Blind Spots, Gaps, and Archival Silences: Tracing Contestation in the Venetian State Archive

In this episode

Early Modern Venice is generally assumed to have been an unusually calm city-state, devoid of the collective protest that characterised contemporary societies across Europe. In this talk, held in February 2024 at the Colloquium for Economic and Social History of Humboldt University Berlin, Maartje van Gelder argues that this eponymous reputation for serenity rests on extensive archival suppression by government authorities, rather than on the actual absence of popular protest. Drawing on critical archival studies and theoretical reflections on political power in the archive, she shows how government scribes would systematically elide any reference to the grain riots, labour conflicts and mass demonstrations that regularly rocked the streets of Venice. Ultimately, she shows how this fundamental dimension of Venetian politics has been successfully erased from state records, and thus from history.

Maartje van Gelder is an Associate Professor in Early Modern History at the University of Amsterdam. She has formerly held academic positions as an Honorary Research Fellow at Birkbeck, University of London, and as a Visiting Professor at Columbia University and the Royal Netherlands Institute in Rome. Besides serving as director and co-chair of different academic institutions in the Netherlands, she has co-founded the Amsterdam Centre for Urban History and the research network Archives of Power/The Power of Archives. Her current research project has grown from her prior studies on the Venetian Republic’s diplomatic relations, migration and trade policy, and popular politics.

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Credits: 

Moderation
Claas Oberstadt, Morten Schneider

Schnitt
Johann Gartlinger

Mastering
Johann Gartlinger

Redaktion
Marie van Bömmel, Johann Gartlinger, Marvin Renfordt, Ana María Orjuela-Acosta

Musikbetten
Michael Hoeldke (Komposition)

Jingle
Michael Hoeldke (Komposition) und Cathrin Bonhoff (Stimme)

 

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