Of contents: Vol. 1. General introductions ; The festivals for Henri III in Cracow, Venice, Orléans and Rouen ; Festivals in Genoa in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries ; Festivals in Poland-Lithuania from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century ; Festivals in the Netherlands -- Vol. 2. Festivals of the Protestant Union ; Festivals commemorating the defeat of Protestantism in La Rochelle ; Festivals in Scandinavia ; The New World : seventeenth-century festivals in the viceroyalties of Mexico and Peru.

This volume explores the dense networks created by diplomatic relationships between European courts and aristocratic households in the early modern age, with the emphasis on celebratory events and the circulation of theatrical plots and practitioners promoted by political and diplomatic connections. The offices of plenipotentiary ministers were often outposts providing useful information about cultural life in foreign countries. Sometimes the artistic strategies defined through the exchanges of couriers were destined to leave a legacy in the history of arts, especially of music and theatre. Ministers favored or promoted careers, described or made pieces of repertoire available to new audiences, and even supported practitioners in their difficult travels by planning profitable tours. They stood behind extraordinary artists and protected many stage performers with their authority, while carefully observing and transmitting precious information about the cultural and musical life of the countries where they resided.

This sixth volume in the European Festival Studies series stems from a joint conference (Venice, 2013) between the Society for European Festivals Research and the European Science Foundation’s PALATIUM project. Drawing on up-to-date scholarship, a Europe-wide group of early-career and experienced academics provides a unique account of spectacular occasions of state which influenced the political, social and cultural lives of contemporary societies. International pan-European turbulence associated with post-Reformation religious conflict supplies the context within which the book explores how the period’s rulers and élite families competed for power – in a forecast of today’s divided world.

This collection of interdisciplinary essays introduce the history and culture of the lands ruled by the sovereign house of Savoy during the late medieval and early modern periods, territories now part of France, Italy, and Switzerland. Because the Sabaudian realms were geographically, linguistically, and culturally diverse and did not evolve into a single modern nation-state, their early history has been overlooked by historians whose perspectives were often informed by a narrow, national framework. An international team of scholars offers new research that de-provincializes many of the existing rich scholarly assessments of the historical significance of these lands, which were important for rulers and subjects throughout early modern Europe. The volume explores the concept of “Sabaudian studies” and identifies historiographic developments and current trends in the field. Beginning with the geography and the history of the area, the essays examine Sabaudian political culture (diplomatic practice, judicial institutions, and political thought), dynastic representation (court festivals and celebrations, and the projection of dynastic prestige abroad, with attention to the sacred heritage of the house), and territorial domination (its fiscal, religious, feudal, and composite dimensions). Contributors include Eva Pibiri, Laurent Perrillat, Rebecca Boone, Alessandro Celi, Thalia Brero, Stéphane Gal and Preston Perluss, Michel Merle, Toby Osborne, Kristine Kolrud, Guido Alfani, Marco Battistoni, Matthew Vester, and Blythe Alice Raviola.

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.

Celebrated at the heart of a notoriously unstable period, the Vacant See, papal funerals in early modern Rome easily fell prey to ceremonial chaos and disorder. Charged with maintaining decorum, papal Masters of Ceremonies supervised all aspects of the funeral, from the correct handling of the papal body to the construction of the funeral apparato: the temporary decorations used during the funeral masses in St Peter?s. The visual and liturgical centre of this apparato was the chapelle ardente or castrum doloris: a baldachin-like structure standing over the body of the deceased, decorated with coats of arms, precious textiles and hundreds of burning candles. Drawing from printed festival books and previously unpublished sources, such as ceremonial diaries and diplomatic correspondence, this book offers the first comprehensive overview of the development of early modern funeral apparati. What was their function in funeral liturgy and early modern festival culture at large? How did the papal funeral apparati compare to those of cardinals, the Spanish and French monarchy, and the Medici court in Florence? And most importantly, how did contemporaries perceive and judge them? By the late sixteenth century, new trends in conspicuous commemoration had rendered the traditional papal funeral apparati in St Peter?s obsolete. The author shows how papal families wishing to honor their uncles according to the new standards needed to invent ceremonial opportunities from scratch, showing off dynastic resilience, while modelling the deceased?s memoria after carefully constructed ideals of post-Tridentine sainthood.

Queens of Poland are conspicuously absent from the study of European queenship—an absence which, together with early modern Poland’s marginal place in the historiography, results in a picture of European royal culture that can only be lopsided and incomplete. Katarzyna Kosior cuts through persistent stereotypes of an East-West dichotomy and a culturally isolated early modern Poland to offer a groundbreaking comparative study of royal ceremony in Poland and France. The ceremonies of becoming a Jagiellonian or Valois queen, analysed in their larger European context, illuminate the connections that bound together monarchical Europe. These ceremonies are a gateway to a fuller understanding of European royal culture, demonstrating that it is impossible to make claims about European queenship without considering eastern Europe.