Urban Achievement in Early Modern Europe: Golden Ages in Antwerp, Amsterdam and London

by Edited by Patrick O'Brien , Derek Keene , Marjolein 't Hart , Herman van der Wee

• ISBN13: 9780521088879
• ISBN10: 0521088879
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-10-30
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

This innovative work in comparative urban history explores why outstanding achievements in material and intellectual culture in early modern Europe tended to cluster in certain maritime cities. Patrick O'Brien and his co-editors have assembled a team of eighteen distinguished historians from Belgium, the Netherlands, Britain, and North America, who have collaborated to make detailed comparisons of economic, architectural, artistic, publishing and scientific achievements in three renowned mercantile and imperial cities during their golden ages: Antwerp (c. 1492-1585), Amsterdam (c. 1585-1659) and London (c. 1660-1730). The book examines growth and fluctuations in the fortunes of all three cities in the context of broader trends in the growing urbanization of Europe's populations, cultures, societies and economies. The study is located in the histories of politics, warfare and culture in early modern Europe and offers fascinating insights to scholars and students of economic, social and cultural history.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Reflexions and mediations on three cities as sources and sites for achievement

Economic Growth and Demographic Change

Economies of Agglomeration and the Golden Age of Antwerp

Clusters of achievement: the economy of Amsterdam in its Golden Age

The economy of London, 1660-1730

Architecture and Urban Space

One of the largest cities in the low countries

One of the best fortified in Europe

The glorious city: monumentalism and public space in seventeenth century

Architecture and urban space in London

Fine and Decorative Arts

The fine and decorative arts in Antwerp's Golden Age

The rise of Amsterdam as a cultural centre: the market for paintings, 1580-1680

Cultural production and import substitution: the fine and decorative arts in London, 1660-1730

Books and Publishing

Antwerp: books, publishing and cultural production before 1585

Metropolis of print: the Amsterdam book trade in the seventeenth century

Printing, publishing and reading in London, 1660-1720

Scientific and Useful Knowledge

Science for sale: the metropolitan stimulus for scientific achievements in sixteenth century Antwerp

Amsterdam as a centre of Dutch learning in the Dutch Golden Age

Philosophers in the counting-houses: commerce, coffee-houses and experiment in early modern London

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