Paper short abstract:

Eleanor Alvarez de Toledo’s image was the result of the assembly of three cultural traditions – Castilian, Neapolitan and Florentine – which made her a figure at once local and cosmopolitan.

Paper long abstract:

She was not Duke Cosimo's preferred choice of spouse, but time proved her to be the best decision of his life. His marriage to Eleanor of Toledo, the daughter of the Spanish viceroy in Napes, laid the foundations for the Medicis' dominance in Tuscany during the two subsequent centuries. She was the cornerstone of a courtly formula of unparalleled success. Certain Florentines saw her as "a Spanish barbarian, enemy of her husband's homeland". The truth, however, is that the construction of Eleanor's public identity was the product of a complex operation involving the participation of some of the most prominent artists and writers of the day. Far from simply presenting herself as a Spaniard, her image was the result of the assembly of three cultural traditions - Castilian, Neapolitan and Florentine - which made her a figure at once local and cosmopolitan.

Paper short abstract:

This paper will anaylyze the diplomatic role of Count of Peñaranda in the Peace of Westfalia (1648) and his visual impact in his time.

Paper long abstract:

From analysing the old questions of immunity or jus gentium, themes common to the old diplomatic history, we have become increasingly interested in areas such as secret diplomacy, the attention which diplomats paid to stereotypes, or to appearances as a weapon of confrontation or negotiation. Less studied, but equally promising, is the contribution of the diplomats to the creation of a cosmopolitan international culture. This paper will anaylyze it from the case study of the Count of Peñaranda and his diplomatic role in Munster and Franckfurt (1645-1658), and more specifically his visual impact in paintings and engravings.

Paper short abstract:

This paper analyzes the relationship between commerce and religion in the Mediterranean, presenting as a case study Sicily and its relations with North Africa. This implies the idea of coexistence of different cultures and fides and their relationships through commerce.

Paper long abstract:

Thanks to its strategically location in the Mediterranean, Sicily, known for being the reserve of cereal for the empire and an exporter of silk by excellence, faced through Early Modern Age constant obstacles to its maritime commerce, due to the attacks perpetrated by the Berbers and Ottomans to its ships.

This reality was a constant along the governments of the viceroys, especially when it came to organize offensive attacks, especially during the summer to assure the viability of the exchanges, avoiding any possible dangers. Despite the dangers of an open and latent religious confrontation, these threats cast a shadow on the commercial relations with North Africa - far more frequent than we usually think.

This paper analyzes the relationship between commerce and religion in the Mediterranean, presenting as a case study Sicily and its relations with North Africa. This implies the idea of coexistence of different cultures and fides and their relationships through commerce and the contradictions that might arise from a moral point of view. This will make us rethink about the concepts of us and the other - of the "infidel" and the "captives" - and the concept of law and religious precepts and their application in the everyday life and we will set the true limits to a much more peaceful coexistence than it has been thought. Trade between North Africa and the large Mediterranean island will also open the way to examine the ideas of tolerance and flexibility and of conflict and risk in a much more dangerous image of international trade.

Paper short abstract:

This paper will analyze the trajectories of the Portuguese agents who occupied different positions in the government of the colonial Portuguese empire during the Early Modern Age. It will be seen who were these individuals, which posts did they take and whether there were cultural transfers.

Paper long abstract:

Portuguese officers traveled from India to Brazil and Africa. Previous works have shown that there are only a few cases of governors-general and viceroys present in more than one territory. It is the case of Vasco de Mascarenhas who was appointed as governor-general of Brazil in 1640, viceroy of India in 1652-1653 and later viceroy of Brazil between 1663 and 1667. This is related to the attractiveness of such places and the social prestige required to occupy certain posts. However, this mobility increases when it comes to less important positions.

In this paper it will be analyzed the social origins of these men, their political trajectories and mainly whether it is possible to detect cultural transfers. Did they take political practices from a place to another? Were they responsible for introducing any novelties? Which experiences did they share? And how were they received?

There are a number of examples men who occupied positions both in India, Brazil and even Angola. They were part of what Luiz F. de Alencastro called "overseas men", individuals who forged great networks in order to increase their social status overseas in order to return home in a better condition that the one previous to their departure.

It is also important to remember that during these two centuries, the political status of Portugal changed in 1580 and in 1640, as well as the weight of the Portuguese territories and accordingly the requirements demanded to fulfill the posts.

Paper short abstract:

Cape Verde - a real field of the European experiments where the transfer of knowledge is the result of the new trials in the different spheres: by inventing the new man and creating sort of original manner of living. This archipelago played an immense role in the knowledge exchange on an international scale.

Paper long abstract:

The main theory that supports my thesis is the "concept of network". Cape Verde was a strategic place in all overseas journeys between Europe, Africa and the Americas. All that was created in this small Atlantic archipelago was presented to the rest of the world. My research analyses the European experiments in three dimensions: people, animals and plants. The paper not only discusses the main theories and the historical approaches related to the subject but also provides a wider perspective explaining various phenomena of knowledge transfer between Cabo Verde and the world around. In this paper I present the cross-cultural concepts of knowledge transfer through socialization and acculturation. The act of transferring the multicultural understanding was followed by many decades of negotiations, confrontations and attempts at communication.

