € 64,00. (Malte de Vries, Göttingen) De Munck, Bert, Guilds, Labour and the Urban Body Politic. Fabricating Community in the Southern Netherlands, 1300 – 1800 (Routledge Research in Early Modern History), New York / London 2018, Routledge, XIV u. 312 S. / Abb., £ 115,00. (Philip Hoffmann-Rehnitz, Münster) Sonderegger, Stefan / Helge Wittmann (Hrsg.), Reichsstadt und Landwirtschaft. 7. Tagung des Mühlhäuser Arbeitskreises für Reichsstadtgeschichte, Mühlhausen 4. bis 6. März 2019 (Studien zur Reichsstadtgeschichte, 7), Petersberg 2020, Imhof, 366 S. / Abb., € 29,95. (Malte de Vries, Göttingen) Israel, Uwe / Josef Matzerath, Geschichte der sächsischen Landtage (Studien und Schriften zur Geschichte der sächsischen Landtage, 5), Ostfildern 2019, Thorbecke, 346 S. / Abb., € 26,00. (Thomas Fuchs, Leipzig) Unverfehrt, Volker, Die sächsische Läuterung. Entstehung, Wandel und Werdegang bis ins 17. Jahrhundert (Studien zur europäischen Rechtsgeschichte, 317; Rechtsräume, 3), Frankfurt a. M. 2020, Klostermann, X u. 321 S., € 79,00. (Heiner Lück, Halle) Jones, Chris / Conor Kostick / Klaus Oschema (Hrsg.), Making the Medieval Relevant. How Medieval Studies Contribute to Improving Our Understanding of the Present (Das Mittelalter. Beihefte, 6), Berlin / Boston 2020, VI u. 297 S. / graph. Darst., € 89,95. (Gabriela Signori, Konstanz) Lackner, Christina / Daniel Luger (Hrsg.), Modus supplicandi. Zwischen herrschaftlicher Gnade und importunitas petentium (Veröffentlichungen des Instituts für Österreichische Geschichtsforschung, 72), Wien / Köln / Weimar 2019, Böhlau, 224 S. / Abb., € 40,00. (Jörg Voigt, Rom) Andermann, Kurt / Enno Bünz (Hrsg.), Kirchenvogtei und adlige Herrschaftsbildung im europäischen Mittelalter (Vorträge und Forschungen, 86), Ostfildern 2019, Thorbecke, 469 S., € 55,00. (Markus Müller, München) Deigendesch, Roland / Christian Jörg (Hrsg.), Städtebünde und städtische Außenpolitik. Träger, Instrumentarien und Konflikte während des hohen und späten Mittelalters. 55. Arbeitstagung in Reutlingen, 18.–20. November 2016 (Stadt in der Geschichte, 44), Ostfildern 2019, Thorbecke, 322 S. / Abb., € 34,00. (Evelien Timpener, Gießen) Müller, Monika E. / Jens Reiche, Zentrum oder Peripherie? Kulturtransfer in Hildesheim und im Raum Niedersachsen (12.–15. Jahrhundert) (Wolfenbütteler Mittelalter-Studien, 32), Wiesbaden 2017, Harrassowitz in Kommission, 544 S. / Abb., € 88,00. (Harald Wolter-von dem Knesebeck, Bonn) Hill, Derek, Inquisition in the Fourteenth Century. The Manuals of Bernard Gui and Nicholas Eymerich (Heresy and Inquisition in the Middle Ages, 7), Woodbridge 2019, York Medieval Press, X u. 251 S., £ 60,00. (Thomas Scharff, Braunschweig) Peltzer, Jörg, Fürst werden. Rangerhöhungen im 14. Jahrhundert – Das römisch-deutsche Reich und England im Vergleich (Historische Zeitschrift. Beihefte (Neue Folge), 75), Berlin / Boston 2019, de Gruyter Oldenbourg, 150 S. / Abb., € 64,95. (Kurt Andermann, Karlsruhe / Freiburg i. Br.) Wilhelm von Ockham, De iuribus Romani imperii / Das Recht von Kaiser und Reich. III.2 Dialogus. Lateinisch – Deutsch, 2 Bde., übers. und eingel. v. Jürgen Miethke (Herders Bibliothek der Philosophie des Mittelalters, 49), Freiburg i. Br. / Basel / Wien 2020, Herder, 829 S., € 54,00 bzw. € 58,00. (Christoph Mauntel, Tübingen) Dokumente zur Geschichte des Deutschen Reiches und seiner Verfassung 1360, bearb. v. Ulrike Hohensee / Mathias Lawo / Michael Lindner / Olaf B. Rader (Monumenta Germaniae Historica. Constitutiones et acta publica imperatorum et regum, 13.1), Wiesbaden 2016, Harrassowitz, L u. 414 S., € 120,00. (Martin Bauch, Leipzig) Dokumente zur Geschichte des Deutschen Reiches und seiner Verfassung 1361, bearb. v. Ulrike Hohensee / Mathias Lawo / Michael Lindner / Olaf B. Rader (Monumenta Germaniae Historica. Constitutiones et acta publica imperatorum et regum, 13.2), Wiesbaden 2017, Harrassowitz, VI u. 538 S. (S. 415 – 952), € 140,00. (Martin Bauch, Leipzig) Forcher, Michael / Christoph Haidacher (Hrsg.), Kaiser Maximilian I. Tirol. Österreich. Europa. 1459 – 1519, Innsbruck / Wien 2018, Haymon Verlag, 215 S. / Abb., € 34,90. (Jörg Schwarz, Innsbruck) Weiss, Sabine, Maximilian I. Habsburgs faszinierender Kaiser, Innsbruck / Wien 2018, Tyrolia-Verlag, 400 S. / Abb., € 39,95. (Jörg Schwarz, Innsbruck) Christ-von Wedel, Christine, Erasmus of Rotterdam. A Portrait, Basel 2020, Schwabe, 175 S. / Abb., € 36,00. (Jan-Hendryk de Boer, Essen) Schmidt, Bernward / Simon Falch (Hrsg.), Kilian Leib (1471 – 1553). Prediger – Humanist – Kontroverstheologe (Katholisches Leben und Kirchenreform im Zeitalter der Glaubensspaltung, 80), Münster 2020, Aschendorff, 187 S. / Abb., € 24,90. (Jan-Hendryk de Boer, Essen) Gehrt, Daniel / Kathrin Paasch (Hrsg.), Friedrich Myconius (1490 – 1546). Vom Franziskaner zum Reformator (Gothaer Forschungen zur Frühen Neuzeit, 15), Stuttgart 2020, Steiner, 392 S. / Abb., € 66,00. (Eike Wolgast, Heidelberg) Klarer, Mario (Hrsg.), Piracy and Captivity in the Mediterranean. 1550 – 1810 (Routledge Research in Early Modern History), London / New York 2019, Routledge, XIII u. 281 S. / Abb., £ 120,00. (Josef J. Schmid, Mainz / Manubach) Fischer-Kattner, Anke / Jamel Ostwald (Hrsg.), The World of the Siege. Representations of Early Modern Positional Warfare (History of Warfare, 126), Leiden / Boston 2019, Brill, IX u. 316 S. / Abb., € 105,00. (Marian Füssel, Göttingen) Dörfler-Dierken, Angelika (Hrsg.), Reformation und Militär. Wege und Irrwege in fünf Jahrhunderten, Göttingen 2019, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 320 S. / Abb., € 35,00. (Marianne Taatz-Jacobi, Halle) Schönauer, Tobias / Daniel Hohrath (Hrsg.), Formen des Krieges. 