1678
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Contents: political eventsexploration, colonization medicine education communications, media literature art theater, film music population |
The Treaty of Nimwegen signed August 10 returns to Holland the territories she has lost to France and Spain on condition that she maintain neutrality. Spain loses international standing as a result of the territorial losses. A second treaty signed at Nimwegen September 17 returns territories that France and Spain have taken from each other, but the peace will be short-lived.
Reports of a "Popish Plot" rock England. Titus Oates, 29, is expelled from a Jesuit seminary when it is discovered that the Anabaptist preacher's son has been employed by English prelate Israel Tonge to feign conversion to Catholicism. Oates "uncovers" a plot whereby Roman Catholics are supposedly pledged to massacre Protestants, burn London, and assassinate Charles II. He swears before magistrate Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey that he is telling the truth, Sir Edmund is soon after found murdered, five Catholic lords are sent to the Tower of London, and dozens of Catholics are executed. Charles's wife, Catherine da Braganza (Bragança), has borne no children, and opponents of his brother James, duke of York, have urged the king to divorce her and marry a Protestant; they now accuse Catherine of scheming to poison the king in order to place the Catholic James on the throne. Journalist Roger L'Estrange discredits the allegations, Charles knights him, and the king stands by his wife until she is cleared of all charges, but Parliament passes the Papists' Disabling Act, which excludes Roman Catholics from Parliament, and the act will stand until 1829 (see religion [Test Act], 1673).
News of the secret deal made last year by Charles's chief minister Thomas Osborne, earl of Danby, leaks out at London; the report that Louis XIV is subsidizing Charles enrages Parliament, which wastes no time in impeaching Danby and he will be committed next year to the Tower of London, where he will be confined until 1684 (see "Glorious Revolution," 1688).
Ottoman forces lay siege to Chigirin in the Ukraine, but the Russians mount an heroic defense under the leadership of Col. Patrick Clark, now 43.
General Wu Sangui (Wu San-kuei) dies of dysentery at Hen-chou in Henan (Hunan) province October 2 at age 66 as the Revolt of the Three Feudatories continues (see 1674; 1681).
Flemish-born Franciscan missionary-explorer Louis Hennepin, 52, travels with the sieur de La Salle and views Niagara Falls for the first time December 8; he has been in Canada since 1675 and is so moved by the sight that he falls upon his knees. "The universe does not afford its parallel," Father Hennepin writes in the first description of the falls (see St. Anthony's Falls, 1680).
Italian anatomist-physician Lorenzo Bellini, 35, discovers the excretory ducts of the kidneys (Bellini's ducts). He has taught medicine at Pisa since at least 1664 and publishes a book on the physiology of taste organs. Bellini also discovers the action of nerves on muscles.
The doctorate of philosophy conferred by the University of Padua June 25 upon scholar Elena Lucrezia Cornaro Piscopia, 32, is the first university degree ever received by a woman. Born to a noble Venetian family that has produced four doges, three popes, eight cardinals, and a queen of Cyprus, Piscopia began her classical education at age 7, studying Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Spanish, and French plus mathematics, philosophy, and astronomy. Theology has been the subject closest to her heart, and her disputations in Latin and Greek at Padua have drawn scholars from all over Europe, but while the university's rector has approved her application for the doctorate of theology, the Church has raised objections to granting this degree to a woman. She has been obliged to apply, instead, for the doctorate in philosophy, and her examination has drawn such a crowd of academic, religious, and political luminaries that the ceremony has had to be moved to the Cathedral of Padua for lack of space at the university (see 1684).
Journalist and pamphleteer Marchamont Needham dies at London November 29 at age 58.
A Glossary for Writers of Middle and Low Latin (Glossarium ad Scriptores Mediae et Infimae Latinitatis) by Charles du Fresne, seigneur du Cange, uses primary sources to document its entries and is more like an enyclopedia than a dictionary.
Nonfiction: The Lady's New-Year's-Gift or Advice to a Daughter by George Savile, 45, first marquis of Halifax, acknowledges the injustice of many laws and customs relating to women but does not approve of attempts to change them. Lord Halifax concedes that the laws of marriage are harsher toward women than toward men but says that the sacredness of the institution necessitates this even though injustice may be done to some women. He ridicules "Girls of Fifty, who resolve to be always Young, whatever Time with his Iron Teeth hath determined to the contrary." (The book gains immediate popularity and will go through 25 editions).
Fiction: The Pilgrim's Progress by English preacher John Bunyan, 49, whose illustrated work inspires religious reverence while entertaining readers and achieves enormous popularity. To Puritans kept ignorant of Homer, Shakespeare, and Cervantes, the Bunyan book comes as a brilliant revelation that is enhanced by its engravings; La Princesse de Clèves by French novelist Marie Madeleine Pioche de La Vergne, 44, comtesse de La Fayette, whose pioneer historical novel is published anonymously, telling the story of a young 16th-century wife who suppresses her passion for a young nobleman.
Poetry: Hudibras (part III) by Samuel Butler.
English poet Andrew Marvell dies at London August 16 at age 57 after taking an overdose of an opiate for his ague. He leaves behind verses that include the lines "To His Coy Mistress": "had we but world enough, and time,/ This coyness, lady, were no crime"; "At my back I always hear Time's winged chariot hurrying near."
Painting: Charles II by German-born English painter Godfrey Kneller (né Gottfried Kniller), 31. Jacob Jordaens dies at Antwerp October 18 at age 85.
Theater: The Kind Keeper, or Mr. Limberham by John Dryden in March at London's Dorset Garden Theatre.
Opera: The Hamburg Staatsoper opens January 2 with 1,675 seats. Johann Theile has composed the music for the opening opera Adam und Eve.
New England's white colonist population reaches 60,000, up from 33,000 in 1650 (see 1706).
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