A History of Private Life, Volume III, Passions of the Renaissance

A History of Private Life #3

by Roger Chartier (Editor), Philippe Ariès (General Editor), Georges Duby (General Editor)

This third in the popular five-volume series celebrates the emergence of individualism and the manifestations of a brugeoning self-consciousness. It explores the Renaissance era which was characterized by an upsurge in private writings and a new concentration of the self in literature and art.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Renaissance, Historical, European History, Reference, Social Science

655 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1986

About the author

Roger Chartier is a French historian and historiographer who is part of the Annales school. He works on the history of books, publishing and reading. He teaches at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris, the Collège de France, and the University of Pennsylvania.

Reviews

[Naia Pard · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was really something else. I should have started with the first book in the series but it is quite a hard to find, even in better circumstances (than a frecking pandemic).

It is preoccupied by the Renaissance and the Enlightenment and how those periods helped the concept of privacy develop into what has become today. It may have stemmed from the way politics were done (figures!).

They followed the evolution of certain laws that gradually introduced in their vernacular concepts that entailed property-privatization—(and more than that) the self. The individual became a thing .

One was represented by his own deeds and actions and not so much by his community (that is a crass simplification because people still identified with a community- for example their recognized themselves as Catholics, but they started being more weary of those with which they made contact—you were no longer able to just stroll in one`s courtyard and expect lodging over night and/or food).

Another factor is the growing alphabetization of the population (this book is a study based on the French society-history), but do not imagine that those numbers were sky rocketing to the level of the current statistics. They are talking of people able to sign themselves (and that did not necessarily mean that they could write if they could read).

If you find yourself in need of a non-fiction that is both pleasantly read and at the same time quite informative this may be it.

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[Cat · Rating 3 out of 5]

And now volume three. My reviews of the first two books in this series have garnered a fat total of 0 votes, positive or negative, so I'll make this review brief.

This book charts the transistion from the middle ages to the beginnings of the modern period. In the introduction by Aries (who's scholarship is the inspiration for this project), he makes a claim that this time period deserves to be treated as a seperate "early modern" period. It's a noble thought, but the book reads more like one would expect: a lot of the middle ages and a little of modernity, but a lack of the coherence that one sees in volumes I, II and IV.

The authors are mostly concerned with discussing two (seemingly)contradictory trends: the attempt by families to develop "private space" and the attempt by the state to intrude on that private space. Chapter two deals mostly with the first statement, chapter three with the second.

You have to keep an open mind with the Annales school of scholarship. The writers favor open ended generalizations to conclusive statements and are just as interested in providing ideas for further study as they are in answering questions.

[Alys · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are no dates on the photographs of extant items, which made it quite difficult to place the items in a clearer historical reference. I found that I googled most photos, then scribbled in their dates and original locations on post-its left in the margins. Italian renaissance does not equal French renaissance does not equal English renaissance, etc. Otherwise, quite useful.

[Laurel Kristick · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the best volume of the 3 I've read. I found interesting parallels between the young men of the chirivari and the Taliban in one section. Also, it was interesting to read how reading as changed over the centuries.

[Meredith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loses one full star for the pictures not being dated. Frustrating. Otherwise excellent.

[Moloch · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lettura interrotta temporaneamente (causa vacanze) e ora finalmente terminata! :-)