1600 – 1815 (Kataloge des Bayerischen Armeemuseums, 19), Ingolstadt 2019, Bayerisches Armeemuseum, 248 S. / Abb., € 15,00. (Thomas Weißbrich, Berlin) Goetze, Dorothée / Lena Oetzel (Hrsg.), Warum Friedenschließen so schwer ist. Frühneuzeitliche Friedensfindung am Beispiel des Westfälischen Friedenskongresses (Schriftenreihe zur Neueren Geschichte, 39; Schriftenreihe zur Neueren Geschichte. Neue Folge, 2), Münster 2019, Aschendorff, IX u. 457 S. / Abb., € 62,00. (Benjamin Durst, Augsburg) Rohrschneider, Michael (Hrsg.), Frühneuzeitliche Friedensstiftung in landesgeschichtlicher Perspektive. Unter redaktioneller Mitarbeit v. Leonard Dorn (Rheinisches Archiv, 160), Wien / Köln / Weimar 2020, Böhlau, 327 S. / Abb., € 45,00. (Benjamin Durst, Augsburg) Richter, Susan (Hrsg.), Entsagte Herrschaft. Mediale Inszenierungen fürstlicher Abdankungen im Europa der Frühneuzeit, Wien / Köln / Weimar 2019, Böhlau, 223 S. / Abb., € 45,00. (Andreas Pečar, Halle) Astorri, Paolo, Lutheran Theology and Contract Law in Early Modern Germany (ca. 1520 – 1720) (Law and Religion in the Early Modern Period / Recht und Religion in der Frühen Neuzeit, 1), Paderborn 2019, Schöningh, XX u. 657 S., € 128,00. (Cornel Zwierlein, Berlin) Prosperi, Adriano, Justice Blindfolded. The Historical Course of an Image (Catholic Christendom, 1300 – 1700), übers. v. John Tedeschi / Anne C. Tedeschi, Leiden / Boston 2018, Brill, XXIV u. 260 S., € 105,00. (Mathias Schmoeckel, Bonn) Ceglia, Francesco Paolo de (Hrsg.), The Body of Evidence. Corpses and Proofs in Early Modern European Medicine (Medieval and Early Modern Philosophy and Science, 30), Leiden / Boston 2020, Brill, X u. 355 S., € 154,00. (Robert Jütte, Stuttgart) Río Parra, Elena del, Exceptional Crime in Early Modern Spain. Taxonomic and Intellectual Perspectives (The Medieval and Early Modern Iberian World, 68), Leiden / Boston 2019, Brill, XI u. 218 S. / Abb., € 95,00. (Ralf-Peter Fuchs, Essen) Moreno, Doris (Hrsg.), The Complexity of Hispanic Religious Life in the 16th–18th Centuries (The Iberian Religious World, 6), Leiden / Boston 2020, Brill, 225 S. / Abb., € 165,00. (Joël Graf, Bern) Kaplan, Benjamin J., Reformation and the Practice of Toleration. Dutch Religious History in the Early Modern Era (St Andrews Studies in Reformation History), Leiden / Boston 2019, Brill, IX u. 371 S. / Abb., € 128,00. 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Eine Untersuchung zu Wirtschaftsstil und Wirtschaftskultur einer geistlichen Gemeinschaft (Schriften zur Sozial- und Wirtschaftsgeschichte, 35), Hamburg 2020, Dr. Kovaç, 530 S. / graph. Darst., € 139,80. (Maria Weber, München) Fuchs, Gero, Gewinn als Umbruch der Ordnung? Der Fall des Siegburger Töpfers Peter Knütgen im 16. Jahrhundert (Rechtsordnung und Wirtschaftsgeschichte, 19), Tübingen 2019, Mohr Siebeck, XIII u. 195 S. / Abb., € 59,00. (Anke Sczesny, Augsburg) Lotito, Mark A., The Reformation of Historical Thought (St Andrews Studies in Reformation History), Leiden / Boston 2019, Brill, XX u. 542 S. / Abb., € 160,00. (Andreas Bihrer, Kiel) Georg III. von Anhalt, Abendmahlsschriften, hrsg. v. Tobias Jammerthal / David B. Janssen (Anhalt‍[er]‌kenntnisse), Leipzig 2019, Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, 440 S., € 48,00. (Eike Wolgast, Heidelberg) Bauer, Stefan, The Invention of Papal History. 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IntroductionFirmly located within the discourse of visible culture as the lofty preserve of art exhibitions and museum artefacts, the noun “curate” has gradually transformed into the verb “to curate”. Williams writes that “curate” has become a fashionable code word among the aesthetically minded to describe a creative activity. Designers no longer simply sell clothes; they “curate” merchandise. Chefs no longer only make food; they also “curate” meals. Chosen for their keen eye for a particular style or a precise shade, it is their knowledge of their craft, their reputation, and their sheer ability to choose among countless objects which make the creative process a creative activity in itself. Writing from within the framework of “curate” as a creative process, this article discusses how the state banquet for Queen Elizabeth II, hosted by Irish President Mary McAleese at Dublin Castle in May 2011, was carefully curated to represent Ireland’s diplomatic, cultural, and culinary identity. The paper will focus in particular on how the menu for the banquet was created and how the banquet’s brief, “Ireland on a Plate”, was fulfilled.History and BackgroundFood has been used by nations for centuries to display wealth, cement alliances, and impress foreign visitors. Since the feasts of the Numidian kings (circa 340 BC), culinary staging and presentation has belonged to “a long, multifaceted and multicultural history of diplomatic practices” (IEHCA 5). According to the works of Baughman, Young, and Albala, food has defined the social, cultural, and political position of a nation’s leaders throughout history.In early 2011, Ross Lewis, Chef Patron of Chapter One Restaurant in Dublin, was asked by the Irish Food Board, Bord Bía, if he would be available to create a menu for a high-profile banquet (Mahon 112). The name of the guest of honour was divulged several weeks later after vetting by the protocol and security divisions of the Department of the Taoiseach (Prime Minister) and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Lewis was informed that the menu was for the state banquet to be hosted by President Mary McAleese at Dublin Castle in honour of Queen Elizabeth II’s visit to Ireland the following May.Hosting a formal banquet for a visiting head of state is a key feature in the statecraft of international and diplomatic relations. Food is the societal common denominator that links all human beings, regardless of culture (Pliner and Rozin 19). When world leaders publicly share a meal, that meal is laden with symbolism, illuminating each diner’s position “in social networks and social systems” (Sobal, Bove, and Rauschenbach 378). The public nature of the meal signifies status and symbolic kinship and that “guest and host are on par in terms of their personal or official attributes” (Morgan 149). While the field of academic scholarship on diplomatic dining might be young, there is little doubt of the value ascribed to the semiotics of diplomatic gastronomy in modern power structures (Morgan 