The annual journal Dumbarton Oaks Papers was founded in 1941 for the publication of articles relating to late antique, early medieval, and Byzantine civilization in the fields of art and architecture, history, archeology, literature, theology, law, and the auxiliary disciplines. Numerous maps, tables, illustrations, and color plates provide supplementary information for many of the articles.

The annual journal Dumbarton Oaks Papers was founded in 1941 for the publication of articles relating to late antique, early medieval, and Byzantine civilization in the fields of art and architecture, history, archeology, literature, theology, law, and the auxiliary disciplines. Numerous maps, tables, illustrations, and color plates provide supplementary information for many of the articles.

The annual journal Dumbarton Oaks Papers was founded in 1941 for the publication of articles relating to late antique, early medieval, and Byzantine civilization in the fields of art and architecture, history, archeology, literature, theology, law, and the auxiliary disciplines. Numerous maps, tables, illustrations, and color plates provide supplementary information for many of the articles.

The annual journal Dumbarton Oaks Papers was founded in 1941 for the publication of articles relating to late antique, early medieval, and Byzantine civilization in the fields of art and architecture, history, archeology, literature, theology, law, and the auxiliary disciplines. Numerous maps, tables, illustrations, and color plates provide supplementary information for many of the articles.

The annual journal Dumbarton Oaks Papers was founded in 1941 for the publication of articles relating to late antique, early medieval, and Byzantine civilization in the fields of art and architecture, history, archeology, literature, theology, law, and the auxiliary disciplines. Numerous maps, tables, illustrations, and color plates provide supplementary information for many of the articles.

The annual journal Dumbarton Oaks Papers was founded in 1941 for the publication of articles relating to late antique, early medieval, and Byzantine civilization in the fields of art and architecture, history, archeology, literature, theology, law, and the auxiliary disciplines. Numerous maps, tables, illustrations, and color plates provide supplementary information for many of the articles.

The annual journal Dumbarton Oaks Papers was founded in 1941 for the publication of articles relating to late antique, early medieval, and Byzantine civilization in the fields of art and architecture, history, archeology, literature, theology, law, and the auxiliary disciplines. Numerous maps, tables, illustrations, and color plates provide supplementary information for many of the articles.

The annual journal Dumbarton Oaks Papers was founded in 1941 for the publication of articles relating to late antique, early medieval, and Byzantine civilization in the fields of art and architecture, history, archeology, literature, theology, law, and the auxiliary disciplines. Numerous maps, tables, illustrations, and color plates provide supplementary information for many of the articles.

The annual journal Dumbarton Oaks Papers was founded in 1941 for the publication of articles relating to late antique, early medieval, and Byzantine civilization in the fields of art and architecture, history, archeology, literature, theology, law, and the auxiliary disciplines. Numerous maps, tables, illustrations, and color plates provide supplementary information for many of the articles.

The annual journal Dumbarton Oaks Papers was founded in 1941 for the publication of articles relating to late antique, early medieval, and Byzantine civilization in the fields of art and architecture, history, archeology, literature, theology, law, and the auxiliary disciplines. Numerous maps, tables, illustrations, and color plates provide supplementary information for many of the articles.

The annual journal Dumbarton Oaks Papers was founded in 1941 for the publication of articles relating to late antique, early medieval, and Byzantine civilization in the fields of art and architecture, history, archeology, literature, theology, law, and the auxiliary disciplines. Numerous maps, tables, illustrations, and color plates provide supplementary information for many of the articles.

Dumbarton Oaks Papers is an annual journal of scholarly articles on Byzantine topics. Many of the articles are based upon presentations made at the Byzantine conferences hosted by Dumbarton Oaks. Numerous maps, tables, illustrations, and color plates provide supplementary information.

