Durocher’s Ancient Ethnostate

The Ancient Ethnostate: Biopolitical Thought in Classical Greece by Guillaume Durocher (Kindle Direct Publishing Edition 2021, currently only available as paperback via Amazon) examines ancient Greek authors, from Homer to Aristotle, regarding their ethics and customs concerning biological and cultural relationships: whether families and clans, city-states with their colonies, or the entire Greek nation. Highly … Continue reading “Durocher’s Ancient Ethnostate”

Luttwak’s Strategy: The Logic of War and Peace

Some years ago I reviewed Edward N. Luttwak’s The Grand Strategy of the Roman Empire and its Byzantine Empire sequel. In-between these two books, Luttwak published a theoretical rather than purely historical work entitled Strategy: The Logic of War and Peace (The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press 1987; revised and enlarged edition 2001). Here … Continue reading “Luttwak’s Strategy: The Logic of War and Peace”

Biagioli’s Galileo, Courtier

Mario Biagioli’s Galileo, Courtier (University of Chicago Press 1993, paperback 1994, ISBN 0–226–04560–9) examines the major stations of Galileo Galilei’s career in the context of the contemporary courtly society, and especially its patronage system. Clocking in at over 500 pages in the German translation I read (an accidental bookstore discovery), the writing is somewhat long-winded … Continue reading “Biagioli’s Galileo, Courtier”

Martin Luther’s Bible Translation

In my last post on Really Old German from the book Sternstunden I remarked in closing that the chapter on Martin Luther shouldn’t bring any big surprises. Turns out I was wrong. I expected some excerpts from his famous translation of the New Testament but instead this chapter contains Luther’s comments on his translation, cited … Continue reading “Martin Luther’s Bible Translation”

Really Old German

If you’re interested highlights of historical German literature there is one very excellent book,“Sternstunden: Große Texte deutscher Sprache,” by Josef Kraus and Walter Krämer, IFB Verlag Deutsche Sprache GmbH, ISBN 978-3-942409-74-2. Most of it covers relatively modern German texts but the most interesting parts, as far as I am concerned, are the two most ancient … Continue reading “Really Old German”

The Holy Roman Empire

The Holy Roman Empire: A Thousand Years of Europe’s History by Peter H. Wilson (Penguin Books 2017, ISBN 978-0-141-04747-8) is an astonishing thousand-page tome of which about 300 pages are devoted to maps, color plates, family trees, chronology, glossary, and an enormous index. I’m not aware of anyone doubting the thoroughness or scholarly quality of … Continue reading “The Holy Roman Empire”

Samurai Helmets

Munich’s Kunsthalle is currently showing selected pieces from Ann and Gabriel Barbier-Mueller’s Samurai Collection in Dallas, Texas. The selection includes armor and weapons as well as household items, but I was most impressed by the numerous helmets. Their design is often unique and highly elaborate, much more so than in medieval Europe. So here is … Continue reading “Samurai Helmets”

Forgotten Baroque Music

Europe’s era of baroque music (ca. 1600–1750) comprises most of the oldest historical compositions still widely played today, with some notable exceptions such as medieval church chorals and renaissance lutists. Everyone at all interested in the subject knows the baroque grandmasters: Claudio Monteverdi (1567–1643), Heinrich Schütz (1585–1672), Arcangelo Corelli (1653–1713), Antonio Vivaldi (1678–1741), Georg Philipp … Continue reading “Forgotten Baroque Music”

Augsburg Impressions

Augsburg (more information in German) is among the German cities with the oldest documented history of continuous settlement. Orginally founded in 15 AD as a Roman army camp, it developed into a provincial capital called Aelia Augusta and later Augusta Vindelic[or]um. The town appears to have remained fully populated throughout the later transition from Roman … Continue reading “Augsburg Impressions”

Some Windows Histories

For some reason, this year everyone decided to publish extensive articles on the history of Microsoft Windows and related technologies. Reading all of them will probably take you a month but they are quite informative, so I wanted to collect them here in case you missed some or all of them. Doing Windows at the … Continue reading “Some Windows Histories”