Salem Press

Great Lives from History: The 17th Century

Great Lives from History: The 17th Century
Publisher's Note

Great Lives from History: The 17th Century, 1601-1700 is the third installment in the revised and expanded Great Lives series, initiated in 2004 with The Ancient World, Prehistory-476 C.E. (2 vols.) and followed in 2005 by The Middle Ages, 477-1453 (2 vols.) and The Renaissance, 1454-1600 (2 vols.). It will be joined by Great Lives from History: The Eighteenth Century, The Nineteenth Century, and The Twentieth Century. The entire series, when complete, is expected to cover more than 3,000 lives in essays ranging from 3 to 5 pages in length.

Expanded Coverage
This ongoing series is a revision of the 10-volume Dictionary of World Biography (DWB) series (1998-1999), which in turn was a revision and reordering of Salem Press's 30-volume Great Lives from History series (1987-1995). The expanded Great Lives differs in several ways from DWB:

• The coverage of each set has been increased significantly. In the current two volumes, 152 original essays from Dictionary of World Biography: 17th & 18th Centuries (1999) are enhanced by the addition of 192 new entries covering a wider geographical area and including 58 women. The result is 344 essays covering 350 historical figures (3 essays address more than one person).
• Tables, quotations from primary source documents, and dynastic lists have been added to enhance and supplement the text throughout.
• A section of maps has been added to the front matter of each volume to allow students to locate personages geographically.
• Essays from the original DWB on all personages falling into the new time frame are reprinted in this new series with updated and annotated bibliographies.

Scope of Coverage
The geographic and occupational scope of the individuals covered in Great Lives from History: The 17th Century, 1601-1700 is broad: The individuals covered are identified with one or more of the following areas: Africa (1 biography), the American Colonies (23 biographies), Austria (4), Belgium (1), Bohemia (4), Canada (10), China (10), Denmark (1), England (95), France (60), Germany (15), India (4), Iran (1), Ireland (2), Italy (27), Japan (9), Mexico (1), Native America (8), the Netherlands (19), the Ottoman Empire (6), Peru (1), Poland (3), Portugal (4), Russia (8), Scotland (5), Spain (14), Sweden (6), Switzerland (1), and Ukraine (1).

The editors have sought to provide coverage that is broad in areas of achievement as well as geography, while at the same time including the recognized shapers of history essential in any liberal arts curriculum. Major world leaders appear here—emperors, conquerors, kings, queens, and khans—as well as the giants of religious faith who were central to the century: popes and theologians who left their imprint on political as well as spiritual institutions. The set also includes figures who have received little or no attention in the past—from the Queen Njinga of Angola to the Ottoman scholar Kâtib Çelebî. By category, the contents include figures who belong to one or more of the following categories: Architecture (8 biographies), Art (27), Business and Economics (2), Diplomacy (1), Education (4), Exploration (10), Government and Politics (95), Law (5), Literature (46), Medicine (9), Military), War), Insurrection (25), Music (11), Philosophy (11), Religion (38), Science, Medicine, Mathematics (38), Society (3), and Theater (11). Among these architects of civilization are 58 women, including writers, artists, scholars, scientists, and national leaders.

Essay Length and Format
Each essay ranges from 1,500 to 3,000 words in length (roughly 3 to 5 pages).
Each essay displays standard ready-reference top matter offering easy access to biographical information:
• The essay title is the name of the individual; editors have chosen the name as it is most commonly found in Western English-language sources.
• The individual's nationality or ethnicity and occupation or historical role follow on the second line, including reign dates for rulers.
• The Born and Died lines list the most complete dates of birth and death available, followed by the most precise locations available, as well as an indication of when these are unknown, only probable, or only approximate; both contemporary and modern place-names (where different) are listed.
• A summary paragraph highlighting the individual's historical importance indicates why the person is studied today.
• Area(s) of achievement lists all categories of contribution, from Architecture and Art through Social Reform and Theater.
• Also known as lists all known versions of the individual's name, including full names, given names, alternative spellings, pseudonyms, and common epithets.