150; De Vooght and Scholliers 12; Chapple-Sokol 162), for, as Firth explains, symbols are malleable and perfectly suited to exploitation by all parties (427).Political DiplomacyWhen Ireland gained independence in December 1921, it marked the end of eight centuries of British rule. The outbreak of “The Troubles” in 1969 in Northern Ireland upset the gradually improving environment of British–Irish relations, and it would be some time before a state visit became a possibility. Beginning with the peace process in the 1990s, the IRA ceasefire of 1994, and the Good Friday Agreement in 1998, a state visit was firmly set in motion by the visit of Irish President Mary Robinson to Buckingham Palace in 1993, followed by the unofficial visit of the Prince of Wales to Ireland in 1995, and the visit of Irish President Mary McAleese to Buckingham Palace in 1999. An official invitation to Queen Elizabeth from President Mary McAleese in March 2011 was accepted, and the visit was scheduled for mid-May of the same year.The visit was a highly performative occasion, orchestrated and ordained in great detail, displaying all the necessary protocol associated with the state visit of one head of state to another: inspection of the military, a courtesy visit to the nation’s head of state on arrival, the laying of a wreath at the nation’s war memorial, and a state banquet.These aspects of protocol between Britain and Ireland were particularly symbolic. By inspecting the military on arrival, the existence of which is a key indicator of independence, Queen Elizabeth effectively demonstrated her recognition of Ireland’s national sovereignty. On making the customary courtesy call to the head of state, the Queen was received by President McAleese at her official residence Áras an Uachtaráin (The President’s House), which had formerly been the residence of the British monarch’s representative in Ireland (Robbins 66). The state banquet was held in Dublin Castle, once the headquarters of British rule where the Viceroy, the representative of Britain’s Court of St James, had maintained court (McDowell 1).Cultural DiplomacyThe state banquet provided an exceptional showcase of Irish culture and design and generated a level of preparation previously unseen among Dublin Castle staff, who described it as “the most stage managed state event” they had ever witnessed (Mahon 129).The castle was cleaned from top to bottom, and inventories were taken of the furniture and fittings. The Waterford Crystal chandeliers were painstakingly taken down, cleaned, and reassembled; the Killybegs carpets and rugs of Irish lamb’s wool were cleaned and repaired. A special edition Newbridge Silverware pen was commissioned for Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip to sign the newly ordered Irish leather-bound visitors’ book. A new set of state tableware was ordered for the President’s table. Irish manufacturers of household goods necessary for the guest rooms, such as towels and soaps, hand creams and body lotions, candle holders and scent diffusers, were sought. Members of Her Majesty’s staff conducted a “walk-through” several weeks in advance of the visit to ensure that the Queen’s wardrobe would not clash with the surroundings (Mahon 129–32).The promotion of Irish manufacture is a constant thread throughout history. Irish linen, writes Kane, enjoyed a reputation as far afield as the Netherlands and Italy in the 15th century, and archival documents from the Vaucluse attest to the purchase of Irish cloth in Avignon in 1432 (249–50). Support for Irish-made goods was raised in 1720 by Jonathan Swift, and by the 18th century, writes Foster, Dublin had become an important centre for luxury goods (44–51).It has been Irish government policy since the late 1940s to use Irish-manufactured goods for state entertaining, so the material culture of the banquet was distinctly Irish: Arklow Pottery plates, Newbridge Silverware cutlery, Waterford Crystal glassware, and Irish linen tablecloths. In order to decide upon the table setting for the banquet, four tables were laid in the King’s Bedroom in Dublin Castle. The Executive Chef responsible for the banquet menu, and certain key personnel, helped determine which setting would facilitate serving the food within the time schedule allowed (Mahon 128–29). The style of service would be service à la russe, so widespread in restaurants today as to seem unremarkable. Each plate is prepared in the kitchen by the chef and then served to each individual guest at table. In the mid-19th century, this style of service replaced service à la française, in which guests typically entered the dining room after the first course had been laid on the table and selected food from the choice of dishes displayed around them (Kaufman 126).The guest list was compiled by government and embassy officials on both sides and was a roll call of Irish and British life. At the President’s table, 10 guests would be served by a team of 10 staff in Dorchester livery. The remaining tables would each seat 12 guests, served by 12 liveried staff. The staff practiced for several days prior to the banquet to make sure that service would proceed smoothly within the time frame allowed. The team of waiters, each carrying a plate, would emerge from the kitchen in single file. They would then take up positions around the table, each waiter standing to the left of the guest they would serve. On receipt of a discreet signal, each plate would be laid in front of each guest at precisely the same moment, after which the waiters would then about foot and return to the kitchen in single file (Mahon 130).Post-prandial entertainment featured distinctive styles of performance and instruments associated with Irish traditional music. These included reels, hornpipes, and slipjigs, voice and harp, sean-nόs (old style) singing, and performances by established Irish artists on the fiddle, bouzouki, flute, and uilleann pipes (Office of Public Works).Culinary Diplomacy: Ireland on a PlateLewis was given the following