Introduction: Diplomacy and Cultural Translation in the Early Modern World

The essays in this collection explore diplomacy as a form of cultural translation. Out of necessity, Europeans sought new ways of conducting diplomacy in the changing environment of the early modern world, as they grappled with challenges from within their old but crumbling respublica christiana, and also with changing relations with powers and communities beyond it. Reflecting the current vitality of research into early modern diplomacy and practice that has extended the boundaries of what we consider as constituting “diplomacy,” these essays collectively examine how Europeans, on state and sub-state levels, interacted with powers from the Near East, Asia and Africa. In doing so, they contribute to a more nuanced understanding of how increasingly globalized diplomatic agents deployed symbolic and rhetorical languages that could be shared amongst different participants