WORKSHOP: Spanish Royal Geographies in Early Modern Europe and America: Re-Thinking the Royal Sites / Geographies of Habsburg Politics and Religion.
University of York
4-5 May 2017
The Centre for Renaissance and Early Modern Studies (CREMS) of the University of York, in collaboration with the University of Rey Juan Carlos (URJC) and IULCE (University Institute ‘La Corte en Europa’) of the Autonomous University of Madrid (UAM), has organized the International Conference “Spanish Royal Geographies in Early Modern Europe and America: Re-Thinking the Royal Sites / Geographies of Habsburg Politics and Religion”. The event will be held on May 4 and 5 at York University. The event will be held on 4-5 May at the Berrick Saul Lecture Theatre (University of York).
The Congress aims to discover the Royal Sites of the Hispanic Monarchy as a political, territorial and cultural system that extended beyond the limits of the Iberian Peninsula. The Spanish Habsburgs had royal residences in the Duchy of Milan, the Kingdom of Naples and Sicily, the provinces of the Netherlands and the viceroyalties in America. As a reflection of the ideal of the Hispanic Monarchy, the Royal Sites were a set of palaces, gardens, hunting lodges, farms and factories that, besides being notable for their artistic and architectural characteristics, constituted the test laboratory of the most innovative economic, urban, cultural and scientific proposals of each period.
How were these royal geographies imagined and described? In what way do they activate histories and memories thus constructing loci of myth? How do they challenge existing interpretations of the boundaries between confessional identities and political solidarities? How do they help us to re-think the divisions between centres and peripheries of Habsburg power as kinetic and embodied spaces? These are just some of the questions that the International Conference will try to answer.
This workshop brings together experts from History of Art, History, History of Architecture, and Political Thought, etc., who, from an interdisciplinary perspective, will attempt to develop a comparative perspective on the complexities of real geographies in a transnational context. The lecturers and their presentations are the following:
- Helen Hills (University of York): Keynote speech about the Royal Sites of the Kingdom of Naples.
- José Eloy Hortal Muñoz (Universidad Rey Juan Carlos): “The Political, Social and Cultural Role of Royal Sites at Europe at the Seventeenth Century: The Case of the Spanish Monarchy”.
- José Martínez Millán (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid): “Spirituality at the Royal Alcázar of Madrid: The Triumph of Rome”.
- Ignasi Fernández Terricabras (Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona): “Religion and Politics in Seventeenth-Century Catalan Royal Residences and Chapels”.
- José Pedro Paiva (Universidade de Coimbra): “Religious Traces of the Presence of an Absent King: Philip II as King of Portugal (1581-98)”.
- Henar Pizarro Llorente (Universidad Pontificia de Comillas): “The Relevance of Rome at the Shape of the Spirituality at the Royal Convents in the Habsburg Netherlands: Juan Bautista Vives, Ambassador of Isabel Clara Eugenia and Promoter of Propaganda Fide”.
- Dagmar Germonprez (University of Antwerp): “Royal Residences and Catholic Restoration in the Habsburg Netherlands: The Archdukes at Mariemont”.
- Giovanni Muto (Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II): “Piety and Spirituality at the Sicilian Royal Residencies of the Seventeenth Century”.
The International Conference “Spanish Royal Geographies in Early Modern Europe and America: Re-Thinking the Royal Sites / Geographies of Habsburg Politics and Religion” is part of the activities of the research project “La Herencia de los Reales Sitios: Madrid, de Corte a capital (Historia, Patrimonio y Turismo)” (CAM H2015/HUM-3415), “Del Patrimonio Dinástico al Patrimonio Nacional: los Sitios Reales” (MINECO-FEDER HAR2015-68946-C3-3-P) and the Grupo de excelencia “La configuración de la Monarquía Hispana a través del sistema cortesano (siglos XIII-XIX): organización política e institucional, lengua y cultura” (GE2014-20).
For more information, see the website.