brief: the menu had to be Irish, the main course must be beef, and the meal should represent the very best of Irish ingredients. There were no restrictions on menu design. There were no dietary requirements or specific requests from the Queen’s representatives, although Lewis was informed that shellfish is excluded de facto from Irish state banquets as a precautionary measure. The meal was to be four courses long and had to be served to 170 diners within exactly 1 hour and 10 minutes (Mahon 112). A small army of 16 chefs and 4 kitchen porters would prepare the food in the kitchen of Dublin Castle under tight security. The dishes would be served on state tableware by 40 waiters, 6 restaurant managers, a banqueting manager and a sommélier. Lewis would be at the helm of the operation as Executive Chef (Mahon 112–13).Lewis started by drawing up “a patchwork quilt” of the products he most wanted to use and built the menu around it. The choice of suppliers was based on experience but also on a supplier’s ability to deliver perfectly ripe goods in mid-May, a typically black spot in the Irish fruit and vegetable growing calendar as it sits between the end of one season and the beginning of another. Lewis consulted the Queen’s itinerary and the menus to be served so as to avoid repetitions. He had to discard his initial plan to feature lobster in the starter and rhubarb in the dessert—the former for the precautionary reasons mentioned above, and the latter because it featured on the Queen’s lunch menu on the day of the banquet (Mahon 112–13).Once the ingredients had been selected, the menu design focused on creating tastes, flavours and textures. Several draft menus were drawn up and myriad dishes were tasted and discussed in the kitchen of Lewis’s own restaurant. Various wines were paired and tasted with the different courses, the final choice being a Château Lynch-Bages 1998 red and a Château de Fieuzal 2005 white, both from French Bordeaux estates with an Irish connection (Kellaghan 3). Two months and two menu sittings later, the final menu was confirmed and signed off by state and embassy officials (Mahon 112–16).The StarterThe banquet’s starter featured organic Clare Island salmon cured in a sweet brine, laid on top of a salmon cream combining wild smoked salmon from the Burren and Cork’s Glenilen Farm crème fraîche, set over a lemon balm jelly from the Tannery Cookery School Gardens, Waterford. Garnished with horseradish cream, wild watercress, and chive flowers from Wicklow, the dish was finished with rapeseed oil from Kilkenny and a little sea salt from West Cork (Mahon 114). Main CourseA main course of Irish beef featured as the pièce de résistance of the menu. A rib of beef from Wexford’s Slaney Valley was provided by Kettyle Irish Foods in Fermanagh and served with ox cheek and tongue from Rathcoole, County Dublin. From along the eastern coastline came the ingredients for the traditional Irish dish of smoked champ: cabbage from Wicklow combined with potatoes and spring onions grown in Dublin. The new season’s broad beans and carrots were served with wild garlic leaf, which adorned the dish (Mahon 113). Cheese CourseThe cheese course was made up of Knockdrinna, a Tomme style goat’s milk cheese from Kilkenny; Milleens, a Munster style cow’s milk cheese produced in Cork; Cashel Blue, a cow’s milk blue cheese from Tipperary; and Glebe Brethan, a Comté style cheese from raw cow’s milk from Louth. Ditty’s Oatmeal Biscuits from Belfast accompanied the course.DessertLewis chose to feature Irish strawberries in the dessert. Pat Clarke guaranteed delivery of ripe strawberries on the day of the banquet. They married perfectly with cream and yoghurt from Glenilen Farm in Cork. The cream was set with Irish Carrageen moss, overlaid with strawberry jelly and sauce, and garnished with meringues made with Irish apple balsamic vinegar from Lusk in North Dublin, yoghurt mousse, and Irish soda bread tuiles made with wholemeal flour from the Mosse family mill in Kilkenny (Mahon 113).The following day, President McAleese telephoned Lewis, saying of the banquet “Ní hé go raibh sé go maith, ach go raibh sé míle uair níos fearr ná sin” (“It’s not that it was good but that it was a thousand times better”). The President observed that the menu was not only delicious but that it was “amazingly articulate in terms of the story that it told about Ireland and Irish food.” The Queen had particularly enjoyed the stuffed cabbage leaf of tongue, cheek and smoked colcannon (a traditional Irish dish of mashed potatoes with curly kale or green cabbage) and had noted the diverse selection of Irish ingredients from Irish artisans (Mahon 116). Irish CuisineWhen the topic of food is explored in Irish historiography, the focus tends to be on the consequences of the Great Famine (1845–49) which left the country “socially and emotionally scarred for well over a century” (Mac Con Iomaire and Gallagher 161). Some commentators consider the term “Irish cuisine” oxymoronic, according to Mac Con Iomaire and Maher (3). As Goldstein observes, Ireland has suffered twice—once from its food deprivation and second because these deprivations present an obstacle for the exploration of Irish foodways (xii). Writing about Italian, Irish, and Jewish migration to America, Diner states that the Irish did not have a food culture to speak of and that Irish writers “rarely included the details of food in describing daily life” (85). Mac Con Iomaire and Maher note that Diner’s methodology overlooks a centuries-long tradition of hospitality in Ireland such as that described by Simms (68) and shows an unfamiliarity with the wealth of food related sources in the Irish language, as highlighted by Mac Con Iomaire (“Exploring” 1–23).Recent scholarship on Ireland’s culinary past is unearthing a fascinating story of a much more nuanced culinary heritage than has been previously understood. This is clearly demonstrated in the research of Cullen, Cashman, Deleuze, Kellaghan, Kelly, Kennedy, Legg, Mac Con Iomaire, Mahon, O’Sullivan, Richman