Image of the Slavs inhabiting the Habsburg  Monarchy in Voyage en Autriche by Marcel de Serres

The second half of the eighteenth century in the lands under the sceptre of the House of Austria was a period of development of a language policy addressing the ethno-linguistic diversity of the monarchy’s subjects. On the one hand, the sphere of use of the German language was becoming wider, embracing more and more segments of administration, education, and culture. On the other hand, the authorities were perfectly aware of the fact that communication in the languages and vernaculars of the nationalities living in the Austrian Monarchy was one of the principal instruments of spreading decrees and announcements from the central and local authorities to the less-educated strata of the population. Consequently, a large-scale reform of primary education was launched, aimed at making the whole population literate, regardless of social status, nationality (mother tongue), or confession. In parallel with the centrally coordinated state policy of education and language-use, subjects-both language experts and amateur polyglots-joined the process of writing grammar books, which were intended to ease communication between the different nationalities of the Habsburg lands. This article considers some examples of such editions with primary attention given to the correlation between private initiative and governmental policies, mechanisms of verifying the textbooks to be published, their content, and their potential readers. This paper demonstrates that for grammar-book authors, it was very important to be integrated into the patronage networks at the court and in administrative bodies and stresses that the Vienna court controlled the process of selection and financing of grammar books to be published depending on their quality and ability to satisfy the aims and goals of state policy.

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In Quest and Crisis: Emperor Joseph I and the Habsburg Monarchy. by Charles W. IngraoIn Quest and Crisis: Emperor Joseph I and the Habsburg Monarchy. by Charles W. Ingrao. Purdue University Press, Lafayette, Indiana, 1979. xi, 267 pp. $12.95.

Canadian Journal of History ◽

10.3138/cjh.15.1.122 ◽

1980 ◽

Vol 15 (1) ◽

pp. 122-123

Author(s):

Helen P. Liebel

Keyword(s):

Habsburg Monarchy ◽

Purdue University

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Nutrition and Economic Development in the Eighteenth-Century Habsburg Monarchy: An Anthropometric History, by John KomlosNutrition and Economic Development in the Eighteenth-Century Habsburg Monarchy: An Anthropometric History, by John Komlos. Princeton, New Jersey, Princeton University Press, 1989. xvii, 325 pp. $45.00 U.S.

Canadian Journal of History ◽

10.3138/cjh.25.3.409 ◽

1990 ◽

Vol 25 (3) ◽

pp. 409-411

Author(s):

Franz A.J. Szabo

Keyword(s):

Eighteenth Century ◽

Economic Development ◽

New Jersey ◽

Habsburg Monarchy ◽

Princeton University

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Intertroupe Rivalries

10.1093/oso/9780190692636.003.0001 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Ian Woodfield

Keyword(s):

Low Countries ◽

Habsburg Monarchy ◽

German Speaking ◽

The Impact

Joseph II’s failed scheme to swap the Austrian Low Countries for Bavaria provoked the formation of a league of states opposed to this reconfiguration of Europe. In order to repair the damage done to his reputation in the German-speaking world, he reinstated the recently disbanded Singspiel, so that it could compete with the Italian troupe. A lighthearted contest in the Orangerie at Schönbrunn inaugurated two years of intense operatic rivalry. Thanks to Dittersdorf’s hit success Der Apotheker, which overshadowed the impact of Figaro, the German party established an early ascendancy, but the Italians struck back with an opera featuring Spanish fashion. Martín y Soler’s Una cosa rara was greeted with storms of applause at its premiere on the name day of the fiancée of Archduke Franz, second in line to the Habsburg Monarchy.

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