Dumbarton Oaks Papers 59 includes papers from a colloquium on Byzantine glass, guest edited by David Whitehouse of the Corning Museum of Glass. Other articles feature a discussion of zodiac cycles in ancient Palestinian synagogues, a study of early Christians' responses to the spectacles of fifth-century Carthage, and an analysis of scientific and literary sources pertaining to the mysterious cloud that darkened the sky for about a year in 536, to determine what, if any, immediate effects it had. A fieldwork report on the ongoing excavations at the Amorium project is also featured.

Volume 60 of this annual journal explores a range of Byzantine subjects: the classification of stamping objects (including six previously unpublished metal stamps); the date and purpose of the construction of Constantinople’s church of Saints Sergius and Bacchus; the Coptic Church’s literary construction of its identity in post-conquest Egypt; the evidence for the tenth-century revision of the so-called Chronicle of 811; an unusual development in the iconography of St. Menas; and versions of Niketas Choniates’ History.

Also included are editions and translations of Byzantine Communion prayers newly discovered in Massachusetts and two funerary epigrams written by Manuel Philes; both articles include commentary. The volume concludes with reports from 2003 and 2004 on Dumbarton Oaks–supported archaeological fieldwork projects on a church in Bizye and an aristocratic rock-cut Byzantine settlement in Cappadocia.

This latest volume of Dumbarton Oaks Papers focuses in part on literary and historical texts: historicism in Byzantine thought and literature; the Chronicle of Matthew of Edessa, encompassing the First Crusade and the Armenian diaspora; and a reappraisal of the satirical prose work Mazaris’s Journey to Hades. The history and architecture of the Cypriot Monastery of Saint John Chrysostomos at Koutsovendis occupy a lengthy and informative chapter, which also includes a first edition of the “Letter of Nikon of the Black Mountain to the Founder George.”

The volume also contains selected papers from the 2005 Dumbarton Oaks symposium on the archaeological evidence for settlement patterns in Anatolia and the Levant between 500 and 1000.

This volume begins with a substantial investigation of the murder of several members of the imperial family during the summer of 337, following the death of Constantine. Two other major articles are devoted to well-known Byzantine illustrated manuscripts, the ninth-century Sacra Parallela and the fourteenth-century collection of theological works by the emperor John VI Kantakouzenos, both now in Paris. A third art-historical paper presents a detailed analysis of the architectural decoration of the church of the “Red Monastery” near Suhag in Egypt. Other studies treat the mystery of the Incarnation as well as the earliest version of the Life of the Virgin and its relationship with the cult of Marian relics in Constantinople.

The volume concludes with three papers from a colloquium on the hymnographer Romanos the Melode.

Founded in 1941, the annual journal Dumbarton Oaks Papers is dedicated to the publication of articles relating to late antique, early medieval, and Byzantine civilization in the fields of art and architecture, history, archaeology, literature, theology, law, and auxiliary disciplines.

In this issue: Alexander Sarantis, “War and Diplomacy in Pannonia and the Northwest Balkans during the Reign of Justinian: The Gepid Threat and Imperial Responses”; Peter Hatlie, “Images of Motherhood and Self in Byzantine Literature”; Maria Evangelatou, “Liturgy and the Illustration of the Ninth-Century Marginal Psalters”; Henry Maguire, “Ivories as Pilgrimage Art: A New Frame for the ‘Frame Group’”; Vasileios Marinis, “Tombs and Burials in the Monastery tou Libos in Constantinople”; and three fieldwork reports: “Second Report on the Excavation in the Monastery of Apa Shenute (Dayr Anba Shinuda) at Suhag,” by Peter Grossman, Darlene L. Brooks Hedstrom, and Saad Mohamad Mohamad Osman, with a contribution by Hans-Christoph Noeske; “To Live and Die in a Turbulent Era: Bioarchaeological Analysis of the Early Byzantine (6th–7th Centuries AD) Population from Sourtara Galaniou Kozanis (Northern Greece),” by Chryssi Bourbou; and “Study and Restoration of the Zeyrek Camii in Istanbul: Second Report, 2001–2005,” by Robert Ousterhout, Zeynep Ahunbay, and Metin Ahunbay.