Kenneally, Sexton, and Stanley, Danaher, and Eogan.In 1996 Ireland was described by McKenna as having the most dynamic cuisine in any European country, a place where in the last decade “a vibrant almost unlikely style of cooking has emerged” (qtd. in Mac Con Iomaire “Jammet’s” 136). By 2014, there were nine restaurants in Dublin which had been awarded Michelin stars or Red Ms (Mac Con Iomaire “Jammet’s” 137). Ross Lewis, Chef Patron of Chapter One Restaurant, who would be chosen to create the menu for the state banquet for Queen Elizabeth II, has maintained a Michelin star since 2008 (Mac Con Iomaire, “Jammet’s” 138). Most recently the current strength of Irish gastronomy is globally apparent in Mark Moriarty’s award as San Pellegrino Young Chef 2015 (McQuillan). As Deleuze succinctly states: “Ireland has gone mad about food” (143).This article is part of a research project into Irish diplomatic dining, and the author is part of a research cluster into Ireland’s culinary heritage within the Dublin Institute of Technology. The aim of the research is to add to the growing body of scholarship on Irish gastronomic history and, ultimately, to contribute to the discourse on the existence of a national cuisine. If, as Zubaida says, “a nation’s cuisine is its court’s cuisine,” then it is time for Ireland to “research the feasts as well as the famines” (Mac Con Iomaire and Cashman 97).ConclusionThe Irish state banquet for Queen Elizabeth II in May 2011 was a highly orchestrated and formalised process. From the menu, material culture, entertainment, and level of consultation in the creative content, it is evident that the banquet was carefully curated to represent Ireland’s diplomatic, cultural, and culinary identity.The effects of the visit appear to have been felt in the years which have followed. Hennessy wrote in the Irish Times newspaper that Queen Elizabeth is privately said to regard her visit to Ireland as the most significant of the trips she has made during her 60-year reign. British Prime Minister David Cameron is noted to mention the visit before every Irish audience he encounters, and British Foreign Secretary William Hague has spoken in particular of the impact the state banquet in Dublin Castle made upon him. Hennessy points out that one of the most significant indicators of the peaceful relationship which exists between the two countries nowadays was the subsequent state visit by Irish President Michael D. Higgins to Britain in 2013. This was the first state visit to the United Kingdom by a President of Ireland and would have been unimaginable 25 years ago. The fact that the President and his wife stayed at Windsor Castle and that the attendant state banquet was held there instead of Buckingham Palace were both deemed to be marks of special favour and directly attributed to the success of Her Majesty’s 2011 visit to Ireland.As the research demonstrates, eating together unites rather than separates, gathers rather than divides, diffuses political tensions, and confirms alliances. It might be said then that the 2011 state banquet hosted by President Mary McAleese in honour of Queen Elizabeth II, curated by Ross Lewis, gives particular meaning to the axiom “to eat together is to eat in peace” (Taliano des Garets 160).AcknowledgementsSupervisors: Dr Máirtín Mac Con Iomaire (Dublin Institute of Technology) and Dr Michael Kennedy (Royal Irish Academy)Fáilte IrelandPhotos of the banquet dishes supplied and permission to reproduce them for this article kindly granted by Ross Lewis, Chef Patron, Chapter One Restaurant ‹http://www.chapteronerestaurant.com/›.Illustration ‘Ireland on a Plate’ © Jesse Campbell BrownRemerciementsThe author would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their feedback and suggestions on an earlier draft of this article.ReferencesAlbala, Ken. The Banquet: Dining in the Great Courts of Late Renaissance Europe. 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Cultural sociologists (Bourdieu; DiMaggio, “Cultural Capital”, “Classification”; Gans; Lamont & Foumier; Halle; Erickson) wrote about high culture and popular culture in an attempt to explain the growing social and economic inequalities, to find consensus on culture hierarchies, and to analyze cultural complexities. Halle states that this categorisation of culture into “high culture” and “popular culture” underlined most of the debate on culture in the last fifty years. Gans contends that both high culture and popular culture are stereotypes, public forms of culture or taste cultures, each sharing “common aesthetic values and standards of tastes” (8). However, this article is not concerned with these categorisations, or macro analysis. Rather, it is a reflection piece that inquires if opera, which is usually considered high culture, has become more equal to popular culture, and why some directors change the time and place of opera plots, whereas others will stay true to the original setting of the story. I do not consider these productions “adaptations,” but “post-modern morphologies,” and I will refer to this later in the paper. In other words, the paper is seeking to explain a social phenomenon and explore the underlying motives by quoting interviews with directors. The word ‘opera’ is defined in Elson’s Music Dictionary as: “a form of musical composition evolved shortly before 1600, by some enthusiastic Florentine amateurs who sought to bring back the Greek plays to the modern stage” (189). Hence, it was an experimentation to revive Greek music and drama believed to be the ideal way to express emotions (Grout 186). It is difficult to pinpoint the exact moment when stage directors started changing the time and place of the original settings of operas. The practice became more common after World War II, and Peter Brook’s Covent Garden productions of Boris Godunov (1948) and Salome (1949) are considered the prototypes of this practice (Sutcliffe 19-20). Richard Wagner’s grandsons, the brothers Wieland and Wolfgang Wagner are cited in the