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The   Politics   of   Paper   in   the   early   modern   world
9-10 JUNE 2016,  Groningen,  The  Netherlands

Register for the Conference

For questions about registration, the registration module, travel or accommodations please contact the
Groningen Congresbureau (infoATgcb.nl). Please mention the conference name in your email.

For a downloadable program (pdf), click here or scroll to bottom.
For further information email politicsofpaperATgmail.com.

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Van Swinderen Huys & Academiegebouw
Conference venue: Van Swinderen Huys, Oude Boteringestraat 19
Workshop venue: Academiegebouw, Broerstraat 5, rooms A2 & A3
Cocktails venue: GRID Grafisch Museum Groningen, Sint Jansstraat 2
Conference dinner: Restaurant 't Feithhuis, Martinikerkhof 10
Excursion venue: De Schoolmeester paper mill, Westzaan
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GRID Grafisch Museum Groningen & Restaurant 't Feithhuis
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De Schoolmeester
                                                                                                                                                      Pre-Conference                                                                                                                                 Optional Hands-On Workshops!
Wednesday, 8 June 2016                                            
Academiegebouw, Broerstraat 5, Groningen
Register to attend via the conference website. There is no charge for these workshops.
 
19.00-21.00             Strokes on the Paper: Early Modern Calligraphy Workshop (room A2)
                                         Diego Navarro Bonilla (University Carlos III of Madrid, Spain)

                                         Always wanted to try your hand at medieval or early modern scripts? Ever wondered
                                                  what the creation of the documents you study entailed? How did early modern scribes
                                                  do it? Can you do it? This calligraphy workshop offers a hands-on approach to the                                                  materiality of early modern writing on paper. Participants will have the opportunity to                                                        learn and practice three key medieval and early modern scripts: Carolingian, Gothic,                                                             Textura, and Humanistic Cursive. For more information see  www.diegonavarrobonilla.com.
 
19.00-21.00            Signed, Sealed, and Undelivered: Early Modern Letterlocking  (room A3)                                                    David van der Linden (University of Groningen, The Netherlands)

                                         Hidden away in the vaults of the Museum voor Communicatie in The Hague lies a trunk                                                     containing 3,000 letters written mostly in French and despatched to The Hague between                                                   1680 and 1706, none of which were ever delivered. The trunk and its contents belonged                                                     to Simon de Brienne and his wife Maria Germain, jointly responsible for delivering all mail                                                 from France. The trunk opens up new and exciting possibilities for historical research,                                                      exploring not just the letters’ contents, but also their material form. As the letters have                                                      been preserved in their folded state, we are able to study the manifold ways of folding and                                                document security in the early modern period – what is called “letterlocking.” This                                                      workshop will introduce the history of this “accidental archive,” the figure of Simon de                                                     Brienne, and the international postal network that connected The Hague to France.                                                     Central will be a hands-on workshop on “letterlocking” practices, inviting participants to                                                     write, fold, and seal their own letters based on original formats from the Brienne                                                                     collection.









conference schedule

Thursday 9 June 2016
Van    Swinderen    Huys,   Oude   Boteringestraat   19,   Groningen

8.30-9.00                      Coffee & Registration (Brasserie/Patio)
 
9.00-9.30                      Welcome (Glazen Zaal)
                                              1) Prof. dr. Gerry Wakker, Dean of the Faculty of Arts (University of  Groningen)
                                              2) Megan K. Williams (University of Groningen)
 
9.30-10.30                  Plenary I: Theme Paper as Circulating Material Artifact (Glazen Zaal)                       
                                          
                                           Jonathan Bloom, Norma Jean Calderwood University Professor of Islamic and Asian Art,                                                  Boston College and Hamad bin Khalifa Endowed Chair in Islamic Art, Virginia                                                 Commonwealth University, USA
 
10.30-11.00                Coffee (Brasserie/Patio)
                                            MA Student Poster Presentations (Glazen Zaal)







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Prof. Jonathan Bloom
11.00-12.30              Panels I
 I.-A. The Politics of the Paper Trade (Glazen Zaal)
Chair: Prof. dr. Raingard Esser (Dept. of History, University of Groningen)

  • Maria Stieglecker (Austrian Academy of Sciences, Austria), Paper, scribes and books at the Council of Basel

  • Caroline Fowler (Getty Research Institute, USA), Albrecht Dürer and carta turchina

  • Daniel Bellingradt (University of Erlangen, Germany), Amsterdam’s paper networks and the book industry of the 18th century. A case-study on the business activities of an Amsterdam paper dealer
 
I.-B. Paper Letters: Materiality and Epistolarity (Bestuurskamer)
Chair: Prof. dr. Sabrina Corbellini (Dept. of History, University of Groningen)

  • Henk Porck (independent scholar, The Netherlands), A Study into the   value of letter folds

  • Hwisang Cho (Xavier University, USA), Spiral letters: Paper, gender, and languages in early modern Korean epistolary culture

