Rethinking the work ethic in premodern Europe / Gábor Almási, Giorgio Lizzul, editors.
Almási, Gábor, editor.; Lizzul, Giorgio, editor.
2023
HD8375 .R48 2023
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Title
Rethinking the work ethic in premodern Europe / Gábor Almási, Giorgio Lizzul, editors.
ISBN
9783031380921 electronic book
3031380924 electronic book
3031380916
9783031380914
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-38092-1
Published
Cham, Switzerland : Palgrave Macmillan, [2023]
Language
English
Description
1 online resource (x, 336 pages) : illustrations (some color)
Item Number
10.1007/978-3-031-38092-1 doi
Call Number
HD8375 .R48 2023
Dewey Decimal Classification
306.3/613
Summary
This book is an excellent and highly welcome contribution to the history of the work ethic, as it reveals both surprising continuities and profound historical variations in the long-term assessment of work. Josef Ehmer, Professor Emeritus of History, University of Vienna, Austria These masterful essays recover a multi-faceted discourse of work in European thought cutting across genres, confessions, geo-political borders, and occupational groups. Among this volumes many points of interest, the early forms of workaholism traced here have profound contemporary relevance. Sarah Gwyneth Ross, Professor of History, Boston College, USA This book investigates how work ethics in Europe were conceptualised from the Middle Ages to the nineteenth century. Through analysis of a range of discourses, it focuses on the roles played by intellectuals in formulating, communicating, and contesting ideas about work and its ethical value. The book moves away from the idea of a singular Weberian work ethic as fundamental to modern notions of work and instead emphasises how different languages of work were harnessed for a variety of social, intellectual, religious, economic, political, and ideological objectives. Rather than a singular work ethic that left a decisive mark on the development of Western culture and economy, the volume stresses plurality. The essays draw on approaches from intellectual, social, and cultural history. They explore how, why, and in what contexts labour became an important and openly promoted value; who promoted or opposed hard work and for what reasons; and whether there was an early modern break with ancient and medieval discourses on work. These historicized visions of work ethics help enrich our understanding of present-day changing attitudes to work. Gbor Almsi is Senior Researcher of the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Neo Latin Studies, Innsbruck, Austria. Giorgio Lizzul is Post-doctoral Junior Fellow at the Fondazione 1563, Turin, and Visiting Scholar at the Universit di Torino, Italy.
Note
Includes index.
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Access limited to authorized users.
Source of Description
Description based on online resource; title from digital title page (viewed on December 07, 2023).
Added Author
Almási, Gábor, editor.
Lizzul, Giorgio, editor.
Available in Other Form
Rethinking the Work Ethic in Premodern Europe
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Intro
Acknowledgements
Contents
List of Contributors
1 Introduction: Rethinking Work Ethics
Weber and the Work Ethic
The Problem of Sources
The Meaning of Work
Interpreting Discourses of Work
Religion and Work Ethics
Ideology
Social Legitimation and Critique
Political Economy
Discipline
2 The Work Ethic in Renaissance Florence: A Study of Its Origins
From Ambivalence to Accommodation
The Work Ethic in Fourteenth-Century Florence: The Silence of the Sources
The Work Ethic of Fifteenth-Century Merchant Humanists
Conclusions

3 Preaching About Manual/Artisanal Labour: A New Focus and Ambivalent Messages (1200-1500)
A New Focus on Work
A Proprium for Every Human Being
The Redemptive Value of Work
The Perils of Manual Labour
An Ambivalent Message: The Role of Intention
4 Industry, Utility, and the Distribution of Wealth in Quattrocento Humanist Thought
The Industrious City
Profit and the Common Good
Wealth and Virtue
Matteo Palmieri and the vita civile
Education, industria, and Virtue
Utilità and Property
Civil Justice and Fiscality
Conclusion

5 Work, Morality, and Discipline in Sixteenth-Century Geneva
Calvin and Work
The Work of Moral Discipline
Efforts to Reform Clothing and Appearance
Conclusion
6 Critical Responses to the Humanist Work Ethic: The Image of the Pedant
Style Over Substance: Erasmus Against Purism
Quantity Over Quality: Montaigne Against Useless Knowledge
Criticism from Outside: The Caricature of the Pedant
Deflating Pretensions
Exposing Vanity
Conclusion
7 Scholars Working Themselves to Death: Casaubon and Baronio Compared
Isaac Casaubon (1559-1614)
Cesare Baronio (1538-1607)

Concluding Observations
8 Work and Idleness in Adam Contzen's Political Oeuvre
Otium in the courtier's Mirror Daniel
Promoting Work from the Perspective of Economic Policy in the Politica
The Industriousness and Diligence of the Prince
Conclusion
9 The Counter-Reformation Concept of Good Labour and the Inculcation of a Catholic Work Ethic
Petrus Loycx: A Hard-Working Priest's Views on Good and Bad Work
A Static "Sociology" of Labour
The Jesuits: Towards a More Radical Work Ethic
Conclusion
10 Labour as a Form of Charity and Almsgiving in Early Modern Poor Relief

Putting the Poor to Work: Ancient Sources and New Meanings
"A Charitable Medicine:" Employing the Poor in Muratori's Della Carità Cristiana
"Almost for Charity:" The Roman Ospizio Apostolico and Its Opponents
Conclusion
11 Enlightened Women at Work: The Case of Marie-Anne Paulze-Lavoisier (1770s-1790s)
Working and Playing
Amusing Chemistry
A Pleasant Revolution?
Conclusions
12 Labor Ipse Voluptas: Virtues of Work in Nineteenth-Century Germany
Human Interest Stories
Time-Honored Repertoires
Nostalgia-Or Not?
A Man of Genius
A Religion of Work
Conclusion
Index.

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