Acknowledgments
This monograph has been inspired and supported by many wonderful people across Europe. First and foremost, a large debt of gratitude is due to the supervisors of my PhD, from which the monograph evolved, Dr Catriona Murray and Professor James Loxley, whose critiques, encouragement and patience have helped hone a vast and at-times wild panorama into the book you are reading today. With my research being loosely located across the School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures, the Edinburgh College of Art and the School of History Classics and Archaeology, Catriona and Jamesâ respective expertise in visual and literary culture has helped enrich and positively challenge this cultural history. Furthermore, their professional support has been much appreciated over the course of a PhD which has faced the severe obstacles of the Covid-19 pandemic as well as chronic illness. Illuminating conversations with Dr Tom Webster, Dr Richard Oosterhoff and Dr Jamie Reid Baxter as well as generous feedback from Professor Greg Walker and Dr David Salter also helped enrich my research at The University of Edinburgh and within the city itself. Special thanks is owed to my examiners, Professor Adrian Streete and Dr Dermot Cavanagh for their insightful comments during my viva and for their ideas on how to take this project forward into a monograph. Speaking on behalf of all of the community in the LLC, we owe a massive gratitude to Alan Binnie and Karin Bolton, fabulous and supportive administrators without whom 50 George Square would surely crumble.
Special thanks of course due to the editors of this series, to Professor Andrew Pettegree and Dr Arthur der Weduwen for the academic support and generosity especially in welcoming me to present my research the St Andrews Early Modern and Reformation Seminar, a truly fantastic and creative environment to temper the theory seen in the landscape of European memories, and for their belief in this project. Thank you also to the editors at Brill, Ivo Romein and Simona Casadio for their support.
Another debt is owed to my former supervisors at the University of York where the ideas for this dissertation germinated, to Dr Freya Sierhuis and Professor Kevin Killeen, who nurtured my love for and expertise of, the tumultuous early modern period during my MA at the Centre for Renaissance and Early Modern Studies. To Professor Emilie Morin for her constant encouragement and empathy during my undergraduate also. Their kind support and inspiration over the past decade has been very much appreciated. They were instrumental in the success of eventually securing funding, and I acknowledge and thank the financial support of the Scottish Graduate School for the Arts and Humanities. Before proceeding to the multitude of deserved thanks, I would like to say that without the support of my family, Linda, Simon, Mark and Lynn, none of this would have been possible. For dragging me around castles, cathedrals and art galleries from a young age, nurturing creativity and for caring for me throughout an extremely difficult decade of illness, a colossal thank you is warranted. Likewise, I would like to thank the fantastic NHS consultants, doctors and nurses who have looked after me, in particular Dr Sinha, Dr Prasad, and Dr Rainone. Due to illness, in my late teens I really did not think I would make it into my 20s, yet the care of the NHS, family and friends have made this, and subsequent research possible.
Just as many people have supported the researching and writing of this book, places are vitally important. Alongside Edinburgh and York, Leiden and Firenze are cities that loom large in this experience. This book is a European cultural history composed across wonderful European cities. I would like the many people who warmly welcomed me in the Institute for History at Leiden University during my spell as visiting researcher, especially to Professor Judith Pollmann. Her kind introduction to life at Leiden, helping find accommodation in the notoriously difficult Dutch housing market, and for being a fantastic visiting supervisor whose expertise of cultural memory inspired much of my later approach. Conversations with Professor Nadine Akkerman, Dr Helmer Helmers, Professor Michael van Groesen, Dr Johannes Müller and Dr Jasper van der Steen were also thought provoking and enriching. At Leiden, the many adventures across the Netherlands and rich discussions about history with Dr Henri Hannula, Dr Edgar Pereira, Dr Thomas Mareite, Dr AnnaChiara Monaco and Dr Lucio Oriani were very much appreciated (all of this group are now doctors). The European University Institute in Firenze is another site in the writing of my book. My visiting supervisor Professor Ann Thomson, with her nuanced bricolage approach to the history of ideas, was patient and inspiring, and workshops and conversations with Professor Giancarlo Casale on cartography and empire and Professor Giorgio Riello on material culture were thought provoking and challenging.
Gratitude is also due to the archival maestro Matteo Calcagni for deciphering the rich labyrinth of Tuscan archives and for the research discussions and drinks with Anna Struillou, Pablo Cañón GarcÃa, Ela Bozok, Konstantinos Poulios, Johannes Pelzl, Elisavet Papalexopoulou and Eduardo Fernández Guerrero. For the adventures and many historical conversations with Tom Ashby, Stephanie Leitzel, Jack Watkins, and Lia Brazil too. I hope one day researchers from Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and England are able to once again study in the friendly, international and vibrant community. Thank you also to the EURONEWS project, to Professor Brendan Dooley and Dr Davide Boerio, for their introduction to the tantalising study of manuscript news, and for marvellous discussions about the Jesuits with Professors Renate Dürr and Ulrike Strasse at the EUI. In Edinburgh, Leiden and Firenze a thank you to my hosts Hercule, Flavia, Sarah and to the many friends who generously accommodated me during the many trips between York and Edinburgh, special thanks is due for the gift of hospitality.
