Articles by Robyn D Radway
European History Quarterly, 2026
Early modern atlases left the printer's workshop as a series of uncoloured projections surrounded... more Early modern atlases left the printer's workshop as a series of uncoloured projections surrounded by a textual apparatus. Translucent washes of blue, green, yellow, and pink were applied by professional illuminators on behalf of consumers. Different copies of the same edition often contained their own internal logic. These differences in colouring, though subtle, reflect remarkably divergent understandings of connected, entangled, and divided Central Europe. They suggest that the competing interpretations of culture, politics, and belonging that were discussed among humanists and ruling elites were being interpreted on the commercial book market for and by consumers. This article argues that historians need to take these differences seriously and systematically study the range of options available for colouring hand-painted atlases. Comparing the colouring of several examples of Europa and Germania from the Theatrum Orbis Terrarum (1570), including a few whose original ownership is documented, I show how the political geography of atlas consumers was highly subjective, relational, and embedded in ongoing discourses about legitimacy, legal status, and notions of belonging. These political biases, humanistic arguments, and indeed the limits of geopolitical literacy are essential to understanding how central and eastern Europe was conceptualized, personalized, and rejected in paint.
Manuscript Albums and their Cultural Contexts, 2024
In the fall of 1584, the Silesian nobleman Caspar von Abschatz travelled along the Balkan diploma... more In the fall of 1584, the Silesian nobleman Caspar von Abschatz travelled along the Balkan diplomatic corridor from Vienna through Ottoman Buda, Belgrade, Sofia, and Plovdiv to Constantinople. He documented the journey with entries gathered in his album amicorum, an extraordinary artifact that he would dramatically expand over the rest of his life. This article uses codicological details, the texts of entries, and archival documents to examine how Abschatz compiled, used, and transformed his album with a focus on his years in Constantinople. I argue that both Abschatz's rare collection of papers and his documented social networks point to his intimate relationship with Ottoman decorative arts, the city of Constantinople, and the imperial context that brought him there. At the same time, the generic visual depictions of Ottoman figures and the small number of signatures by Ottoman Muslims reveals the distance Abschatz maintained from his environment.
Early Modern Low Countries, 2022
This article uses the alba collected by three travellers from the Habsburg Netherlands to Constan... more 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 ambassa- dor’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 trib- ute-carrying delegations. Wijts (who was in Constantinople between July and August 1572) and Huenich (January through March 1586) gathered eclectic collections of sig- natures alongside sets of costume album images. Taken together, the three alba reveal a range of collecting practices and purposes – intellectual, documentary, and per- sonal – of men from the Southern Low Countries working in the service of Habsburg emperors in Ottoman Constantinople.
The Dialectics of Orientalism in Early Modern Europe, 2018
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this p... more The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
Journal of Early Modern History, 2018
In 1580-1581, the Austrian Habsburg ambassador to the Ottoman court shared news of a remarkable l... more In 1580-1581, the Austrian Habsburg ambassador to the Ottoman court shared news of a remarkable letter and self-portrait that had arrived from an Ottoman subject in Habsburg captivity. Tracing the scramble for details on the matter and its import for Habsburg-Ottoman diplomacy reveals the structure, contours, and challenges of the Habsburg mission in Constantinople. The article argues that the image and the accompanying letter may be a forgery seeking to place the ambassador and the peace he was to uphold in jeopardy. Instead, the ambassador himself was captive to the factions, rivalries, and shifting loyalties in the borderlands that played out in the diplomatic culture of Ottoman Constantinople. This reveals the possibilities, limits, and ranges of control that early modern resident ambassadors had of their missions.
The Ambassadors of Dialogue: the role of diplomatic gifts and works of arts and crafts in intercultural exchange, 2016
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Articles by Robyn D Radway