Maria Theresa BARBARA STOLLBERG-RILINGER
01/2022
eBook
A major new biography of the iconic Austrian empress
that challenges the many myths about her life and rule
Maria Theresa (1717-1780) was once the most powerful woman in
Europe. At the age of ...twenty-three, she ascended to the throne of
the Habsburg Empire, a far-flung realm composed of diverse
ethnicities and languages, beset on all sides by enemies and
rivals. Barbara Stollberg-Rilinger provides the definitive
biography of Maria Theresa, situating this exceptional empress
within her time while dispelling the myths surrounding her. Drawing
on a wealth of archival evidence, Stollberg-Rilinger examines all
facets of eighteenth-century society, from piety and patronage to
sexuality and childcare, ceremonial life at court, diplomacy, and
the everyday indignities of warfare. She challenges the idealized
image of Maria Theresa as an enlightened reformer and mother of her
lands who embodied both feminine beauty and virile bellicosity,
showing how she despised the ideas of the Enlightenment, treated
her children with relentless austerity, and mercilessly persecuted
Protestants and Jews. Work, consistent physical and mental
discipline, and fear of God were the principles Maria Theresa lived
by, and she demanded the same from her family, her court, and her
subjects. A panoramic work of scholarship that brings Europe's age
of empire spectacularly to life, Maria Theresa paints an
unforgettable portrait of the uncompromising yet singularly
charismatic woman who left her enduring mark on the era in which
she lived and reigned.
For many years, scholars struggled to write the history of the constitution and political structure of the Holy Roman Empire. This book argues that this was because the political and social order ...could not be understood without considering the rituals and symbols that held the Empire together. What determined the rules (and whether they were followed) depended on complex symbolic-ritual actions.By examining key moments in the political history of the Empire, the author shows that it was a vocabulary of symbols, not the actual written laws, that formed a political language indispensable in maintaining the common order.
Maria Theresa Barbara Stollberg-Rilinger
2022, 2022-01-18
eBook
A major new biography of the iconic Austrian empress that challenges the many myths about her life and rule Maria Theresa (1717–1780) was once the most powerful woman in Europe. At the age of ...twenty-three, she ascended to the throne of the Habsburg Empire, a far-flung realm composed of diverse ethnicities and languages, beset on all sides by enemies and rivals. Barbara Stollberg-Rilinger provides the definitive biography of Maria Theresa, situating this exceptional empress within her time while dispelling the myths surrounding her.Drawing on a wealth of archival evidence, Stollberg-Rilinger examines all facets of eighteenth-century society, from piety and patronage to sexuality and childcare, ceremonial life at court, diplomacy, and the everyday indignities of warfare. She challenges the idealized image of Maria Theresa as an enlightened reformer and mother of her lands who embodied both feminine beauty and virile bellicosity, showing how she despised the ideas of the Enlightenment, treated her children with relentless austerity, and mercilessly persecuted Protestants and Jews. Work, consistent physical and mental discipline, and fear of God were the principles Maria Theresa lived by, and she demanded the same from her family, her court, and her subjects.A panoramic work of scholarship that brings Europe's age of empire spectacularly to life, Maria Theresa paints an unforgettable portrait of the uncompromising yet singularly charismatic woman who left her enduring mark on the era in which she lived and reigned.
The Holy Roman Empire Stollberg-Rilinger, Barbara; Mintzker, Yair
2018, 20181023, 2018-10-23
eBook
A new interpretation of the Holy Roman Empire that reveals why it was not a failed state as many historians believe
The Holy Roman Empire emerged in the Middle Ages as a loosely integrated union of ...German states and city-states under the supreme rule of an emperor. Around 1500, it took on a more formal structure with the establishment of powerful institutions-such as the Reichstag and Imperial Chamber Court-that would endure more or less intact until the empire's dissolution by Napoleon in 1806. Barbara Stollberg-Rilinger provides a concise history of the Holy Roman Empire, presenting an entirely new interpretation of the empire's political culture and remarkably durable institutions.
Rather than comparing the empire to modern states or associations like the European Union, Stollberg-Rilinger shows how it was a political body unlike any other-it had no standing army, no clear boundaries, no general taxation or bureaucracy. She describes a heterogeneous association based on tradition and shared purpose, bound together by personal loyalty and reciprocity, and constantly reenacted by solemn rituals. In a narrative spanning three turbulent centuries, she takes readers from the reform era at the dawn of the sixteenth century to the crisis of the Reformation, from the consolidation of the Peace of Augsburg to the destructive fury of the Thirty Years' War, from the conflict between Austria and Prussia to the empire's downfall in the age of the French Revolution.
Authoritative and accessible,The Holy Roman Empireis an incomparable introduction to this momentous period in the history of Europe.
Leibniz, der Höfling STOLLBERG-RILINGER, BARBARA
Studia Leibnitiana,
01/2022, Volume:
54, Issue:
2
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Leibniz's work is of an almost immeasurable scope and just as great variety. His legacy is one of the most extensive scholarly legacies anywhere. Editing this work appropriately is a mammoth task ...that can only be accomplished in cross-generational collaboration within the framework of academies such as the Berlin-Brandenburg and Lower Saxony academies, a task that demands an almost unbelievable level of expertise from the editors, and in every conceivable field. It is also a demanding, arduous task that is usually carried out very quietly and with the greatest precision, and whose immeasurable benefit for all possible fields of research is inversely proportional to the fuss that is usually made about it. This work deserves the greatest respect and gratitude. It is therefore a very special honor for me to have the opportunity, on the occasion of the recent publication of two further volumes of the Political Writings, to say a little about what this Academy edition means for my own work. In view of the awe-inspiring "cathedral" of this complete edition1, however, this is, to stay with the metaphor, only a tiny little stone. I am anything but a Leibniz specialist. I cannot in any way compete with the expertise of my fellow editors. I am therefore speaking as a beneficiary of their work, not as a Leibniz researcher.
Editorial Stollberg-Rilinger, Barbara
Der Staat,
01/2020, Volume:
59, Issue:
2
Journal Article
Das Verhältnis von wissenschaftlicher Expertise, Politik und Recht erfährt – im Jahr I nach Corona – eine nie dagewesene Aufmerksamkeit. Aber schon bevor die aktuelle Krise alle anderen Themen in den ...Hintergrund gedrängt hat, beschäftigte ein anderer Fall die deutsche Öffentlichkeit, der ein nicht minder interessantes Schlaglicht auf die Rolle wissenschaftlichen Expertentums wirft.
Grand, extravagant, magnificent, scandalous, corrupt, political, personal, fractious; these are terms often associated with the medieval and early modern courts. Moreover, the court constituted a ...forceful nexus in the social world, which was central to the legitimacy and authority of rulership. As such, courts shaped European politics and culture: architecture, art, fashion, patronage, and cultural exchanges were integral to the spectacle of European courts. Researchers have convincingly emphasised the public nature of courtly events, procedures, and ceremonies. Nevertheless, court life also involved pockets of privacy, which have yet to be systematically addressed. This edited collection addresses this lacuna and offers interpretations that urge us to reassesses the public nature of European courts. Thus, the proposed publication will fertilise the grounds for a discussion of the past and future of court studies. Indeed, the contributions make us reconsider present-day understandings of privacy as a stable and uncontestable notion.
PDF
