{"title":"The Dominican Educational and Social Contexts of Riccoldo of Monte Croce’s Pilgrimage Writing","authors":"P. Booth","doi":"10.1215/10829636-8796246","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1215/10829636-8796246","url":null,"abstract":"Riccoldo of Monte Croce (ca. 1243–1320), Dominican friar, missionary, and pilgrim, was an accomplished author, but nature of his written corpus has been disputed by scholarship. For some, he is a noted anti-Islamic polemicist. For others, he is a quasi-tolerant traveler in the East. Yet past attempts to understand Riccoldo’s corpus have taken little notice of the priory of Santa Maria Novella, Florence, where he spent most of his life. This article begins to rectify this omission and signals new ways to understand Riccoldo by drawing on the work of historians, philologists, and codicologists. It assesses Riccoldo’s relationship to Santa Maria Novella’s library and its books. It also traces some of Riccoldo’s social relationships, demonstrating how his positions as a lecturer and preacher and his social connections with individuals like Remigio de’ Girolami influenced his writings. Overall, this study reemphasizes the fact that without understanding social contexts we can never properly understand the intentions of pilgrim-authors.","PeriodicalId":51901,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF MEDIEVAL AND EARLY MODERN STUDIES","volume":"14 1","pages":"49-78"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2021-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"65998621","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"New Books across the Disciplines","authors":"Michael E. Cornett","doi":"10.1215/10829636-8796294","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1215/10829636-8796294","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":51901,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF MEDIEVAL AND EARLY MODERN STUDIES","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2021-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"65998668","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Andrew Marvell in Russia","authors":"J. Hennings, Edward Holberton","doi":"10.1215/10829636-8626457","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1215/10829636-8626457","url":null,"abstract":"This article examines interactions between diplomatic representation, state bureaucracy, and rhetoric in early modern diplomacy. It analyzes manuscripts in the hand of the poet Andrew Marvell, which he wrote as secretary to the Earl of Carlisle’s 1663–64 embassy to Moscow. The manuscripts show how a battle over diplomatic ceremony and honor unfolded into disputes over the forms and decorum used in a lively exchange of diplomatic letters and written complaints. These texts were edited, translated, and published for English and international audiences by another embassy secretary, Guy Miège. The article traces the afterlife of the embassy letters in print, arguing that Marvell and Miège became central agents in shaping how the embassy was perceived at home and further afield. The wider context of public diplomacy drew from the secretaries’ considerable skill in framing diplomatic letters for consumption by different audiences. Early modern ambassadors performed rituals of sovereignty, symbolizing status and rank, but the complex art of diplomatic image-making was also directed by lower-ranking embassy personnel. Examining the relationship between bureaucratic practices and the performative nature of diplomacy, this article shows how secretaries exerted significant influence on the reception of early modern diplomatic relations.","PeriodicalId":51901,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF MEDIEVAL AND EARLY MODERN STUDIES","volume":"50 1","pages":"565-586"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2020-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48099418","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Apocalyptic Chivalry of Thomas Dekker’s The Whore of Babylon and Anglo-Spanish Diplomacy","authors":"Jeri Smith-Cronin","doi":"10.1215/10829636-8626493","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1215/10829636-8626493","url":null,"abstract":"Writing home to King Philip III from the Spanish embassy in London on November 1, 1619, Fray Diego de la Fuente proudly declared his part in suspending a revival of Thomas Dekker’s The Whore of Babylon (1606) due to its “thousands of blasphemies against the pope and Spain.” La Fuente, Gondomar’s London replacement from 1618 to 1620, was clearly intervening to protect Anglo-Spanish diplomatic interests at the height of the ongoing marriage negotiations between the Infanta Maria and Prince Charles. By 1619, English opposition to the “Spanish match” had become inextricably shaped by King James’s refusal to offer military support to his son-in-law, Frederick V, against the Catholic Habsburg invasion of Protestant Bohemia, a conflict interpreted in apocalyptic-chivalric terms. Originally responding to the Gunpowder Plot, the reappearance of Dekker’s play in 1619 encourages a broader analysis of its political message and appeal. This essay reads The Whore of Babylon in this wider European diplomatic context by placing it in conversation with contemporary political and theological treatises and diplomatic communications. Dekker’s play is also read as part of a wider theatrical tradition of post-Reformation apocalyptic drama and, more immediately, as participating in the extended print and performance history of the confessionally charged Jacobean history play. Combining an apocalyptic vision of history and chivalric language and imagery within a cultural framework of Elizabethan nostalgia, The Whore of Babylon became even more politically topical and sensitive