A. Roger Ekirch - At Day’s Close: Night in Times Past

At

DAYS
CLOSE

NIGHT IN TIMES PAST

A. Roger Ekirch

W. W. NORTON & COMPANY
New York London

FOR ALEXANDRA, SHELDON, AND CHRISTIAN

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

The earth was without form, and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the Spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters.

And God said, Let there be light; and there was light. And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night.

GENESIS 1:15

CONTENTS

ILLUSTRATIONS

, seventeenth century, Galleria Palatina, Palazzo Pitti, Florence / Art Resource, New York

, seventeenth century, Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museum zu Berlin / Bildarchiv Preussicher Kulturbesitz, Art Resource, New York

, seventeenth century, Bibliothque Nationale de France, Paris

(detail from St. Anthony the Hermit from the Isenheim Altarpiece), ca. 15121516, Muse dUnterlinden, Colmar / Bridgeman Art Library

eighteenth century, Archives Charmet / Bridgeman Art Library

(pl. 4 of The Four Times of the Day ), 1738

, ca. 1740, Private Collection (Courtesy of the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, London)

, 1620, Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen

, Amsterdam, 1652 , seventeenth century, Johnny van Haeften Gallery, London / Bridgeman Art Library

, n.d., Courtesy of the Graphische Sammlung der ETH, Zurich

, seventeenth century, Chateau de Versailles et de Trianon, Versailles / Runion des Muses Nationaux, Art Resource, New York

, eighteenth century, Biblioteca Querini Stampalia, Venice / Art Resource, New York

, eighteenth century, courtesy of the Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut

1808, Louvre, Paris / Art Resource, New York

, 1788, Huntington Library, San Marino, California

, nineteenth century, Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society, Taunton

, eighteenth century, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto

, 1620, Galleria Doria-Pamphilj, Rome / Alinari, Art Resource, New York

, 1622, Gemldegalerie Alte Meister, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Dresden

, 1714, from Adriaan Spinniker, Leerzaame Zinnebeelden (1757; rpt. edn., Soest, Netherlands, 1974), 174

, 1786, The Frances Loeb Art Center, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York. Gift of Mr. And Mrs. Francis Fitz Randolph (Mary E. Hill, class of 1945-4)

, seventeenth century, Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museum zu Berlin / Bildarchiv Preussicher Kulturbesitz, Art Resource, New York

, n.d.

, eighteenth century, Muse de la Rvolution Francaise, Vizille / Bridgeman Art Library

, 1785, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm

, eighteenth century, Hermitage, St. Petersburg /Bridgeman Art Library

, London, eighteenth century, Private Collection / Bridgeman Art Library

(Grape-picking), 15851590, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna / Erich Lessing, Art Resource, New York

, seventeenth century, Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen

, 1800, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto

, seventeenth century, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm

, 1524, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

, seventeenth century, Sammlung Schnborn-Buchheim, Vienna

, ca. 17601762, Private Collection / Bridgeman Art Library

, 1640, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna / Art Resource, New York

, 1724, Victoria and Albert Museum, London / Art Resource, New York

(pl. 3), 1735

(pl. 5 of Marriage la Mode), 1745

, 1735, Guildhall Library, Corporation of London

, eighteenth century, Hulton-Deutsch Collection / Corbis

, eighteenth century, The Pierpont Morgan Library, New York / Art Resource, New York

, 1832, Brooklyn Museum of Art. Gift of Mr. And Mrs. Alastair Bradley Martin 48.171

(pl. 9 of Industry and Idleness ), 1747

, sixteenth century, Graphic Arts, Zentralbibliothek Zurich

, seventeenth century, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

, ca. 1530, Victoria & Albert Museum, London / Art Resource, New York

(pl. 7 of Industry and Idleness), 1747

seventeenth century, Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, D.C.

