Acquiring Hebrew books was a common practice among Christian humanists. More surprising, perhaps, is that a large group of Hebrew manuscripts was produced for a Christian library. A Jewish scribal workshop organized by Johann Jakob Fugger (1516–75) in Venice—here analyzed for the first time—is one of the rarest examples of this phenomenon that emerged out of Renaissance book culture. To understand Fugger’s extensive bibliophilic enterprise, this essay examines the circulation and dissemination of Hebrew texts from the Jewish bookshelf among Christians, the relationships between Christian patrons and Jewish scribes, and the role of manuscripts as agents of print and as objects of collecting.

Morisco children captured during the Granadan war of 1568–70, known as the Second War of the Alpujarras, could attain legal but limited freedom in accordance with Philip II’s 1572 law against the enslavement of Morisco minors. Those manumitted were meant to remain servants in Old Christian households until the age of majority. The Spanish monarchy recognized the political value of controlling children. Aiming to turn the children of Morisco rebels into proper Christian subjects, the king authorized and facilitated their liberation as part of a larger project of Morisco conversion. Granadan Moriscos worked within the law in pursuit of liberation, yet took action to reunite families separated by slavery and deportation when possible.

The Parisian Pierre de L’Estoile was an obsessive compiler of politically motivated, obscene ephemera during the reign of King Henri III (r. 1574–89). This article explores how and why L’Estoile kept on adding to a vast archive of “vilain” (“vile”) materials that he purportedly despised. Examining L’Estoile’s manuscripts at close quarters, the article traces a complex practice of censure and self-censorship alongside similar practices by contemporary writers (Henri Estienne and Pierre de Brantôme). L’Estoile’s contribution to the history of sexuality is that of a self-aware critic, legitimating his compulsion to disavow the obscenities he chose to preserve.

This article provides one of the first studies of two late works by George Chapman, “Pro Vere” (1622) and “A iustification of a strange action of Nero” (1629). Through a close examination of these works, and through situating Chapman’s texts alongside other neglected works of the 1620s that voiced opposition to the Stuart court and kings, the article examines the critical and subversive role that classical history and gendered language played in forging ideological conflict in England during the Stuart period. More broadly, the article seeks to demonstrate the importance of studying imaginative writings for understanding Stuart political culture.

Equestrian ballet was a spectacular genre of musical theater popular in the Baroque court. A phenomenon with military roots, the ballet communicated both the might and grace of its organizers, who often played starring roles. This essay explores the ballet’s centrality by tracing the itinerant opera singer and writer Margherita Costa’s use of the genre as a means of securing elite patronage: from an elegant manuscript libretto presented to Grand Duke Ferdinando II de’ Medici and later revised in print for Cardinal Jules Mazarin in Paris, to occasional poetry written for the Barberini in Rome, and even burlesque caricatures.