This one, from 1609, was intended to fund the guest house and the poorhouse (Old Men's House) in Gouda. Just look at how the old man is being transported on a stretcher while another man walks beside him, looking out for his well-being.

Lotteries were used for various purposes. This lottery print, for example, was used to fund the expansion of the private asylum, the Amsterdam Dolhuis. The prizes to be won in the summer of 1592 are visible here: trophies, bowls, cups, bags of money, and spoons.

Today, I accidently delved into the world of gambling in 16th-century Netherlands. Apparently, King Philip II of Spain believed that if his governor-general, Margaret of Parma, had no means of securing money, she could always draw from the lottery. #earlymodern #skystorians

Fantastic news for all #earlymodern #skystorians: Next week, the Natalie Zemon Davis Memorial Lectures 2025 will take place in Vienna with Prof. Lorraine Daston, hosted by the CEU. The leitmotiv of the lecture series: Diversity. And the best: you can also attend online.
www.ceu.edu/article/2025...

My alltime favorite #writersblock, temporarily checkmated by the cat. At least it is still possible to check mails and browse through bluesky or digital archives. Greetings from a #skystorian who unabashedly enjoys the unvoluntary break!

And for those who are curious about this #earlymodern noblewoman with a business sense, there she is:

On February 14th, 1572: Not a love letter, but perhaps just as important, at least for Catherine of Brunswick-Wolfenbuttel. The widow of margrave John of Brandenburg-Küstrin, wrote a letter to her uncle Eric II, duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, to make sure to get her Rhine wine duty-free. Cheers!

Thanks @kristofsmeyers.bsky.social for the reference! I thought I might add a link www.digitale-sammlungen.de/view/bsb0008... to and some screenshots of the passage.

Enjoy your #TimeTravel! (7/7)

On a #CreativeWriting evening where everyone wanted to write some fiction, I came up with an easy starting impulse based on the wonderful book series "Before the Coffee Gets Cold" by @kawaguchicoffee.bsky.social, which happened to be sitting on my desk at that moment and which (1/7)

Just received the message from our Publisher Aschendorff that our anthology about "The Diplomatic Self in Early Modern Times" is now available Open Access. For all #skystorians interested in #earlymodern diplomacy and questions of self-fashioning, have a look here: doi.org/10.17438/978...