BOB2025MIOT

What did ‘religion’ mean for the Ancient Egyptians? Was the state involved in acting as a unifying and founding force for Egyptian religion or can we still identify some clashes between different religious practices? To what extent did different rituals, practices, and beliefs intersect and merge across time and space? Such questions have long preoccupied scholars working in the field, but they have often only been considered through the lens of official, ‘centralized’ texts. Yet increasingly, there is an acknowledgement that such texts require calibration from archaeological data in order to offer a more nuanced understanding of how people must have lived and worshipped.

The chapters gathered in the volume aim to offer a thorough exploration of Egyptian cultural and religious beliefs, and to explore how these impacted on other areas of daily life. Contributors explore the connection between religion and central power, the paradigms around burial and access to the afterlife, the interconnections between religion, demonology, magic, and medicine, and the impact of multicultural interaction on the religious landscape. What emerges from this discussion is an understanding that the only truly identifiable clash is that between modern, Eurocentric perspectives, and the views of the ancient Egyptians themselves.

Smallpox (known as "variole" or "petite vérole" in French) spread relentlessly across Europe during the eighteenth century, gaining an unprecedented and deadly momentum. While there was no cure for this highly infectious and often fatal disease, those that recovered from it were immune to future infections. This phenomenon was the origin of a practice of inoculation, whereby infectious material was introduced into the body to induce immunity. In Europe, this practice was initially experimented with in England, and it was subsequently adopted across the continent during the eighteenth century. Inoculation was, however, not without controversy—not least because the practice originated outside of Europe—and it became the subject of intense debate. This debate, this volume argues, extended beyond medical circles to include intellectuals and the broader public—a phenomenon driven by a growing periodical press. As books, scientific treatises, and plays crossed regional and national boundaries, debates on inoculation must, this volume shows, be examined within a European, transnational perspective, thereby considering how ideas were shaped by adaptation, translations, and citation. Doing so, this volume not only sheds new light on the history inoculation as a practice, but also illustrates how cultural history can enrich history of medicine

'Desnortar', or disoriented, means to lose the north or the sense of direction, to disorient. In Disoriented a collective book from a gender perspective, we consciously seek to lose both the geographical north and the north of the contemporary art canon. We aim to rethink and disrupt, from feminist, LGTBQ+ and postcolonial approaches, the coordinates that have articulated the discourses on the art history and art system along the 20th and 21st centuries. Coordinates that define how these artistic practices and systems of modernity and the contemporary are understood, the cardinal directions and main conceptual issues, or which artists are relevant or expendable according to the narratives of avant-garde and contemporary art history. It is crucial to reinterpret and disorientate, to disnorth and thereby shatter these references to overcome the gaps that prevent the emergence of alternative knowledges. To address questions or artists often perceived as peripheral to a grand historical narrative, we propose an intersection of modern and contemporary art history, gender, feminist, queer and postcolonial approaches, and transnational interrelations. This intersectionality allows us to actively lose the north of the canon and to direct our gaze towards subjects outside the usual centres of legitimation. Mostly, we attend to women artists, to peripheral geographical centres, to subaltern collectives, or to practices or materials regularly considered of little artistic interest.  All of the above critiques how conventional discourses have excluded some collectives or certain artistic proposals, and the resistances that have emerged against them.

The Nordic welfare state of the 20th century has been hailed around the world as a model of how to build democratic and egalitarian societies. It has often been described as a project of social democracy, often following a narrative of secularization and rationalization of society. However, some of the most important actors and ideas of the "Scandinavian Sonderweg" had their roots in Protestant, often Pietist and revivalist milieus that dreamed of creating an egalitarian community. The present volume explores these often forgotten roots in several case studies of phenomena from the seventeenth to the twenty-first century, focusing primarily on questioning the function of aesthetics in the creation of the welfare state model. We argue that aesthetics and what Friedrich Schiller called aesthetic education played an important, unifying role for Nordic societies. These aesthetics were shaped by Protestant ideas and practices. Through references to the then widespread circulation of educational texts based on Luther's catechism, the later pietistic catechism of Erik Pontoppidan, Nordic hymnbooks, and practices such as communal singing and preaching in church, church coffee, reading circles, and conventicle meetings, a common aesthetic language emerged that unified different social groups and their competing goals and claims. Civic actors and movements learned specific ways to engage in society, to develop practices of internalizing responsibility, (self)critique, and accountability, and to communicate and develop a more democratic modern civic sphere. We therefore propose to look at this history from the perspective of a historically changing aesthetic as an integrating principle for understanding the political, social, cultural, economic and many other aspects of the Nordic welfare state.

The complex and multifaceted religious phenomenon called Gnosticism continues to fascinate both specialists and the wider audience. This volume explores the “metamorphoses” of Gnosticism, through the analysis of selected examples. Late antique Gnostic groups and schools of thought developed and even changed their ideas when interacting with other religious groups and with various sources. Confrontation and polemics with the so-called “Great Church” and with other Christian groups were crucial to doctrinal elaboration of all parties involved. On a different side, one can trace the metamorphoses of Gnostic ideasthrough the centuries, as these ideas influenced, and were reinterpreted by, other religious and cultural traditions and currents, from Manichaeism to medieval dualistic movements, modern esotericism, and even contemporary literature.

