This regularly updated blog includes short snippets by members of the team on their respective research tools and topics, and it lays the theoretical groundwork for building our common activities. Feel free to contact us for more information or for contributing to our common reflection! Marine Bellégo Daniel Foliard Ladan Niayesh Stéphanie Prévost
- Journée d’études: Diplomatic Gifts and Counter-Gifts: Britain and the Muslim East, 16th to Early 20th Century
Diplomatic Gifts and Counter-Gifts: Britain and the Muslim East, 16th to Early 20th Century A one-day conference in person at the Centre for Diplomatic Archives, French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, la Courneuve, Paris, 27 September 2022 As symbolic commodities circulating … Continuer la lecture - Limning as Gift-Giving: Embellishing Letters to “Eastern Princes” and “Remote Kings” – Anne-Valérie Dulac
A Royal Warrant dated 10 March 1631 mentions Edward Norgate, one of the clerks of the Signet Extraordinary as having “for many years been employed in preparing for the Royal signature letters to the Emperor and Patriarch of Russia, the … Continuer la lecture - Gifts and power: Thomas Roe’s embassy and the English East India Company in Mughal India, 1615-1619 – Robert Ivermee
In the first instalment of this blog, Ladan Niayesh identifies two key terms derived from Persian and Arabic that were first used by Europeans in the early modern period to refer to types of gift given and received during their … Continuer la lecture - Circulating Gospel tracts in long 19th-century China: Proselytism Overturned – Alice Decouvelaere
Clocks, maps, musical instruments, religious paintings, scientific books and telescopes… Colourful images of princely gifts come to mind when thinking about the presents offered to Emperor Wanli (1563-1620) by the Jesuits when they reached China in the second half of … Continuer la lecture - Offering orchids, selling opium : gifts and profits in colonial botanic gardens (19th century) – Marine Bellego
Botanical things are commonly used as gifts: ornamental plants can easily be turned into presents, terrariums in glass bottles have become fashionable objects to bring to a birthday party, and offering cut flowers remains a codified way of expressing various … Continuer la lecture - A horse, a horse, my garter for a horse! When Queen Victoria met Sultan Abdul Aziz, London, 1867 – Stéphanie Prévost
While fans of the PBS Victoria series fret about the possibility of a fourth season, conjectures are building up as to its contents, notably as season 3’s cliff-hanger ending foreshadows the tragic death of Prince Albert in December 1861 and … Continuer la lecture - Gifting the Harem: Gendered Gifts Between the Ottoman Sultana and the English Queen – Mathilde Alazraki
“If She will never cease from (sending) such letters which foster the increase of sincerity and love (…) I shall endeavor for Her aims.” This sentence concludes the letter that the Ottoman Sultana Safiye (c. 1550-1621) wrote to Elizabeth I … Continuer la lecture - Oriental Gifts and the Commensurability Question: Starting with the Terminology – Ladan Niayesh
“Fetch me the handkerchief: my mind misgives!” (William Shakespeare, Othello, act 4, sc. 3). This exclamation by the Moorish hero of Shakespeare’s tragedy of cultural meltdown has always struck me as the epitome of the misunderstanding around his ill-fated love … Continuer la lecture