Exploring Cultural History

Joan-Pau Rubiés is Reader in International History at the London School of Economics and Political Science, UK. Filippo de Vivo is Senior Lecturer in Early Modern History at Birkbeck College, University of London, UK. Melissa Calaresu is the McKendrick Lecturer in History at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, UK.

• Contents: Preface; Introduction: Peter Burke and the history of cultural history, Melissa Calaresu, Filippo de Vivo and Joan-Pau Rubiés; Part I Historical Anthropology: The ecotype, or a modest proposal to reconnect cultural and social history, David Hopkin; Rituals of the Viaticum: dynasty and community in Habsburg Madrid, Maria José del Río Barredo; Monks of honour: the Knights of Malta and criminal behaviour in early modern Rome, Carmel Cassar; The reception of Spain and its values in Habsburg Naples: a reassessment, Gabriel Guarino. Part II Politics and Communication: Venomous words and political poisons: language(s) of exclusion in early modern France, Silje Normand; War and polemics in early modern Europe, Pärtel Piirimäe; Colbert, Louis XIV and the golden notebooks: what a king needs to know, Jacob Soll; Confessional cultures and sacred space: towards a history of political communication in early modern Switzerland, Daniela Hacke. Part III Images: Saints as cultural history, Thomas Worcester; How to look like a Counter-Reformation saint, Helen Hills; Against propaganda: the juxtaposition of images in early modern France. Reflections on the reign of Louis XII (1498-1515), Nicole Hochner; A gymnosophist at Versailles: the geography of knowledge in the iconography of Louis XIV, Nicholas Dew; Elegant Dutch? The reception of Castiglione’s Cortegiano in17th-century Netherlands, Herman Roodenburg. Part IV Cultural Encounters: Dancing savages: stereotypes and cultural encounters across the Atlantic in the age of European expansion, Alessandro Arcangeli; Representation in practice: the myth of Venice and the British Protectorate in the Ionian islands (1801-1864), Maria Fusaro; Harping on the past: translating antiquarian learning into popular culture in early 19th-century Ireland, Clare O'Halloran; Peter Burke and Brazil: a mutual discovery, Ángel Gurría-Quintana. Epilogue: Afterword: exploring cultural history: a response, Peter Burke; Index.

’Clearly, the ’new cultural history’ has moved on from its beginnings as a stepchild of the social history of the Sixties and Seventies. This fine volume gives a vivid sense of its present concerns and resources. At the same time it helps explain why Peter Burke is regarded as belonging to the handful of scholars, including Natalie Davis, Carlo Ginzburg, and Roger Chartier, who have done the most to help cultural history move forward, by exploring both old and new questions, and by venturing suggestive if provisional answers.’ English Historical Review 'There is a lot to digest here and the variety of the chapters means that the collection represents good value and is more than just the sum of its parts. The editors are to be congratulated for putting together a festschrift which reflects the interests and preoccupations of an outstanding scholar while also showcasing the influence Burke’s scholarship has had on generations of cultural historians since the 1960s.' Annual Bulletin of Historical Literature