This collection of interdisciplinary essays introduce the history and culture of the lands ruled by the sovereign house of Savoy during the late medieval and early modern periods, territories now part of France, Italy, and Switzerland. Because the Sabaudian realms were geographically, linguistically, and culturally diverse and did not evolve into a single modern nation-state, their early history has been overlooked by historians whose perspectives were often informed by a narrow, national framework. An international team of scholars offers new research that de-provincializes many of the existing rich scholarly assessments of the historical significance of these lands, which were important for rulers and subjects throughout early modern Europe. The volume explores the concept of “Sabaudian studies” and identifies historiographic developments and current trends in the field. Beginning with the geography and the history of the area, the essays examine Sabaudian political culture (diplomatic practice, judicial institutions, and political thought), dynastic representation (court festivals and celebrations, and the projection of dynastic prestige abroad, with attention to the sacred heritage of the house), and territorial domination (its fiscal, religious, feudal, and composite dimensions). Contributors include Eva Pibiri, Laurent Perrillat, Rebecca Boone, Alessandro Celi, Thalia Brero, Stéphane Gal and Preston Perluss, Michel Merle, Toby Osborne, Kristine Kolrud, Guido Alfani, Marco Battistoni, Matthew Vester, and Blythe Alice Raviola.

This collection of interdisciplinary essays introduce the history and culture of the lands ruled by the sovereign house of Savoy during the late medieval and early modern periods, territories now part of France, Italy, and Switzerland. Because the Sabaudian realms were geographically, linguistically, and culturally diverse and did not evolve into a single modern nation-state, their early history has been overlooked by historians whose perspectives were often informed by a narrow, national framework. An international team of scholars offers new research that de-provincializes many of the existing rich scholarly assessments of the historical significance of these lands, which were important for rulers and subjects throughout early modern Europe. The volume explores the concept of “Sabaudian studies” and identifies historiographic developments and current trends in the field. Beginning with the geography and the history of the area, the essays examine Sabaudian political culture (diplomatic practice, judicial institutions, and political thought), dynastic representation (court festivals and celebrations, and the projection of dynastic prestige abroad, with attention to the sacred heritage of the house), and territorial domination (its fiscal, religious, feudal, and composite dimensions). Contributors include Eva Pibiri, Laurent Perrillat, Rebecca Boone, Alessandro Celi, Thalia Brero, Stéphane Gal and Preston Perluss, Michel Merle, Toby Osborne, Kristine Kolrud, Guido Alfani, Marco Battistoni, Matthew Vester, and Blythe Alice Raviola.

This collection of interdisciplinary essays introduce the history and culture of the lands ruled by the sovereign house of Savoy during the late medieval and early modern periods, territories now part of France, Italy, and Switzerland. Because the Sabaudian realms were geographically, linguistically, and culturally diverse and did not evolve into a single modern nation-state, their early history has been overlooked by historians whose perspectives were often informed by a narrow, national framework. An international team of scholars offers new research that de-provincializes many of the existing rich scholarly assessments of the historical significance of these lands, which were important for rulers and subjects throughout early modern Europe. The volume explores the concept of "Sabaudian studies" and identifies historiographic developments and current trends in the field. Beginning with the geography and the history of the area, the essays examine Sabaudian political culture (diplomatic practice, judicial institutions, and political thought), dynastic representation (court festivals and celebrations, and the projection of dynastic prestige abroad, with attention to the sacred heritage of the house), and territorial domination (its fiscal, religious, feudal, and composite dimensions). Contributors include Eva Pibiri, Laurent Perrillat, Rebecca Boone, Alessandro Celi, Thalia Brero, Stéphane Gal and Preston Perluss, Michel Merle, Toby Osborne, Kristine Kolrud, Guido Alfani, Marco Battistoni, Matthew Vester, and Blythe Alice Raviola.

A description of the course of the Protestant Reformation in the city of Geneva from the 16th to the 18th centuries.

Economic Growth and the Origins of Modern Political Economy addresses the intellectual foundations of modern economic growth and European industrialization. Through an examination both of the roots of European industrialization and of the history of economic ideas, this book presents a uniquely broad examination of the origins of modern political economy. This volume asks what can we learn from ‘old’ theories in terms of our understanding of history, our economic fate today, and the prospects for the modern world’s poorest countries. Spanning across the past five hundred years, this book brings together leading international contributors offering comparative perspectives with countries outside of Europe in order to place the evolution of modern economic knowledge into a broader reference framework. It integrates economic discourse and the intellectual history of political economy with more empirical studies in economic history and the history of science. In doing so, this innovative volume presents a coherent and innovative new strategy towards a reconfiguration of the history of modern political economy. This book is suitable for those who study history of economic thought, economic history or European history.

Much of early-modern Europe was built up gradually by a series of leagues and alliances, and this volume seeks to demonstrate that the Swiss Confederation was one such composite polity, surviving until the end of the ancien regime by accommodating and absorbing internal conflicts through a sense of common identity and mutual obligation.

This is the most in-depth analysis of inequality and social polarization ever attempted for a preindustrial society. Using data from the archives of the Venetian Terraferma, and compared with information available for elsewhere in Europe, Guido Alfani and Matteo Di Tullio demonstrate that the rise of the fiscal-military state served to increase economic inequality in the early modern period. Preindustrial fiscal systems tended to be regressive in nature, and increased post-tax inequality compared to pre-tax - in contrast to what we would assume is the case in contemporary societies. This led to greater and greater disparities in wealth, which were made worse still as taxes were collected almost entirely to fund war and defence rather than social welfare. Though focused on Old Regime Europe, Alfani and Di Tullio's findings speak to contemporary debates about the roots of inequality and social stratification.