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The idea of history as magistra vitae – a collection of good and bad examples – was a central topos of historical writing in the West from antiquity till the late eighteenth century. The idea has served a number of different ends, motivating advanced political theory as well as functioning as a mere saying. The article investigates two books of historical examples, written for pedagogical purposes addressing young boys, both explicitly produced with this aim in mind: Johannes Schefferus' Memorabilium Sueticae gentis exemplorum liber singularis (1671) and Ove Malling's Store og gode Handlinger af Danske, Norske og Holstenere (1777). They differ considerably from modern history books in not being structured chronologically but according to the virtues the histories are meant to illustrate. The article compares the books' structure, tables of content, choice of virtues and introductory texts. The aim is to explore the tension between exemplarity and temporality in the two collections.

The article goes into the history of three museums which share the history of originating from royal and princely collections of arms, military equipment and trophys. Today, the Royal Armoury in Stockholm, Deutsches Historisches Museum - Zeughaus in Berlin and Musée de l'Armée - Invalides in Paris all are modern, public museums. They are also institutions deeply stamped by the history not only of their own collections, but by that of their respective nations. Despite the inevitable differences produced by this, the article will argue that the three institutions represent a category of museums that so far has not been much explored. While recent studies in the field of museum history have brought important new understandings of cabinets of curiosity and Kunstkammer, and demonstrated the role of such collections in the Western history of knowledge, armories and trophy collections have largely been ignored. The article seeks to sketch a field for further investigations related to these collections.

The idea that smallpox could be eradicated was not necessarily the ultimate aim when inoculation was introduced in Europe in the 1720s. This potentiality was not clearly articulated as an aim until the end of the eighteenth century. This article argues that during most of the eighteenth century, the main aim of inoculation was to lead people as safely as possible through what was regarded as an unavoidable disease. Inoculation became safer, simpler and less expensive from the 1760s, but the changing ideas about its potentiality had more complex roots. A new understanding was produced through an interaction between inoculation practice, more general medical theory and developments within probabilistic thinking and political arithmetic. The first part of the article explores how smallpox inoculation was incorporated into existing medical thinking based on traditional humoral pathology. Inoculation was a new technology, but as it was perceived in the early eighteenth century, the innovation did not first and foremost concern the medical principles of the treatment. The second part of the article investigates arguments about why and when to inoculate: what kind of remedy was inoculation for eighteenth-century agents? The article concludes with a discussion on changes emerging towards the end of the century, and relates them to developments during the preceding decades rather than seeing them as inspired precursors of events and ideas to come.

The idea of history as magistra vitae - a collection of good and bad examples - was a central topos of historical writing in the West from Antiquity till the late 18th century. The idea has served a number of different ends, motivating advanced political theory as well as functioning as a mere saying. The article investigates two history books, both written for pedagogical purposes, and produced according to this idea: Johannes Schefferus' Memorabilum Sueticae gentis exemplorum liber singularis from 1671 and Ove Malling's Store og gode Handlinger af Danske, Norske og Holstenere from 1777. The books differ considerably from modern history books in not being structured chronologically but according to the virtues the histories are meant to illustrate. The article compares the books' structure, tables of contents, selection of virtues and introductory texts. The aim is to explore how the books communicate quite different ideas about individuals and society despite their very similar structure and their shared idea of the meaning of history and its didactic usefulness.

"Santo subito" - declare him saint immediately - was the cry in St.Peter's Square in Rome when Pope John Paul 2. died a couple of weeks ago. The late Pope is one of the major religious personalities of the 20th century. This is due to both his competence as politi­cian and leader of the Church, and to his remarkable abilities to communicate and create enthusiasm. But at the core stands his own spirituality, above all centered on the Virgin Mary. The article explores some aspects of the Pope's performances as an individual chosen by the Virgin herself, and singled out for an important task in world history: The victory over communism and atheism. Building in particular on the works of Richard Bauman, the analytical concepts are performance, intertextuality and traditionalisation. Point of departure for the analysis is the image on the website launched by the Vatican to commemorate the life of John Paul 2.

Cover -- Half Title -- Series Page -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Table of Contents -- List of contributors -- List of illustrations -- Acknowledgements -- Introduction -- 1 Climate change temporalities: narratives, genres, and tropes -- Part 1 Vernacular notions of climate change temporality -- 2 'Where is global warming when you need it?': the role of immediacy in vernacular constructions of climate change -- 3 The great re-skilling: understandings of generation, tradition, and nostalgia in everyday-life climate activism -- 4 In the shadow of apocalyptic futures: climate change as a aultural trope in vernacular discourse -- Part 2 Mediating climate change temporality -- 5 The extreme summer of 2018: Norwegian weather news and the politics of weatherlore -- 6 The prophetic tone in True Detective: sensing the time of the future climate disaster -- 7 Advocating equilibrium: on climate change at public aquariums -- Part 3 Cultural histories of climate change temporality -- 8 The sixth extinction: naming time in a new way -- 9 Smoke, smells, and seaweeds in eighteenth-century norway -- 10 Origin myths from the cultural historical archive of the anthropocene: vico, Burnet and the time of the deluge -- Part 4 Conclusion -- 11 Living the climate change -- Index.

UIDB/04038/2020 UIDP/04038/2020 ; After the publication of Hobsbawm and Ranger's groundbreaking The Invention of Tradition and ten years after Noyes' essay, Tradition: Three Traditions, what do we, as specialists of European cultures, have to say about "tradition"? This forum invites a selection of scholars coming from various thematic fields and countries to think about the concept of tradition, considered as one of our first conceptual tools and ethnographic objects of investigation. The authors reflexively discuss in which ways their research experiences challenge their own perceptions, understanding, and reframing of tradition. More than mapping new and allegedly new – or better "recycled" – ways in which social, ethnic, religious, or political groups use and manipulate traditions, the authors also address their perplexities with the notion of tradition. They thus add a specific layer of reflection, touching on temporality, methodology, and theoretical frames, to their practices of folklore and ethnology today. ; publishersversion ; published