Research Luc Duerloo

Abstract

This sabbatical leave will allow me to finish the manuscript of one book length project, write a methodological article to be published in a peer reviewed journal, present papers at several international conferences and prepare them for publication, and gather materials for a project that builds on previous research but also ventures into new and promising areas. A term as visiting fellow of Jesus College (Oxford) will allow me to explore the manuscript collections of the Bodleian Library and the Library of Queen's College to set up a new line of investigation on heraldry, noble identity and state formation. My stay as visiting researcher at the Institut für die Erforschung der Habsburgermonarchie und des Balkanraumes of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (Vienna) will provide the opportunity to discuss chapters with leading scholars and finalise them of my upcoming monograph on the politics of memory in the archducal regime.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Duerloo Luc

Research team(s)

• Power in History - Centre for Political History

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

This project is related tot he FWO sabbatical leave mentioned alongside. It will allow me to finish the manuscript of one book length project, write a methodological article to be published in a peer reviewed journal, present papers at several international conferences and prepare them for publication, and gather materials for a project that builds on previous research but also ventures into new and promising areas. A term as visiting fellow of Jesus College (Oxford) will allow me to explore the manuscript collections of the Bodleian Library and the Library of Queen's College to set up a new line of investigation on heraldry, noble identity and state formation. My stay as visiting researcher at the Institut für die Erforschung der Habsburgermonarchie und des Balkanraumes of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (Vienna) will provide the opportunity to discuss chapters with leading scholars and finalise them of my upcoming monograph on the politics of memory in the archducal regime.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Duerloo Luc

Research team(s)

• Power in History - Centre for Political History

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

This project is the foundation of the collaboration between the Rubenianum and the University of Antwerp. Toward that end, it enables Abigail Newman to work as Research Adviser at the Rubenianum – alongside her position as part time instructor (with a ZAP statute) at the University of Antwerp – in order to pursue a number of scholarly initiatives. First and foremost, she is carrying out the editing – both the selection of contributions and the substantive editing – of a thematic volume on artistic collaboration in the Low Countries in the 16th and 17th centuries. She is also responsible for writing the introduction to this volume. In addition, she organizes various programs at the Rubenianum aimed at the sharing of research currently underway, including an inter-university Rubenianum Works-in-Progress Workshop (the first edition of which was held on 20.2.2020; the second edition is scheduled for 19.6.2020) as well as research presentations by and for researchers based at the Rubenianum. She is also involved in the planning of summer courses. More broadly, she advises on the Rubenianum's development of research-related projects and initiatives. In that capacity, she oversees the monthly Visiting Researchers' meeting, presently with a group of five international researchers (from five different countries). She also serves as their contact person and internal supervisor.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Duerloo Luc

Research team(s)

• Power in History - Centre for Political History

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

This project is the foundation of the collaboration between the Rubenianum and the University of Antwerp. Toward that end, it enables Abigail Newman to work as Research Adviser at the Rubenianum – alongside her position as part time instructor (with a ZAP statute) at the University of Antwerp – in order to pursue a number of scholarly initiatives. First and foremost, she is carrying out the editing – both the selection of contributions and the substantive editing – of a thematic volume on artistic collaboration in the Low Countries in the 16th and 17th centuries. She is also responsible for writing the introduction to this volume. In addition, she organizes various programs at the Rubenianum aimed at the sharing of research currently underway, including an inter-university Rubenianum Works-in-Progress Workshop (the first edition of which was held on 20.2.2020; the second edition is scheduled for 19.6.2020) as well as research presentations by and for researchers based at the Rubenianum. She is also involved in the planning of summer courses. More broadly, she advises on the Rubenianum's development of research-related projects and initiatives. In that capacity, she oversees the monthly Visiting Researchers' meeting, presently with a group of five international researchers (from five different countries). She also serves as their contact person and internal supervisor.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Duerloo Luc

Research team(s)

• Power in History - Centre for Political History

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

This project represents a research contract awarded by the University of Antwerp. The supervisor provides the Antwerp University research mentioned in the title of the project under the conditions stipulated by the university.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Duerloo Luc

