Dissimulation and Deceit in Early Modern Europe - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1137447486 ISBN 13: 9781137447487

Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015

Synopsis

A Luso-Malay cosmographer who claimed to have discovered Ophir, a Franciscan friar who headed a delegation of shabby fraudulent emissaries from the Orient, a Dominican tertiary's confirmed stigmata eventually revealed as fraud but later venerated again as saintly, a Jewish convert who was suspected of both demonic possession and of feigned sanctity, poor folk who survived by converting time and again in order to enjoy the benefits accorded to neophytes, religious chameleons who adapted themselves to the surroundings in which they found themselves, and a number of possessed girls - these are some of the figures re-enacting their charade in the pages of this volume.
Twelve distinguished scholars analyse categories and individual cases of imposture in the age of geographical discoveries, of debates over the category of sanctity, and of forced conversions, thus offering a more nuanced understanding of the meaning of identity and pretence, truth and falsehood, in early modern Europe.

About this title

Review:

“The volume under review groups eleven studies, most of which were originally presented as contributions to an international conference held at Tel Aviv University in 2012. ... its reader has gained a view of a surprisingly wide panorama of deceit cases, and thus been given a broad insight into the history of early modern dissimulation as such.” (Benedek Láng, Magic, Ritual, and Witchcraft, Vol. 12 (1), 2017)

“This volume is a true milestone in tracing, mapping, and conceptualizing the culture of lying and dissimulation in the premodern era. ... This seminal book will be of enormous value and interest not only to early modernists but also to intellectual and religious historians in general.” (Maria Ivanova, The Catholic Historical Review, Vol. 102 (4), 2016)

About the Author:

Professor (Emerita) Miriam Eliav-Feldon taught early modern history at Tel Aviv University, Israel, for several decades and served as Chairperson of its history department in the years 1996-2000. Her publications include several books and many articles in Hebrew, English and French, on Renaissance utopias, pacifism and peace plans, origins of racism and invented identities.

Tamar Herzig is Associate Professor of early modern history at Tel Aviv University, Israel, where she also serves as Director of the Morris E. Curiel Institute for European Studies. Her publications include Savonarola's Women: Visions and Reform in Renaissance Italy (2008; published in Italian 2014) and 'Christ Transformed into a Virgin Woman': Lucia Brocadelli, Heinrich Institoris, and the Defense of the Faith (2013), as well as numerous articles.

About this edition

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 1137447486
• ISBN 13: 9781137447487
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 262
• Editor: Eliav-Feldon Miriam, Herzig Tamar