Call for Papers: ‘Artes Apodemicae and Early Modern Traveling Culture, 1400-1700,’ Intersections: Yearbook for Early Modern Studies (Brill)
Deadline: November 30, 2016
Issue 2018: ‘Artes Apodemicae and Early Modern Traveling Culture,
1400-1700’
In his letter to Philippe de Lannoy, from 1578 (De ratione cum fructu
perigrinandi et preaesertim in Italia), Justus Lipsius summarized the
aims of traveling as: ‘utilitas’ and ‘voluptas’. Traveling, according
to Lipsius, would lead to spiritual enrichment, as it would bring one
into contact with different people, different lifestyles, and different
customs and morals. At the same time, it would increase knowledge about
other countries and places, and about history. More or less at the same
time appeared a growing number of guides and treatises on traveling
(artes apodemicae), meant to prepare travelers for their trip, giving
advice on how to deal with the various mores in different countries and
supplying ‘cultural’ information on topography, history, important
monuments and other attractions.
In this volume, we want to study the production of knowledge shaped by
the traveling guides and artes apodemicae, especially in their
interaction with the actual practices of traveling and acquiring
knowledge. What was the formative importance of (printed) guides and
travel literature for the practice of traveling? How decisive was the
information they supplied in directing the travelers’ interest and
attention, and in shaping their views and knowledge? Or, the other way
round, was the information offered in guides and art literature
specified and/or expanded, or did it acquire a different scope as a
result of increasing knowledge or ‘new’ fields of interest developed by
travelers? And in which ways did the literature on traveling affect
other areas of knowledge production, either established academic
disciplines or new fields of knowledge?
Topics to be addressed may include:
– The use of travel literature and (national or local) guides. As books
were often too heavy or expensive to carry around during a visit ‘on
the spot’, to what extent and in which way were they consulted
beforehand or afterwards? How did this use beforehand or afterwards
affect the visitors’ experience?
Travel literature and (national or local) guides in relation to travel
accounts. As travel reports were often written after the voyage had
been made, much of the information in them was based on consultation of
guides afterwards. What does that mean for the reliability of travel
accounts?
– What was the impact of the target audience of (national or local)
guides? What differences can be discerned between guides written in
Latin (obviously for a learned public) and vernacular ones (or
vernacular versions)? To what extent was the kind of information
adapted (expanded, or cut down) to target a wider audience?
– What was the nature and scope of travel reports? Were they in the
first place a listing of things done and visited or do they reflect
the ‘spiritual enrichment’ that travel theorists such as Lipsius were
writing about? What kind of travel accounts were published and what
kind remained in manuscript, and what does that say about their aim,
function and intended audience?
– How much of the information offered in (national or local) guides was
actually ‘new’? To a large extent, the various guides of a specific
city or region repeated each other. Were they regularly updated with
the inclusion of new monuments (recently finished buildings, modern
works of art, etc.) or with newly acquired information (dates and names
etc.)?
– To what extent have their listings of monuments shaped our present
canon of important art works and ‘not to be missed’ attractions? Are
monuments that were not included (e.g. because they were not (easily)
accessible) still being disregarded, even though they were/are of high
cultural or historical importance?
– The importance of other sources of information besides guides and
travel literature, such as (historical) writings by antique, medieval
and (near) contemporary authors, collections of inscriptions, prints
and book illustrations.
How to submit: Please submit a one-page abstract (ca. 300 words) and a short
curriculum vitae (max. two pages) to both editors, before December 1,
2016:
– Karl Enenkel, Medieval and Early Modern Latin Philology, Westfälische
Wilhelms-Universität, Münster: kenen_01@uni-muenster.de
and
– Jan L. de Jong, History of Early Modern Art, Rijksuniversiteit
Groningen: j.l.de.jong@rug.nl
Applicants will be notified before January 1, 2017. Depending funding,
a conference with all authors is planned to take place in Münster, in
November 2017. Final chapters are due by February 1, 2018.
Intensive course: 
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