Performing Diplomacy
in the Early Modern World
1st Edition
Published on 22. September 2025
731 pages
978-3-99094-146-1 (ISBN)
Description
Diplomacy is a performance. The stage is set on the streets and palaces that centre upon the spaces of political power. As this volume explores, 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 yielded to such an intensive flow of cultural exchange, 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 were both impresarii and lead actors. Understanding the ambassador as a cultural mediator is 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.
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Roberta Anderson | Reinhard Eisendle | Suna Suner
Performing Diplomacy in the Early Modern World
Book
08/2025
Hollitzer Wissenschaftsverlag
€88.00
Available immediately
Persons
Contributions by Cristina Agüero Carnerero | Maria Alberti | Teresa Chirico | María Concepcíon Gutiérrez Redondo | Miguel Conde Pazos | Camille Desenclos | Pilar Diez del Corral Corredoira | Cristina Fernandez | Maria sol García González | Vera Grund | Attila Györkös | Armando Fabio Ivaldi | Özgür Kolçak | Lars-Dieter Leisner | Elizabeth Montañez-Sanabria | Pierre Nevejans | Clemens Peck | John Plemmenos | Nathalie Rivere de Carles | Rostislav Smísek | Ondrej Lee Stolicka | Lenka Svandová Marsálková | Luis Tercero Casado | Matylda Urjasz-Raczko | Irena Veselá | Tiago Viúla de Faria | Philippa Woodcock | Yasir Yilmaz
Content
INTRODUCTION
I. THEATRES OF DIPLOMACY
The Drama of Tapestries:
A Theatrical History of Early Modern Diplomacy
Blackboxing Diplomacy: On Mimesis, Ghosts and
the Extraterritoriality of Sovereignty in Early Modern Drama
The Sage on the Stage: The Image of the Perfect Ambassador in Diplomatic Manuals and Opera Libretti in Early Modern Europe
Fandom or Cultural Diplomacy?
Giacomo Durazzo's Theatre Mission in Venice (1764-1772)
II. THE ROMAN STAGE
Staging the Marriage and Coronation of Emperor Frederick III Habsburg
and Eleonora of Avis (Rome, 1452): A Survey of the Portuguese Sources
The Display of Otherness: Two Polish-Lithuanian Diplomats
on Their Missions to the Mediterranean World:
Rome and Madrid (1627-1647)
The Admiral of Castile's Embassy of Obedience to Innocent X
and the Two Cavalcades Performed in Rome (1646)
'The Queens Carpet':
Religious Performance and the Fight for Diplomatic Precedence
in Early Eighteenth-century Rome
"Una basilica diventata teatro":
Santa Maria in Aracoeli and the Political Ambitions
of José Maria de Fonseca of Évora in Eighteenth-century Rome
III. VENICE - FLORENCE - GENOA
Spectacles to Forging Common Identity:
The Myth of Troy and the Franco-Venetian-Hungarian Alliance (1502)
Middle Eastern Guests in Florence during
the Age of Grand Duke Cosimo II (r.1609-1620)
L'Effimero barocco: da metafora del potere a sperimentazione dell'artista.
Alcuni esempi genovesi fra sei e settecento
IV. THE IMPERIAL COURT
Ceremonial Entries as Political Performance:
The Duke of Angoulême's Embassy to the Holy Roman Empire (1620-1621)
From the Shores of Ragusa to the Eastern Crossroads of the Habsburgs:
The Paradigm of the Cleric-agent Allegretto Allegretti
Foreign Diplomats at the Imperial Court during the Reign of Leopold I (r.1658-1705) through the Eyes of the Highest Court Dignitaries
An Imperial Diplomat at the Beginning of His Career:
Dominik Andreas Count of Kaunitz during the 1680s and the Early 1690s
V. IMPERIAL EMBASSIES TO THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE
Imperial Ambassador Walter Leslie's
Embassy to Adrianople and Constantinople (1665-1666)
The Last Habsburg Peace Attempt in Istanbul
before the Second Ottoman Siege of Vienna (1683)
VI. SPANISH DIPLOMATIC STRATEGIES
The Performance of Diplomacy through the Contemporary Texts:
The Extraordinary Embassy of the Duke of Feria to Paris in 1610
Ambassadors, Informers, Spies and the Spanish Secrecy
about the Indies in the Seventeenth Century
Ceremonial Entry of the Imperial Ambassador Paul Sixt II Trautson (1635-1678) to Madrid in the Year 1677
VII. PARISIAN DIPLOMATIC STAGES
"Sono fastiditi per non saper più trovar nuove invenzioni di farsi":
Masquerades and Diplomatic Performance at the Court of François I
The Ambassadors' Fireworks Parties:
Public and Private Performance in Bourbon Paris
Performing Posthumous Homage to the Ambassador:
Two "Oraisons Funèbres" to Abel Servien (1659)
VII. MUSIC AND DIPLOMACY:
ROME - VIENNA - DRESDEN - MUNICH - PRAGUE
«Magnificenza è figlia di sovruman costume»:
L'ambasciatore cesareo Johann Wenzel von Gallas, patrocinatore della
serenata Sacrificio a Venere di Giovanni Bononcini (Roma, 1714)
The Habsburg Succession Addressed on the Operatic Stage:
The Court Operas Teofane (Dresden 1719), Adelaide (Munich 1722)
and Costanza e Fortezza (Prague 1723)
The Power of Music and the Performance of Portuguese Diplomacy:
Roman Festivities in Honour of Infante Alexandre's Birth (1724)
under the Patronage of André de Melo e Castro
IX. APPENDIX
Names
Places
