Policy on the Use of Language
This book cites from historical sources written in a range of early modern European languages: French, English, Dutch, Italian, German, and Latin. To make the present research accessible to as wide a readership as possible, English translations of foreign sources are used throughout the body of this book. All translations are mine unless otherwise specified. However, to provide insight into the original texts and bring attention to the multilingual nature of early modern diplomatic culture, foreign quotations have been moved into the footnotes.
Policy on the Spelling of Original Quotations
The spelling of quotations will be that of the book, edition, or manuscript referred to. This means that also in quotations from early modern manuscripts or printed books the forms of the letters i and j, u and v, the ampersand, and superscript letters have not been normalised to modern usage, except for the long s (Å¿ or Å¿) to avoid obvious confusion with the letter f. It is thus hoped that the reader will gain a more accurate understanding of the original sources and theirâoftenâidiosyncratic spelling. Abbreviated words, moreover, have been written out in italics. âMteâ, for instance, will be rendered as âMajesteâ (âmajestyâ), and âambassadrsâ as âambassadeursâ (âambassadorsâ). The titles for early modern printed sources, finally, have been italicised throughout this book, whereas the titles of manuscripts and short treatises or pamphlets have been put between inverted commas.
Policy on the Use of Old and New Style Dates
Since the reform of the calendar by Pope Gregory XIII (1502â1585) in 1582, two systems of dating existed in Europe: the Old (o. s.) and New Style (n. s.). England and the German Protestant states refused to implement the Gregorian or New Style calendar and thus continued to use the Julian or Old Style calendar. Catholic lands in Europe, including the predominantly Protestant Northern Netherlands, accepted Gregoryâs reform at the beginning of the seventeenth century. When discussing early seventeenth-century continental affairs
Policy on the Spelling of Names and Places of Publication
The names and titles of French-born or Gallicised individuals are given according to French spelling, such as Catherine de Médicis, Henri III, or duc dâAlençon. The same applies to institutions or groups of people, including the Parlement de Paris (Parliament of Paris), the Ligue catholique (Catholic League), and the Académie de Poésie et de Musique (Academy of Poetry and Music). The names and titles of individuals born or naturalised in countries other than France are given according to the spelling of that particular country, such as Cosimo I deâ Medici or Ferdinando I deâ Medici, unless a more common form of spelling exists in English, such as William of Orange, Maurice of Nassau, or Philip II. The same applies to institutions. For example, the âStates-Generalâ is used as the accepted English equivalent of âStaten-Generaalâ, the legislative body of the Dutch Provinces of the Union of Utrecht andâfrom 1588âthe Dutch Republic.
Finally, Latinised names of early modern authors and printers, as well as places of publication, are given in their accepted vernacular form, as listed by the Consortium of European Research Libraries in the CERL Thesaurus.1 For example, âThomas Vautrolleriusâ is given as âThomas Vautrollierâ, the Huguenot bookseller and printer (d. 1587), and âLondiniumâ as âLondonâ.
See <https://data.cerl.org/thesaurus/_search> [accessed 22 September 2022].