Ulinka Rublack

An interesting book. Mattheus Schwartz was a Renaissance dandy, working as an accountant for the Fuggers of Ausberg. He created a clothes-book, documenting various outfits he wore from birth to old age, and it was continued for a while by his younger son. In terms of social history, it is invaluable, but still only tells half the story; it documents his outfits, very rarely those of the women in his life.

This version of the clothes-book has the virtue of being in English, and has commentary on the various outfits, along with a pattern and reconstruction of one of the more flamboyant outfits. In terms of costs, the reconstruction is on a par with modern haute-couture! Admittedly, the reconstruction was using authentic materials (or as close as can be got with modern fabrics).

My quibble is with the layout; preserving the original layout and putting the commentary in a separate section with a thumbnail image made the book somewhat hard to read. For readability, having the image immediately followed by the commentary would have made far more sense. It would also have been nice to have included the pictorial references; not necessarily the full picture, a detail would have sufficed. Not everyone has access to the more obscure galleries. However, I suspect doing that would have made the cost and size of the book prohibitive; even for a paperback it’s unwieldy and heavy.

Recommended as a reference for historical clothing.… (más)

A readable work about the mother of the famed astronomer, Johannes Kepler (1571-1630), who was accused of witchcraft in Germany. In 1615, his 73 year old mother, Katharina Kepler was accused of bewitching several people in town, and over the next six years a continuing trial and imprisonment was challenged by her son. Later, after a year of imprisonment, she was threatened with torture to confess her crimes. Only Johannes and his siblings kept up a steady opposition to the governor's accusations and attempts to have his mother convicted of the crime.
This is an interesting account of witch trials in Protestant Germany at the start of the 17th century. There is an examination of the evidence, how it was interpreted, and how it was refuted by one of the better mathematical minds living in Europe at that time. Some of the 24 witnesses were deemed to be irrelevant, but enough were thought competent for the charges to be prosecuted. Kepler spent much of his time trying to refute the witnesses and write up a point by point rebuttal to the accusations, and then reply to the attack of his rebuttal by the prosecution. Finally, it was decided to scare her into confession, not by torture, but by pretending to have sentenced her to torture, and showing her the devices to be used to force her to confess, hoping the mere sight of the devices and descriptions of enhanced interrogation by the executioner will frighten her into revealing her crime.
Refusing to be intimidated, she was eventually released after 14 months locked to a chain in a cell, and she died six months later.
This is an interesting study of how a witch trial was conducted, the types of evidence and methods of defense used, and how a counter-suit of defamation was used to protect Katharina Kepler. Afterwards, she was hailed as a local heroine in Eltingen, and even Nazi Germany put up a statue in her honor. While promoted as an example of work and industriousness, her steadfast denial of the charge of witchcraft had helped end the persecution of women as witches in Germany as a whole.
A recommended book for libraries of astronomy, German history, witchcraft trials and women's studies. Also for individuals interested in any or all of these subjects.… (más)