Manuscript Practices and the Making of Exile Communities in the Early Modern Period

Programme and Abstracts.pdf

Manuscript Practices and the Making of Exile Communities in the Early Modern Period

The conference will focus on the role of manuscript culture in exile communities of diverse religious backgrounds during the early modern period, with a particular emphasis on the 1620s and 1630s. Specifically, it will examine how the written word was used to sustain, transmit, and reshape collective and individual identities amid the pressures of displacement and religious conflict. The discussion will cover the various forms of manuscript production, such as personal notebooks and records, collections of sermons, prophetic and chiliastic writings, polemical tracts and historical compilations, all situated within institutional frameworks and domestic contexts. Particular attention will be given to the act of copying, which will be considered not only as a practical means for the transmission of texts in environments with limited access to print, but also as a practice with symbolic significance and economic value. Copies could serve as a reaffirmation of tradition, a means and strategy for coping with the loss of home and faith. Furthermore, commissioning copies could function as a form of social support, providing employment and sustenance for those in exile who had lost their livelihoods. By examining these practices, the conference aims to shed light on the specific textual corpora of exile and broader issues of communication, such as memory, authorship and textual identity in forced migration situations.

This conference is a part of the research project Manuscript Practices and Textuality of Exile Communities from the Czech Lands in the 1620s and 1630s, supported by the Czech Science Foundation (reg. nr. 25-15529S). It is organised in collaboration with the Institute of Philosophy and the Institute of History of the Czech Academy of Sciences (CAS).