This issue includes “Bishops and Territory: The Case of Late Roman and Byzantine North Africa” (Anna Leone); “A Conflicted Heritage: The Byzantine Religious Establishment of a War Ethic” (J. A. McGuckin); “Hoards and Hoarding Patterns in the Early Byzantine Balkans” (Florin Curta and Andrei Gândilă); “Light, Color, and Visual Illusion in the Poetry of Venantius Fortunatus” (Michael Roberts); “At the Edge of Two Empires: The Economy of Cyprus between Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages (650s–800s CE)” (Luca Zavagno); “China, Byzantium, and the Shadow of the Steppe” (David A. Graff); “‘And So, with the Help of God’: The Byzantine Art of War in the Tenth Century” (Robert S. Nelson); “The Image of the Virgin Nursing (Galaktotrophousa) and a Unique Inscription on the Seals of Romanos, Metropolitan of Kyzikos” (John Cotsonis); “Marching across Anatolia: Medieval Logistics and Modeling the Mantzikert Campaign” (John Haldon with Vince Gaffney, Georgios Theodoropoulos, and Phil Murgatroyd); “The Moral Pieces by Theodore II Laskaris” (Dimiter G. Angelov); “Mary Magdalene between East and West: Cult and Image, Relics and Politics in the Late Thirteenth-Century Eastern Mediterranean” (Vassiliki A. Foskolou); “Byzantine Houses and Modern Fictions: Domesticating Mystras in 1930s Greece” (Kostis Kourelis); and “The White Monastery Federation Project: Survey and Mapping at the Monastery of Apa Shenoute (Dayr al-Anba Shinūda), Sohag, 2005–2007” (Darlene L. Brooks Hedstrom and Elizabeth S. Bolman with Mohammed Abdel Rahim, Saad Mohammed, Dawn McCormack, Tomasz Herbich, Gillian Pyke, Louise Blanke, Tracy Musacchio, and Mohammed Khalifa).

Founded in 1941, the annual journal Dumbarton Oaks Papers is dedicated to the publication of articles relating to late antique, early medieval, and Byzantine civilization in the fields of art and architecture, history, archaeology, literature, theology, law, and auxiliary disciplines.

This issue includes “The Canon Tables of the Psalms: An Unknown Work of Eusebius of Caesarea” by Martin Wallraff; “Histoires ‘Gothiques’ à Byzance: Le Saint, Le Soldat, et Le Miracle d’Euphémie et du Goth (BHG 739)” by Charis Messis and Stratis Papaioannou; “Reassessing the Sarcophagi of Ravenna” by Edward M. Schoolman; “Sources for the Study of Liturgy in Post-Byzantine Jerusalem (638–1187 CE)” by Daniel Galadza; “(Re)Mapping Medieval Antioch: Urban Transformations from the Early Islamic to the Middle Byzantine Periods” by A. Asa Eger; “Melkites and Icon Worship during the Iconoclastic Period” by Juan Signes Codoñer; “The Anzas Family: Members of the Byzantine Civil Establishment in the Eleventh, Twelfth, and Thirteenth Centuries” by John Nesbitt and Werner Seibt; “Viewing and Description in Hysmine and Hysminias: The Fresco of the Virtues” by Paroma Chatterjee; “The Documents of Dominicus Grimani, Notary in Candia (1356–1357)” by Nicky Tsougarakis; and “The Church of Saints Sergius and Bacchus in Kaftūn (Northern Lebanon) and Its Wall Paintings” by Tomasz Waliszewski, Krzysztof Chmielewski, Mat Immerzeel, and Nada Hélou.

