Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities Journal

The cultural object known as “sweet purses” was fabricated and rose in popularity in England during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries for its ability to supersede extravagance restrictions in a Post-Reformation court culture and support ideas within early modern neuroscience. This paper explores the cultural shifts and interest in early modern neuroscience and the influence of the soul that are truly responsible for the nature and being of sweet purses, despite often being examined in current collections purely for their visual appeal. Discussing the interest and consequent belief in ideologies such as imagination and humoral theory better explicates the impact and importance that sweet purses had within English court life and often why these objects were able to circumvent the regulations of sumptuary laws. This paper examines the construction and use of sweet purses to best understand the inner workings of early modern English court culture in the aspect of theocratic court functions, the intersection between religious values and developments within scientific spaces, and how the conversation between these territories can be reflected within physical objects.