Ambrogio Spinola: between Genoa, Flanders and Spain
Ambrogio Spinola entre Gênes, Flandres et Espagne.
Networks and Narratives, War and Finances (1569-1639)
Réseaux et récits, guerre et finances (1569-1639)
Published on Wednesday, December 12, 2018
Abstract
This international workshop proposes a collective work at the crossroads of the different economic, political, family, military and cultural networks which constituted the changing and complex context of the life of Ambrogio Spinola, a man of immense fortune and unknown military qualities. His framework? Italy, Flanders, Spain. Scholars with different, although complementary, historiographical approaches will gather around Spinola, aiming to publish a collective biography in 2020. This biography will be the result of an interdisciplinary work, mixing the knowledge of historians of the military, diplomacy, aristocracy or economics, but also using the history of news (creation and circulation), written and pictorial culture, or gender history.
Announcement
UCLouvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, 3-5 April 2019
Organisation
International Workshop organised by
- Silvia Mostaccio (UCLouvain),
- Bernardo J. García García (Universitad Complutense-Fundación Carlos de Amberes, Madrid),
- Luca Lo Basso (Università di Genova),
- Monique Weis (ULB)
Argument
Usually, the European Nation-States of the Nineteenth Century project their birth to the Early Modernity. As a result, it is created an artificial division on people and facts developed in a more movable and porous context. The Iberian Europe, with the Spanish dominions in Italy and Flanders is a good example. In many ways, and in a game that the historian shall keep in mind, countless of individuals created their personal, family and professional identities in a constant exchange between the socio-cultural systems of their places of origin and larger networks. In a time characterized by the omnipresence of war and by the laborious search of money to finance it, following the path of military entrepreneurs, diplomats, bankers –with their financial networks–, and great families –who built collective strategies over glory and alliances on military conflicts– will be showed the complexities of these frameworks of living and action.
Several ways of study are possible to create an historical account, which will integrate the complexity of looking on to the past. One of them is the biography.
In 2008, Davide Maffi wrote a path-breaking essay about the Italian military men who served to the Spanish king in Flanders during the Seventeenth Century (Cacciatori di Gloria, in Italiani al servizio straniero in età moderna). On it, he underlined the surprising lack of a recent biography of the Genoese Ambrogio Spinola (1569-1630), General of the Army of Flanders and first Marquis of Balbases. It was necessary to integrate the biography that Antonio Rodríguez Villa published in 1904. Afterwards some studies have been published. They are devoted to the feats of arms in which Spinola took part. Particularly to Ostend (1604), his first victory. It showed to his contemporaries the military skills of the Italian banker (Asunción Retortillo Atienza, Ambrosio Spínola de Génova a Ostende, 2017).
This international workshop proposes a collective work at the crossroads of the different economic, political, family, military and cultural networks which constituted the changing and complex context of the life of Ambrogio Spinola, a man of immense fortune and unknown military qualities.
Scholars with different, although complementary, historiographical approaches will gather around Spinola, aiming to publish a collective biography in 2020. This biography will be the result of an interdisciplinary work, mixing the knowledge of historians of the military, diplomacy, aristocracy or economics, but also using the history of news (creation and circulation), written and pictorial culture, or gender history.
While remaining firmly focused on the figure of the Italian general, given the systematic approach of the project, the chosen timeframe will range from the birth of Spinola in 1569, to the death of his daughter Polissena Spinola in 1639. This small temporal overflow will show the consequences of the actions of the father and how his children appropriated them, more specifically by the generation that followed him. The bottom-line option for a history that transcended borders will also result in the highlighting of the triangulation between Italy, Spain and Flanders. A triangulation that was specific to Ambrogio Spinola and his family, but also to the economical, social and warlike elites of the first modernity.
The workshop will be organized around four areas, highlighting the different networks that made the living environment of Ambrogio Spinola between Genoa, Spain and Flanders. Any proposal should be among one of these lines.
- Ambrogio and the Spinolas of San Luca Family strategies and networks
- Bankers and States. Financial and political resources
- Spinola and his network as military entrepreneur and strategist
- Construction of memory and appropriations of the image/s of Ambrogio Spinola
Submission guidelines
Several colleagues have already confirmed their participation. We invite proposals for papers by
Friday 21th December 2018.
Proposals from young researchers (phD and postDOC) will be favoured.
It is planned to award some scholarships to cover travel and/or accommodation expenses.
All proposals must indicate:
- Provisional title
- Abstract of about 400 words
- Thematic concerned among the four above-mentioned themes
- 500-character bio-bibliography of the speaker
Proposals may be in English, French, Spanish or Italian and should be sent to
silvia.mostaccio@uclouvain.be et à fanny.verslype@student.uclouvain.be
Scientific Committee
- Bernardo Garcia Garcia (Universitad Complutense, Madrid)
- Luca Lo Basso (Università di Genova)
- Paolo Calcagno (Università di Genova)
- Silvia Mostaccio (UCLouvain)
- Annick Delfosse (Université de Liège)
- Monique Weis (Université Libre de Bruxelles)
- Violet Soen (KULeuven)
Subjects
- History (Main category)
- Society > History > Economic history
- Society > Political studies > Political history
- Periods > Early modern
- Zones and regions > Europe
- Society > History > Social history
- Society > Political studies > Wars, conflicts, violence
Places
- UCLouvain
Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium (1348)
Date(s)
- Friday, December 21, 2018
Attached files
Keywords
- Ambrogio Spinola, guerre, système financier, propagande, news, récit, Pays-Bas Espagnols, Genes, élite transnationale
Contact(s)
- Silvia Mostaccio
courriel : silvia [dot] mostaccio [at] uclouvain [dot] be - Verslype Fanny
courriel : fanny [dot] verslype [at] student [dot] uclouvain [dot] be
Reference Urls
Information source
- Silvia Mostaccio
courriel : silvia [dot] mostaccio [at] uclouvain [dot] be
License
This announcement is licensed under the terms of Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal.
To cite this announcement
« Ambrogio Spinola: between Genoa, Flanders and Spain », Call for papers, Calenda, Published on Wednesday, December 12, 2018, https://doi.org/10.58079/11jv