This issue includes “Exiling Bishops: The Policy of Constantius II,” by Walt Stevenson; “In Search of Monotheletism,” by Jack Tannous; “The Archaeology and Reconstruction of Zuartʿnocʿ,” by Christina Maranci; “The South Vestibule of Hagia Sophia at Istanbul: The Ornamental Mosaics and the Private Door of the Patriarchate,” by Philipp Niewöhner and Natalia Teteriatnikov; “Reality and Invention: Reflections on Byzantine Historiography,” by Ralph-Johannes Lilie; “An Enigmatic Literature: Interpreting an Unedited Collection of Byzantine Riddles in a Manuscript of Cardinal Bessarion (Marcianus Graecus 512),” by Simone Beta; “Threads of Power: Clothing Symbolism, Human Salvation, and Female Identity in the Illustrated Homilies by Iakobos of Kokkinobaphos,” by Maria Evangelatou; “The Byzantino-Latin Principality of Adrianople and the Challenge of Feudalism (1204/6–ca. 1227/28): Empire, Venice, and Local Autonomy,” by Filip Van Tricht; “The Image of the Virgin on the Sinai Hexaptych and the Apse Mosaic of Hagia Sophia, Constantinople,” by Zaza Skhirtladze; “Odd Surnames Beginning with Alpha: A Selection of Examples on Byzantine Seals in the Harvard Collections,” by Werner Seibt and John Nesbitt; “The Miniatures in the Rabbula Gospels: Postscripta to a Recent Book,” by Massimo Bernabò; and “Fieldwork Report: Results of the Tophane Area GPR Surveys, Bursa, Turkey,” by Suna Çağaptay with April Kamp-Whittaker and Lawrence Conyers.

In this issue: Jeffrey Wickes, “Mapping the Literary Landscape of Ephrem’s Theology of Divine Names”; Örgü Dalgıç, “The Triumph of Dionysos in Constantinople”; Lain Wilson, “A Subaltern’s Fate”; Antony Eastmond, “The Heavenly Court, Courtly Ceremony, and the Great Byzantine Ivory Triptychs of the Tenth Century”; Timothy Greenwood, “A Corpus of Early Medieval Armenian Silver” (with an Appendix, “Carbunculus ardens: The Garnet on the Narses Cross in Context,” by Noël Adams); Stefanos Alexopoulos, “When a Column Speaks”; Floris Bernard, “Humor in Byzantine Letters of the Tenth to Twelfth Centuries”; Angelina Anne Volkoff, “Komnenian Double Surnames on Lead Seals”; Margaret Alexiou, “Of Longings and Loves”; Panagiotis A. Agapitos, “Literary Haute Cuisine and Its Dangers”; Niels Gaul, “Writing ‘with Joyful and Leaping Soul’”; Natalia Teteriatnikov, “The Last Palaiologan Mosaic Program of Hagia Sophia”; Jonathan Shea, “Longuet’s ‘Salonica Hoard’ and the Mint of Thessalonike in the Mid-Fourteenth Century”; Tera Lee Hedrick and Nina Ergin, “A Shared Culture of Heavenly Fragrance”; and Mark Jackson, “2007–2011 Excavations at Kilise Tepe.”

In this issue: Roland Betancourt, “Why Sight Is Not Touch: Reconsidering the Tactility of Vision in Byzantium”; Byron MacDougall, “Gregory Thaumaturgus: A Platonic Lawgiver”; Scott Fitzgerald Johnson, “‘The Stone the Builders Rejected’: Liturgical and Exegetical Irrelevancies in the Piacenza Pilgrim”; Nicholas Warner, “The Architecture of the Red Monastery Church (Dayr Anbā Bišūy) in Egypt: An Evolving Anatomy”; Ilene H. Forsyth with Elizabeth Sears, “George H. Forsyth and the Sacred Fortress at Sinai”; Heta Björklund, “Classical Traces of Metamorphosis in the Byzantine Hystera Formula”; Anne-Laurence Caudano, “‘These Are the Only Four Seas’: The World Map of Bologna, University Library, Codex 3632”; Charis Messis, “Les voix littéraires des eunuques: Genre et identité du soi à Byzance”; Przemysław Marciniak, “Reinventing Lucian in Byzantium”; Aglae Pizzone, “Audiences and Emotions in Eustathios of Thessalonike’s Commentaries on Homer”; Niels Gaul, “All the Emperor’s Men (and His Nephews): Paideia and Networking Strategies at the Court of Andronikos II Palaiologos, 1290–1320”; Christopher Wright, “Constantinople and the Coup d’État in Palaiologan Byzantium”; and Nadezhda Kavrus-Hoffmann, “A Newly Acquired Gospel Manuscript at Dumbarton Oaks (DO MS 5): Codicological and Paleographic Description and Analysis.”

