New Books in Early Modern History

Examining sectarian divergence in the early modern Middle East, Ayşe
Baltacıoğlu-Brammer's study provides a fresh perspective on the
Sunni–Shi'i division. Drawing on Ottoman Turkish, Persian, and European
sources, Boundaries of Belonging: Sectarianism and Statecraft in the Early Modern Ottoman Empire
(Cambridge University Press, 2026) explores the paradox of an Ottoman
state that combined rigid ideological discourses with pragmatic
governance. Through an analysis of key figures, events, periods, and
policies, Boundaries of Belonging reveals how political, economic, and
religious forces intersected, challenging simplistic sectarian binaries.
Baltacıoğlu-Brammer provides a comprehensive historical account of
Ottoman governance during the long sixteenth century, focusing on its
relationship with non-Sunni Muslim subjects, particularly the Qizilbash.
As both the founders of the Safavid Empire and the largest
Shiʿi-affiliated group within the Ottoman realm, the Qizilbash occupied a
crucial yet often misunderstood position. Boundaries of Belonging
examines their role within the empire, challenging the notion that they
were merely persecuted outsiders by highlighting their agency in shaping
imperial policies, negotiating their status, and influencing the
Ottoman–Safavid rivalry in Anatolia, Kurdistan, and Iraq, and western
Iran.
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Commercial seafaring, both dangerous and with large amounts of capital at stake, was the source of the risk-management institutions that still undergird the global economy today. A key institution of early modern risk management was General Average, a procedure used to redistribute extraordinary costs arising from a maritime venture between all financially interested parties. For example, should one merchant’s cargo be jettisoned to lighten a ship in a storm, the loss would be shared pro rata by the shipper and all the cargo-owners. A risk-sharing practice, different from the risk-shifting of marine insurance which became established relatively late, General Average is still in widespread use.

In Managing Maritime Risk in Early Modern Europe: General Average in Law and Practice in Seventeenth-Century Tuscany (Boydell Press, 2025), Jake Dyble explores how General Average worked. It reveals the gap between General Average in law and how it worked on the ground. It shows how General Average partitioned a wide array of business costs, thereby performing a significant role in structuring maritime commerce, managing risk and promoting shipping and trade. In addition, the book discusses how far General Average was a feature of a supposedly ancient, universal, customary maritime law, and contributes to debates about the evolution of institutions in economic development.

Dr Jake Dyble is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Padova, Italy.

This interview is conducted by Dr Lewis Wade, a Humboldt Research Fellow at the University of Bamberg. He is the author of the prize-winning Privilege, Economy and State in Old Regime France and can be found on Bluesky @wadehistory.bsky.social.
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Commercial seafaring, both dangerous and with large amounts
of capital at stake, was the source of the risk-management institutions
that still undergird the global economy today. A key institution of
early modern risk management was General Average, a procedure used to
redistribute extraordinary costs arising from a maritime venture between
all financially interested parties. For example, should one merchant’s
cargo be jettisoned to lighten a ship in a storm, the loss would be
shared pro rata by the shipper and all the cargo-owners. A risk-sharing
practice, different from the risk-shifting of marine insurance which
became established relatively late, General Average is still in widespread use.

In Managing Maritime Risk in Early Modern Europe: General Average in Law and Practice in Seventeenth-Century Tuscany
(Boydell Press, 2025), Jake Dyble explores how General Average worked.
It reveals the gap between
General Average in law and how it worked on the ground. It shows how
General Average partitioned a wide array of business costs, thereby
performing a significant role in structuring maritime commerce, managing
risk and promoting shipping and trade. In addition, the book discusses
how far General Average was a feature of a supposedly ancient,
universal, customary maritime law, and contributes to debates about the
evolution of institutions in economic development.

Dr Jake Dyble is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Padova, Italy.

This
interview is conducted by Dr Lewis Wade, a Humboldt Research Fellow at
the University of Bamberg. He is the author of the prize-winning Privilege, Economy and State in Old Regime France and can be found on Bluesky @wadehistory.bsky.social.
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Looking beyond the marble elegance of Michelangelo's David, the pugnacious, passionate, and--crucially--important story of Renaissance manhood. 
Timothy McCall's book Making the Renaissance Man: Masculinity in the Courts of Renaissance Italy (Reaktion, 2023) explores the images, objects, and experiences that fashioned men and masculinity in the courts of fifteenth-century Italy. Across the peninsula, Italian princes fought each other in fierce battles and spectacular jousts, seduced mistresses, flaunted splendor in lavish rituals of knighting, and demonstrated prowess through the hunt--all ostentatious performances of masculinity and the drive to rule. Hardly frivolous pastimes, these activities were essential displays of privilege and virility; indeed, violence underlay the cultural veneer of the Italian Renaissance. Timothy McCall investigates representations and ideals of manhood in this time and provides a historically grounded and gorgeously illustrated account of how male identity and sexuality proclaimed power during a century crucial to the formation of Early Modern Europe.
Jana Byars is an independent scholar located in Amsterdam.
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Audiences and scholars alike have long remarked that Shakespeare’s poems and plays record the pleasures and perils of the table. Shakespeare in the Kitchen (Routledge, 2026) by Dr. Marissa Nicosia asks what Shakespeare’s works can tell us about Renaissance culinary recipes, and what these recipes can tell us about Shakespeare’s works.

Dr. Nicosia explores how Shakespeare’s works reveal tensions not only within early modern food culture about who should eat, what to eat or serve guests, and when to preserve foods, but also how to undertake the embodied processes of cooking, baking, and serving. The chapters include both analysis of plays and poems, as well as updated historical recipes ready for cooking. Nicosia prepares the recipes that permeate the canon—from Falstaff’s beloved capons to the cakes that invite festivity in Twelfth Night—demonstrating how the physical act of cooking can transform our understanding of once familiar texts, and asking what we can learn about food history by recreating historical recipes with twenty-first-century ingredients and tools.

This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. You can find Miranda’s interviews on New Books with Miranda Melcher, wherever you get your podcasts.
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