(Or, something to keep you occupied while I’m still insanely busy.)
Long, long ago, in the requests corner, Jeremy asked about perceptions of filth and dirt in early modern Europe, while ADM was interested in shifting city boundaries and high-crime areas. I’m not sure I can answer the specific part about boundaries, but the two requests seemed to me to be more generally topics that would overlap quite well, and give you something juicy to read: cities, dirt, disease and crime. Mmm.
(These are just a start: I’ll try to add some more over the weekend. But this post has been sitting in my drafts folder for quite long enough already…)
Early modern city bibliography
Wrong side of the river: London’s disreputable south bank
London 1753
A day in 18th-century London
Epidemic disease in London
Imagining early modern London (book review) (another one)
The social world of early modern Westminster (book review)
London dispossessed: literature and social space in the early modern city (book review)
Social sites of Renaissance lyrics (currently unavailable: try here for now)
Maps and memory in early modern England (book review)
Neighbourhoods and the public in early modern German cities
Crime and society in early modern Seville
The city: medieval to modern (a course syllabus with some interesting-looking readings)
Contours of death: disease, mortality and the environment in early modern England
3 comments on “Filth and the city”
Thanks Sharon! Lots of good reading here. “Wrong Side of the River” seems particularly good, from a quick skim anyways.
Social sites of Renaissance lyrics 404s alas. Wrong side of the River was indeed fascinating,
Zebee, thanks for letting me know. Sadly, this tends to happen with resources put up for teaching; I’ll have a look round and see if it’s moved. In the meantime, you can still see the archived version (thanks to the Wayback Machine Internet Archive).