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For the Sake of Simple Folk: Popular Propaganda For The German Reformation
Abstract
In this book R. W. Scribner provides the first detailed analysis of the forms of propaganda - such as illustrated broadsheets, picture books, title pages, and book illustrations - which were aimed at the illiterate and semi-literate during the Reformation, and reproduces many of the vast corpus of prints which still survive in scattered locations in Germany. Dr Scribner advances new and original interpretations of these illustrations, revealing how visual propaganda exploited popular belief and the coarser aspects of popular culture, while at the same time being a product of them. This, he suggests, explains why the Reformation appealed to the broad masses of sixteenth-century people, even though the propaganda was unable to educate them in the more complex theological aspects of the Reformation message. As well as raising important questions about the Reformation as a religious phenomenon, the book is a contribution to the understanding of early modern popular culture, and the nature of propaganda in a pre-industrial society; it is also a detailed historical study of the sixteenth-century woodcut. In develolping an interdisciplinary analysis combining the methods of iconography, semiology, sociology, and folklore, Dr Scribner presents a fruitful new approach to the study of popular mentalities. Hailed as a pioneering study of great importance on its original publication in 1981, For the Sake of Simple Folk is now available in paperback for the first time, with a new Introduction and additional chapter. 'The reproduction of such a formidable body of "documentation" in the text is a major achievement . . . important and pioneering study', Journal of Ecclesiastical History
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Items 101–139 of 139
INTRODUCTION : THE GERMAN LANDS AND PEOPLE
Fulbrook, M. (2004) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/cbo9780511984631.002
The Bible in catechesis,c. 1500–c. 1750
Green, I. (2016) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/cho9781139048781.025
Between Islam and Orthodoxy: Protestants and Catholics in south-eastern Europe
Tóth, I. G. (2007) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/chol9780521811620.029
The importance of the Bible for early Lutheran theology
Appold, K. G. (2016) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/cho9781139048781.020
Karant‐Nunn, S. C. (2016) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/cho9781139048781.028
Resistance, Renewal and Reform, 1414–1521
Wallace, P. G. (2012) · doi:10.1007/978-1-137-26540-1_3
Brake, W. P. T. (2017) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/9781316104859.006
Die antiklerikale Reformation und ihr Feindbild, der „Dr. Theologiae“ Faustus
Weeks, A. (2018) · Neophilologus · doi:10.1007/s11061-017-9550-8
Shipoli, E. A. (2018) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-3-319-71111-9_4
Llobet, S. C. I., & Famadas, C. F. I. (2019) · Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht eBooks · doi:10.13109/9783666552496.39
Images de controverse et controverses par l’image
Ghermani, N. (2008) · Presses universitaires du Septentrion eBooks · doi:10.4000/books.septentrion.39974
Bohemian Martyrdom at the Dawn of the Reformation
Fudgé, T. A. (2020) · Wiley eBooks · doi:10.1002/9781119100072.ch15
After Luther: Visual Culture, Materiality and the Legacy of 1517
Spinks, J. (2021) · The Journal of Ecclesiastical History · doi:10.1017/s0022046920002614
Fulbrook, M. (2004) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/cbo9780511984631.008
Bibles in the Dutch and Scandinavian vernaculars toc. 1750
den Hollander, A. A., & Grell, O. P. (2016) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/cho9781139048781.012
Cameron, E. (2016) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/cho9781139048781.037
Dixon, C. S. (2003) · doi:10.1007/978-0-230-21253-4_8
Hsia, R. P.-C. (2007) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/chol9780521811620.001
Cameron, E. (2016) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/cho9781139048781.002
(2007) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/chol9780521811620.032
Cameron, E. (2016) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/cho9781139048781.001
(2016) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/cho9781139048781.038
The Bible in European colonial thoughtc. 1450–1750
Cervantes, F. (2016) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/cho9781139048781.035
Margolis, O. (2022) · Cultural inquiry · doi:10.37050/ci-23_15
Fulbrook, M. (2004) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/cbo9780511984631.001
Radikal-Reformatorische Themen im Bild
(2018) · Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht eBooks · doi:10.13109/9783666552649.79
Dixon, C. S. (2002) · Wiley eBooks · doi:10.1002/9780470754672.biblio
Ostoyich, K. (2009) · Wiley eBooks · doi:10.1002/9781405198073.wbierp0615
Morgan, D. (2011) · Wiley eBooks · doi:10.1002/9780470670606.wbecc0867
Kovacs, J. L., & Rowland, C. (2004) · Wiley eBooks · doi:10.1002/9780470773512.biblio
Horsfield, P. (2015) · Wiley eBooks · doi:10.1002/9781394261000.refs
Eire, C. Μ. N. (2024) · Wiley eBooks · doi:10.1002/9781119754343.ch5
The Protestant Reformation’s challenge to religious Iconography and sacred art
Mudau, N. (2025) · HTS Teologiese Studies / Theological Studies · doi:10.4102/hts.v81i1.10945
Amani, B. (2026) · Critical cultural studies of childhood · doi:10.1007/978-3-032-24680-6_3
Hämmerle, T. E. (2020) · Nordlit · doi:10.7557/13.5484
Peindre l’écoute : Figures et significations de l’audition sacrée en Italie du XIVe au XVIIe siècle.
Battisti, M. (2022) · theses.fr (ABES) · doi:10.70675/7723f638z1f53z4f89z8082z22acb9657d2a
Metadata
- Authors
- Scribner, R. W.
- Corresponding author
- Scribner, R W
- Publisher
- Oxford University PressOxford
- Published
- 1994-10-20
- OpenAlex
- W4388334361
- Cited by
- 139
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 2 · 2020: 6 · 2019: 1 · 2018: 4 · 2017: 2 · 2016: 40 · 2015: 3 · 2014: 2 · 2013: 4 · 2012: 2
- FWCI
- 2.72
- Type
- book
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › History › Reformation and Early Modern Christianity
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › History › Libraries, Manuscripts, and Books
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Visual Arts and Performing Arts › Visual Culture and Art Theory
- Keywords
- Reformation, visual propaganda, woodcuts, picture books, title page, book illustration, illiteracy, early modern popular culture, folk beliefs, popular mentality, sixteenth-century Germany, religious prints
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