(image source: Renaud Adam/ULiège)
Presentation
Nowadays, the law is the
sparkling star of a complex normative galaxy. The purpose of the law is to
provide a reference point for a community while it manifests the sovereign’s
will. If this situation does not entirely reflect the status of the law in the early
modern period, it must be recognized that early modern lawyers like Jean Bodin
did not hesitate to place the legislative power at the forefront of princely prerogative.
The law is therefore a legal instrument in the service of the government of a
given territory, but it is also a means of communication between rulers and subjects.
The drafting and
publication of the law are two sides of the same coin. The early modern period paved
the way for the printing of legislative acts and, consequently, for the wide
dissemination of promulgated texts. However, there is no evidence of the vanishing
of handwritten texts. In addition to the printing of new laws, in the form of
placards and ordinances, we should also recognise the importance attached to
more substantial customs. Indeed,
princes and sovereigns were keen to ensure that customs were repeatedly renewed
and updated to reinforce the legislative corpus. With each successive round of
amplifications the authorities - central, provincial or local - turned again to
the printing presses.
This international
conference aims to question the topic of the printing and distribution of laws
in the early modern period by comparing the Habsburg Netherlands, the Dutch
Republic and the Prince-Bishopric of Liege. The authorities in all three
territories made extensive use of printing to ensure the rapid mass
dissemination of official documents - including legislation. At the local
level, for example, the arrival of the first printers in several cities is
directly linked to the willingness of the municipal authorities to have a press
at their disposal. The advent of the privilege system also allowed some
printers to secure monopolies that they tried to transform into dynastic
monopolies in order to secure substantial revenues.
While several
investigations have been dedicated to this topic, it must be noted that this
phenomenon has not yet received all the attention it deserves and that many
issues still need to be addressed; we have thus far had an incomplete and
unrepresentative perspective on the printing of laws in the early modern
period.
The organizers welcome
contributions on any facet of this subject. Possible themes include:
- which formats are used
for printing laws? Does the layout of legislative texts meet a particular
standard or not?
- Relationship between printers
and authorities: What links do the authorities - central, provincial or municipal
- have with printers? Can we establish an accurate profile of printers active
in the field of ordinance printing? What status did these printers have in
urban society? What role did these documents play in their output? What were
the advantages of being an official printer? By what means was legislative
production supervised and monitored by the various authorities?
- The effects of print on
law-making: did the printing of laws have an influence on the decision-making
process? Are explicit references to the printing of laws included in the promulgated
acts themselves?
- The dissemination of the
law: is it possible to trace the distribution channels? What are the roles of
the different actors in the book trade? Is it possible to know the places and
times of publication of printed texts?
*
* *
Please submit a proposal (300
words maximum) and a CV (maximum 1 page) by 30 June 2019 to Renaud Adam (renaud.adam@uliege.be) and Nicolas
Simon (n.simon@uclouvain.be). Participants
will be notified by the end of August. The conference proceedings will be
published in English.
Organizing Committee:
Renaud Adam (ULiège), Annick Delfosse (ULiège), Julien Régibeau (ULiège),
Nicolas Simon (UCL/USL-B), Arthur der Weduwen (University of St Andrews).
Scientific Committee:
Renaud Adam (ULiège), Wim Decock (KUL, ULiège), Annick Delfosse (ULiège),
Frederik Dhondt (VUB/UAntwerpen), Nicolas Simon (FNRS-UCL/USL-B), Andrew
Pettegree (University of St Andrews), Arthur der Weduwen (University of St
Andrews).
(source: Renaud Adam/ULiège)
(source: Renaud Adam/ULiège)
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