ABSTRACT
Practices of Diplomacy in the Early Modern World offers a new contribution to the ongoing reassessment of early modern international relations and diplomatic history. Divided into three parts, it provides an examination of diplomatic culture from the Renaissance into the eighteenth century and presents the development of diplomatic practices as more complex, multifarious and globally interconnected than the traditional state-focussed, national paradigm allows.
The volume addresses three central and intertwined themes within early modern diplomacy: who and what could claim diplomatic agency and in what circumstances; the social and cultural contexts in which diplomacy was practised; and the role of material culture in diplomatic exchange. Together the chapters provide a broad geographical and chronological presentation of the development of diplomatic practices and, through a strong focus on the processes and significance of cultural exchanges between polities, demonstrate how it was possible for diplomats to negotiate the cultural codes of the courts to which they were sent.
This exciting collection brings together new and established scholars of diplomacy from different academic traditions. It will be essential reading for all students of diplomatic history.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
part I|72 pages
Status and sovereignty beyond the state
chapter 1|19 pages
Burgundian clients in the south-western Holy Roman Empire, 1410–1477
chapter 2|21 pages
Transylvanian envoys at Buda
chapter 3|15 pages
The city whose ‘ships sail on every wind’
chapter 4|15 pages
Staged sovereignty or aristocratic values?
part II|90 pages
Familiarity, entertainment, and the roles of diplomatic actors
chapter 5|17 pages
Wondrous welcome
chapter 6|16 pages
Sincerity, sterility, scandal
chapter 7|17 pages
‘Minister-like cleverness, understanding, and influence on affairs’
chapter 8|19 pages
The Dutch merchant-diplomat in comparative perspective
part III|81 pages
Objects and beasts