The Emperor's Old Clothes

Barbara Stollberg-Rilinger

ISBN 10: 1782388052 / ISBN 13: 9781782388050

Published by Berghahn Books, GB, 2015

About this Item

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.

Seller Inventory # LU-9781782388050

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Emperor's Old Clothes
• Publisher: Berghahn Books, GB
• Publication Date: 2015
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1782388052
• ISBN 13: 9781782388050
• Binding: Hardback
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

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.

About the Author

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.