  • Johanna Feenstra (University of Groningen, The Netherlands), The   materiality of early modern women's letters
I.-C. Company Paper 
(Club Lounge)
 Chair: Dr. Ya-Pei Kuo (Dept. of History,          University of Groningen)

  • Anjana Singh (University of Groningen), Lost between priest and paper: Political power and useful knowledge in early modern India

  • Asheesh Kapur Siddique (Columbia University, USA), Mobilizing paperwork in an age of imperial war: John Bruce, the East India Company, and the imperial archive in the era of the French Wars

  • Frank Birkenholz (University of Groningen), Paper, pepper and merchant-princes: the Dutch East India Company’s paper politics in the seventeenth century
12.30-14.00            Lunch (Brasserie/Patio)
 
14.00-15.00            Plenary II: Theme Paper in the News, Post & Epistolary Cultures (Glazen Zaal)
                                       
                                       The Taming of White Space
                                        Andrew Pettegree, Prof. of Modern History and Director of the Universal Short Title                                                 Catalogue,  University of St Andrews, Scotland, UK
 
15.00-15.30            Coffee (Brasserie/Patio)
                                        MA Student Poster Presentations (Glazen Zaal)


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Prof. Andrew Pettegree
15.30-17.00            Panels II
II.-A. Plotting on Paper: the Politics of Placards, Pamphlets and the Post                  (Bestuurskamer)
Chair: Dr. John Flood (Dept. of English, University of Groningen)
                                   
  • Arthur der Weduwen (University of St Andrews, Scotland, UK), "To all who may read or hear this, greetings". The politics of placards in the Dutch Revolt

  • Brooke Palmieri (University College London, UK), Pestilence, pamphleteering and the archive

  • Stefanie Koscak (Wake Forest University, USA), Paper fictions: the Penny Post and conspiratorial politics in Restoration England
II.-B.  Princely Power on Paper                 (Glazen Zaal)
Chair: Prof. dr. Luis Lobo-Guerrero (Dept. of International Relations, University of Groningen)
                                   
  • Yanay Israeli (University of Michigan, USA), From orders to artifacts: A processual view of royal records and its contribution to the study of the Castilian state

  • Giacomo Giudici (Birkbeck, University of London, UK), Deploying paper as a performance of power: The strategies of Francesco II Sforza (1522-1535) as a case-study to rethink early modern political-administrative correspondence

  • Tracey Sowerby (Keble College, University of Oxford, UK), English royal letters and diplomatic ceremony
II-C. 'State' Papers and Archival Origins (Club Lounge)
Chair: Prof. dr. Goffe Jensma (Dept. of Frisian Language and Literature, University of Groningen)

  • Devin Fitzgerald (Harvard University, USA), The Manchu origins of China's last imperial archives

  • Ron Makleff (University of California-Berkeley, USA), The Taxis post and the Habsburg mobile archive in the sixteenth century

  • Kira von Ostenfeld-Suske (Columbia University, USA), "The king's library of manuscripts": Philip II, his secret papers of state, and his library as archive


17.00-17.45            Keynote I (Glazen Zaal)
                                       "Burn after reading": Paper and the rise of resident diplomacy in early modern Europe           
                                        Megan K. Williams (University of Groningen)
 
18.15-19.15            Cocktails at the Grafisch Museum Groningen (GRID)
                                       This reception is generously sponsored by the University of Groningen, the Municipality of Groningen                                                 and the Province of Groningen.


Friday   10   June    2016
Van   Swinderen   Huys,   Oude   Boteringestraat   19,   Groningen

8.30-9.00            Coffee and Registration (Brasserie/Patio)
 
9.00-10.00        Plenary III: Theme Paper in Governance, Diplomacy, and Information-Management (Glazen Zaal)
                                
                                 How Colbert Kept the Books: Paperwork and the Mechanics of the French Absolutist State
                                 Jacob Soll, Prof. of History and Accounting, University of Southern California, USA
 
10.00-10.30     Coffee (Brasserie/Patio)
                                 MA Student Poster Presentations (Glazen Zaal)
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Prof. Jacob Soll
10.30-12.00            Panels III
III-A. Consuming Paper in the City             (Bestuurskamer)
Chair: Prof. dr. Catrien Santing (Dept. of History, University of Groningen)

  • Tapio Salminen (University of Tampere, Finland), The introduction of paper in the communication and written management of information in the Council of Reval (Tallinn), ca. 1348-75
 
  • Jeroen Benders (University of Groningen, The Netherlands), Voir i boeck pappyrs. Uses and using up of paper in late medieval towns: Deventer and Zutphen (eastern Netherlands) in the 14th-15th centuries
 
  • Sundar Henny (University of Cambridge, UK/Swiss National Science Foundation), Powerful even if unread and undecipherable: Papers in early modern Zurich
III.-B. Information Management on the Paper Page  (Club Lounge)
Chair: Prof. dr. Mark Thompson (Dept. of American Studies, University of Groningen)
  • Diego Navarro Bonilla (University Carlos III of Madrid, Spain), Writing beauty, finding contents: Calligraphic displays as visual orientations in Spanish documents and registers (15th-18th centuries)