The body of each article is divided into three parts:
• Early Life provides facts about the individual's upbringing and the environment in which he or she was reared, as well as the pronunciation of his or her name, if unusual. Where little is known about the individual's rearing, historical context is provided.
• Life's Work, the heart of the article, consists of a straightforward, generally chronological, account of the period during which the individual's most significant achievements were accomplished.
• Significance is an overview of the individual's place in history.
• Further Reading is an annotated bibliography, a starting point for further research.
• See also is a list of cross-references to essays in the set covering related personages.
• Related articles lists essays of interest in Salem's companion publication, Great Events from History: The 17th Century, 1601-1700 (2 vols., 2006).

Special Features
Several features distinguish this series as a whole from other biographical reference works. The front matter includes the following aids:
• Complete List of Contents: this alphabetical list of contents appears in both volumes.
• Key to Pronunciation, a key to in-text pronunciation, which appears in both volumes.
• List of Maps, Tables, and Sidebars.
• Maps: In the front matter to each volume, a section of maps displaying major regions of the world in the seventeenth century appear grouped together for easy reference.

The back matter to Volume 2 includes several appendices and indexes:
• Rulers and Dynasties, a geographically arranged set of tables listing major rulers and their regnal dates, covering the major regions of the world.
• Chronological List of Entries: individuals covered, arranged by birth year.
• Category Index: entries by area of achievement, from architecture to warfare.
• Geographical Index: entries by country or region.
• Personages Index: an index of all persons, both those covered in the essays and those additionally discussed within the text.
• Subject Index: a comprehensive index including personages, concepts, books, artworks, terms, battles, civilizations, and other topics of discussion, with full cross-references from alternative spellings and to the Category and Geographical Indexes.

Usage Notes
The worldwide scope of Great Lives from History resulted in the inclusion of many names and words that must be transliterated from languages that do not use the Roman alphabet, and in some cases, there is more than one transliterated form in use. In many cases, transliterated words in this set follow the American Library Association and Library of Congress (ALA-LC) transliteration format for that language. However, if another form of a name or word was judged to be more familiar to the general audience, it is used instead. The variants for names of essay subjects are listed in ready-reference top matter and are cross-referenced in the subject and personages indexes. The Pinyin transliteration was used for Chinese topics, with Wade-Giles variants provided for major names and dynasties. In a few cases, a common name that is not Pinyin has been used. Sanskrit and other South Asian names generally follow the ALA-LC transliteration rules, although again, the more familiar form of a word is used when deemed appropriate for the general reader.

Titles of books and other literature appear, upon first mention in the essay, with their full publication and translation data as known: an indication of the first date of publication or appearance, followed by the English title in translation and its first date of appearance in English; if no translation has been published in English, and if the context of the discussion does not make the meaning of the title obvious, a "literal translation" appears in roman type.

Throughout, readers will find a limited number of abbreviations used in both top matter and text, including "r." for "reigned," "b." for "born," "d." for "died," and "fl." for flourished. Where a date range appears appended to a name without one of these designators, the reader may assume it signifies birth and death dates.

Finally, in the regnal tables dispersed throughout the text, the reader will find some names appearing in small capital letters. These figures are covered in their own separate essays within these two volumes.

Contributors
Salem Press would like to extend its appreciation to all who have been involved in the development and production of this work. Special thanks go to Larissa J. Taylor, Associate Professor of History at Colby College, who pored over the contents list, maintaining its balance and relevance to the student audience throughout the process of acquisitions in order to ensure that the curriculum was addressed fully.

The essays were written by historians, political scientists, and scholars of regional studies as well as independent scholars. Without their expert contributions, a project of this nature would not be possible. A full list of contributors and their affiliations appears in the front matter of this volume.