Botta Adorno,Empress Maria Theresa and Brussels Tapestry in the Mid-Eighteenth Century. Part I

Relying on newly excavated archival sources, this two-part study seeks to map the genesis and development of the plan conceived by Antoniotto di Botta Adorno (1688–1774), Minister Plenipotentiary of the Austrian Netherlands from 1749 to 1753, to support the Brussels tapestry industry by promoting Brussels tapestries as diplomatic gifts. The first part sheds fresh light on the lives and mutual relations between the tapestry producers (tapissiers) who populated the landscape in the 1750s — Peter van den Hecke (1680–1752), Daniel IV Leyniers (1705–1770) and the half-brothers Jan Frans (1697–1774) and Peter II van der Borcht (1712–1760) — and analyses the slow maturation of Adorno’s plan in the summer of 1749. The second article will describe the way in which Botta Adorno made the project a reality and will also examine the strategies devised by the Minister and the Brussels tapissiers and the context in which they sought to apply them.     

Claiming Commerce,Quality and Credit: Raisons d’être of the Antwerp and Brussels tapissierspanden (Sixteenth–Eighteenth Centuries)

Literature on the Antwerp and Brussels tapissierspanden tends to give a one-dimensional account of the institutions as very similar commercial enterprises that were embraced wholeheartedly by everyone involved in the Antwerp and Brussels tapestry worlds since they all shared the same concerns and a single goal — namely, to develop and secure a central meeting point and marketplace. This essay, however, adopts a different vantage point. It discusses the tapissierspanden from the viewpoint of the conflicting business conduct and strategies developed by Antwerp city council and tapestry entrepreneurs on the one hand, and Brussels tapestry entrepreneurs on the other. This essay argues that those who founded the institutions in Antwerp and Brussels established and used them to further completely different objectives — and that their strategies, which both manifested themselves and crystallised in the panden, present tapestry scholarship with a fundamental methodological problem, the magnitude of which has yet to be appreciated.     

Evolving Ideas: J. B. d’Anville’s Maps of Southern Africa, 1725–1749

This article focuses on the changes made to the cartography of southern Africa between 1725 and 1749 by the French geographer Jean Baptiste Bourguignon d’Anville. The maps in question were produced in collaboration with the Portuguese ambassador Dom Luís da Cunha as part of d’Anville’s plan to demonstrate what lay between the Portuguese colonies of Angola in the west and Mozambique in the east and to establish a link across the continent. The maps he produced in the first two phases of his mapping of southern Africa (1725–1731) echoed the traditional horror vacui. The vast blank that appeared on his map of Afrique of 1749, however, has to be seen as d’Anville intended—the integration of empty space on a map with Enlightenment rationalization of geography.     

The Russian navy as Chartmaker in the eighteenth century

Abstract

The modern period of chart making in Russia began in the reign of Peter the Great. Peter created the country's navy, which became the main focus for cartography in the eighteenth century. In this paper the multi‐faceted duties of naval officers in the charting and mapping of seas, rivers, forest resources and other features important for ship building and the development of navigation, and essential to Russia's geo‐political interests, are considered. The history of the early stages of specialized naval education and the training of surveyors at the Moscow Mathematical‐Navigational School (from 1701) and the St Petersburg Naval Academy (from 1715) are outlined, and the first surveys in the Baltic and Caspian seas are described. Finally, special attention is paid to the hydrographical surveys and charting of the Aegean Sea during the Russian‐Turkish war of 1768–1774, the sources and methods involved, and the little‐known Atlas of the Archipelago (1788) which was created from the surveys.     

