Connecting Histories, Connecting Heritage: Early Modern Cities and Their Afterlives

连接历史、连接遗产：早期现代城市及其来世

• 批准号: MR/X036200/1
• 负责人: Christina Anderson
• 金额: $ 201.2万
• 依托单位: University College London
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Fellowship
• 财政年份: 2024
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2024 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=MR%2FX036200%2F1
• 关键词: Connecting; Histories; Heritage; Early; Modern

The early modern period (c. 1450-1800) witnessed a remarkable growth in flows of goods, ideas, people, languages and art forms both across and between continents. The buildings, squares and streets of early modern cities were shaped by these flows and exchanges with other places, exchanges that, while sometimes mutually beneficial, were often unequal and could lead to disorientation, oppression, exploitation and even violence. With its range of trans- and intercontinental connections, diverse population, and different experiences of colonialism, sixteenth-century Antwerp, the so-called 'economic powerhouse' of early modern Europe and today an international port city in Belgium, will serve as the project's principal case study. This research takes the expression 'if walls could talk' literally: it aims to examine the often-overlooked histories embedded in buildings and streets that are linked to a city's early modern connections to other places. Through examining these, the project will also reveal the stories of these other places, demonstrating that the histories of connected places are inextricably linked and that you cannot understand one without understanding the other. Among the factors facilitating these transnational flows were the social relationships forged over long distances between merchants in commercial centres and their agents in far-away locations. The project will create summaries in English of a large cache (2000+ documents) of Antwerp merchant correspondence, notarial acts documenting these merchants' business transactions, and merchant family chronicles, the originals in seven different languages. These will be used to produce a publicly searchable database from which users will also be able to create visualisations of the networks in which Antwerp participated. Interactive maps will then be produced that match the flows to specific buildings, streets and objects in Antwerp, with themes like colonialism and the linguistic landscape offering new insights into the patterns of transnational influences in the cityscape. A third research strand will offer an interconnected history of the Huis van Aken (an Antwerp palace) and the Engenho São Jorge dos Erasmos (a former Brazilian sugar plantation belonging to the owners of the palace). This will allow for an in-depth examination of the flows creating this connection, including that between the enslaved labour on the plantation and the wealth flowing back to Antwerp. Improving our understanding not only of how economic, religious, political and social connections wrought technological, environmental and aesthetic changes on a city's fabric, but also of the experiences of individuals on the other side of these exchanges, the project will contribute to the decolonisation of knowledge. It will also promote the concept of transnational heritage as a useful way of understanding the way that early modern flows have become materialised in the cityscape and of how, in belonging to one place, an individual also belongs to all the other places connected to their home. This concept informs the project's heritage policy work. It also underlies the virtual reality experience that will be created to provide a visceral experience of the interconnectedness between the Antwerp palace and Brazilian sugar plantation. As UN Secretary-General Guterres warned at COP27: 'Humanity has a choice: cooperate or perish.' The top-down approach to addressing global challenges is clearly not effective on its own. Planetary consciousness also needs to be nurtured within and between communities. Cities, home to more than half of humanity, contain historical links within their fabric that can engender this sense of interconnection and responsibility to different parts of the world. This project develops crucial insights and tools for bringing these connections alive for urban residents and others, providing a path forward amidst the global crises and uncertainties of our age.

现代早期（约 1450-1800 年）跨大陆和跨大陆的商品、思想、人员、语言和艺术形式的流动仍然显着增长，早期现代城市的建筑、广场和街道都是由这些流动所塑造的。与其他地方的流动和交流，虽然有时是互惠互利的，但往往是不平等的，并且由于跨洲和洲际联系广泛、人口多样化和经历不同，可能导致迷失方向、压迫、剥削甚至暴力。十六世纪的安特卫普是早期现代欧洲所谓的“经济强国”，如今是比利时的国际港口城市，将作为该项目的主要案例研究。它的目的是研究建筑物和街道中经常被忽视的历史，这些历史与城市早期现代与其他地方的联系有关，该项目还将揭示这些其他地方的故事，展示相互联系的地方的历史。有着千丝万缕的联系促进这些跨国流动的因素之一是商业中心的商人与其远方代理商之间建立的远距离社会关系。该项目将用英语创建大量的摘要。安特卫普商人信件的缓存（2000 多份文档）、记录这些商人商业交易的公证行为以及商人家族编年史，​​以及七种不同语言的原件，这些都将用于生成一个可公开搜索的数据库，用户也可以从中进行搜索。然后，能够创建安特卫普参与的网络的可视化，将流量与安特卫普的特定建筑物、街道和物体相匹配，并以殖民主义和语言景观等主题提供对跨国影响模式的新见解。第三个研究方向将提供 Huis van Aken（安特卫普宫殿）和 Engenho São Jorge dos Erasmos（属于安特卫普所有者的前巴西甘蔗种植园）的相互关联的历史。这将有助于深入研究建立这种联系的流动，包括种植园中的奴役劳工与回流到安特卫普的财富之间的流动，从而不仅提高我们对经济、宗教、政治和社会的理解。联系给城市结构带来了技术、环境和审美的变化，而且也改变了这些交流另一边的个人的经历，该项目将有助于知识的非殖民化，也将促进跨国遗产的概念成为一种有用的东西。方式理解早期现代流动在城市景观中的具体化方式，以及个人如何在属于一个地方的同时也属于与其家园相关的所有其他地方。这一概念为该项目的遗产政策工作提供了信息。正如联合国秘书长古特雷斯在 COP27 上警告的那样：“人类有一个选择：合作或合作”。解决全球挑战的自上而下的方法本身显然是无效的，地球意识还需要在社区内部和社区之间培养，城市是一半以上人类的家园，其结构中包含着历史联系。该项目开发了重要的见解和工具，为城市居民和其他人带来这种联系，并在我们这个时代的全球危机和不确定性中提供一条前进的道路。