music literature as using technology and modern innovations in staging and design beginning in the early 1950s. Brief Background into the History of Opera Grout contends that opera began as an attempt to heighten the dramatic expression of language by intensifying the natural accents of speech through melody supported by simple harmony. In the late 1590s, the Italian composer Jacopo Peri wrote what is considered to be the first opera, but most of it has been lost. The first surviving complete opera is Euridice, a version of the Orpheus myth that Peri and Giulio Caccini jointly set to music in 1600. The first composer to understand the possibilities inherent in this new musical form was Claudio Monteverdi, who in 1607 wrote Orfeo. Although it was based on the same story as Euridice, it was expanded to a full five acts. Early opera was meant for small, private audiences, usually at court; hence it began as an elitist genre. After thirty years of being private, in 1637, opera went public with the opening of the first public opera house, Teatro di San Cassiano, in Venice, and the genre quickly became popular. Indeed, Monteverdi wrote his last two operas, Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria and L’incoronazione di Poppea for the Venetian public, thereby leading the transition from the Italian courts to the ‘public’. Both operas are still performed today. Poppea was the first opera to be based on a historical rather than a mythological or allegorical subject. Sutcliffe argues that opera became popular because it was a new mixture of means: new words, new music, new methods of performance. He states, “operatic fashion through history may be a desire for novelty, new formulas displacing old” (65). By the end of the 17th century, Venice alone had ten opera houses that had produced more than 350 operas. Wealthy families purchased season boxes, but inexpensive tickets made the genre available to persons of lesser means. The genre spread quickly, and various styles of opera developed. In Naples, for example, music rather than the libretto dominated opera. The genre spread to Germany and France, each developing the genre to suit the demands of its audiences. For example, ballet became an essential component of French opera. Eventually, “opera became the profligate art as large casts and lavish settings made it the most expensive public entertainment. It was the only art that without embarrassment called itself ‘grand’” (Boorstin 467). Contemporary Opera Productions Opera continues to be popular. According to a 2002 report released by the National Endowment for the Arts, 6.6 million adults attended at least one live opera performance in 2002, and 37.6 million experienced opera on television, video, radio, audio recording or via the Internet. Some think that it is a dying art form, while others think to the contrary, that it is a living art form because of its complexity and “ability to probe deeper into the human experience than any other art form” (Berger 3). Some directors change the setting of operas with perhaps the most famous contemporary proponent of this approach being Peter Sellars, who made drastic changes to three of Mozart’s most famous operas. Le Nozze di Figaro, originally set in 18th-century Seville, was set by Sellars in a luxury apartment in the Trump Tower in New York City; Sellars set Don Giovanni in contemporary Spanish Harlem rather than 17th century Seville; and for Cosi Fan Tutte, Sellars chose a diner on Cape Cod rather than 18th century Naples. As one of the more than six million Americans who attend live opera each year, I have experienced several updated productions, which made me reflect on the convergence or cross-over between high culture and popular culture. In 2000, I attended a production of Don Giovanni at the Estates Theatre in Prague, the very theatre where Mozart conducted the world premiere in 1787. In this production, Don Giovanni was a fashion designer known as “Don G” and drove a BMW. During the 1999-2000 season, Los Angeles Opera engaged film director Bruce Beresford to direct Verdi’s Rigoletto. Beresford updated the original setting of 16th century Mantua to 20th century Hollywood. The lead tenor, rather than being the Duke of Mantua, was a Hollywood agent known as “Duke Mantua.” In the first act, just before Marullo announces to the Duke’s guests that the jester Rigoletto has taken a mistress, he gets the news via his cell phone. Director Ian Judge set the 2004 production of Le Nozze di Figaro in the 1950s. In one of the opening productions of the 2006-07 LA opera season, Vincent Patterson also chose the 1950s for Massenet’s Manon rather than France in the 1720s. This allowed the title character to appear in the fourth act dressed as Marilyn Monroe. Excerpts from the dress rehearsal can be seen on YouTube. Most recently, I attended a production of Ariane et Barbe-Bleu at the Paris Opera. The original setting of the Maeterlinck play is in Duke Bluebeard’s castle, but the time period is unclear. However, it is doubtful that the 1907 opera based on an 1899 play was meant to be set in what appeared to be a mental institution equipped with surveillance cameras whose screens were visible to the audience. The critical and audience consensus seemed to be that the opera was a musical success but a failure as a production. James Shore summed up the audience reaction: “the production team was vociferously booed and jeered by much of the house, and the enthusiastic applause that had greeted the singers and conductor, immediately went nearly silent when they came on stage”. It seems to me that a new class-related taste has emerged; the opera genre has shot out a subdivision which I shall call “post-modern morphologies,” that may appeal to a larger pool of people. Hence, class, age, gender, and race are becoming more important factors in conceptualising opera productions today than in the past. I do not consider these productions as new adaptations because the libretto and the music are originals. What changes