Research team(s)

• Power in History - Centre for Political History

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Influenced by anthropology and the 'performative turn' in social sciences, historians and political analysts alike have begun to reconsider notions of 'authority'. Sovereignty is now understood to be a continuous activity of claim making. As a result, the on-going performance of power can be studied through seemingly trivial activities. If any of these deserves to be studied from that perspective, it is most certainly the princely hunt. It would even be difficult to conceive of something more apt to reach a deeper understanding of the performance of sovereignty. The means allotted to the hunt offer an instrument to measure the levels of investment in – and therefore the long-term evolution of – that performance. They not only show how royal magnificence was constructed time and again; they also reveal how the symbolic violence exercised by the princely hunt encountered resistance. By studying the evolution of one royal hunt over a long period of time, this project has the ambition to deliver a new interpretation of the performance of sovereignty. In order to do so, it will develop a novel instrument to quantify the way the hunt served to enact power. In parallel with the FWO-project on the Habsburg Netherlands, it focuses on the states of the House of Savoy for two reasons: the unusual quality of the primary sources and the dynasty's ambitions and changes in status between the middle of the sixteenth and the end of the eighteenth century.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Duerloo Luc
• Fellow: Farinelli Bruno

Research team(s)

• Power in History - Centre for Political History

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

The Dutch Revolt that afflicted the Habsburg Netherlands engendered a sense of social dislocation. From the late sixteenth century onwards, the alleged confusion of noble and bourgeois identities prompted a princely regulation of status display. These legal prescriptions imbued certain exterior signs with an exclusive 'noble' honour that confined their public appearance. Departing from a dynamic interplay between princely interventionism and social motives, this research project examines the public (mis)appropriation of such signs – ranging from flaunting titles to the inclusion of noble attributes in family memoria. It questions how these transgressions might have affected the division between nobility and commoners in unexpected ways. For the first time, this project systematically appraises noble marks' potential to enact or modify aristocratic boundaries in an urban context. Case studies on Antwerp and Ghent, both witnessing shifts in their elite composition during the Revolt, will draw on understudied sources such as epitaph collections and trial accounts. The loyalist city of Namur forms an excellent test case. Challenging a simplistic state-centered view, my approach hypothesizes that the social utility of 'marks of nobility' met insecurities about fading distinctions by providing a legal opportunity to renegotiate these very distinctions. As such, the project rethinks noble identity formation, and yields a new understanding of shifts in the social imagination.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Duerloo Luc
• Fellow: Thiry Steven

Research team(s)

• Power in History - Centre for Political History

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Influenced by anthropology and the 'performative turn' in social sciences, historians and political analysts alike have begun to reconsider notions of 'authority'. Sovereignty is now understood to be a continuous activity of claim making. As a result, the on-going performance of power can be studied through seemingly trivial activities. If any of these deserves to be studied from that perspective, it is most certainly the princely hunt. It would even be difficult to conceive of something more apt to reach a deeper understanding of the performance of sovereignty. The means allotted to the hunt offer an instrument to measure the levels of investment in – and therefore the long-term evolution of – that performance. They not only show how royal magnificence was constructed time and again; they also reveal how the symbolic violence exercised by the princely hunt encountered resistance. By studying the evolution of one royal hunt over a long period of time, this project has the ambition to deliver a new interpretation of the performance of sovereignty. In order to do so, it will develop a novel instrument to quantify the way the hunt served to enact power. It focuses on the Habsburg Netherlands for two reasons: the unusual quality of the primary sources and the multiple variations in its political regime between the early sixteenth and the end of the eighteenth century.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Duerloo Luc

Research team(s)