In this issue: Maya Maskarinec, “Saints for All Christendom: Naturalizing the Alexandrian Saints Cyrus and John in Seventh- to Thirteenth-Century Rome”; Joe Glynias, “Prayerful Iconoclasts: Psalm Seals and Elite Formation in the First Iconoclast Era (726–750)”; Jordan Pickett, “Water and Empire in the De Aedificiis of Procopius”; Florin Leonte, “Visions of Empire: Gaze, Space, and Territory in Isidore’s Encomium for John VIII Palaiologos”; Anastasia Drandaki, “Piety, Politics, and Art in Fifteenth-Century Venetian Crete”; Julian Baker, Filippo Dompieri, and Turan Gökyildirim with Kelly Domoney, Tuğçe Pamuk, and Irmak Güneş Yüceil, “The Reformed Byzantine Silver-Based Currencies (ca. 1372–1379) in the Light of the Hoards from the Belgrade Gate”; Vasileios Marinis, “The Vision of Last Judgment in the Vita of Saint Niphon (BHG 1371z)”; Daniel Reynolds, “Rethinking Palestinian Iconoclasm”; Athanasios K. Vionis, “Understanding Settlements in Byzantine Greece: New Data and Approaches for Boeotia, Sixth to Thirteenth Century”; Nikos Zagklas, “Experimenting with Prose and Verse in Twelfth-Century Byzantium: A Preliminary Study”; and Christophe Erismann, “Theodore the Studite and Photius on the Humanity of Christ: A Neglected Byzantine Discussion on Universals in the Time of Iconoclasm.”

The Dutch and English East India Companies were formidable organizations that were gifted with expansive powers that allowed them to conduct diplomacy, wage war and seize territorial possessions. But they did not move into an empty arena in which they were free to deploy these powers without resistance. Early modern Asia stood at the center of the global economy and was home to powerful states and sprawling commercial networks. The companies may have been global enterprises, but they operated in a globalized region in which they encountered a range of formidable competitors. This groundbreaking collection of essays explores the place of the Dutch and English East India Companies in Asia and the nature of their engagement with Asian rulers, officials, merchants, soldiers, and brokers. With contributions from some of the most innovative historians in the field, The Dutch and English East India Companies: Diplomacy, Trade and Violence in Early Modern Asia presents new ways to understand these organizations by focusing on their diplomatic, commercial, and military interactions with Asia.

The seventeenth century is considered the Dutch Golden Age, a time when the Dutch were at the forefront of social change, economics, the sciences, and art. In Dutch Culture in the Golden Age, eminent historian J. L. Price goes beyond the standard descriptions of the cultural achievements of the Dutch during this time by placing these many achievements within their social context. Price’s central argument is that alongside the innovative tendencies in Dutch society and culture there were powerful conservative and reactionary forces at work—and that it was the tension between these contradictory impulses that gave the period its unique and powerful dynamic.

Dutch Culture in the Golden Age is distinctive in its broad scope, examing art, literature, religion, political ideology, theology, and scientific and intellectual trends, while also attending to the high and popular culture of the times. Price’s new interpretation of Dutch history places an emphasis on the paradox of the Dutch resistance to change as well as their general acceptance of innovation.

This comprehensive look at the Dutch Golden Age provides a fascinating new way to understand Dutch culture at the height of its historic and global influence.

