The Transmission of Culture in Early Modern Europe

335 Pages·1998·5.53 MB·English

by  Anthony Grafton

The Transmission of Culture
in Early Modem Europe
Published under the auspicesof the
ShelbyCullomDavisCenterforHistoricalStudies
PrincetonUniversity
The Transmission
of Culture in Early
Modern Europe
Editedby
Anthony Grafton andAnn Blair
PENN
University of Pennsylvania Press
Philadelphia
Copyright © 1990UniversityofPennsylvaniaPress
Allrightsreserved
Printed intheUnited StatesofAmericaonacid-freepaper
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 I
Publishedby
UniversityofPennsylvaniaPress
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania19I04-40II
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-Publication Data
TheTransmissionofcultureinearlymodern Europe / Anthony Grafton
andAnnBlair,editors.
p. cm.
"Published under theauspicesoftheShelbyCullomDavisCenter
forHistorical Studies,Princeton University?'
Includesbibliographicalreferences.
ISBN 0-8122-8191-8(cloth)
ISBN13:978-0-8122-1667-7
I. Europe- Civilization. 2.Europe- Intelleetuallife.
3.Culture diffusion- Europe- History. 4.Grafton,Anthony.
5.Blair,Ann. 6.ShelbyCullomDavisCenterforHistorical Studies.
CB203.T3 1990
940.2-dc20 89-70750
CIP
Contents
Acknowledgments Vll
Introduction: Notes from Underground on Cultural
Transmission Anthony Grafton 1
I. Invention ofTraditions and Traditions ofInvention in
RenaissanceEurope: The Strange CaseofAnnius of
Viterbo Anthony Grafton 8
2. Inventing Rudolph Agricola: Cultural Transmission,
RenaissanceDialectic, and the Emerging Humanities
LisaJardine 39
3.Cortes, Signs, and the Conquest ofMexico
Inga Clendinnen 87
4. "Second Nature": The Idea of Custom in European Law,
Society, and Culture DonaldR. Kelley 131
5.The Making of aPoliticalParadigm: The Ottoman State and
Oriental Despotism LucetteValensi 173
6. CivicChivalryand the English CivilWar WilliamHunt 204
7.Theology and Atheism in EarlyModern France
Alan CharlesKors 238
8.Honor, Morals, Religion, and the Law: The Action for
Criminal Conversation inEngland, 1670-1857
LawrenceStone 276
Contributors 317
Index 319
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Acknowledgments
Wewould like to thank Lawrence Stone and Joan Daviduk for help of
many kinds; also the Department of Rare Books and Manuscripts of
Princeton University Library, whose staffprovided most of the illustra
tionswith miraculousspeedand efficiency.
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Anthony Grafton
Introduction: Notes from
Underground on Cultural
Transmission
IwasinaPrinting house inHell, & sawthe method inwhich knowledge is
transmitted from generation to generation.
In the firstchamber wasaDragon-Man, clearingawaythe rubbish from a
cave'smouth; within, anumber ofDragons werehollowing the cave.
In the second chamber wasaViper folding round the rock&the cave,
andothers adorning itwith gold, silverand precious stones.
In the third chamber wasanEaglewith wings and feathersofair:he
causedthe insideofthe caveto beinfinite; around were numbers ofEagle
likemenwho built palacesinthe immense cliffs.
In the fourth chamber wereLions offlamingfire,raging around &
melting the metalsinto livingfluids.
In the fifthchamber wereUnman'd forms,which castthe metalsinto the
expanse.
There theywerereciev'dbyMen who occupied the sixthchamber, and
took the forms of books & were arranged inlibraries.1
WilliamBlake,TheMarriageofHeavenandHell
Unlike Blake, most nineteenth-century scholars saw the creation of cul
ture as distinct from and more interesting than its transmission.' Jacob
Burckhardt, for example,treated the culture of the Renaissance as an es
sentiallynew creation rather than a mere revivalof an ancient one, and
deliberatelyrelegatedthe studyofthe classicsto alateandsubordinate po
sition inhiswork. "The essenceofthe phenomena," he remarked, "might
havebeenthe samewithout the classicalrevival."3This attitude, rooted in
Romantic beliefsabout originality and intensity, died hard; but between
1870 and 1914 it gaveup the ghost. In its place arose a new scholarship
centrallyconcerned with the transmission oftexts,images,and ideas.
AbyWarburgandthescholarsassociatedwiththeinstitute hefounded
tracedwith the zestand intuition ofdetectivesthe shifting paths taken by
classicalideas and forms in the worlds of Islam and the Western Middle
Ages.Literary scholarstrackedclassicaltopoi from text to text. Iconogra-