Rebekka von Mallinckrodt - Sports and Physical Exercise in Early Modern Culture: New Perspectives on the History of Sports and Motion

It is often assumed that a recognisably modern sporting culture did not emerge until the eighteenth century. The plethora of physical training and games that existed before 1700 tend to fall victim to rigid historical boundaries drawn between "modern" and "pre-modern" sports, which are concerned primarily with levels of regulation, organization and competitiveness. Adopting a much broader and culturally based approach, the essays in this collection offer an alternative view of sport in the early modern period. Taking into account a variety of competitive as well as non-competitive forms of sport, physical training and games, the collection situates these types of activities as institutions in their own right within the socio-cultural context of early-modern Europe.

Treating the period not only as a precursor of modern developments, but as an independent and formative era, the essays engage with overlooked topics and sources such as court records, self-narratives and visual materials, and with contemporary discussions about space, gender and postcolonial studies. By allowing for this increased contextualization of sport, the collection is able to integrate it into more general historical questions and approaches.

The volume underlines how developments in early modern sport influenced later developments, whilst at the same time being thoroughly shaped by contemporary notions of the body, status and honour. These notions influenced not only the contemporary sporting fashion but the adoption of sports in elite education, the use of sports facilities, training methods and modes of competition, thus offering a more integrated idea of the place of sport in early modern society.

Rebekka von Mallinckrodt is Professor for Early Modern History at the University of Bremen. She has worked in the field of religious studies, history of the body as well as postcolonial studies. With regard to sports and physical exercise she has published Bewegtes Leben - Krpertechniken in der Frhen Neuzeit (Body Techniques in the Early Modern Period), exposition catalogue Herzog August Library Wolfenbttel (Harrassowitz 2008) as well as several articles on the cultural history of swimming, diving and running.

Angela Schattner is Max Weber 2016/17 Fellow at the University of Bremen and was Research Fellow in Early Modern History at the German Historical Institute London from 2010-2016. She specialises in the social and cultural history of Early Modern Britain and Germany and the history of the body, disability, sports, exercise and leisure. She is the author of Zwischen Familie, Heiler und Frsorge. Das Bewltigungsverhalten von Epileptikern in deutschsprachigen Gebieten des 16.-18. Jahrhunderts.

New Perspectives on the History of Sports and Motion

Edited by
Rebekka von Mallinckrodt
University of Bremen, Germany
Angela Schattner
German Historical Institute London, UK

First published 2016
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2016 selection and editorial matter, Rebekka von Mallinckrodt and Angela Schattner; individual chapters, the contributors

The right of Rebekka von Mallinckrodt and Angela Schattner to be identified as the authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

Frontispiece: Cricket Match Played by the Countess of Derby and Other Ladies, 1779 (w/c on paper) English School (eighteenth century). Marylebone Cricket Club, London, UK/Bridgeman Images.

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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Mallinckrodt, Rebekka v. (Rebekka von), 1971 | Schattner, Angela, 1981
Title: Sports and Physical Exercise in Early Modern Culture. New Perspectives
on the History of Sports and Motion / edited by Rebekka von Mallinckrodt
and Angela Schattner.
Description: Surrey, UK England; Burlington, VT: Ashgate, [2015] |