The Emperor's Old Clothes

Constitutional History and the Symbolic Language of the Holy Roman Empire
1. Auflage 2015
ISBN: 978-1-78238-805-0
Verlag: Berghahn Books

Buch, Englisch, Band 10, 356 Seiten, Format (B × H): 157 mm x 235 mm, Gewicht: 650 g

Reihe: Spektrum: Publications of the German Studies Association

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.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Stollberg-Rilinger, Barbara

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Kultur- und Ideengeschichte
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politische Kultur
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Europäische Geschichte
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politikwissenschaft Allgemein Politische Geschichte

Inhaltsverzeichnis

List of Illustrations

Acknowledgements

Abbreviations

Introduction

Chapter 1. Creation and Depiction of the Empire: Worms, 1495

Chapter 2. Cleavage of the Sacral Community: Augsburg, 1530

Chapter 3. More Strife than Ever Before: Regensburg, 1653/54

Chapter 4. Parallel Worlds: Frankfurt-Regensburg-Vienna, 1764/65

Conclusion: The Symbolic Logic of the Empire

Bibliography

Index

Über Autor(innen)

Stollberg-Rilinger, Barbara
Barbara Stollberg-Rilinger is rector of the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin/Institute for Advanced Study and Professor of Early Modern History at the University of Münster. She is the author of Das Heilige Römische Reich Deutscher Nation: Vom Ende des Mittelalters bis 1806 (2009), Europa im Jahrhundert der Aufklärung (2000), and Rituale (2013). Her most recent book is Maria Theresia: Die Kaiserin in ihrer Zeit. Eine Biographie (C.H. Beck, Munich 2017); forthcoming English translation: Maria Theresa: The Empress in Her Time. A Biography (Princeton University Press, 2020). In 2005 she received the prestigious Leibniz Prize of the German Science Foundation, in 2003 the Prize of the Historical Collegium of the Bavarian Academy of Science.