Abstract
Many specialists in architectural history assign the beginning of an explicitly-articulated need for privacy to any time between the twelfth and nineteenth centuries, and they identify elements such as closets, hallways, and separate servant quarters as indicators of that need. Meanings assigned to privacy range from the retirement of the lord and lady from the great hall into the chamber, to the withdrawal of the nuclear family in the home, and to a psychological need of the individual human being to be alone. This paper examines the problem of privacy and its architectural manifestations using case-studies from sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Ireland.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
REFERENCES CITED
Abraham, A. S. K. (1991). Patterns of Landholding and Architectural Patronage in Late Medieval Meath, PhD thesis, Faculty of Arts, Queen's University, Belfast.
Airs, M. (1999). The Tudor and Jacobean Country House. A Building History, Sutton Publishing, Stroud.
Ariès, P., and Duby, G.<nt>(eds.)</nt> (1988). A History of Private Life II. Revelations of the Medieval World, Harvard University Press, Cambridge.
Ariès, P., and Duby, G.<nt>(eds)</nt>. (1989). A History of Private Life III. Passions of the Renaissance,Harvard University Press, Cambridge.
Austin, D. (1998). Private and public: An archaeological consideration of things. In Brunner, K. (ed.), Die Vielfalt der Dinge, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna, pp. 163–206.
Benjamin, W. (1978). Paris, capital of the nineteenth century. Reflections, pp. 146–149.
Benn, S. I., and Gaus, G. F. <nt>(eds.)</nt> (1983). Public and Private in Social Life, Croom Helm, London.
Briick, J. (1999). Ritual and rationality: Some problems of interpretation in European archaeology. European Journal of Archaeology 2(3): 313–344.
Carey, R. (1972). The Memoirs of Robert Carey, Clarendon Press, Oxford.
Castiglione, B. (2000). The book of the Courtier, Wordsworth Editions, Ware.
Cooper, N. (1997). The Gentry House in the age of transition. In Gaimster, D., and Stamper, P. (eds.), The Age of Transition. The Archaeology of English Culture 1400–1600, Oxbow, Oxford, pp. 115–126.
Cott, N. F. (1977). The Bonds of Womenhood: Women's Sphere in New England, 1780–1835, Yale University Press, New Haven.
Coulson, C. (2003). Castles in Medieval Society. Fortresses in England, France and Ireland in the Central Middle Ages, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Day, A. (1967) [1586]. The English Secretorie, The Scolar Press, Menston.
de Kool-Verhoog, C. C. (2002). Kasteel Ter Horst. Een Lagchend Landhuis in Loenen, Uitgeverij Stadsdrukkerij Blokzijl, Loenen.
Digby, K. (1968). Loose Fantasies, Edizioni Di Storia E Letteratura, Rome.
Elias, N. (1994). The Civilizing Process. Sociogenetic and Psychogenetic Investigations, Blackwell, Oxford.
Evelyn, J. (1895). The Diary of John Evelyn, Esq., F. R. S. From 1641 to 1705–6. With Memoir, Gibbings and Company, London.
Faulkner, P. A. (1958). Domestic planning from the 12th to the 14th centuries. Archaeological Journal 115: 150–183.
Faulkner, P. A. (1963). Castle planning in the 14th century. Archaeological Journal 120: 215–235.
Fenlon, J. (1996). Ormond Castle, The Stationery Office, Dublin.
Franklin, J. (1981). The Gentleman's Country House and Its Plan 1835–1914, Routledge, New York.
Friedman, A. T. (1989). House and Household in Elizabethan England. Wollaton Hall and the Willoughby Family, University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
Gerritsen, W. P. (2001). Hoofsheid herbeschouwd. In Den Boer (ed.), Beschaving. Een Geschiedenis van de Begrippen Hoofsheid Heusheid, Beschaving en Cultuur, Amsterdam University Press, Amsterdam, pp. 81–105.
Gernon, L. (1904). A discourse of Ireland. In Falkiner, C. L. (ed.), Illustrations of Irish History and Topography, Mainly of the 17th Century, Longmans and Green, New York, pp. 348–362.