• Power in History - Centre for Political History

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

This project will study the interaction of astrology with politics and religion in the Spanish-Habsburg Netherlands (1560s-1640s). Special attention will be paid to the cross-fertilization of Dutch astrological cultures and traditions with those of neighboring territories and to the general position of astrology within the framework of the Dutch Revolt (1566-1648). The project will analyze prognostic works, produced within the cities of Antwerp, Ghent and Brussels. These include textual source material (such as almanacs, pamphlets, humanistic treatises, prodigious works and plays) and visual source material (such as engravings, book illustrations and other relevant printed representations). Furthermore it will disclose the complex production network of these sources. Special attention will be paid to the question whether and why certain astrological themes were more suited to display than others and how the various stakeholders determined the political and religious discourses within astrological treatises. Also the unique relationship between past, present and future that these prognostic works propagated, will be taken into account. This project will argue that astrological cultures formed an important base for the constantly evolving process of identity formation in the Spanish-Habsburg Netherlands during the Dutch Revolt. Different prognostic traditions were constantly exchanged, fused and adapted to local circumstances and structured daily lives in times of political and religious insecurity.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Duerloo Luc
• Fellow: Janssen Cara

Research team(s)

• Power in History - Centre for Political History

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

In the second half of the sixteenth century, erudites and amateurs became imbued with a visual sense of the past, eager to discover and accurately reproduce tangible evidence from a native 'antiquity'. In the Southern Netherlands, this paradigmatic shift coincided with the open revolt against Habsburg authority and the subsequent endeavours to restore a dynastic order acceptable to all. This research project wants to assess the practical impact of this waxing antiquarian attitude - with its emphasis on the empirical documentation and preservation of dynastic remnants - on the actual redefinition of a new political culture (1570-1648). The main issue at stake is how a selective and ambiguous uncovering of profane 'relicts' provided both a model and a means to redress a constitutional framework under the guise of a return to authenticity? Studying changes introduced in the infrastructure of rulership on the basis of tangible proof of continuity will lead us to a new understanding of the alleged 'restoration' of Habsburg power. It calls for a multi-layered view wherein antiquarianism is recognized as a possible mediator between various interest groups (court, aristocracy and civic or regional stakeholders). As such, the approach not only aspires to gain better insight in the interaction between learned developments and popular politics. It will also contribute to the study of the visual and material dimension of early modern political culture.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Duerloo Luc
• Fellow: Thiry Steven

Research team(s)

• Power in History - Centre for Political History

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

This project represents a formal research agreement between UA and on the other hand the client. UA provides the client research results mentioned in the title of the project under the conditions as stipulated in this contract.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Duerloo Luc
• Co-promoter: Clycq Noel
• Co-promoter: Opdebeeck Hendrik

Research team(s)

• Power in History - Centre for Political History

Project type(s)

• Research Project
• Education Project

Abstract

The process of state formation across the late medieval and early modern period was characterized not only by the growth of state institutions, the immediate environment of the prince also became more important as courts yielded more political influence. The economic impact of court life has, however, received only scarce attention. The so-called "capital city-effect" led to concentrations of wealthy consumers in the capital cities of the European states. Demand and supply were concentrated, stimulating the rise of primate cities in the urban network. This proposal wants, for the first time, 1° to measure the real impact court demand (+the aggregated demand of courtiers) played on capital city-effects, 2° to investigate how in the densely urbanized Low Countries court and elite demand generated patterns of meeting this demand, leading to specific market effects and patterns of luxury production, and 3° look at how changing patterns of elite demand influenced opportunities for merchants and craftsmen. For sample periods, from the 14th to the early 17th century, it wants to assess how court demand interacted with the urban economies which increasingly geared towards the supply of services and commodities that demanded higher levels of skill and specialisation. It wants to investigate how the rise of court demand interacted with the social organisation of cities, with the growing role of middling groups of specialist and (guild organised) urban craftsmen and retailers.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Stabel Peter
• Co-promoter: Duerloo Luc

Research team(s)