The first moments of existence of Cape Verde was a real “tabula rasa” for the settlers due to its being an uninhabited place not ready for the arrival of humans. The cultural exchange and the transfer of knowledge began with the human-being in every possible aspect - from the Europeans coming to Cape Verde following the profit to the formation of Cape Verdean society from scratch.

This resulted in a creation of a new African, a mixed-race person, Creole, a mixture of various ethnic groups originating from the West African coast and the European settlers. In such circumstances the first exchange of cultures, habits, customs, language and religions took place on larger scale. The international exchange of knowledge as well as new practices were possible thanks to the strong merchant class of intermediaries who connected the coast of Guinea with the contractors of the Iberian Peninsula, Atlantic Islands and, last but not least, with the American markets.

Paper short abstract:

This paper presents the formation of the first modern image of China in Europe through the work of Juan González de Mendoza, a Spanish friar that tried to go to China (1580) and wrote his "Historia". The analysis of his larger work and trajectory proves a particular vision of the «global monarchy».

Paper long abstract:

During his 73 years of life, Juan González de Mendoza (1545-1618) crossed the Atlantic Ocean seven times and sailed the Mediterranean in four occasions at least. He served his king in the Court of Spain, later he became bishop in Italy and America, and wrote his "History of China", commissioned by the Pope during his stay in Rome. Mendoza's work was published in the key moment of the union of Crowns between Spain and Portugal. Even though he had never been in the realm of the Ming dynasty, his work was praised as a prestigious source in the Catholic and Protestant countries. The "History of the Great and Mighty Kingdom of China" (1585) is the book that culminated the first modern and realistic image of China in Europe, an image based on Castilian and Portuguese sources and was only substituted with the successful vision of the Jesuits with the advance of their mission in China. This presentation wants to explain the work of a Spanish friar that established the first solid picture of China in Europe, drawing a kind of «global agent» that served an ideal of «global monarchy». The study of his very unknown memorials addressed to the king Philip II, that explains a panoramic vision of the Empire and its dysfunctions, and the reconstruction of his participation in a Spanish failed embassy to Chinese emperor (1580-1581) allows us to understand an imperial project that ended in travel literature.

Paper short abstract:

On the comparison of the Jesuit missions established in Japan and Brazil we aim to reflect about the privileged positioning of Portugal as intermediary par excellence of what came to be undertaken in both territories during the second half of the sixteenth century.

Paper long abstract:

During the Early Modern era, amid various regions and people, besides singular interests and possibilities, the religious work outside Europe came to be adapted and conditioned, what can be observed in the resistance, adaptations and concessions that were made over time. The period in which the territory under the Portuguese Padroado reached its largest amplitude was the middle of sixteenth century, having as limit Brazil and Japan. The first Portuguese had arrived in Brazil in 1500 and in Japan only in 1543, but even so the first Jesuits arrived in both territories at the same year, 1549. Looking for reflect about an comparative approach between these two missions, understanding them as part of the same context besides their singularities, we defined the second half of the sixteenth century as our temporal limit. To do so, we selected letters of some prominent missionaries from each mission and from Portugal, and also of those who assumed the role of Superior General of the Society of Jesus during the period in question. The circulation of news from these many territories was not that fast, even less if we take in count the Japanese geographical positioning. Even so, what was coming to Europe had great influence on the decisions that came to be made and the actions to be taken in the continent, such as from the European reaction what was being done in the non-European territories suffered a "pruning" or an incentive, what came to directly interfere in the path the Jesuit campaign took.

Paper short abstract:

The catechisms and the translators were important elements in the process of evangelization of Africans on both sides of the Atlantic, for this reason it is tried to emphasize its work and its importance in global history.

Paper long abstract:

For this paper we will emphasize on the movement of people and books between the kingdoms of Kongo and Ngola, and the New World. Missionaries of different religious orders that operated in African kingdoms and in the American colonies of the Iberian monarchies catechized slaves. The catechesis as a device of education in the faith has been throughout history a pedagogical instrument for teaching the Christian faith. In this process, the translators were essential part on both sides of the Atlantic. For example Congolese translators who studied in Portugal and Brazil, and later they were part of the secular clergy in the Kongo. Meanwhile, catechisms were a useful instrument of evangelization, which served the missionaries who did not know the language of the African people and they must supported by these to carry out their work. These catechisms circulated throughout the area of influence of the "padroado português", but in the text, will become more enfaces in those conducted by Jesuits and Capuchins during the seventeenth century. For example, the Catechism Jorge Mateus was translated into language Kongo for the evangelization of blacks in the Kongo; or the case of the instruction of the Archbishop of Seville, Pedro de Castro and Quinones, who ordered this instruction for the evangelization of Africans in the Spanish possessions. Both elements were important in the process of "black evangelization", and they circulated around the Atlantic.