Court Cultures, 1000-1900. Experiences, Entanglements, Environments
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Edited by:
Dustin M. Neighbors
The series "Court Cultures, 1000–1900" invites interdisciplinary proposals – from disciplines such as, but not limited to, history, art history, literature, archaeology, political science and diplomacy, material culture, dress history, human-animal studies, and more – for innovative publications (monographs or edited volumes). With a wide chronological span (1000–1900) and global geographic scope, the series encourages contributions that deal with topics and themes related to and/or reexamine how court cultures were understood and experienced in practice. We particularly welcome projects that foreground the cultural, material, visual, and sensorial (i.e., smell, taste, sound, and touch) dimensions of courtly life, revealing how these experiences were fabricated, staged, negotiated, and embodied at court.
Manuscript proposals are encouraged from early career scholars and established researchers alike. They can be sent at any stage of a project, but ideally include one or two sample chapters and a detailed synopsis of the book.
All titles in the series undergo a double-blind peer-review process.
Author / Editor information
Editors:
Dustin M. Neighbors (University of Helsinki, Finland)
Patrik Pastrnak (University of Olomouc, Czech Republic)
Editorial Board:
Dries Raeymaekers (Radboud University Nijmegen, Netherlands)
José Eloy Hortal Muñoz (University Rey Juan Carlos, Spain)
Dana Dvořáčková (Malá) (Institute of History of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Czech Republic)
Cathleen Sarti (University of Oxford, UK)
Marc W.S. Jaffré (University of Groningen, Netherlands)
Topics
The field of court studies has increasingly examined the ways in which court cultures developed through the interplay between actors, institutions, and events. Yet, within court studies, how the material or sensorial elements impacted courtly experiences is underexplored. The consideration of various human interactions with their physical courtly environments emphasises not only how exceptional moments were described and felt at court, but also the everyday realities of life at the court for members, visitors and servants, including how the material and sensory encounters that took place at the court were created, managed, shaped and experienced.
Divided into 4 thematic sections, the collection encourages readers to think about the boundaries of courtly interactions and the various forms of courtly experiences of both men and women in new ways. The contributions are situated within the medieval and early modern period (1200-1800) and present a good geographic scope, including courts in Portugal, Bohemia, the Holy Roman Empire, Sweden, Italy, Luxembourg, the Poland-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Hungary and France.
Section 1 focuses on architectural and environmental spaces that facilitated courtly experiences including palaces, gardens and hunting grounds. Section 2 highlights the role that objects, artwork and colours played in characterising and shaping the various encounters at court. Building on the spatial and material aspects of the court, section 3 explores the sound and soundscapes of court settings that defined the identity of courtly figures and the ceremonial events at court. Finally, section 4 demonstrates categories of cultural courtly experiences – from courts on the move, expression of emotions, and interactions that cultivated cultural and intellectual transfer.
The collection offers interdisciplinary interpretations that urge us to reassesses not only how European courts cultures developed, but also how they were understood, lived and experienced. The contributions make us reconsider present-day understandings of the varied human experience and how these experiences influenced relationships, politics, and sociability within court cultures. Thus, the publication will fertilize the grounds for a discussion about the past and future of court studies research.