Much gratitude is owed to my committee at The Edinburgh Early Modern Network which I set up upon arrival in Edinburgh. To the administrative genius and passion of Dr Julia Smith, the diligence of Dr Carlo Scapecchi and to my brilliant successor Emily Kent, as well as other committee members Stefano Nicastro, Emma Aviet, Cameron Cross, Eleonora Calviello, David Coney and Matthew Cleary, all of whom I am happy to call friends. The massive disruption of the pandemic may have temporarily curtailed in-person events yet it allowed the network to blossom and grow across Europe, America and the rest of the world. Thank you to every speaker who shared their fabulous research, to everyone who tuned into Zoom and participated in the discussion. Particular highlights include the collaborations between the EEMN and the wonderful early modern centres and projects at Ghent University, the European University Institute, Cambridge University and the Society for Renaissance Studies, the latter was of course enthusiastically supported by Dr Rachel Willie. Co-organising the inaugural Northern Early Modern Network and the four-day international Enemies in the Early Modern World conferences during lockdowns brought the joy of collaborating with brilliant researchers from around the world, in a shared virtual space. Special thanks is also owed to those friends who enabled these collaborations, Julia of course, as well as the magnificent Dr Edward Gray, Alex Beeton and Dr Silvia Cinnella Della Porta. Present and future collaborators in investigating crisis in the early modern world, Dr Sonja Kleij and Dr Anke Fischer-Kattner have also inspired and encouraged my work and of course thanks is due. Outside of these networks, I am truly grateful for the wit and wisdom of Ilaria Grando and Carlo Scapecchi respectively in helping begin my journey into the world of visual culture, especially to the former for always believing in me and showing me Europa. Albeit in a briefer measure than the previous two names who have contributed so much, I am also thankful for conversations with Dr Jessica Maier and Harleen Bagga, who both helped introduce me to early modern cartography.
For all of those researchers who tolerated (or even enjoyed) my research at conferences from Amsterdam to Oxford, for their critiques and encouragement, thank you.
With the limitations of a book arising from a PhD researched and written during the Covid-19 pandemic, research trips to Berlin, Paris, Copenhagen and Venice were curtailed, and this book is not therefore quite as transcultural as it may have been. However, through the medium of digitised early modern print and manuscript, the research continued to grow. Alongside the digital archives of national libraries of European countries, Early Modern Books Online, the Universal Short Title Catalogue, Galeâs State Papers Online, and the digitised image collections of the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, the British Museum London and the Royal Collection Trust was indispensable for online consultation during the lockdowns. A special thanks is thereby owed especially to the pragmatic approaches of institutions who make humanities heritage available for all, and to the curators and digital historians engaged with this process. Gratitude is due to the generosity of the Royal Collection Trust, the National Gallery London, Fort Kimbell Art Museum, the Yale Centre for British Art, Metropolitan Museum, British Library, Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek, and the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam for their generous allowance of images for this book. Before the pandemic, I was able to undertake archival research at The British Library, the Bodleian Library Oxford, the National Library of Scotland, The Archivio di Stato Firenze, Leiden University Special Collections, the Koninklijke Bibliotheek in The Hague, York Minster Library, and I acknowledge the hard work, expertise and enthusiasm of the librarians and archivists.
I have been truly inspired and supported by the friendship of many brilliant people throughout the course of the academic journey. To misappropriate John Ruskinâs quote into another context and for another purpose, there truly is no treasure but life. In no particular order, thank you for the love and support of those not mentioned above in the acknowledgements: Krun, Lois, Omesh, Maxime, Juliette, Thomas, Ian, Greg, Marco, Elisabeth, Edward, Cecilia, Gabriel, Veronica, Marnie, Symone, Bob, Beth, Mario, Kathryn, Andrew, Jack (plural: thereâs a few), Alice, Aija, Johnny, Steph, Mariane, Harry, Laura, Felicia, Ben, Kat, Emily, Jimmy, Antoine, Alexandra, Claudia, Stefano, Tilly, Tom (again, thereâs so many), Nathan, Lucy (thereâs two), Brad, Elisa, Rachel, Hannah (multiple), Rory, Joe (thereâs a couple) Agana, Nadia, Roberta, Claudio, Richard, Jon, Marcela, Anna (quite a list), Dougie, Vicki, Andy, Sophie, Simon, Tim, Joe (again, thereâs a few), Natassa, Paulina, Federica, Fabiola, Jim, Dominic, Alexandra, Gustavo, Chris, Eleanna, Matteo, Mila, Kelly, Jess, Matt, Amanda, Jamie, Guido, Sheela, Anupama, Eileen, Sinan, Perry, Max, Malou, Charly, Silvio, Andrea, Kat, Bianca, Emma, Aisu, Avani, Bérengère, and apologies if you, dear friend, have been missed off due to the tired memory of a researcher.
I have occasionally quoted my own research, ââVengeance from God for the Blood of Innocentsâ: The Cultural Afterlife of the Valtellina Crisis in the Early Stuart Imaginationâ, published in the Journal for the Northern Renaissance, Issue 11, 2020: Imagineering Violence, edited by Karel Vanhaesebrouck and Cornelis van der Haven. The section exploring the âinformation shadowâ will be published as âInformation Shadows: News, Climate and Calamity at Cádiz in 1625,â in Brendan Dooley and Sandy Wilkinson (eds.), Exciting News! Event Narration and Impact from Past to Present (Leiden: Brill, 2024).