in its 1619 revival than in its original context.","PeriodicalId":51901,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF MEDIEVAL AND EARLY MODERN STUDIES","volume":"50 1","pages":"633-657"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2020-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46346751","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Faction, Rhetoric, and Ideology","authors":"Hannah Coates","doi":"10.1215/10829636-8626076","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1215/10829636-8626076","url":null,"abstract":"From his appointment as principal secretary to Elizabeth I in 1573, Sir Francis Walsingham was instrumental in every sphere of English diplomacy. He was particularly interested in maintaining friendly relations with Scotland, though this was complicated by his suspicions of individual Scots, especially the king, James VI, who embarked on his personal rule after the execution of the last regent in 1581. Walsingham’s keen interest in Anglo-Scottish diplomacy was partly occasioned by his office, but more importantly by his own concerns about the implications a weak or hostile Scotland would have for England. His extensive network of contacts among both English and Scottish diplomatic personnel enabled him to exert influence over this area of policy. Walsingham’s view of Scotland and his preferred policy drew him into conflict with other members of Elizabeth’s government, who espoused a different policy and outlook and had their own networks of influence. Using particularly the acrimonious falling out between Walsingham and another privy councillor, Lord Hunsdon, over Scottish policy in 1584, this essay analyzes the influence of personalities, political allegiances, and ideological factors on the formation and implementation of England’s Scottish policy.","PeriodicalId":51901,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF MEDIEVAL AND EARLY MODERN STUDIES","volume":"50 1","pages":"493-513"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2020-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48418219","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Diplomatic Parrhesia and the Ethos of Trustworthiness in Hotman’s The Ambassador and Shakespeare’s Henry V","authors":"De Carles, Nathalie Rivere","doi":"10.1215/10829636-8626481","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1215/10829636-8626481","url":null,"abstract":"Sir Henry Wotton’s definition of an ambassador as “an honest man sent to lie abroad for the good of his country” should be confronted with his later assessment that the ambassador “should alwayes, and upon all occasions speak the truth … ’twill also put [his] Adversaries (who will still hunt counter) to a loss in all their disquisitions, and undertakings.” Wotton’s contrasting views point to the early modern concern with true, bold, and plain speech, known as parrhesia, and its importance in diplomatic practice. Combining Quentin Skinner’s rhetorical approach to political language and Timothy Hampton’s literary analysis of diplomacy, this essay examines Shakespeare’s mirror of diplomatic speech featured in Henry V (ca. 1599) in light of Jean Hotman’s reflections on parrhesia in The Ambassador (1603). Analyzing theoretical and dramatic views of parrhesiastic speech in early modern diplomacy, the essay argues for diplomatic parrhesia as a matter of trustworthiness rather than sincerity. Shakespeare introduces a new perspective on the ambassador’s speech and its function and on the capacity of authorities to hear truthful speech, while reasserting the political necessity of good parrhesia.","PeriodicalId":51901,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF MEDIEVAL AND EARLY MODERN STUDIES","volume":"50 1","pages":"609-631"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2020-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48709175","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Reading Diplomacy across the Archives","authors":"D. Sokolov","doi":"10.1215/10829636-8626469","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1215/10829636-8626469","url":null,"abstract":"This essay undertakes a cross-cultural interpretation of Giles Fletcher the Elder’s diplomatic mission to Muscovy (1588–89). It brings Fletcher’s official report on his embassy to the court of Emperor Fyodor in conversation with its Russian counterpart, in addition to placing these documents in the multifaceted context of early modern Anglo-Russian diplomatic ritual. Although Fletcher’s mission has always attracted the attention of scholars in different disciplines, it has not really been considered in light of diplomatic history. Meanwhile, both the English and Russian records of Fletcher’s embassy are preoccupied with diplomatic ritual, dedicating ample space to the choreography of official meetings, status symbols, gifts, acts of consumption, and corporeal semiotics. This essay examines two instances of breakdown in diplomatic protocol associated with Fletcher’s embassy: the alleged misuse of the emperor’s title by the English diplomat and the rejection of Elizabeth’s gifts by the Russian ruler. Focusing on the discrepancies between the English and Russian accounts of these frictions, the essay argues that the English embassy of 1588–89 was marked by a greater complexity and ambiguity regarding its strategies, tactics, objectives, successes, and failures than is often realized.","PeriodicalId":51901,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF MEDIEVAL AND EARLY MODERN STUDIES","volume":"50 1","pages":"587-608"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2020-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48249851","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Theological Polemics and James I’s Diplomacy, 