SYMPOSIUM: Early Modern Private Libraries as Sites of Knowledge Production and Circulation

Madrid 7-8 November 2024

Universidad Rey Juan Carlos (URJC), Madrid Campus: Calle Quintana, 21 28008 Madrid

The Research Group CINTER (Courts Images Nobility TERritory) and the Faculty of Arts and Humanities of King Juan Carlos University have the pleasure to invite you to submit your paper proposal for the upcoming symposium ‘Early Modern Private Libraries as Sites of Knowledge Production and Circulation’.

This symposium aims to explore the role of private libraries in the production and circulation of knowledge with a focus on the early modern period. Private libraries are defined by the restricted access to their content, typically located inside the home, as opposed to a library with wider access such as in a monastery, university, or royal collection. The library is defined as a dedicated room or space in the house with built shelves for the display of books, accessible to a wider range of people in the household.

Often, the homes containing the libraries were geographically remote from centres of knowledge such as big cities that could provide access to public libraries. They constituted therefore knowledge hubs in otherwise isolated areas. The content of the libraries reflected the interests and needs of their owner and their extended household. These homes can be owned by members of the nobility, the gentry, commoners, or even royalty.

In many ways, the private library contributed to making the world enter the home. This was done not only with books and manuscripts, but also with letters, news, artefacts, objects of art, maps, scientific instruments, taxidermy, or any other foreign objects of curiosity. The library was sometimes combined as a “cabinet of curiosities” or Wunderkammer, which effectively created a microcosm inside the home.

The symposium will bring together early career and established scholars working in various fields of history to discuss the role of private libraries, laboratories, and cabinet of curiosities in connecting the home to the world through the production and circulation of knowledge. This can be ways of learning, ways of reading, ways of writing, ways of representing, ways of experimenting, or ways of teaching and tutoring, while integrating a gender perspective.

Overal theme:
The overall theme this symposium would like the participants to reflect upon concerns the world and the home. The home is understood as the architectural place where the private library is located. The world is understood as a plural concept describing the outside as geographical (other countries, the whole world), historical (antiquity), cultural, economic, political, cosmopolitan (views of a united humankind), scientific, religious (reformation, theological questions, other religions), artistic, etc.

The main question the participant should reflect upon is: How did the world enter and interreact with the home? This includes sub-questions, for instance:
- What world(s) entered the home?
- How did it (they) enter the home?
- Who in the home received the world(s) and what kinds?
- How can the historian trace a connection between the activities in the home and their impact in the world (and vice versa)?

The end scope of this symposium is to publish the papers in an edited volume.

Guide for Authors:
Authors are encouraged to submit their latest research, case studies, or methodological advancements aligned with the conference theme and topics of interest. Please send your proposal (max. 300 words) with a short CV (max. 200 words) before 14 April 2024 (midnight Madrid time) to: frank.poulsen@urjc.es

Practical elements:
The symposium will take place for one and a half day. There are no fees for registration. Lunch and coffee breaks will be provided, but the cost of transport and hotel will be at the charge of the participants.

Important Dates:
Deadline for submission: 14 April 2024
Notification of acceptance: 1 May 2024

For any programme and general enquiries: frank.poulsen@urjc.es