The Amsterdam Tapestry Producer Alexander Baert (1660–1719) and his Workshop: New Findings

Drawing on archival material relating to the Amsterdam tapestry producer Alexander Baert, much of it previously unpublished, this research note marks a departure from the prevailing, undersocialised, approach to tapestry production and trade in the Northern Netherlands. Data explored here for the first time show that, before emigrating from Oudenaarde, Baert was an active member of a rich network of tapestry entrepreneurs, but that ‘push factors’ such as legal and commercial problems along with ‘pull factors’ such as certain benefits and freedoms prompted his decision to move to the Republic. While earlier studies describe his activities there as an isolated process, it becomes clear that the entrepreneur and his descendants preserved enduring business ties in the Southern Netherlands. These networks furnished Baert with the infrastructure that enabled him to import tapestries from Antwerp, Brussels and Oudenaarde and to purchase Flemish cartoons cheaply.     

A modern Bodhisattva: How U Nu sees his life

U Nu—Saturday's Son: The Memoirs of the Former Prime Minister of Burma, by U Nu, translated by U Law Yone, edited by U Kyaw Win. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1975. 358 pp., illustrated, index, US$15.00. ISBN 0–300–01776–6.     

Book reviews

English Maps: A History. By Catherine Delano‐Smith and Roger J. P. Kain. London: The British library, 1999. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1999. ISBN 0 7123 4609 0 (cloth); 0 7123 4660 0 (paper). Pp. xiv, 320, illus., col. plates. STG£25.00 (cloth).

Abraham Ortelius and the First Atlas: Essays Commemorating the Quadricentennial of his Death, 1598–1998. Edited by Marcel van den Broecke, Peter van der Krogt and Peter Meurer. Utrecht: HES Publishers, 1998. ISBN 90 6194 388 4. Pp. 430, illus.,. 19 col. plates. DFL371.00(cloth).

A Biographical Index of East India Company Maritime Service Officers 1600–1834. By Anthony Farrington. London: The British Library, 1999. ISBN 0 7123 4647 3. Pp. 886. STG£85.00 (cloth).

Catalogue of East India Company Ships’ Journals and Logs 1600–1834. By Anthony Farrington. London: The British Library, 1999. ISBN 0 7123 4646 5. Pp. 789. STG£85.00 (doth).

Ordnance Survey Small‐Scale Maps: Indexes: 1801–1998. By Roger Hellyer. Kerry, Newtown, Montgomeryshire: David Archer, 1999. ISBN 0951757954. Pp. xxiv, 264, illus. STG£35.00 (cloth). [David Archer, Kerry, Wales SY16 . 4PD.]     

Illustrations of the History of Knitting Selected from the Collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum

Abstract

Based on new archival findings, this essay maps the life and business strategies of Brussels tapissiers Albert Auwercx and Judocus de Vos. It shows that categorising Auwerxc as a minor tapissier — a label he was assigned in the past — ignores the underlying structure and dynamics of the industry. Brussels tapissiers created an intricate web of social networks that generated trust, which paved the way for semi-structured and flexible cooperation between small firms. Judocus de Vos also belonged to the Brussels social and production networks but made his name as a commercial link and broker between Brussels, the Antwerp-Oudenarde production and trading complex, and the European élite — particularly after 1719 when he handed over the reins and assets of the De Vos workshop to his brother Jan-Frans.     

Population density and the accuracy of the land valuations in the 1798 federal direct tax

Abstract

The peculiar operation of the 1798 federal direct tax has led scholars to question whether tax officials reported the land valuations from their districts faithfully. Peter Lindert and Jeffrey Williamson argue that southern tax assessors systemically under reported the value of southern real estate, and they adjust their income estimates to account for the likelihood of corruption. This paper affirms the reliability of the tax returns by demonstrating that population density, rather than corruption or lax enforcement, can explain nearly all of the variation between the assessment districts. Accepting the tax valuations as accurate would lower Lindert and Williamson’s income estimates, imply slower growth rate between 1774 and 1800, and suggest a higher growth rate between 1800 and 1850.     

