ABSTRACT
At first sight, as is well known, there is little reason in making comparisons; as Henry James pertinently observed in Italian Hours: Venice an Early Impression: ‘comparisons are odious’. One might think that a comparative study of fireworks from the early modern period would confirm this idea, if their spectacular and popular ‘explosive’ character were only taken into account. If, however, they are studied in a more comprehensive way, in the context of other festival elements, then they emerge as very significant forms. The technical aspects of fireworks, for instance, involved transferable knowledge: a French, English or German gunner, using the same materials, could easily exchange their expertise. Printed treatises display more or less the same practices; and painted manuscripts offered to German princes, for example, repeat the same themes: exploding castles, rocks and towers; men, animals and monsters fighting each other; rockets and fires ready to shoot into the skies. Nevertheless, at a time when the connections between fireworks and military activity were so close, even the smallest differences take on particular significance.1