In 1988–1989 the three hundredth anniversary of an important historical event, the ascension of William and Mary to the thrones of England and Scotland, was celebrated in the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America. The symposium on Dutch garden art held at Dumbarton Oaks in May 1988 was the only scholarly event during the anniversary year that focused wholly upon gardens.

This wide-ranging collection of essays charts the history, scope, and spread of Dutch garden art during the seventeenth century. A group of scholars, mostly Dutch, surveys what has been called the “golden age” of Dutch garden design. Essays discuss the political context of William’s building and gardening activities at his palace of Het Loo in the Netherlands; the development of a distinctively Dutch garden art during the seventeenth century; country house poetry; and specific estates and their gardens, such as those of Johan Maurits van Nassau-Siegen at Cleves or Sorgvliet, the estate of Hans Willem Bentinck, later the Earl of Portland. Other contributions concern typical Dutch planting and layouts, with a focus upon Jan van der Green’s much-circulated Den Nederlandtsen Hovenier; the designs of Daniel Marot, the Huguenot refugee from France, who worked for William III in both the Netherlands and England; and the attitudes of the English toward Dutch gardening as it was observed in practice and mythologized through the distorting lens of national cooperation and rivalries.

In the seventeenth century, the Dutch herring fisheries in the North Sea were considered the most sophisticated and demanding fishing operation in the world. This is the first study to assess the North Sea herring and herring fisheries over the span of several centuries. It contributes to the understanding of pre-modern natural resource exploitation and the role of the natural environment in long-term development of the Dutch herring fisheries.

Not only the Jews but Dutch society at large was caught up in a cultural maelstrom between 1880 and 1940. In failing to form a separate pillar in a period when various population groups were doing just that, the Jews were certainly unlike contemporary Catholics or Protestants. In fact, the Jews were not trying to gain entrance in a pre-existing culture but were involved with non-Jews in constructing a new culture. The complexity of Dutch Jewish history once again becomes evident if not new.

In the Dutch Republic, in its Baroque forms of art, two aesthetic formal modes, theatre and drama, were dynamically related to two political concepts, event and moment. The Dutch version of the Baroque is characterised by a fascination with this world regarded as one possibility out of a plurality of potential worlds. It is this fascination that explains the coincidence in the Dutch Republic, strange at first sight, of Baroque exuberance, irregularity, paradox, and vertigo with scientific rigor, regularity, mathematical logic, and rational distance. In giving a new historical perspective on the Baroque as a specifically Dutch republican one, this study also offers a new and systematic approach towards the interactions among the notions of theatricality, dramatisation, moment, and event: concepts that are currently at the centre of philosophical and political debates but the modern articulation of which can best be considered in the explorations of history and world in the Dutch Republic."Our idea of Dutch history will never recover from reading this book. As in Korsten's conception of the Baroque, reality is bifurcated, sudden possibilities are revealed and must be faced. Instead of the staid prudence and moderation that make our image of Dutch history both comforting and numbing, Korsten presents us with the harsh and theatrical reality of a Dutch Baroque. Tyranny, slavery, execution, colonialism, censorship and obscenity constitute a lurid new world view, made up of strangely familiar remnants of the old. It bears a striking resemblance to the vivid colours of the many paintings he uses to demonstrate his argument, once the thick layers of yellowed varnish have been removed from them. It is fantastic and bizarre and leaves the reader perplexed and disturbed. " - Inger Leemans, professor of Cultural History, VU Amsterdam"This is an original and innovative book that will take the study of Dutch culture to a different level. It is an excellent example of the relevance of analysing early modern literature and the visual arts through the lens of 20th century philosophy all the while remaining historically rooted." - Hanneke Grootenboer, professor of the History of Art, University of Oxford"The publication of Korsten's book is a true event in its own right. A Dutch Republican Baroque urges us to rethink some of the more comforting myths about our 'golden' seventeenth century. The book will get on the nerves and under the skin of many of its readers: I take that as a sign of its unquestionable quality.The book combines deft readings of the works of Dutch seventeenth-century painters (Hals), poets (Huygens), playwrights (Vondel) and philosophers (Spinoza), with an astute conceptual analysis of a historical moment: the very beginnings of the man-made modern age. A Dutch Republican Baroque is a unique feat, yet everything one would expect of a truly good book: Korsten's work is provocative, wide-ranging, astute and inspiring. It debunks myths and opens up new avenues of exploration. It reads the past against the grain and in doing so sheds light on our present. The book's analyses of the early-modern Dutch fascination and discomfort with issues of slavery and torture will force us to reconsider our own investment in times of exploitation and terror." - Jürgen Pieters, professor of Literature, Ghent University