• Centre for Urban History

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

This project will study the interaction of astrology with politics and religion in the Spanish-Habsburg Netherlands (1560s-1640s). Special attention will be paid to the cross-fertilization of Dutch astrological cultures and traditions with those of neighboring territories and to the general position of astrology within the framework of the Dutch Revolt (1566-1648). The project will analyze prognostic works, produced within the cities of Antwerp, Ghent and Brussels. These include textual source material (such as almanacs, pamphlets, humanistic treatises, prodigious works and plays) and visual source material (such as engravings, book illustrations and other relevant printed representations). Furthermore it will disclose the complex production network of these sources. Special attention will be paid to the question whether and why certain astrological themes were more suited to display than others and how the various stakeholders determined the political and religious discourses within astrological treatises. Also the unique relationship between past, present and future that these prognostic works propagated, will be taken into account. This project will argue that astrological cultures formed an important base for the constantly evolving process of identity formation in the Spanish-Habsburg Netherlands during the Dutch Revolt. Different prognostic traditions were constantly exchanged, fused and adapted to local circumstances and structured daily lives in times of political and religious insecurity.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Duerloo Luc
• Fellow: Janssen Cara

Research team(s)

• Power in History - Centre for Political History

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

This project represents a research contract awarded by the University of Antwerp. The supervisor provides the Antwerp University research mentioned in the title of the project under the conditions stipulated by the university.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Duerloo Luc

Research team(s)

• Power in History - Centre for Political History

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

This project researches the implementation of the Catholic Reformation in the Habsburg Netherlands in the early seventeenth century. More in particular it researches the impact of the state on religious infrastructure and identity.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Duerloo Luc

Research team(s)

• Power in History - Centre for Political History

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

This is a fundamental research project financed by the Research Foundation - Flanders (FWO). The project was subsidized after selection by the FWO-expert panel.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Duerloo Luc

Research team(s)

• Power in History - Centre for Political History

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

The first decades of the seventeenth century are a defining moment in the history of international relations. A lot of research has been done on the decline of the Habsburg hegemony in Europe as a consequence of the Eighty Years' War (1568-1618) and the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648). Still the relationship between these two wars has never been fully explained. In particular the specific role played in international relations by the archducal regime and their Court of Brussels in the period 1598 to 1621 has never received proper attention. This project is to offer a new interpretation on the impact of factors such as dynastic politics and religious conflict in the international arena. It is the redactionphase of a wide ranging research of primary sources.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Duerloo Luc

Research team(s)

• Power in History - Centre for Political History

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

The baroque papacy uses heraldic and para-heraldic display as an important tool for legitimizing its power. Heraldic symbols are appropriated and provided with new meanings. This project researches the media employed in the process, the strategies used when deploying these representations and the meanings that were attributed to them. Thus it aims to write a dynamic cultural history of political representations in baroque Rome.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Duerloo Luc

Research team(s)

• Power in History - Centre for Political History

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

In the early seventeenth century traditional dynastic politics face three challenges: the manifold evolutions in the military field, the confessionalisation of international relations and the advent of the raison d'état as an alternative logic for conducting foreign policy. The impact of these three challenges is researched on the basis of the reign of Archduke Albert (1598¿1621) in the Habsburg Netherlands, focussing thereby on the dynastic politics of the House of Habsburg and its response to these challenges.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Duerloo Luc

Research team(s)

• Power in History - Centre for Political History

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Since the 1980s courts and households have regained the interest of historians. By comparison little study has been devoted to the Court of Brussels. Yet it offers a unique case, particularly as regards to the first half of the seventeenth century. The residence of sovereign princes at the turn of the century, the court subsequently houses a landvoogd (or viceroy) of the blood royal and then becomes the seat of a grandee that serves as interim-governor-general. This project wants to study the structure and the organisation of the household during the reign of the Archdukes Albert and Isabella (1598-1621) and that of the cardinal-infant Ferdinand of Austria (1634-1641). By unravelling the composition of the household at the selected periods, the political, social and cultural networks emanating from the dignitaries will also be mapped out, allowing for the first time to make a qualified assessment of how big the impact of the household really was on the political structures of the Southern Netherlands.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Duerloo Luc

Research team(s)

• Power in History - Centre for Political History

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

This project approaches power and the use of power from various angles. On the one hand it wants to pin down how early-modern man thought about power and the use of power through the study of language and visual communication. On the other hand it wants to map out networks of power. These two approaches intersect. This way a much more qualified view is to be gained on the emergence of the stuctures of modern politics and power.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Duerloo Luc

Research team(s)

• Power in History - Centre for Political History

Project type(s)

• Research Project