Fictions of Embassy: Literature and Diplomacy in Early Modern Europe (original) (raw)
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Diplomacy and Culture in the Early Modern World, Oxford. 31 July to 1 August 2014
The conference builds upon the recent ‘cultural turn’ in diplomatic studies that has seen more innovative, interdisciplinary approaches to a subject that was once viewed in heavily bureaucratic and constitutional terms. Scholars are increasingly appreciating the importance of ritual and other forms of symbolic communication in diplomatic practices and the role of diplomatic processes in cultural exchanges. Diplomats were important political brokers whose actions could have profound implications for international relations, but they played an equally important role in the transfer and adaptation of cultural ideas and artefacts through their activities as cultural agents, authors and brokers. The profound impact of diplomacy on culture in this period is, moreover, seen in the increasing prominence of representations of diplomacy in literature and a range of other media. The aim of this conference is to further our understanding of early modern diplomatic practices, of the dynamics of diplomatic exchanges both within and without Europe, and how diplomatic ideas and practices interacted with other cultural and political processes. The keynote lecture ‘Diplomacy as a Social Practice: Recent Research Perspectives’ was delivered by Professor Christian Windler (Bern). The conference featured two panel discussions: one on the impact of the ‘diplomatic moment’ and another on future directions in diplomatic studies. Papers and panels addressed aspects of diplomatic culture in Europe and the wider world including gender, gifts, material culture, the dissemination of information, archival practices, international law, cross cultural exchanges and translation, as well as the impact of diplomacy on literary writing and representations of diplomacy. The paper abstracts are available at: http://www.textualambassadors.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/abstracts1.pdf
CALL FOR PAPERS: THE PERFORMANCE OF DIPLOMACY IN THE EARLY MODERN WORLD - An International Symposium
Diplomacy is a performance. The stage is set on the streets and palaces that centre upon the spaces of political power. The audience is made up of the prince and the court, the pope and the curia, the emperor and the diet, the doge and the senate, the sultan and his viziers. The cast is composed of the diplomats, each grasping for attention, each vying to out-do the other. They follow a plot formed of ceremony and etiquette that defines the spheres of interaction and elevates the smallest issues in precedence and protocol to the status of grave insults and greater rivalries. As this conference will explore, diplomacy as 'spectacle' is no mere metaphor for political interaction, but an elevation of how it was practiced as performance. No other activity in the early modern world allowed for such a cultural exchange to flow, artistic endeavour to be patronised, or expense to be lavished on the aggrandisement of events, entertainments, and festivities. Indeed, these efforts were orchestrated: the ambassadors themselves were both impresarii and lead actors. Ceremonial entries, banquets, masquerade balls, commissions of music or dramatic pieces, naumachie, and festivities of all kinds provided diplomats with the means to display their own value and merit, influence others, and to obtain prestige and standing as a mode to succeed in their negotiations and missions. Comprehending the ambassador as a cultural mediator is more than just conceiving of the diplomatic agent as a conduit of exchange: it is instead the recognition of the power of diplomatic activity to transform culture through the process of mediation, and more, the appreciation of the sphere of diplomatic mediation as a most fertile ground for cultural invention and innovation, the legacies of which are still felt today.
Whereas recent scholarship has analysed and theorized the practice of public diplomacy in modern international relations, early modern diplomacy is still often thought of in terms of peer-to-peer interaction and secrecy. This article seeks to show that public diplomacy was a central aspect of early modern international relations as well. While examining how, when, and why early modern diplomats communicated with foreign audiences, it argues that early public diplomacy opened up spaces for public debate and created transnational issues, and is therefore central to the history of news and the development of the public sphere. Free view for first 50 viewers: http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/xB63c9cFE2PieWhPqVYv/full Regular URL accessible only for (institutional) subscribers: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13688804.2016.1174570
e-journal of Portuguese History, vol. 17, n.1, 2019
Diplomatic correspondence and the information transmitted through letters of instruction, which gave diplomats the necessary support for the performance of their duties, have become a highly important subject in the study of medieval diplomacy. In documents of this type, we can find some quite remarkable and valuable information about what could or could not be said in diplomatic contexts, outlining the rituals, attitudes, and procedures that a diplomat was required to adopt in the course of his international mission. Together with the letters of instruction, diplomats also carried with them letters of credence (commonly known as credentials). These were the documents that the various monarchs gave to their legitimate representatives, and which were designed to be presented at the courts visited by each diplomatic mission. These letters were essential for guaranteeing the correct conduct of negotiations, since, besides presenting the diplomats and expressing the wish that they be afforded credence in their role, these documents also explained the purpose of their missions. Thus, letters of instruction and credence are fundamental tools that enable historians to complete the picture of external relations through the description that they provide of other aspects of communication and symbolic representation, which sometimes tend to go unnoticed in different types of documents. In order to better understand certain fundamental aspects of this analysis, we complemented the information obtained from the aforementioned documentation with data from other documentary sources that indicate some of the protocols that were used in dealings with princes and kings of other realms, as well as the specific characteristics that some of the royal counsellors should have. Keywords Letter of instruction; letter of credence; diplomacy; ambassador; protocol; Middle Ages Resumo A correspondência e troca de informações, através das cartas de instrução que davam o suporte necessário à atuação de um diplomata, constitui um tema da maior 1 A first version of this work was presented at Splendid
A Multitude of Actors in Early Modern Diplomacy
Journal of early modern history, 2019
This special issue has been motivated by the drive to contextualize the role of individuals of various backgrounds in early modern foreign relations. All contributions cover a broad geographic scope and stress the impact of non-European practices and stages for the study of early modern foreign relations. Four thematic articles follow diverse diplomatic actors, ranging from non-elite envoys to chartered companies, Catholic friars and ministers on ships, to foreign courts, and behind their desks. They provide insights into these individual actors' functions and achievements and raise questions about social belonging and knowledge channels. The introduction below portrays the development of an actor-oriented research angle in the field of New Diplomatic History over the past decades and addresses blurring concepts and over-generalizations. It attempts to redefine the heterogeneous group of early modern diplomatic actors as products of their involvement in political and material struggles, both at home and abroad.
European Diplomatic Gifts, Sixteenth-Eighteenth Centuries: Guest Editor's Introduction
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