The sixteenth century was an important period of transition in France, in which antagonistic religious beliefs led to prolonged civil wars and a growing state apparatus competed with medieval notions of political authority and the social order. Poitiers, a midsized provincial capital, actively experienced these tensions. Early known as a center of Reformed belief, it became a stronghold of ultra-Catholic sentiment by 1575. In examining sixteenth-century Poitiers, Hilary J. Bernstein argues that civic governments and the French monarchy enjoyed a mutually beneficial and reinforcing relationship rather than an antagonistic one; that disparate urban groups shared a political language for defining the identity and interests of the city that helped to balance the exclusive nature of urban government; and that French provincial cities did not suffer inevitable decline at the hands of the developing state but, instead, continued to help define the nature of early modern political culture.   Though Poitiers continued to celebrate the traditions and institutions of local rule, it sought throughout the century to maintain a strong bond with the monarchy. Bernsteins meticulous research in the rich archives of Poitiers allows her to analyze early modern rhetorical culture and reveal the processes of daily decisionmaking. Using contemporary printed sources, she compares Poitiers to other cities and draws general conclusions about royal policies toward provincial cities. Between Crown and Community illustrates in precise and sometimes dramatic fashion the actual performance of politicsthe interaction of political identities, rhetorical strategies, and ritual practices with the civic traditions of the premodern urban world.

Between Crown and Community: Politics and Civic Culture in Sixteenth-Century Poitiers

History

Hilary J. Bernstein

Europe

Cornell University Press

<p><i>Historical Communities</i>reveals the importance of urban history writing in early modern France, from the 1560s to the 1660s, both for individual towns and the French kingdom. Grounded in published and manuscript works, archival sources, correspondence, and research notes, the book demonstrates how historical traditions mattered to city inhabitants and how local elites combined historical narratives with social and political objectives. Numerous conflicts emerged, including debates regarding city origins, the early French Church, noble genealogies, and the memory of the French Wars of Religion. Simultaneously, provincial scholars maintained active contacts within the Republic of Letters, grounding local research and writing in developing erudite methodologies and making them integral to the ongoing process of forging a French historical identity.</p>

Historical Communities Cities, Erudition, and National Identity in Early Modern France (Scientific and Learned Cultures and Their Institutions, 32)

BRILL

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Hilary J. Bernstein. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Hilary J. Bernstein

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Hilary J. Bernstein. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Between Crown and Community: Politics and Civic Culture in Sixteenth-Century Poitiers

Historical Communities Cities, Erudition, and National Identity in Early Modern France (Scientific and Learned Cultures and Their Institutions, 32)