The Role of Theatre in Society: A Comparative Analysis of the Socio-Cultural Theories of Brecht,Benjamin, and Adorno

Abstract

This article analyzes the socio-cultural theories of Adorno, Benjamin, and Brecht through the lens of the theatre, most especially as it pertains to the work of actors. It explores the forces of capitalism that determine how art is produced, distributed, and consumed. Following Adorno’s reading of Marx, actors are here posited as commodities whose labor is separated from the product they create for public consumption. This commodification raises various questions: How does a market economy shape the production and consumption of art? What is technology’s function in the commodification of art? What is art’s sociopolitical role and how does it apply to theatre? To address these questions I juxtapose the cultural theory of Adorno and Benjamin with Brecht’s epic theatre. This comparison exposes the ritualistic potential of the theatre to bring an audience together as a community through sharing a socially enriching event.     

Allegories of Absence: Richard Weiner and Karel Čapek

Abstract

Examining the relationship between two of the most significant Czech writers of the early twentieth century, Richard Weiner (1884–1937) and Karel ?apek (1890–1938), this article sets their divergent developmental paths into the context of broader issues within European Modernism as a whole. The re-emergence of ‘allegory’ as privileged aesthetic category — represented prominently by Walter Benjamin’s work in the 1920s — characterizes a cultural phenomenon that can be termed ‘melancholy Modernism’. Weiner and ?apek’s contrasting responses to this melancholy allegorical impulse trace a fundamental fault line within the philosophical and historical development of Modernism.     

Von der Wissenschaftsverwaltung zur Wissenschaftspolitik. Friedrich Althoff (19. 2. 1839-20. 10. 1908)

Friedrich Althoff (1839–1908) was one of Germany's three great administrators of science and humanities between Wilhelm von Humboldt (1767–1835) and Carl Heinrich Becker (1886–1933). He was perhaps the most prominent representative of Prussian bureaucratic liberalism and the first eminent politician of culture or — in the words of W. H. Dawson — “the most enlightened but also the most dictatorial Minister of Education Prussia has ever had”. Althoff dominated the state administration of higher education in Prussia between 1882 and 1907, serving as Ministerial director over higher educational affairs under at least four ministers. The so-called “Althoff system”, that he built pushed the development of German science and scholarship to a dominant position in the world, rationalized the universities and further subordinated them to state or ministerial policy through a rigid control of professional appointments, started the mobilization of private capital in support of German scientific hegemony (founding of Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gesellschaft), and put forward the Prussian tradition — ultimately an unsustainable one — of strong personal administration, by which Althoff systematically manipulated or overrode the very bureaucratic apparatus he had helped to create. On the other hand his policy defended academic freedom, patronized Catholic and Jewish scholars against reactionary university faculties as well as the so-called Kathedersozialisten against the influences of big business and laissez-faire capitalism. As a creator of german cultural foreign policy he paved the way for more international understanding and peace policy, an alternative to the war-aims policy of Imperial Germany on the eve of the Great War.     

Honours for Glasgow staff

Political Geography of the Twentieth Century: A Global Analysis. Edited by Peter Taylor, 245 x 184 mm, xiii + 269 pp, Belhaven, London, 1993, pbk ISBN 1–85293–1973, £12.95.

Environmental Management in the Soviet Union. By Philip R. Pryde, 228 x 153 mm, xiii + 314 pp, Cambridge University Press, 1991, pbk ISBN 0–521–40905–5, £10.95.

Green Development: Environment und Sustainahility in the Third World. By W.M. Adams, 216 X 138 mm, 273 pp, Routledge, London, 1992, pbk, ISBN 0–415–08050–9, £12.99.

Debt and Development. By Stuart Corbridge, 230 x 153 mm, 231 pp, Blackwell, Oxford, 1993, hbk ISBN 0–631179046, £35.00, pbk ISBN 0–631181383, £10.99.

Contemporary Rural Systems in Transition: Vol. 1 Agriculture and Environment, Vol. 2 Economy and Society. Edited by I.R. Bowler, C.R. Bryant and M.D. Nellis, 240 x 160 mm, viii + 277 and xx + 314 pp, Wallingford, CAB International, 1992, hbk, ISBN 0–85198–813‐X (two‐volume set), £70.00.

