The Age of Age. The Rise of Calendar Age and Sociopolitical Age Consciousness in Early Modern Germany and Italy, c. 1650 to 1850

ongoing

Modern Western societies have coalesced around one way of thinking about human age: Calendar age (i.e. the number of years since birth), which shapes both how we think about age-related behavioural norms and how we define, for example, access to retirement benefits. Despite its unrivalled importance, calendar age has come under critical scrutiny amid recent debates on ageism. In line with historical notions of gender or class, it becomes increasingly clear that calendar age is not a 'neutral number', but an impactful social category. When did calendar age rise to become such ubiquitous category and which factors contributed to this? How did ‘early modern age consciousness’ function before the rise of calendar age? The project studies these two questions at the example of southern Germany and northern Italy between 1650 and 1850. Based on a sample of burial records, it shows how between the early Enlightenment and the onset of the Industrial era reporting one's age in calendar years became increasingly common, as calendar age grew into a category to identify people. Driven by Enlightenment notions of accuracy, a significant share of early modern populations could report their age in calendar years. This rise of calendar age supplanted an early modern age consciousness, in which alternative ways of age reporting coexisted, and whose degrees of accuracy depended on the specificities of context. The project studies one such context to show how early notions of accuracy were culturally motivated and how information about birthdates and baptisms could actually be retrieved. To enter guilds in early modern Italy and Germany, young men had to prove their legitimate birth, forcing them to research its circumstances and provide written documentation. This production of 'birth certificates' will be analyzed by comparison of an German and Italian city. By historicizing calendar age, the project contributes to the fight against ageism and reflections on age-based norms.