  • Jeroen Claassens (University of Groningen, The Netherlands) Divergent Diplomatic Diaries: Paper Use and Information Management in the Diary of Daniël-Jan de Hochepied, ca. 1677-1680

  • Joop Koopmans (University of Groningen, The Netherlands), The Paper Politics of Early Modern Dutch Newspapers
III.-C. Governance and Paper(work) (Glazen Zaal)
Chair: Prof. dr. W.J. van Bekkum (Dept. of Middle Eastern Studies, University of Groningen)
  • Paul Dover (Kennesaw State University, USA), Politics of Paper and Paper of Politics. Inscribing Statecraft

  • Quinten Somsen (Leiden University, The Netherlands), Government by Paper: Disciplining State Officials in 17th-Century Bavaria

  • Edward Adamo (University of Toronto, Canada), The Ottoman way: Information and governance in the 17th century
12.00-13.30            Lunch (Brasserie/Patio)
 
13.30-15.00            Plenary IV: Theme Paper in the Archives and in Archival Practices (Glazen Zaal)
                                      
                                        Roundtable on Paper in the Archives and in Archival Practices
                                            Eric Ketelaar (University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands)
                                            Diego Navarro Bonilla (University Carlos III of Madrid, Spain)
                                            Hilde de Weerdt (Leiden University, The Netherlands)
 
15.00-15.30         Coffee (Brasserie/Patio)
                                     MA Student Poster Presentations (Glazen Zaal)


15.30-17.00            Panels IV
IV-A. Disposable Memories?: Keeping & Destroying Paper    (Glazen Zaal)
Chair: Drs. Gerda C. Huisman (Curator, Special Collections, University Library, University of Groningen)
  • Alberto Cevolini (University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Italy), "Uti saepius è charta sapere, ita etiam saepissime è charta meminisse ac recordari cogimur". Paper as Forgetting Device in Early Modern Europe
  
  • John Gagné (University of Sydney, Australia), The paper sensibility: ways to think about the interrelated histories of time and paper
 
  • Tom Toelle (University of Cambridge, UK/Princeton University, USA),  Futures on paper: How Charles VI claimed a new future by destroying the old (1715-8)
IV-B. Paper Propaganda: Managing Memory in Political Books                                     (Bestuurskamer)
Chair: A.D.M. van de Haar (Dept. of Historical Dutch Literature, University of Groningen)
  • Annalisa Dameri (Politecnico di Torino, Italy), The paper war. An epic campaign celebration
 
  • Stefania Gargioni (University of Kent, UK/Freie Universität, Ger.), French political books translated into English in the sixteenth and early seventeenth century: Collaboration, exchanges and circulations of paper
 
  • Lisa Kattenberg (University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands), The paper mosaic. Organizing information and the making of Virgilio Malvezzi's Sucesos principales de la monarchia de España (1640)
IV-C. War & Peace... and Paper                    (Club Lounge)
Chair: TBA
  • Erik Thomson (University of Manitoba, Canada), Arms dealers, information, and diplomacy in the Thirty Years War

  • Markus Laufs (University of Bonn, Germany), The art of translating. Papers and their conveyance as instrument of early modern peace mediation

  • Carolina Esteves Soares (University of Lisbon, Portugal), Information as the ex libris of diplomatic missions. The importance of diplomats in gathering intelligence and their influence on political decisions (1668-1683)

17.00-18.00            Concluding Keynote (Glazen Zaal)
                                        Lothar Müller, Humboldt-Universität / Süddeutsche Zeitung, Germany
 
18.00-18.15            Concluding Remarks & Discussion of Publication Plans (Glazen Zaal)
                                        Megan K. Williams (University of Groningen, The Netherlands)
 
18.30-                        Conference Dinner
                                       Restaurant 't Feithhuis, Martinikerkhof 10, Groningen
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Lothar Müller

Saturday, 11 June 2016
Optional    excursion     to    the     17th-century     paper-mill
De Schoolmeester

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7.30                               Bus departure from Groningen, Grote Markt (by VVV Tourist Bureau)
                                         Division into two groups of up to 25 persons
 
10.00                            Arrival at De Schoolmeester, Westzaan
 
10.00-11.00            Tour of De Schoolmeester -- Group 1
10.15-10.45            Coffee and Cake at De Prins restaurant, Westzaan -- Group 2
 
11.00-12.00            Tour of De Schoolmeester -- Group 2
11.15-11.45            Coffee and Cake at De Prins restaurant, Westzaan -- Group 1
 
11.45                           Bus collects both groups and departs for Schiphol Airport
 
12.15/12.30            Arrival Schiphol Airport & Train Station
                                        (connections to flights, national/international trains)
                                   
                                        Sack lunch provided in bus for those returning to Groningen
 
ca. 15.30                   Arrival back in Groningen , Grote Markt (by the VVV Tourist Bureau)