“…Focusing on Enlightenment Italy, France and England, it illustrates how the canonical view of eighteenth-century religious change has in reality been constructed upon scant evidence and assumption, in particular the idea that the thought of the enlightened led to modernity…”

“…Drawing from a variety of print and manuscript sources, including early modern drama, dictionaries, midwifery manuals, and women's autobiographies, this book argues that girlhood in Shakespeare's England was both a time of life and a form of gender transgression…”

“…In his diary written in English, he describes his childhood and youth in Altona, his first professional years in England and his daily life and long voyages in Peru and to Europe. …”

“…"Based on extensive archival research in Portugal, India, England, and France, this work provides the first monographic study of a crucial, yet hitherto ignored period in the history of Portugal's Asian empire: the years ca. 1640-1683. …”