Contested Spaces of Nobility in Early Modern Europe

Matthew P. Romaniello is an Assistant Professor in the Department of History at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa, USA. Dr Charles Lipp is an Assistant Professor in the Department of History at the University of West Georgia, USA.

'One of the volume's great strengths is the consistent engagement with primary documents, both archival and literary, and the essays model future directions in study of the early modern nobility ... Contested Spaces of Nobility in Early Modern Europe is highly recommended for individuals and for academic libraries ...' Sixteenth Century Journal 'Not falling into the trap of seeing noble history as a story of either resilience or decline, this volume contributes to a more nuanced picture of the successes and failures of the nobility’s different responses to a changing world.' Virtus Yearbook for the History of the Nobility 'In terms of individual essays, this collection presents interesting, and in places important, insights into early modern noble identity. There are valuable reiterations of how noble power was perpetuated and enhanced, drawing on recent methodologies.' English Historical Review '... this collection provides an invaluable resource for researchers, with a wealth of resources in the footnotes ... and potentially for teaching a course on the early modern nobility. The empirical approach and close analysis from the various authors are fresh, and a number of pertinent questions are raised which will be useful in developing this emerging subgenre of historical enquiry beyond the specific case studies presented here.' History 'The strengths... are its willingness to engage with interdisciplinary methodology, to cross national borders and build from, rather than work with, existing historiography. Likewise, the frequent reference to other chapters by authors in the book suggests a close working relationship during the creation of the volume, and that this attention to detail is replicated throughout the volume is a credit to the editors.' European History Quarterly

• Chapter 1 The Spaces of Nobility, Matthew P. Romaniello, Charles Lipp; Chapter 2 The Early Modern European Nobility and its Contested Historiographies, c. 1950–1980, Hamish Scott; Chapter 3 Negotiating for Agnes’ Womb, Erica Bastress-Dukehart; Chapter 4 Contested Masculinity: Noblemen and their Mistresses in Early Modern Spain, Grace E. Coolidge; Chapter 5 Inventing the Courtier in Early Sixteenth-Century Portugal, Susannah Humble Ferreira; Chapter 6 Sepulchral Monuments as a Means of Communicating Social and Political Power of Nobles in Early Modern Russia, Cornelia Soldat; Chapter 7 Il monastero nuovo: Cloistered Women of the Medici Court, Katherine L. Turner; Chapter 8 The Question of the Imprescriptibility of Nobility in Early Modern France, Elie Haddad; Chapter 9 All the King’s Men: Educational Reform and Nobility in Early Seventeenth-Century Spain, Ryan Gaston; Chapter 10 “Of polish’d pillars, or a roofe of gold”: Authority and Affluence in the English Country-House Poem, Sukanya Dasgupta; Chapter 11 Nobility as a Social and Political Dialogue: The Parisian Example, 1650–1750, Mathieu Marraud; Chapter 12 Challenging the Status Quo: Attempts to Modernize the Polish Nobility in the Later Eighteenth Century, Jerzy Lukowski; Chapter 13 Resilient Notables: Looking at the Transformation of the Ottoman Empire from the Local Level, M. Safa Saraço?lu;