is the fact that both text and sound are taken to a higher dimension by adding iconographic images that stimulate people’s brains. When asked in an interview why he often changes the setting of an opera, Ian Judge commented, “I try to find the best world for the story and characters to operate in, and I think you have to find a balance between the period the author set it in, the period he conceived it in and the nature of theatre and audiences at that time, and the world we live in.” Hence, the world today is complex, interconnected, borderless and timeless because of advanced technologies, and updated opera productions play with symbols that offer multiple meanings that reflect the world we live in. It may be that television and film have influenced opera production. Character tenor Graham Clark recently observed in an interview, “Now the situation has changed enormously. Television and film have made a lot of things totally accessible which they were not before and in an entirely different perception.” Director Ian Judge believes that television and film have affected audience expectations in opera. “I think audiences who are brought up on television, which is bad acting, and movies, which is not that good acting, perhaps require more of opera than stand and deliver, and I have never really been happy with someone who just stands and sings.” Sociologist Wendy Griswold states that culture reflects social reality and the meaning of a particular cultural object (such as opera), originates “in the social structures and social patterns it reflects” (22). Screens of various technologies are embedded in our lives and normalised as extensions of our bodies. In those opera productions in which directors change the time and place of opera plots, use technology, and are less concerned with what the composer or librettist intended (which we can only guess), the iconographic images create multi valances, textuality similar to Mikhail Bakhtin’s notion of multiplicity of voices. Hence, a plurality of meanings. Plàcido Domingo, the Eli and Edyth Broad General Director of Los Angeles Opera, seeks to take advantage of the company’s proximity to the film industry. This is evidenced by his having engaged Bruce Beresford to direct Rigoletto and William Friedkin to direct Ariadne auf Naxos, Duke Bluebeard’s Castle and Gianni Schicchi. Perhaps the most daring example of Domingo’s approach was convincing Garry Marshall, creator of the television sitcom Happy Days and who directed the films Pretty Woman and The Princess Diaries, to direct Jacques Offenbach’s The Grand Duchess of Gerolstein to open the company’s 20th anniversary season. When asked how Domingo convinced him to direct an opera for the first time, Marshall responded, “he was insistent that one, people think that opera is pretty elitist, and he knew without insulting me that I was not one of the elitists; two, he said that you gotta make a funny opera; we need more comedy in the operetta and opera world.” Marshall rewrote most of the dialogue and performed it in English, but left the “songs” untouched and in the original French. He also developed numerous sight gags and added characters including a dog named Morrie and the composer Jacques Offenbach himself. Did it work? Christie Grimstad wrote, “if you want an evening filled with witty music, kaleidoscopic colors and hilariously good singing, seek out The Grand Duchess. You will not be disappointed.” The FanFaire Website commented on Domingo’s approach of using television and film directors to direct opera: You’ve got to hand it to Plàcido Domingo for having the vision to draw on Hollywood’s vast pool of directorial talent. Certainly something can be gained from the cross-fertilization that could ensue from this sort of interaction between opera and the movies, two forms of entertainment (elitist and perennially struggling for funds vs. popular and, it seems, eternally rich) that in Los Angeles have traditionally lived separate lives on opposite sides of the tracks. A wider audience, for example, never a problem for the movies, can only mean good news for the future of opera. So, did the Marshall Plan work? Purists of course will always want their operas and operettas ‘pure and unadulterated’. But with an audience that seemed to have as much fun as the stellar cast on stage, it sure did. Critic Alan Rich disagrees, calling Marshall “a representative from an alien industry taking on an artistic product, not to create something innovative and interesting, but merely to insult.” Nevertheless, the combination of Hollywood and opera seems to work. The Los Angeles Opera reported that the 2005-2006 season was its best ever: “ticket revenues from the season, which ended in June, exceeded projected figures by nearly US$900,000. Seasonal attendance at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion stood at more than 86% of the house’s capacity, the largest percentage in the opera’s history.” Domingo continues with the Hollywood connection in the upcoming 2008-2009 season. He has reengaged William Friedkin to direct two of Puccini’s three operas titled collectively as Il Trittico. Friedkin will direct the two tragedies, Il Tabarro and Suor Angelica. Although Friedkin has already directed a production of the third opera in Il Trittico for Los Angeles, the comedy Gianni Schicchi, Domingo convinced Woody Allen to make his operatic directorial debut with this work. This can be viewed as another example of the desire to make opera and popular culture more equal. However, some, like Alan Rich, may see this attempt as merely insulting rather than interesting and innovative. With a top ticket price in Los Angeles of US$238 per seat, opera seems to continue to be elitist. Berger (2005) concurs with this idea and gives his rationale for elitism: there are rich people who support and attend the opera; it is an imported art from Europe that causes some marginalisation; opera is not associated with something being ‘moral,’ a concept engrained in American culture; it is