Onestamente, all'inizio, stavo cominciando a pensare che i casi fossero due: o stavo diventando scema io, il che era anche possibile, o qualcuno, nella fattispecie lo storico Yves Castan o il traduttore Francesco Maiello, non sapeva fare il suo lavoro, perché del primo capitolo, scritto dall'uno e tradotto dall'altro, non ho capito assolutamente nulla. Che questi libri, dietro l'apparenza di una confezione impeccabile, nascondessero qualche magagna (quanto meno nell'edizione italiana), me ne ero resa conto già dai primi due volumi, e me lo ha confermato trovare un fantomatico "Monsieur, principe di" nell'Indice dei nomi (!). Però stavolta mi sono dovuta ricredere, almeno parzialmente, e ho fatto una piacevole lettura. Con questo tipo di opere è inevitabile imbattersi in contributi più o meno interessanti, ben scritti, pertinenti al tema generale: qui, ottimi e chiari quelli sull'influenza delle Riforme protestante e cattolica nella definizione di uno spazio di devozione individuale e privato, di François Lebrun, sulle nuove pratiche di scrittura e lettura individuali, di Roger Chartier, sull'importanza del galateo in società e a tavola, di Jacques Revel e di Jean-Louis Flandrin, sulla diversa considerazione data all'infanzia, di Jacques Gélis, sull'evoluzione della struttura delle abitazioni, di Alain Collomp, sul controllo sulla vita privata degli individui esercitato dalla comunità di villaggio, di Daniel Fabre. Come si intuisce anche da questi nomi di autori citati, la Francia rimane, in pratica, l'unico campo di indagine esaminato, ma stavolta i curatori del volume (P. Ariès e R. Chartier) non solo si rendono perfettamente conto di questo sbilanciamento, ma ne sanno dare anche una giustificazione condivisibile. Bellissimo, al solito, l'apparato iconografico.

3,5/5

http://moloch981.wordpress.com/2010/1...

[Noelle M · Rating 5 out of 5]

Overwhelming discussions about the shifting western social tides from the dominant value of the community to the dominant value of the individual who is recognizable when we look in a mirror. We begin to see ourselves and our society emerging from a long period in which individual worth was of minor worth to society. This is the period in which the American Revolution finally erupted to legally clear the way for individuals to exist, and the French Revolution hammered the coffin shut on "organic" social organization. The results of the two revolts are interesting to say the least.

[Harald · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another impossible book project. How did ordinary people live, think, and feel in the period between the Reformation and the French Revolution? The chapter that appealed to me the most dealt with reading and writing in several European countries. Two very different activities evidently. The book is otherwise very focused on France with side glances to other countries.

Egentlig et umulig prosjekt. Hvordan levde, tenkte og følte alminnelige vesteuropeere i tida mellom reformasjonen og den franske revolusjonen? Boka er skrevet av historikere med stor vekt på levevilkår, familieliv og tenkesett i Frankrike med noen sideblikk til andre land. Kapitlet som begeistret meg mest handler om lesing og skriving i flere europeiske land, inkludert Sverige og Danmark. Det er høyst ulike aktiviteter viser det seg. Vittig og opplysende skrevet. Så får en heller gjette seg til eller lese andre steder om nordmennenes privatliv i den samme perioden fra 1517 til 1800.

[Pinko Palest · Rating 2 out of 5]

the French are brilliant at doing history, though some times french historians tend to base themselves on higher culture a bit too exclusively. Likewise here: very interesting facts about the heights of society, but not too much about everybody else, while all the conclusions, and there are a lot of these, only really apply to those at the apex and not to anybody else

[Victor Hernández A. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un libro bastante basto y bastante nutrido de información, sin embargo tiende a volverse muy soso.

Es muy complicado seguirle el hilo cuando cambia de ritmo tantas veces y cuando ya hace sub capítulos prácticamente por cualquier cosa y repite temas para ampliarlos.


Pese a todo ello muy interesante y educativo

[Sam · Rating 4 out of 5]

A mix of essays. An interesting one about charivari mocking ceremonies: gangs of young men used to harass people getting married, violators of sexual taboos, & others, often demanding payment to stop. The church & government eventually suppressed this.

[Jonathan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mostly focused on France, but with surprising and intriguing details about changes in private life between the medieval and the modern.

[Fiona Montgomery · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not my cup of tea; very true to the title and not exploring into the backgrounds of more known artists like I was hoping.

[JP · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it. Like reading someone’s diary, but from 300 years ago.

[Margot · Rating 4 out of 5]

Though at first the structure of the book a little disoriented me, the easy manner in which the topics of the changes in collective consciousness are addressed in intimate essay format, touching upon a variety of ingenious topics was very interesting and revealed so many details and concepts that i did not know about and had not occured to me, so that it was indeed quite fascinating. This book can also be read non serially.

[Elizabeth]

Passions of the Renaissance (A History of Private Life, #3)
by Philippe Ariès (Editor)





from the library

[Sherwood Smith]

Like the earlier volume, this makes good general reading, with an excellent bibliography.