Affectionate Authorities

Situated at the intersection of social and cultural history the study draws upon late-medieval and early-modern sources from the city of Basel Switzerland in order to provide a nuanced view of concepts of fatherhood on the eve of the Reformation. It focuses on how people invoked ideas about fatherhood in the pursuit of various goals - not only the ideological agendas of scholarly elites but also the more pragmatic problems of closing a business deal claiming an inheritance or choosing sides in a fistfight.