Matheus Miller’s Memoir

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-ix

   PDF

2. Introduction

   • Thomas Max Safley

   Pages 1-19

3. Marriage and Patriarchy

   • Thomas Max Safley

   Pages 20-47

4. Public Office and the Public Sphere

   • Thomas Max Safley

   Pages 48-83

5. Sociability and Social Structure

   • Thomas Max Safley

   Pages 84-115

6. Death and Confession

   • Thomas Max Safley

   Pages 116-148

7. Conclusion

   • Thomas Max Safley

   Pages 149-157

8. Back Matter

   Pages 158-226

   PDF

This book reconstructs the worldview of a Lutheran merchant from the city of Augsburg in the seventeenth century. Miller's is a singular story. Though he lived through some of the great events of his age, he scarcely mentioned them. Though he was raised in the standard values of his age, he understood and applied them idiosyncratically. This is the story of one man's experience and perception based on his memoir and associated documents. Yet, despite its individual focus, the book explores universal institutions of early modern Europe: patriarchy, hierarchy, honor, community, and confession.

• Europe
• Index
• singular

"In Safley's skilled hands, Matheus's remarkable memoir enlivens our understanding of the experience of the German bourgeoisie..." - Gary K. Waite, Canadian Journal of History

"This well-written book presents an excellent picture of seventeenth-century life and one individual's "bourgeois values."" - History: Review of New Books

"...he shows a sensitive respect for the self-revealing honesty of this remarkable human document." - Sixteenth Century Journal

...[Safley's] intelligent and sensitive rendering of the ambivalences and complexities in his merchant of Augsburg.

-American Historical Review

• University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA

  Thomas Max Safley

Thomas Max Safley is Associate Professor of History at the University of Pennsylvania.

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