A House for the Nation? Consulates, Cities and Sovereignty in the Early Modern Mediterranean, 16th-18th Centuries

The house of the French consul - Souvenir from Bursa, 19th-century postcard, Geneanet, CC-BY-NC-SA 2.0 Creative Commons

Event: Conference

Location: NEC conference room & Zoom

11 June 2025, 15.00-17.00 (Bucharest time)

Mathieu GRENET, Associate Professor in Early Modern History, Université Toulouse – Jean Jaurès

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https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81053716271?pwd=eV1sRxZbk2b8wd0OGei6mm0eqkfs4J.1

Meeting ID: 810 5371 6271
Passcode: 857664

 

Short abstract:

What is a consulate? The private residence of the consul? A common space for “nationals” and “protégés”? A public house where receptions and ceremonies are held? An island of sovereignty in a foreign land, protected by its extraterritorial status? All of these things and possibly much more. This lecture is an invitation to explore these multifaceted places, between public and private, outside and inside, “national” and “foreign”. Whether we penetrate their history through that of their architecture, their location in the urban space, their role in local social life or even the surveillance to which they are subjected, consulates constitute privileged and original observatories not only on local realities, but more broadly on international relations and migrations, from the end of the Middle Ages to the present day.

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This event is organized within the research group Reflections on the Political and Social History of the 18th and 19th Centuries in Romania hosted by New Europe College.