Search results

In early modern Europe, memory of the past served as a main frame of moral, political, legal, religious, and social reference for people of all walks of life. This volume examines how Europeans practiced memory between 1500 and 1800, and how these three centuries saw a shift in how people engaged with the past.

Witchcraft in context: histories and historiographies -- The world of the witches: confessions and conflicts -- Witchcraft and gender: intimate servants and excluded masculinities -- Framing the witch: legal theories and realities -- Nullus Deus, sine diabolo: the ecclesiastical witch -- Beyond demonology: blame the witches -- Sceptical voices: ending the era -- Epilogue: comparisons and conclusions

AbstractThis study investigates diachronic trends in the use of evidential markers in Early Modern English medical treatises (1500–1700), with data drawn from theCorpus of Early Modern English Medical Texts. The state of medical thought and practice in Early Modern England is discussed, with particular focus on the changing role that Scholasticism played during this period. The nature of evidentiality and types of scholastic vs. non-scholastic evidence are given attention, and quantitative results are outlined. It is shown that as scholastic models of medicine gave way to more empirically-driven approaches, the use of evidential markers indicating direct perceptual and inferential evidence increased drastically, while the use of markers signaling reported information – particularly information mediated by classical authorities – decreased significantly. The results are finally discussed in light of discursive and typological considerations relating to contextual changes accompanying the reference to classical authors as sources of evidence, as well as the notion of "marked" and "unmarked" evidence types.