expensive to produce and usually funded by kings, corporations, rich people; and the opera singers are rare –usually one in a million who will have the vocal quality to sing opera arias. Furthermore, Nicholas Kenyon commented in the early 1990s: “there is suspicion that audiences are now paying more and more money for their seats to see more and more money spent on stage” (Kenyon 3). Still, Garry Marshall commented that the budget for The Grand Duchess was US$2 million, while his budget for Runaway Bride was US$72 million. Kenyon warns, “Such popularity for opera may be illusory. The enjoyment of one striking aria does not guarantee the survival of an art form long regarded as over-elitist, over-recondite, and over-priced” (Kenyon 3). A recent development is the Metropolitan Opera’s decision to simulcast live opera performances from the Met stage to various cinemas around the world. These HD transmissions began with the 2006-2007 season when six performances were broadcast. In the 2007-2008 season, the schedule has expanded to eight live Saturday matinee broadcasts plus eight recorded encores broadcast the following day. According to The Los Angeles Times, “the Met’s experiment of merging film with live performance has created a new art form” (Aslup). Whether or not this is a “new art form,” it certainly makes world-class live opera available to countless persons who cannot travel to New York and pay the price for tickets, when they are available. In the US alone, more than 350 cinemas screen these live HD broadcasts from the Met. Top ticket price for these performances at the Met is US$375, while the lowest price is US$27 for seats with only a partial view. Top price for the HD transmissions in participating cinemas is US$22. This experiment with live simulcasts makes opera more affordable and may increase its popularity; combined with updated stagings, opera can engage a much larger audience and hope for even a mass consumption. Is opera moving closer and closer to popular culture? There still seems to be an aura of elitism and snobbery about opera. However, Plàcido Domingo’s attempt to join opera with Hollywood is meant to break the barriers between high and popular culture. The practice of updating opera settings is not confined to Los Angeles. As mentioned earlier, the idea can be traced to post World War II England, and is quite common in Europe. Examples include Erich Wonder’s approach to Wagner’s Ring, making Valhalla, the mythological home of the gods and typically a mountaintop, into the spaceship Valhalla, as well as my own experience with Don Giovanni in Prague and Ariane et Barbe-Bleu in Paris. Indeed, Sutcliffe maintains, “Great classics in all branches of the arts are repeatedly being repackaged for a consumerist world that is increasingly and neurotically self-obsessed” (61). Although new operas are being written and performed, most contemporary performances are of operas by Verdi, Mozart, and Puccini (www.operabase.com). This means that audiences see the same works repeated many times, but in different interpretations. Perhaps this is why Sutcliffe contends, “since the 1970s it is the actual productions that have had the novelty value grabbed by the headlines. Singing no longer predominates” (Sutcliffe 57). If then, as Sutcliffe argues, “operatic fashion through history may be a desire for novelty, new formulas displacing old” (Sutcliffe 65), then the contemporary practice of changing the original settings is simply the latest “new formula” that is replacing the old ones. If there are no new words or new music, then what remains are new methods of performance, hence the practice of changing time and place. Opera is a complex art form that has evolved over the past 400 years and continues to evolve, but will it survive? The underlining motives for directors changing the time and place of opera performances are at least three: for aesthetic/artistic purposes, financial purposes, and to reach an audience from many cultures, who speak different languages, and who have varied tastes. These three reasons are interrelated. In 1996, Sutcliffe wrote that there has been one constant in all the arguments about opera productions during the preceding two decades: “the producer’s wish to relate the works being staged to contemporary circumstances and passions.” Although that sounds like a purely aesthetic reason, making opera relevant to new, multicultural audiences and thereby increasing the bottom line seems very much a part of that aesthetic. It is as true today as it was when Sutcliffe made the observation twelve years ago (60-61). My own speculation is that opera needs to attract various audiences, and it can only do so by appealing to popular culture and engaging new forms of media and technology. Erickson concludes that the number of upper status people who are exclusively faithful to fine arts is declining; high status people consume a variety of culture while the lower status people are limited to what they like. Research in North America, Europe, and Australia, states Erickson, attest to these trends. My answer to the question can stage directors make opera and popular culture “equal” is yes, and they can do it successfully. Perhaps Stanley Sharpless summed it up best: After his Eden triumph, When the Devil played his ace, He wondered what he could do next To irk the human race, So he invented Opera, With many a fiendish grin, To mystify the lowbrows, And take the highbrows in. References The Grand Duchess. 2005. 3 Feb. 2008 < http://www.ffaire.com/Duchess/index.htm >.Aslup, Glenn. “Puccini’s La Boheme: A Live HD Broadcast from the Met.” Central City Blog Opera 7 Apr. 2008. 24 Apr. 2008 < http://www.centralcityopera.org/blog/2008/04/07/puccini%E2%80%99s- la-boheme-a-live-hd-broadcast-from-the-met/ >.Berger, William. Puccini without Excuses. New York: Vintage, 2005.Boorstin, Daniel. The Creators: A History of Heroes of the Imagination. New York: Random House, 1992.Bourdieu, Pierre. 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