Controlling Tropical Deforestation. By Alan Grainger, 232 x 152 mm, 310 pp, Earthscan, London, 1993, pbk, ISBN 1–85383–142–5, £14.95.

Deforestation in the Postwar Philippines. By David M. Kummer, 228 x 152 mm, xvii + 178 pp, University of Chicago Press (Geography Research Paper 234), Chicago and London, 1992, pbk, ISBN 0–226–46169–6, £13.50.

Nineteenth‐Century Cape Breton — A Historical Geography. By Stephen J. Hornsby, 230 x 153 mm, 304 pp, McGill‐Queen's University Press, Montreal and Kingston, 1992, hbk, ISBN 0–7735–0889–9, £33.95.

Challenge of the Natural Environment. By B.J. Knapp, S.R.J. Ross, and D. McCrae, 236 x 135 mm, 272 pp, Longman, Harlow, 1989, pbk, ISBN 0–582–35597–4, £9.99.     

Reviews

Book reviewed in this article: The Skuldelev Ships I: Topography, Archaeology, History, Conservation and Display (Ships and Boats of the North: 4.1), OLE CRUMLIN‐PEDERSEN, OLAF OLSEN (Eds) III‐starred Captains—Flinders and Baudin, ANTHONY J. BROWN Facing the Ocean. The Atlantic and its Peoples, 8000 BC‐AD 1500, BARRY CUNLIFFE Archaeology and Seafaring: the Indian Ocean in the Ancient Period (ICHR Monograph 1), HAMINSHU PRABHA RAY The Sea in Antiquity (BAR International Series 899), G. J. OLIVER, R. BROCK, T. J. CORNELL, S. HODKINSON (Eds) Lost Warships: an archaeological tour of war at sea, JAMES P. DELGADO ‘A ship cast away about Alderney’—Investigation of an Elizabethan shipwreck, JASON MONAGHAN and, MENSUN BOUND (Eds) Archeologisch onderzoek in het tracé van Willemsspoortunnel te Rotterdam. Sluizen en schepen in de dam van de Rotte (BOO Rbalans 4, 2 vols), M. van TRIERUM, A. CARMIGGELT, A. J. GUIRAN (Eds) Schutz des Kulturerbes unter Wasser (IKUWA conference 1999 proceedings), CHRISTOPHER BÖRKER et al. (Eds) Construzione navale antica, PIER0 DELL'AMICO The Voyages of the Discovery: the illustrated history of Scott's ship, ANN SAVOURS Chicago Maritime: An Illustrated History, DAVID M. YOUNG Deux siècles de constructions et chantiers navals (milieu XVIIe‐milieu XIXe) Proceedings of 124th Congrès des societés historiques et scientifiques, Nantes 1999), CHRISTIANE VILLAIN‐GANDOSSI (Ed.) Submarine Researches by C. A. Deane (1836), MICHAEL FARDELL & NIGEL PHILLIPS (Eds.), JOHN BEVAN Naval Guns: 500 years of Ship and Coastal Artillery, HANS MEHL Lords of the East—the East India Company and its ships 1600–1874, JEAN SUTTON CSS Alabama: Anatomy of a Confederate raider, ANDREW BOWCOCK The extraordinary voyage of Pytheas the Greek, BARRY CUNLIFFE Trincomalee— the last of Nelson's frigates, ANDREW LAMBERT Galleons and Galleys (Cassel's History of Warfare Series), JOHN F. GUIIMARTIN Jr.     

An Exemplary Leader?: New Zealand and Decolonization of the Cook Islands and Niue

ABSTRACT

New Zealand is proud of its decolonization record: Prime Minister Peter Fraser’s role in developing provisions for non-self-governing territories in the United Nations; New Zealand’s support for the 1960 declaration on colonialism; its leadership on decolonization in the Pacific; the innovative decolonization solution of self-government in free association with New Zealand adopted by the Cook Islands in 1965, and similar arrangement by Niue in 1974. This record is ascribed to a New Zealand belief in self-determination. Closer examination shows many officials, ministers and parliamentarians were opposed to self-government for the Cook Islands, and concerns lingered about Niue. The arrangements reached reflected New Zealand’s reluctance to let go. Yet self-government was granted, in the context of a reassuring New Zealand view of itself as the centre of the South Pacific region. With new competition for influence in the region, it is important that New Zealand does not seek to constrain the Cook Islands’ and Niue’s self-government and potential future self-determination.     

