Early modern sport

The "early modern" has always suffered problems of periodization. Its beginnings overlap with the Late Middle Ages when sport and athletic exercise were moving away from military training. It encompasses the Renaissance, Reformation, and Counter-Reformation and the scientific shifts of the Age of Enlightenment, movements that were diverse chronologically, geographically, culturally and intellectually. Some historians link its beginnings to block-printing, the beginning of the Tudor period, or the rediscovery of America in the late 15th century; others trace it to the early sixteenth century and the Reformation. Its end dates are equally problematic. The French Revolution is sometimes used, as are the nebulous beginnings of the Industrial Revolution. Its sporting source material is likewise challenging: simultaneously rich yet also fragmentary and patchy with many silences and biases. Sport was rarely a main focus of discussion. Even so, different discourses indicate that sporting and other leisure activities, in complex cultural combinations, were becoming more apparent across the period. Such sources reflected the intellectual interests of the male leisured elite, helping to legitimate their leisure time and practices.