Renaissance National Husbandry: Gervase Markham and the Publication of England
Reading Gervase Markham's husbandry manuals, this essay argues for a "lowly" early modern conception of national identity that complemented the "high" georgic national myths promulgated by writers such as Edmund Spenser. In his numerous books on estate management, Markham ar...
Main Author: | |
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Format: | Electronic Article |
Language: | English |
Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
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Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
Published: |
Sixteenth Century Journal Publishers, Inc.
1996
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In: |
The sixteenth century journal
Year: 1996, Volume: 27, Issue: 3, Pages: 767-785 |
Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
Parallel Edition: | Non-electronic
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Summary: | Reading Gervase Markham's husbandry manuals, this essay argues for a "lowly" early modern conception of national identity that complemented the "high" georgic national myths promulgated by writers such as Edmund Spenser. In his numerous books on estate management, Markham argues that there is a natural national difference that renders English land and, therefore, its customs distinct from other countries. I argue that Markham's attempt to define a unique English agriculture is informed by three different phenomena: Markham's role as an author in a print marketplace in which he competed with foreign writers of agrarian guides, his use of print to model a new class readership united by nationality, and his insistence that "English thrift" informed his own process of compiling and organizing information. Markham's nationalizing of English husbandry shows us that particular formulations of national identity (that is, those based on land and territory) could be inflected by the material realities and the conceptual fictions of making books. |
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ISSN: | 2326-0726 |
Contains: | Enthalten in: The sixteenth century journal
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Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.2307/2544017 |