The essays gathered in this volume focus on two main topics, namely how ancient Gnostic groups developed their doctrines by interpreting and reworking their wide range of sources (Jewish, early Christian, Platonic ones, etc.), and how ancient Gnostic ideas and motifs survived – with new forms – in later philosophical, religious, and literary works, up to the twentieth century.

The volume consists of three sections, the first being dedicated to early anti-Gnostic controversy in texts embedding Jewish-Christian and Petrine traditions and using Gnostic motifs for polemical purposes; the second to some treatises from the Nag Hammadi corpus and other Gnostic manuscripts (plus Epiphanius’ Panarion) so as to provide fresh insights into late antique Gnostic texts and groups; and the third to three case studies of the modern reception and reworking of Gnostic writings and ideas.

In the early modern period, Poland–Lithuania stood as a realm where the echoes of a storied past intertwined with the ambitions of a dynamic present. This volume illuminates how its diverse populace navigated the complexities of their shared heritage, weaving tradition with innovation to craft a uniquely multi-layered identity. The essays presented here examine the dual nature of historical inheritance in this vast polity. On the one hand, the past served as a treasure trove of enduring ideas, compelling narratives, and time-tested practices that enriched cultural and political life. On the other, it posed formidable challenges, requiring creative adaptation to meet the demands of changing times. By exploring established narratives, performative traditions, and historical frameworks, the contributors uncover the intricate ways in which memory influenced decision-making and societal evolution. They reveal how the past was neither static nor simply an obstacle, but was an active force that shaped contemporary aspirations and inspired visions of the future. Through the lenses of rulers, nobles, intellectuals, and commoners, this collection offers fresh perspectives on how the people of Poland–Lithuania harnessed the power of history to craft a legacy that transcended their era. Essential reading for scholars and enthusiasts alike, this work examines the enduring dialogue between memory and identity in one of Europe’s most compelling early modern states.

Our modern notions of privacy have their roots in the early modern period. When studying this historical background, one of the most important sources is correspondence. Letters sent from one person to another reflect specific situations, ideas, thoughts, emotions, and experiences. Contextualizing an epistolary exchange provides information about the world and values of past individuals.

This volume presents essays that deal with a variety of early modern correspondence. The letters analysed, written in French, Dutch, German, and English, speak to very different contexts and cultural codes. While each of the letters in question has its own unique story to tell, all contributions come together by focusing on notions of privacy. From the intimacy that unfolds in educational exchanges to specific letter-writers and their strategic use of the private, this volume offers ground-breaking insights that will be relevant to many different researchers and their respective fields: the history of science, the history of Christianity, the history of travel writing and education, gender studies, and the history of diplomacy. In addition, the contributions also tackle the issue of publishing letters in the early modern period, both as a cultural phenomenon and as a material praxis.

Together, the essays show how ‘privacy’ was an ambiguous term in the early modern period; the letter as literary genre and a means of communication demonstrates how privacy was perceived both as valuable and as a potential threat.

The opening of the different Vatican Archives for the pontificate of Pius XII (1939-1958) in March 2020 sparked the interest of scholars across different disciplines worldwide. It invigorated tendencies to revisit the history of the 1940s and 1950s beyond the established narratives and sources, and nourished hopes to address both longstanding and emerging questions, and to discover innovative themes and approaches. Three years after the opening of these archives, a multidisciplinary group of scholars from Belgium and the Netherlands convened at a scientific conference in Rome, organized by the editors of this volume, to study the impact of the archival access on diverse research domains. This publication presents new research based on documentation unearthed in the Vatican archives, spanning both the Second World War and the postwar period and challenges existing scholarship not only on the history of the Catholic Church, but also on broader themes in the Low Countries.

The XVI International Numismatic Congress, held in Warsaw, Poland, in September 2022, was a landmark event, drawing the largest number of participants in its history. With over 550 papers presented during thematic sessions and round tables, this congress showcased the latest advancements and research in the field of numismatics from leading experts and scholars in their field.

A curated selection of papers from the conference have now been drawn together into peer-reviewed conference proceedings, representing a comprehensive spectrum of numismatic studies from antiquity to modern times. Each paper is meticulously illustrated with high-quality images, often of unique specimens, along with detailed diagrams, maps, and die/typological chains. Topics covered include coins and coin finds, medals, tokens, banknotes, the history of collections and collecting, and cutting-edge chemical analyses and technologies used in coin examination.

This volume, the second in four thematic volumes, focuses on Roman coinage. Divided into two separate volumes, covering respectively forty-three chapters on coinage and forty-one on circulation, the contributions gathered here explore not only Rome and the imperial mints, but also local phenomena from Spain to Asia Minor, including graffiti, imitations, and copies of Roman coinage.