Three Alba Amicorum from the Habsburg Netherlands

This article uses the alba collected by three travellers from the Habsburg Netherlands to Constantinople in the 1570s and 1580s to explore the purposes of collecting and what they reveal about being part of an integrated imperial mission that represented Habsburg territory abroad. The first album w...

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Main Author: Robyn Dora Radway
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: openjournals.nl 2022-06-01
Series:Early Modern Low Countries
Subjects:
Online Access:https://emlc-journal.org/article/view/12173
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author Robyn Dora Radway
author_facet Robyn Dora Radway
author_sort Robyn Dora Radway
collection DOAJ
description This article uses the alba collected by three travellers from the Habsburg Netherlands to Constantinople in the 1570s and 1580s to explore the purposes of collecting and what they reveal about being part of an integrated imperial mission that represented Habsburg territory abroad. The first album was gathered by the imperial ambassador’s physician Arnold Manlius between May 1571 and November 1574. Manlius’s humanist project is filled with over ninety signatures from his fellow housemates and local notables, accompanied by explanatory annotations in Latin. The article contrasts this large collection with the alba of Lambert Wijts of Mechlin and Johann Huenich of Antwerp, both of whom spent two months in Constantinople as members of tribute-carrying delegations. Wijts (who was in Constantinople between July and August 1572) and Huenich (January through March 1586) gathered eclectic collections of signatures alongside sets of costume album images. Taken together, the three alba reveal a range of collecting practices and purposes – intellectual, documentary, and personal – of men from the Southern Low Countries working in the service of Habsburg emperors in Ottoman Constantinople.
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spelling doaj.art-7178f598f8894888b1e7367dfe0151232023-07-14T13:17:33Zengopenjournals.nlEarly Modern Low Countries2543-15872022-06-016110.51750/emlc12173Three Alba Amicorum from the Habsburg NetherlandsRobyn Dora Radway0Central European University This article uses the alba collected by three travellers from the Habsburg Netherlands to Constantinople in the 1570s and 1580s to explore the purposes of collecting and what they reveal about being part of an integrated imperial mission that represented Habsburg territory abroad. The first album was gathered by the imperial ambassador’s physician Arnold Manlius between May 1571 and November 1574. Manlius’s humanist project is filled with over ninety signatures from his fellow housemates and local notables, accompanied by explanatory annotations in Latin. The article contrasts this large collection with the alba of Lambert Wijts of Mechlin and Johann Huenich of Antwerp, both of whom spent two months in Constantinople as members of tribute-carrying delegations. Wijts (who was in Constantinople between July and August 1572) and Huenich (January through March 1586) gathered eclectic collections of signatures alongside sets of costume album images. Taken together, the three alba reveal a range of collecting practices and purposes – intellectual, documentary, and personal – of men from the Southern Low Countries working in the service of Habsburg emperors in Ottoman Constantinople. https://emlc-journal.org/article/view/12173Habsburg NetherlandsOttoman diplomacytrans-imperial objectscostume booksalbum amicorum
spellingShingle Robyn Dora Radway
Three Alba Amicorum from the Habsburg Netherlands
Early Modern Low Countries
Habsburg Netherlands
Ottoman diplomacy
trans-imperial objects
costume books
album amicorum
title Three Alba Amicorum from the Habsburg Netherlands
title_full Three Alba Amicorum from the Habsburg Netherlands
title_fullStr Three Alba Amicorum from the Habsburg Netherlands
title_full_unstemmed Three Alba Amicorum from the Habsburg Netherlands
title_short Three Alba Amicorum from the Habsburg Netherlands
title_sort three alba amicorum from the habsburg netherlands
topic Habsburg Netherlands
Ottoman diplomacy
trans-imperial objects
costume books
album amicorum
url https://emlc-journal.org/article/view/12173
work_keys_str_mv AT robyndoraradway threealbaamicorumfromthehabsburgnetherlands