A pathbreaking history of early modern education argues that Europe’s oldest university, often seen as a bastion of traditionalism, was in fact a vibrant site of intellectual innovation and cultural exchange.

The University of Bologna was among the premier universities in medieval Europe and an international magnet for students of law. However, a long-standing historiographical tradition holds that Bologna—and Italian university education more broadly—foundered in the early modern period. On this view, Bologna’s curriculum ossified and its prestige crumbled, due at least in part to political and religious pressure from Rome. Meanwhile, new ways of thinking flourished instead in humanist academies, scientific societies, and northern European universities.

David Lines offers a powerful counternarrative. While Bologna did decline as a center for the study of law, he argues, the arts and medicine at the university rose to new heights from 1400 to 1750. Archival records show that the curriculum underwent constant revision to incorporate contemporary research and theories, developed by the likes of René Descartes and Isaac Newton. From the humanities to philosophy, astronomy, mathematics, and medicine, teaching became more systematic and less tied to canonical texts and authors. Theology, meanwhile, achieved increasing prominence across the university. Although this religious turn reflected the priorities and values of the Catholic Reformation, it did not halt the creation of new scientific chairs or the discussion of new theories and discoveries. To the contrary, science and theology formed a new alliance at Bologna.

The University of Bologna remained a lively hub of cultural exchange in the early modern period, animated by connections not only to local colleges, academies, and libraries, but also to scholars, institutions, and ideas throughout Europe.

Adrian Daub’s The Dynastic Imagination offers an unexpected account of modern German intellectual history through frameworks of family and kinship. Modernity aimed to brush off dynastic, hierarchical authority and to make society anew through the mechanisms of marriage, siblinghood, and love. It was, in other words, centered on the nuclear family. But as Daub shows, the dynastic imagination persisted, in time emerging as a critical stance by which the nuclear family’s conservatism and temporal limits could be exposed. Focusing on the complex interaction between dynasties and national identity-formation in Germany, Daub shows how a lingering preoccupation with dynastic modes of explanation, legitimation, and organization suffused German literature and culture.
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Daub builds this conception of dynasty in a syncretic study of literature, sciences, and the history of ideas, engaging with remnants of dynastic ideology in the work of Richard Wagner, Émile Zola, and Stefan George, and in the work of early feminists and pioneering psychoanalysts. At every stage of cultural progression, Daub reveals how the relation of dynastic to nuclear families inflected modern intellectual history. 

In state formation research, princely houses have been a blind spot. The development of states has been discussed from many perspectives, like interstate competition, internal social conflicts, fiscal-military developments, etc., but at the centre of most European states, there was a princely house. These ruling houses have been overlooked in studies about state formation. What’s more, when discussing such dynasties, the vertical chronological perspective (grandfather-father-son) is all dominating, for instance in the focus on dynastic continuity, dynastic culture and representation, and the like. This collection of essays highlights the horizontal perspective (ruler, all children, siblings, cousins), in asking how the members of a princely family acted as a power network. The quest is to develop an understanding how this family network interplayed with other factors in the state formation process. This volume brings together existing knowledge of the topic with the aim of exchanging insights and furthering knowledge.