, late 1750s, Norwich Castle Museum / Bridgeman Art Library

1781, Detroit Institute of Arts / Bridgeman Art Library

, 1621, Dayton Art Institute. Museum Purchase with Funds Provided in Part by the 1980 Art Ball

, 1798, courtesy of Windsor Castle, The Royal Collection 2004, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II

, seventeenth century, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

, seventeenth century, Staatliches Museum Schwerin

, ca. 1769, Louvre, Paris / Art Resource, New York

, 1765, courtesy of the Board of Trustees, National Gallery of Art, Alisa Mellon Bruce Fund, Washington, D.C.

1801, Science Museum, London / Bridgeman Art Library

, 1809, Guildhall Library, Corporation of London / Bridgeman Art Library)

, 1848, from Genaue Darstellung der Denkwrdigen Wiener Ereignisse des Jahres 1848 in ihren Uraschen und Folgen (Vienna, 1849)

, n.d., Hansen Planetarium, SPL / Photo Researchers, Inc.

COLOR ILLUSTRATIONS

, n.d., Galleria Borghese, Rome / Scala, Art Resource, New York

, 1610, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna / Art Resource, New York

, ca. 1770, Muse des Beaux-Arts, Rennes / Bridgeman Art Library

, 1655, Private Collection / Bridgeman Art Library

sixteenth century, Accademia, Venice / Art Resource, New York

, n.d., Guildhall Art Gallery, Corporation of London

, 1625, Centrall Museum, Utrecht / Art Resource, New York

, 1739, Mauritshuis, Royal Gallery of Paintings, The Hague

, n.d., Muse des Beaux-Arts de Strasbourg

, eighteenth century, Private Collection / Bridgeman Art Library

, seventeenth century, Bordeaux Muse des Beaux-Arts / Clich du M.B.A. de Bordeaux / photographe Lysiane Gautheir

, seventeenth century, Bonhams, London / Bridgeman Art Library

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Y OU JUST GO too slow, my smiling ten-year-old daughter, Sheldon, teased recently about the pace of my writing. If only the words had come more easily! That I have not taken longer is owing to the help of friends and f amily coupled with the kindness of institutions on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. The inspiration for this book came many years ago from Andr-Philippe Katz, a close friend in graduate school. Despite our plans to collaborate, other responsibilities prevented his participation. The book would have benefited enormously from his remarkable intellect and imagination.

Financial assistance for research and writing originated from a variety of sources. I am profoundly grateful to the National Endowment for the Humanities; the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation; the American Council of Learned Societies; the American Philosophical Society; the Virginia Center for the Humanities; and the American Historical Association. Virginia Tech generously provided research assistance and leaves from teaching.

Over the past two decades, I relied upon the staffs and resources of many splendid institutions. I am indebted to the Public Record Office (formerly at Chancery Lane as well as Kew); the British Library; the Guildhall Records Office in London; the British Library of Political & Economic Science at the London School of Economics; the Bodleian Library of Oxford University; the Cambridge University Library; St. Johns College, Cambridge; Chethams Library in Manchester; the record offices of Dorset and Hertfordshire; the Hereford City Library; the District Central Library in Rawtensall; the Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society; the Bristol Central Library; the Department of Irish Folklore at University College Dublin; the National Library of Scotland and the Scottish Record Office, both in Edinburgh; the University of Wales, Bangor; the National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth; and the Archives Geneve. In the United States, I am grateful to the Library of Congress; Alderman Library at the University of Virginia; the Earl Gregg Swem Library at the College of William and Mary; the New York Public Library; the Beinecke Library at Yale University; the Lewis Walpole Library; the North Haven (Connecticut) Historical Society; the Bennington (Vermont) Historical Society; the Harvard University Law School Library; Houghton Library at Harvard; and the Suffolk County Court House in Boston. At the Library of Virginia in Richmond, I owe a special debt of gratitude to Sandra G. Treadway and her colleagues. Still other institutions, identified elsewhere, supplied the books artwork. They have my deep appreciation.