Reframing Treaties in the Late Medieval and Early Modern West

by Isabella Lazzarini, Luciano Piffanelli, Diego Pirillo

Overview

Peace treaties were an important, dynamic, and varied element of late medieval and early modern diplomacy and international relations. But study of peace-making in the pre-modern period has often been limited to a focus on singular treaties and case studies, or presented as the historical prelude to the singular and inevitable 'universal' international order of the modern period. Seeking to counter this one-dimensional and Eurocentric teleology, this multi-authored volume conceives of peace treaties very broadly—as a range of successful and failed agreements, settlements, truces, oaths, and other forms conflict resolution—across a wide geopolitical and constitutional range of case studies not limited to Europe, but including also the Mediterranean and Atlantic worlds. Considered in this way, they become a means to reevaluate thoroughly the premodern peace-making process and the broader flow of negotiations that shaped late medieval and early modern political interactions; not as a discrete series of treaties but as a constitutive element of politics (a 'political grammar'), both within and outside frontiers and borders, whose complexity and adaptability are reflected in the diversity of its forms and the variety of the sources that recorded it. In so doing, and across 21 multi-disciplinary chapters, contributors show pre-modern peace-making to have been a multi-layered and varied phenomenon, the understanding of which has important implications for all those working on medieval and early modern international relations, diplomacy, and the new diplomatic history.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780198958475
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	11/28/2025
Pages:	496
Product dimensions:	6.50(w) x 1.50(h) x 9.50(d)

About the Author

Isabella Lazzarini, Professor of Medieval History, University of Turin,Luciano Piffanelli, Associate Professor in Early Modern History, University of Upper Alsace,Diego Pirillo, Professor of Italian Studies and History, University of California, Berkeley

Isabella Lazzarini is Full Professor of Medieval History at the Department of Historical Studies at the University of Turin and a member of the board of the PhD in 'Historical and Archaeological Sciences', of the DISCI department of the University of Bologna. Her research interests focus on the political, social, and cultural history of late medieval Italy and the Mediterranean, with an emphasis on Renaissance diplomacy, the growth of different political languages in documentary sources, and gender studies. She is currently working at the EOS project DiplomatiCon: a Connected History of Medieval Mediterranean Diplomacy. The Mamluk Sultanate, Italy, and the Crown of Aragon (14th-15th centuries) (Liège, Antwerpen, Barcelona, Torino/Bologna, 2022-2027).

Luciano Piffanelli is Associate Professor of Early Modern History and Archival Science at the University of Upper Alsace and member of the board of the PhD in 'European History and Cultures' at the University of Rome 'Sapienza'. Spanning from the 15th to the 18th century, his research deals with European politics, cultures, and societies, focusing on diplomatic practices, archival strategies, and intersections between politics, philosophy, and science. He is member of the editorial boards of the journal Legatio and of the book series In margine: Exploring Pre-modern Paratexts, and he has recently been awarded a PIR grant for his project Faire la paix. Édition et textualité des collections diplomatiques de l'époque moderne (XVIIe-XVIIIe s.).

Diego Pirillo is Professor of Italian Studies at the University of California, Berkeley, where is also affiliated with the History Department. His work focuses on early modern Italy, Europe, and the Atlantic world, with a strong interest in intellectual history, the history of books and reading, refugee studies, colonialism, the history of news and information.

Table of Contents

The Political Grammar of Agreements in the Late Medieval and Early Modern West: An Introduction, Isabella Lazzarini, Luciano Piffanelli, and Diego PirilloPrologue: Sources and Text Tradition1. Diplomatic Sources on Peacemaking in the Late Medieval and Early Modern West (14th-16th Centuries): Letters-Acts-Treaties, Néstor Vigil Montes2. At the Roots of the History of Diplomacy: Writing, Preserving, and Publishing a Peace Treaty (1454/5-1735), Isabella LazzariniPeacekeeping: Political and Confessional Pacts3. Keeping the Peace and Defending Christendom: The Shaping of the Holy Roman Empire as a Treaty-Based Multilateral Order (14th-16th Centuries), Duncan Hardy4. Peace and Territory in the Burgundian and Habsburg Low Countries: The Post-Revolt Settlements of 1421-1427 and 1576-1577, Bram De Ridder5. Giving the Heretics a Stand: The 'Compacts' and 'Concordats' of Jihlava (Basel) in the Long Struggle for a Peace Agreement between the Roman Church and Bohemian Hussites (1436), Klára Hübner6. Peacemaking as a Written Work in Progress: Texts and Players (Italy, 15th-16th Centuries), Francesco Senatore7. Dealing with a Discordant Hydra: Members of the Swiss Confederation in a Constant Struggle for Good Neighbourly Relations, Heinrich Speich8. Peacemaking in the Context of Religious Violence: The Edict of Nantes and the Fragility of Conflict Resolution, Brian SandbergPeacemaking: Foreign Relations and Religious Treaties9. From Tlemcen to Pisa: Negotiating the Peace in 1358, Mohamed Ouerfelli10. A Century of Failure? Making Peace in the Hundred Years War, David Green11. Negotiating for Peace and Trade with the Mamluks: From Truce to Decree, Frédéric Bauden12. Invisible Treaties: The Governors of Algiers and the Strategic Use of Peace Negotiations during the 16th-Century Ottoman-Habsburg Mediterranean Struggle, Francesco Caprioli13. On the Diplomatistic Nature of the Treaties of Cateau-Cambrésis (1559): Rule or Exception?, Roseline Claerr14. On the Failure of Treaties: Bristol 1575, John WatkinsIntersections: Law, Literature, Ethics, Philosophy, and Peacemaking15. Negotiation, Peacemaking, and Treaties: An Early Medieval Perspective, Jenny Benham16. Peacemaking in Late Medieval Ius Commune, Dante Fedele17. Signed, Sealed, Delivered: Ratification, Delay, and the Time of Tragedy, Timothy Hampton18. The Bridge of Peace: Religious Peace, Oblivion, and the Sovereign's Clemency, Michaela Valente19. Peace and Treaties in the Political Thought of Francis Bacon, Samuel Garrett Zeitlin20. 'The Resurrection of a Body Whose Limbs Were Extremely Dispersed': Reframing Peace and Peace Treaties in Leibniz's Work (17th-18th Centuries), Luciano Piffanelli21. Negotiating on the Frontier: Indian Treaties and the Republic of Letters, Diego PirilloEpilogue: Afterlives22. Remembering Westphalia: Rights Talk in Times of 'Domestic Jurisdiction', 1648 and 1948, Jane O. Newman