1603–1617","authors":"R. Smuts","doi":"10.1215/10829636-8626088","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1215/10829636-8626088","url":null,"abstract":"Historians have typically represented James I as a king whose foreign policy was driven by a principled commitment to peace, religious reconciliation, and royal legitimacy that led him to avoid military engagement in confessional conflicts, notably the Thirty Years’ War. But his published writings on topics related to international politics and less formal pronouncements of principle in verbal discussions of European affairs have never received close contextual analysis. This essay examines how James deployed theoretical arguments in conducting diplomacy with other European states, especially France, in the period before the outbreak of the Thirty Years’ War. It argues that rather than basing policy decisions on principled convictions, he often deployed ideas strategically in efforts to justify and advance his own interests, and sometimes to mislead other statesmen about his true intentions. He did have some deep convictions, especially his abhorrence of theological justifications for rebellion and regicide, but even his efforts to combat such arguments were shaped by practical political calculations as well as purely theoretical concerns. Although he took ideas seriously, a closer examination of his record reveals him as a shrewd, flexible, and sometimes duplicitous royal politician, adept at fashioning high-minded justifications for self-interested maneuvers, rather than an idealistic scholar-statesman.","PeriodicalId":51901,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF MEDIEVAL AND EARLY MODERN STUDIES","volume":"50 1","pages":"515-539"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2020-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43519926","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Building Paper Embassies","authors":"J. Powell","doi":"10.1215/10829636-8626198","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1215/10829636-8626198","url":null,"abstract":"The late 1640s and 1650s in England witnessed a growing popular interest in letters of state, attested by collections such as Cabala, Mysteries of State, in Letters of the great Ministers of K. James and K. Charles (1653), which promises that ministers of state will be “presented naked, their Consultations, Designs, Policies … exposed to every mans eye.” Then in 1655, Cabala stationers Bedell and Collins arranged for the printing of another volume focused more closely on ambassadorial correspondence: The Compleat Ambassador, which centered on Queen Elizabeth’s potential marriage to successive ducs d’Anjou and negotiations that followed the abandonment of those marriages, as discussed in letters written in 1569–73 and 1581 by Francis Walsingham, Thomas Smith, Henry Norris, and others, often in correspondence with Lord Burghley. The title page describes the Ambassador as having been “Faithfully Collected by … Sir Dudly Digges Knight, late Master of the Rolls.” However, this survey of seventeen of the twenty-six or more extant manuscripts containing the same material raises questions about the work’s connection with Digges. The article shows how the printed book derived from letters that had been widely copied in manuscript long before their dissemination in print. It also discusses unique letters and passages that were omitted from the book and no longer survive in the State Papers. English diplomacy abroad built paper embassies at home, within England, well before the publication of this seminal volume in 1655.","PeriodicalId":51901,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF MEDIEVAL AND EARLY MODERN STUDIES","volume":"50 1","pages":"541-564"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2020-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43568898","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Ideologies of Diplomacy","authors":"J. Wong","doi":"10.1215/10829636-8626064","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1215/10829636-8626064","url":null,"abstract":"The publication in 2008 of John Watkins’s special issue for the Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies, “Toward a New Diplomatic History of Medieval and Early Modern Europe,” opened up the formal aspects of the ambassador’s office and official channels of diplomatic negotiation to a complex sociocultural landscape underlying the processes of diplomacy-in-the-making. The field of New Diplomatic History has since burgeoned. This current special issue hews closely to the cross-disciplinary nature of newer diplomatic history, and it responds to critical challenges that have recently emerged in scholarship, particularly the need to balance both breadth and depth of historical and cultural analysis. This volume considers how English institutional and sociocultural networks informed diplomatic practice in Elizabethan and Jacobean England, and how diplomatic thought, representation, and the forging of international relations were interpreted within various English communities. The collection takes special interest in how “ideologies of diplomacy” were formed, negotiated, and articulated within and beyond formal diplomatic spheres. Drawing on various elements of international relations theory, the essays address the ambiguous and contradictory elements of diplomatic reciprocity, explicating the tensions between diplomatic ambition and local governance.","PeriodicalId":51901,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF MEDIEVAL AND EARLY MODERN STUDIES","volume":"50 1","pages":"477-492"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2020-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43593567","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}