Scandinavia
- LAST REVIEWED: 27 November 2013
- LAST MODIFIED: 27 November 2013
- DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780195399301-0089
- LAST REVIEWED: 27 November 2013
- LAST MODIFIED: 27 November 2013
- DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780195399301-0089
Introduction
At the beginning of the 14th century, three independent kingdoms dominated northern Europe: Denmark, which included the southernmost provinces of what is today Sweden, as well as the German duchies of Schleswig and Holstein; Norway, which claimed Iceland and the Faroe Islands; and Sweden, which included much of modern Finland. In 1397 these three kingdoms were unified under the Kalmar Union, which enjoyed an uneasy existence until its partial dissolution with the victory of a Swedish rebellion led by Gustav Vasa and his election as king of Sweden in 1523. The history of the succeeding century is dominated in large part by the intense rivalry between the Swedes and the Danes over control of the region and the increasingly valuable Baltic trade. From 1536 to 1660, Danish territory was second in size only to the Spanish Empire, and its royal coffers were swollen with income from the dues paid by merchants traversing the straits controlled by its navy. By the beginning of the 17th century, these resources, together with Denmark’s early embrace of Protestantism, provided the realm with an opportunity to play a leading role in European affairs. But Denmark’s moment was fleeting, and it would be Sweden’s impact that would be far heavier in the Thirty Years War and would continue over the course of the 17th century to develop a Baltic empire that would include portions of modern-day Estonia, Poland, and Germany, as well as all of Denmark’s former holdings on the Scandinavian peninsula. By the 14th century, the majority of Scandinavia had long been part of the Christian fold and to a large degree was incorporated into European culture. There was a steady trickle of students from the Nordic realms to European universities in the later Middle Ages, and domestic universities were established at Lund in 1425, at Uppsala in 1477, and at Copenhagen in 1479. The region’s strong economic ties to England, Germany, and the Netherlands helped to accelerate the process of cultural integration with the Continent and to shape Scandinavian artistic, architectural, and cultural development, particularly in urban centers. The consolidation of royal power in 16th-century Denmark and Sweden and the inception of the Reformation brought about the more aggressive introduction of Renaissance culture and encouraged its dissemination, particularly through the agency of the royal court and the reformed church. The history of Scandinavia between 1350 and 1650 was typified by tremendous diversity and difference as well as similarity and integration. This article attempts to provide a sense of this variety and to point to connections, common themes, and unifying elements.
General Overviews
No single work provides an overview of Scandinavia from 1350 to 1650; however, the works listed in this section span both the time period and the region and explore the relationship among the kingdoms and their environmental and cultural-political context.
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- Academies
- Aemilia Lanyer
- Agrippa d’Aubigné
- Alberti, Leon Battista
- Alexander VI, Pope
- Amsterdam
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- Memling, Hans
- Merchant Adventurers
- Merici, Angela
- Midwifery
- Milan, 1535–1706
- Milan to 1535
- Milton, John
- Mining and Metallurgy
- Mirandola, Giovanni Pico della
- Mission
- Monarchy in Renaissance and Reformation Europe, Female
- Montaigne, Michel de
- More, Thomas
- Morone, Cardinal Giovanni
- Music
- Naples, 1300–1700
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- Netherlandish Art, Early
- Netherlands (Dutch Revolt/ Dutch Republic), The
- Netherlands, Spanish, 1598-1700, the
- Nettesheim, Agrippa von
- Newton, Isaac
- Niccoli, Niccolò
- Nicholas of Cusa
- Nicolas Malebranche
- Nobility
- Opera
- Ottoman Empire
- Ovid in Renaissance Thought
- Panofsky, Erwin
- Paolo Veronese
- Papacy
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- Paracelsus
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- Parr, Katherine
- Patronage of the Arts
- Perotti, Niccolò
- Persecution and Martyrdom
- Peter the Great, Tsar of Russia
- Petrarch
- Petrus Ramus and Ramism
- Philip Melanchthon
- Philips, Katherine
- Piccolomini, Aeneas Sylvius
- Piero della Francesca
- Pierre Bayle
- Pilgrimage in Early Modern Catholicism
- Plague and its Consequences
- Platonism, Neoplatonism, and the Hermetic Tradition
- Poetry, English
- Pole, Cardinal Reginald
- Polish Literature: Baroque
- Polish Literature: Renaissance
- Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, The
- Political Thought
- Poliziano, Angelo
- Polydore Vergil
- Pontano, Giovanni Giovano
- Pope Innocent VIII
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- Pope Paul II
- Portraiture
- Portugal
- Poulain de la Barre, Francois
- Poverty and Poor Relief
- Prince Henry the Navigator
- Printing and the Book
- Printmaking
- Prophecy
- Pulter, Hester
- Purgatory
- Purity of Blood
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- Rabelais, François
- Raphael
- Reformation and Hussite Revolution, Czech
- Reformation and Wars of Religion in France, The
- Reformation, English
- Reformation, German
- Reformation, Italian, The
- Reformation, The
- Reformations and Revolt in the Netherlands, 1500–1621
- Rembrandt
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- Renaissance, The
- Reuchlin, Johann
- Revolutionary England, 1642-1702
- Rhetoric
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- Richard III
- Rienzo, Cola Di
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- Ronsard, Pierre de
- Roper, Margeret More
- Royal Regencies in Renaissance and Reformation Europe, 140...
- Rubens, Peter Paul
- Russell, Elizabeth Cooke Hoby
- Russia and Muscovy
- Ruzante Angelo Beolco
- Saint John of the Cross
- Saints and Mystics: After Trent
- Saints and Mystics: Before Trent
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- Sandro Botticelli
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- Scandinavia
- Scholasticism and Aristotelianism: Fourteenth to Seventeen...
- Schooling and Literacy
- Scientific Revolution
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- Sephardic Diaspora
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- Shakespeare, William
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- Southern Italy, 1300–1500
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- Tasso Torquato
- Tell, William
- Teresa of Avila
- Textiles: 1400 to 1700
- The Casa of San Giorgio, Genoa
- The Radical Reformation
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- Thomas Wyatt
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- Trade Networks
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- Universities
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- Valla, Lorenzo
- van Eyck, Jan
- van Schurman, Anna Maria
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- Velázquez
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- Vergerio, Pier Paolo, The Elder
- Vermeer, Johannes
- Vernacular Languages and Dialects
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- Virgil in Renaissance Thought
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- Walter Ralegh
- War and Economy, 1300-1600
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- Warfare and Military Organizations
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- Widowhood
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- Women and Work: Fourteenth to Seventeenth Centuries
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- Wroth, Mary