We welcome submissions from historians who engage with any approach related to the use of flags at sea. Applications from Ph.D. candidates, postdoctoral students, and early career researchers are warmly encouraged.

Event details

Event dates : 4-5 November 2026

Location : Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, Paris, France

Conference Format : The conference will be open to remote/hybrid attendance for the public, but in order to provide the best opportunity for discussion, we recommend in-person attendance for the speakers.

Summary

For nearly a decade, historians of the early modern period have increasingly turned their attention to maritime banners. Indeed, flags have been incorporated into broader scholarly reflections, to which they have usefully contributed both evidence and insight. In the history of international relations as well as in diplomatic, economic, and cultural history, flags feature in diverse analyses that share a common objective : to re-examine the modes of navigation employed by the various European nations. The commercial policies of states, cities, and communities that took to the seas under specific colors, as well as their successive diplomatic positions, have thus benefited from new perspectives. Moreover, recent research has shed fresh light on the experiences—sometimes legitimate, sometimes fraudulent—of the various on-the-ground actors who actually handled banners on a daily basis, including seafarers, shipowners, charterers, and merchants. In parallel, the flag as a mode of identification and of protection for transnational merchants has been a staple of early modern Mediterranean economic history, as have its uses for smuggling and avoiding corsairs. The diversity of cases examined, as well as the varying scales of observation, demonstrate the versatility of the flag as a point of entry into the dynamics of maritime space usage. Yet one observation becomes apparent at this stage : while maritime banners serve as a functional analytical tool, they have very rarely constituted the central focus of study, a gap that this conference seeks to address.

Proposal

In 2004, Michel Pastoureau lamented that the study of medieval banners was hindered by the fact that “researchers have been scared of flags”, mostly because of their role as sacred national symbols in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Indeed, apart from a handful of studies on the French Oriflamme and of the role of flags in Italian medieval revolts, historiography has largely overlooked banners and their symbolic aspects. Even the less experienced field of vexillology, focused specifically on the study of flags, has not produced any monograph of note on early modern naval banners. However, recent studies should lead to a reassessment of the conclusions drawn by Michel Pastoureau. Indeed, flags gradually emerged in the historiographical landscape from the 2010s onwards. There has been a dramatic increase in historical research around medieval and pre-modern flags, mostly thanks to the influence of the field of material culture studies. The year 2025 alone saw a thesis, an international conference, and a book specifically dedicated to the topic of pre-modern flags. Yet, historians of the early modern period who explored the legal, political and diplomatic dynamics that shaped maritime circulations have never used the flag as a primary focus.

Indeed, despite the explosion of academic research on historical flags in the last few decades, these analyses have been devoid of a maritime angle. However, in the early modern maritime worlds, ship-building coincided with state-building, while the expansion of trade routes and trade volume and the development of European shipping on a global stage after the fifteenth century drastically increased the need for means of maritime communication. In this context, flags increasingly came to the fore as objects of long-distance (mis-)identification and even (mis-)communication, but also as symbols of power and sovereignty on the diplomatic stage, and, progressively, as representatives of a new community : the nation.

Today, the flag at sea still needs to establish itself as a subject of study in its own right within early modern history. This conference therefore seeks to build upon the historiographical insights developed across various fields of research, in order to formulate and explore a more focused proposition : namely, to place maritime banners at the center of analysis, not merely as one element among others, but as a powerful heuristic tool enabling a meticulous reconstruction of the political, legal, and commercial logics that govern circulation at sea. By considering maritime flags as objects imbued with meaning(s) already long before the rise of the nation-state, this conference will examine flags as the starting point from which to reconstruct the maritime norms and practices deployed by historical actors. By this we refer not only to polities, but also to administrative and judicial institutions, communities, and individuals.

The geographical scope encompasses the Mediterranean, the North Sea, and the Atlantic world alike. Through this approach, the organisers aim to contribute to current debates on the fluidity of legal statuses at sea, on the construction of systems of political projection and protection, and on the specific modalities of communication characteristic of the maritime environment. The period under consideration extends from the 15th century to the mid-19th century, thus allowing for a long-term view of flag circulations while enabling detailed analysis of various topical cases.

Main topics

Participants will be invited to engage with three complementary lines of inquiry : the materiality of flags as symbols to be displayed on board, flags as objects of protection and diplomatic targets, and the (mis-)uses of flags in judicial and commercial contexts. The overarching aim is to investigate dynamics specific to various communities and nations, but also to adopt a global perspective on the implementation of maritime policies and customs related to the use of flags. Examples linked to the conference’s central focus include (but are not limited to) :

• The material culture of flags. The primary focus is on the making, transport, prices storage, disposal, conservation and even museumisation of flags as objects of material culture. This aspect also encompasses the concrete means of obtaining the flag and the surrounding bureaucracy (administrative practices and institutions, as well as passports and all other documents related to paper technology).
• Flags as symbols and communication devices. This aspect focuses on the encoding, communication, and signalling strategies involving the flag during encounters at sea. It will also explore the uses of flags in port cities (coastal fortresses, consular offices) when such practices were directly linked to maritime circulations. Finally, the aim is to propose clearer lines of typology among the different terms used in primary sources to designate flags : flag, banner, standard, pennon flag.
• Flags as protection tools. Flags were foundational components of maritime protection regimes : as such, they should be examined within the framework of maritime initiatives undertaken by different polities. This explores the processes by means of which flags were defined within the fold of the law of nations and interpolity law (treaties, agreements and diplomatic negotiations). Thus, the aim is to situate flags within broader dynamics such as commercial strategies, and neutrality policies during wartime.
• Flag quarrels. This includes minor disagreements between private individuals as well as judicial disputes, tense diplomatic exchanges, and even breaches of peace between polities. Indeed, many conflictual situations were prompted by the use of specific flags. The causes of quarrels are extremely diverse. Even the most mundane cases are valuable to historians, because they unveil divergent interpretations of the law and various navigation practices within a world shaped by legal and jurisdictional pluralism.
• Flag fraud. In truth, fraud is inherent to the circulation of flags : it cannot be conceived and examined as fundamentally separate from the ordinary practice of actors. The aim, rather, is to isolate what clearly constitutes fraud in order to analyse specifically flags of convenience, flag opportunism, flag mimicry and piracy in all its forms.

Submission guidelines

We welcome submissions from historians who engage with any approach related to the use of flags at sea. Applications from Ph.D. candidates, postdoctoral students, and early career researchers are warmly encouraged. Please submit an abstract of no more than 300 words including a title, your name, institutional affiliation, contact information, and a brief bio (100 to 150 words).

Submissions should be sent by 30 April 2026 to flyingcolours2026@gmail.com. Participants will be notified by 3 June 2026.

We welcome contributions in English, French and Italian. Submission of selected papers to a special edition of the International Journal of Maritime History may be considered after the event.

Organisers will cover accommodation for two nights. Travel expenses, however, are the responsibility of participants.

Organising committee

• Costanza Lugnani, Ph.D. Candidate, IHMC, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, costanza.lugnani@etu.univ-paris1.fr
• Maxime Morel, Ph.D. Candidate, Department of History, European University Institute, maxime.morel@eui.eu

Scientific committee

• Giancarlo Casale, Professor of Early Modern History, European University Institute.
• Guillaume Calafat, maître de conférences, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne.
• Jean-François Chauvard, professeur des Universités, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne.
• Mathieu Grenet, maître de conférences HDR, Université Toulouse – Jean Jaurès.
• Silvia Marzagallli, professeure des Universités, Université Côte d’Azur.