Jesuits (propaganda): * see EndNote<A>

The Jesuits are famous for their aggressive use of propaganda.  They pioneered a number of techniques many of which have since become mainstream.  The “retreat” is a practice still employed today, both in religion & secular society (e.g. training).  Education was another primary avenue the Jesuits employed.  Finally the Jesuits launched a missionary campaign not witnessed since the early Middle age. Jesuits went across the globe in search of converts. 

 

"progress,":

Until the 17th century most people in the West believed that the future would repeat the past.  Change was seen as occurring suddenly, radically, by supernatural intervention.  It usually meant things got worse.  For the Christian the only true hope was in salvation in the Afterlife.  Early in the 17th century the seeds of faith in “progress” is found in Francis Bacon (1561–1626) & René Descartes (1596- 1650), both spokesmen for science.  The received wisdom of Antiquity was challenged.  Descartes rejected out of hand appeals to Divine authority, as well as dismissing the seniority of the Ancient writers.  Pascal (1623–1662) a Frenchman struck a blow against received authority as well.  He replied to critics by claiming that an appeal to inherited authority had no force in the study of physics.  In the essay, Fragment d'un traité du vide, he stated: "The experiments which give us an understanding of nature multiply continually,…from whence it follows … that not only each man advances in the sciences day by day, but that all men together make continual progress in them as the universe grows older."  Progress gained even greater currency in the 18th century during the Enlightenment (in particular Voltaire).  These theories were further advanced by early 19th-century social theories, Auguste Comte & Herbert Spencer.

 

modern machine-technique: * see EndNote<B>

Machine technology is the backbone of modern manufacturing & industry.  It replaced labour intensive economies with mechanization (capital intensive) & was responsible for the exponential increase in productivity in manufacturing, farming & construction in the 19th century.  It began with the UK textiles industry.  This industry was the first to use modern production methods & became the dominant industry of the Industrial Revolution in terms of employment, value of output and capital invested.

 

credit economics: * see EndNote<C>

an economy in which credit rather than physical money (such as gold coins) becomes a primary component of economic activity.  It describes a transaction between a lender & a borrower, where the borrower promises to pay back the money plus interest in the future.  In the Faustian economy it is the chief element in allowing increases in spending, thereby increasing income levels.  In turn this leads to higher GDP & thereby faster productivity growth.  If credit is used to purchase productive resources, it aids growth & adds to income.  It also leads to the creation of debt cycles.  Banks are key in the credit economy because their primary business is providing loans in return for interest payments.  As the economy improves & as customers are more willing to spend, demand for credit grows.  This is advantageous for banks, as it leads to more loans being provided and an increase to interest incomes.

see Chapter I, page 7

 

dynastic-diplomatic State: * see EndNote<D>

a reference to the nation state, in which subjects are united by history, culture, language or common descent, in which the majority share the same culture; where cultural boundaries match political ones; it was an inadvertent by-product of 15th-century intellectual discoveries in economics, political geography, with cartography; first delineated in the Peace of Westphalia (a series of peace treaties, 1648).  This treaty recognized that each state has exclusive sovereignty over its territory.  This principle underlies the modern international system of sovereign states & diplomacy.  The first 2 nation states were France & England, both with strong dynastic principles.

Wagner (Tristan):

see Chapter I, page 45 and Chapter VII,  page 220

 

Wagner (Parsifal):

see Chapter III, pages 110, 111 Chapter VI pages 186, 199

 

Michelangelo (death of plastic):

Sculpture as monumental expressions declines after Michelangelo (died 1564).  The Mannerists tried & failed to match his genius.  The Protestant Reformation ended all religious sculpture in Northern Europe.  Secular sculpture- portrait busts & tomb monuments- continued but the Dutch Golden Age has no significant sculptural component outside gold smithing.  In southern Catholic countries, compositions based on groups of figures assumed prominence.  Dynamic movement & energy is evident in the spiral configurations or those reaching outwards into space.  Sculpture employed extra-sculptural elements (concealed lighting, water fountains, sculpture fused with architecture).  The Renaissance trend away from relief (sculpture in the round, multiple views) was continued in the Baroque; many compositions were made to occupy central positions, notable is Bernini's Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi (Rome, 1651), or those in the Gardens of Versailles. The latter Rococo style was better suited to smaller works, often applied to porcelains & interior decorative schemes in wood or plaster (e.g. French domestic interiors, Austrian & Bavarian pilgrimage churches).

 

planimetry:

the measurement of plane (flat or level surface) areas.

 

Zarlino (his Harmony):

Zarlino is famous as a musical theorist not as a composer. In his Le istitutioni harmoniche or Harmony (1558) he gives the first exact description of the “meantone” (the 2/7-comma, the 1/4-comma & the 1/3-comma meantone); he considered all 3 usable.  He was the first to theorize the primacy of triad over interval in structuring harmony & was one of the first to explain the prohibition of parallel fifths and octaves in counterpoint, and to study the effect and harmonic implications of the false relation.  His writings spread in late 16th century throughout Europe.  Translations & annotated versions were common in France, Germany & the Netherlands among students of Sweelinck, thereby influencing the next generation of musicians representing early Baroque.

see Chapter VII, page 230

 

basso continuo:

see Chapter VII, pages 226, 230, 245

 

Northern mathematic (Calculus):

The 2 men who independently discovered Calculus were Leibnitz & Newton.  Newton was an Englishman and Leibnitz was a German.

 

planar:

flat or level

 

6th Century B.C. (Greek fresco & vase painting):

In the 6th century BC (placed within the “archaic period”) there was a shift in vase painting away from the repeating patterns of the geometric period, to a more representational black & red-figure technique.  Early 7th century vase painters in Corinth developed the black-figure style.  Potters began using incisions to draw outlines & interior detailing (a technique borrowed from eastern metalwork) giving greater detail to the vase painting.  In 525 BC red-figure pottery was invented in Athens, about the same time as the development of other techniques such as the white ground technique and Six's technique.  Most of our visual knowledge of Greek painting is derived from the surviving pottery.  The Greeks valued painting above even sculpture.  By the Hellenistic period the education of a gentleman included painting and art appreciation.  From this came the ekphrasis, a literary form consisting of a description of a work of art.  Many of these have survived & we have a considerable body of literature on Greek painting and painters.  Almost none of the paintings have survived.

 

Differential Calculus (1670, Newton and Leibniz):

Newton claimed to have begun working on a form of calculus (his method of fluxions and fluents) in 1666.  However it was only later in 1687 with the publication of his Principia that he provided an explanation of his (geometrical) form of calculus.  He waited until 1693 to give a partial explanation of his fluxional notation.  Leibniz began working on his variant of calculus in 1674 & in 1684 published his first paper employing it.