Arndt Brendecke Book order

The late 16th century and the first half of the 17th century saw a final resurgence of the concept of Fortuna. Shortly thereafter, this goddess of chance and luck, who had survived for millennia, rapidly lost her cultural and intellectual relevance. This volume explores the late heyday and subsequent erasure of Fortuna. It examines vernacular traditions and confessional differences, analyses how the iconography and semantics of Fortuna motifs transformed, and traces the rise of complementary concepts such as those of probability, risk, fate and contingency. Thus, a multidisciplinary team of contributors sheds light on the surprising ways in which the end of Fortuna intersected with the rise of modernity.

How was Spain able to govern its enormous colonial territories? In 1573 the king decreed that his councilors should acquire „complete knowledge“ about the empire they were running from out of Madrid, and he initiated an impressive program for the systematic collection of empirical knowledge. Brendecke shows why this knowledge was created in the first place – but then hardly used. And he looks into the question of what political effects such a policy of knowledge had for Spain’s colonial rule.

Dieser Band reagiert auf das wachsende Interesse an historischen Praktiken. Dabei kommen alte historiographische Tugenden zur Anwendung, denn Geschichtsschreibung ist von ihren Anfängen an stark an Handlungen und Handlungsvollzügen interessiert, an Fakten und ihrer Darstellung. Zugleich muss jedoch neuen methodischen Reflexionen Raum gegeben werden, denn es reicht nicht mehr aus, „Taten“ aus Ideen oder individuellen Entscheidungen abzuleiten. Praktiken verfügen über eine Eigenlogik und damit auch über eine eigene Geschichte. Diese zu erschließen, nahm sich die Arbeitsgemeinschaft Frühe Neuzeit in ihrer zehnten Tagung vor. Die wichtigsten Ergebnisse sind in diesem Band versammelt.