Body Self and Melancholy

<p>This book addresses early modern concepts of the body and the self – focussing on three self-narratives authored by the nobleman Osvaldo Ercole Trapp (1634–1710) a body description from head to foot autobiographical writings and a brief chronicle of the House of Trapp-Caldonazzo. </p><p>Approaching the complex theme of the question of the early modern self and the historical body this book intertwines consistent contextualisation and historicisation of self-interpretation and biography. This is done in three steps: first the content and function of these self-narratives are analysed with reference to current research on early modern self-narratives. In a second step the life and family history of Osvaldo Ercole Trapp are examined from a microhistorical perspective and placed within the context of the early modern history of Tyrol’s nobility. A third step then goes into detail on individual contexts and discourses that refine one’s comprehension of these self-narratives: noble masculinity; family house and line; theories of procreation and education; body experience and body images. It combines textual analysis historical anthropology with a strong gender-historical perspective microhistory and the history of the body as a history of experience and discourse. With this approach the study makes an innovative contribution to early modern studies on self-narratives social history of early modern nobility and the history of the body as the history of experience and discourse.</p><p>This volume will be of interest to students and scholars alike interested in intellectual social and cultural history.</p>