Gilchrist, R. (1999). Gender and Archaeology: Contesting the Past, Routledge, New York.
Girouard, M. (1978). Life in the English Country House. A Social and Architectural History, Yale University Press, New Haven.
Hillier, B., and Hanson, J. (1984). The Social Logic of Space, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Hoby, M. (1998). The Private Life of an Elizabethan Lady. The Diary of Lady Margaret Hoby 1599– 1605, Sutton Publishing, Stroud.
Johnson, D. N. (1988). Portumna Castle: A little-known early survey and some observations. In Bradley, J. (ed.), Settlement and Society in Medieval Ireland: Studies Presented to Francis Xavier Martin, Boethus, Kilkenny, pp. 477–503.
Johnson, M. (1993). Housing Culture. Traditional Architecture in an English Landscape, University College London Press, London.
Johnson, M. (2002). Behind the Castle Gate: From Medieval to Renaissance, Routledge, New York.
Kroll, M. (1998). Letters From Liselotte: Elisabeth-Charlotte, Princess Palatine and Duchess of Orl ans, 'Madame' 1652–1722, Allison and Busby, London.
Leask, H. G. (1999). Irish Castles and Castellated Houses, Dundalgan Press, Dundalk.
Loughman, J. (2000). Public and Private Spaces: Works of Art in Seventeenth Century Dutch Art, Waanders, Zwolle.
Lowe, J. <nt>(ed.)</nt> (1983). Letter-Book of the Earl of Clanricarde 1643–47, Stationery Office for the Irish Manuscripts Commission, Dublin.
McNeill, T. (1996). English Heritage Book of Castles, Batsford/English Heritage, London.
McNeill, T. (2000). Castles in Ireland: Feudal Power in a Gaelic World, Routledge, New York.
Moryson, F. (1890). A description of Ireland. In Morley, H. (ed.), Ireland Under Elizabeth and James the First, Routledge, New York, pp. 411–430.
Neuschel, K. B. (1988). Noble households in the 16th century: Material settings and human commu-nities. French Historical Studies 15(4): 596–622.
O'Keeffe, T. (2001). Concepts of 'castle' and the construction of identity in medieval and post-medieval Ireland. Irish Geography 34(1): 69–88.
Pardailhé-Galabrun, A. (1991). The Birth of Intimacy. Privacy and Domestic Life in Early Modern Paris, University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia.
Power, D. (1992). Archaeological Inventory of County Cork, Vol. 1: West Cork, The Stationery Office, Dublin.
Power, D. (1994). Archaeological Inventory of County Cork, Vol. 2: East and South Cork, The Sta-tionery Office, Dublin.
Power, D. (1997). Archaeological Inventory of County Cork, Vol. 3: Mid Cork, The Stationery Office, Dublin.
Ranum, O. (1982/83). Inventing Private Space. Samuel and Mrs. Pepys at Home, 1660–1669. In Wapnewski, P. (ed.), Wissenschaftskolleg—Jahrbuch, Institute for Advanced Study, Berlin, pp. 259–276.
Rybczynski, W. (1988). Home. A Short History of an Idea, Heinemann, London.
Stewart, A. (1995). The early modern closet discovered. Representations 50: 76–100.
Sweetman, D. (1999). The Medieval Castles of Ireland, Collins Press, Cork.
Thomson, D. (1993). Renaissance Architecture: Critics, Patrons, Luxury, Manchester University Press, Manchester.
Thornton, P. (1981). Seventeenth-Century Interior Decoration in England, France and Holland, Yale University Press, New Haven.
Todd, J. (1986). Sensibility. An Introduction, Methuen, New York.
Walsh, P. (1948). The Life of Aodh Ruadh O Domhnaill, Educational Company of Ireland for the Irish Text Society, Dublin.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Ronnes, H. “A Solitary Place of Retreat”: Renaissance Privacy and Irish Architecture. International Journal of Historical Archaeology 8, 101–117 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1023/B:IJHA.0000043696.20362.e6
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/B:IJHA.0000043696.20362.e6