Erdoğan’s pragmatism and the ascension of AKP in Turkey: Islam and neo‐Ottomanism

This article aimed to analyze the ascension of Justice and Development Party—Adalet ve Kalk?nma Partisi (AKP)—in Turkey and its political measures regarding both Islam and the country's Ottoman past, in order to comprehend the party's role in a potential shift of Turkish national identity and in Turkey's relationship with the Middle East. The article does this through a content analysis of decrees, laws, and other measures taken by the AKP that emphasizes its cultural and religious policies, as well as revisiting literature produced about the subject. Analyzing Recep Tayyip Erdo?an's government during his time as Prime Minister (2003–2014), two noteworthy features come to light: its Islamic influence and its so‐called neo‐Ottomanist outlook. However, this article argues that besides an identity‐ and ideology‐based motivation, the AKP had pragmatic intentions in adopting such approaches, aiming to gather support both domestically and regionally.     

Reading Comte across the Atlantic: Intellectual Exchanges between France and Brazil and the Question of Slavery

Summary

This article looks at a specific case of intellectual exchange by approaching Luís Pereira Barreto (1840–1923), a Brazilian medic who, having studied in Brussels in the 1850s, came into contact with Comte's positivism and with the ideas of his disciples. While in Europe, Barreto established a long-lasting friendship with Pierre Lafitte, and became a convert to Comte's Religion of Humanity. Upon his return to Brazil in 1864, Barreto sought to apply Comte's principles to Brazilian society and politics. Although Barreto's use of positivism extends beyond the issue of slavery and slave work, I will focus on this priest of humanity's considerations about positivism, social evolutionism, and Brazilian slavery. This will allow me to extrapolate some qualified conclusions about the nature of the intellectual exchange that occurred between Barreto and the French positivists, and the development of Brazilian positivism as a political philosophy and social theory which had to address the problem of slavery in the 1870s and 1880s.     

How the nerves reached the muscle: Bernard Katz,Stephen W. Kuffler,and John C. Eccles—Certain implications of exile for the development of twentieth-century neurophysiology

This article explores the work by Bernard Katz (1911–2003), Stephen W. Kuffler (1913–1980), and John C. Eccles (1903–1997) on the nerve–muscle junction as a milestone in twentieth-century neurophysiology with wider scientific implications. The historical question is approached from two perspectives: (a) an investigation of twentieth-century solutions to a longer physiological dispute and (b) an examination of a new kind of laboratory and academic cooperation. From this vantage point, the work pursued in Sydney by Sir John Carew Eccles’ team on the neuromuscular junction is particularly valuable, since it contributed a central functional element to modern physiological understanding regarding the function and structure of the human and animal nervous system. The reflex model of neuromuscular action had already been advanced by neuroanatomists such as Georg Prochaska (1749–1820) in Bohemia since the eighteenth century. It became a major component of neurophysiological theories during the nineteenth century, based on the law associated with the names of François Magendie (1783–1855) in France and Charles Bell (1774–1842) in Britain regarding the functional differences of the sensory and motor spinal nerves. Yet, it was not until the beginning of the twentieth century that both the histological and the neurophysiological understanding of the nerve–muscle connection became entirely understood and the chemical versus electrical transmission further elicited as the mechanisms of inhibition. John C. Eccles, Bernard Katz, and Stephen W. Kuffler helped to provide some of the missing links for modern neurophysiology. The current article explores several of their scientific contributions and investigates how the context of forced migration contributed to these interactions in contingently new ways.