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.

近代早期（1450-1800年）见证了商品，思想，人，语言和艺术的流量在跨越和持续之间形成。早期现代城市的建筑物，广场和街道是由这些流量和与其他地方的交流所塑造的，这些交流有时是互惠互利的，通常是不平等的，可能导致迷失方向，压迫，剥削甚至暴力。凭借其跨大陆和洲际联系的范围，潜水员的人口以及殖民主义的不同经验，十六世纪的安特卫普（Antwerp），现代欧洲早期的所谓“经济强国”以及今天是比利时的国际港口城市，将作为该项目的主要案例研究。这项研究以“如果墙可以说话”的形式以“如果可以说话”的形式：它旨在检查建筑物和街道中嵌入的经常被忽视的历史，这些历史与城市早期的现代连接有关。通过检查这些项目，该项目还将揭示这些其他地方的故事，表明连接位置的历史是密不可分的，并且您在不了解另一个的情况下无法理解一个。支持这些跨国流动的因素之一是商业中心与其代理商在遥远地区的商人之间的长距离遗忘的社会关系。该项目将用Antwerp商人通讯的大型缓存（2000+）文档的英语摘要，记录这些商人业务交易的公证行为以及商人家庭编年史，《七种不同语言》的原件。这些将用于生成一个可公开搜索的数据库，用户还可以从中创建Antwerp参与的网络的可视化。然后，将制作互动地图，将流量与安特卫普的特定建筑物，街道和物体相匹配，并与殖民主义和语言景观等主题相匹配，从而为城市景观中跨国影响的模式提供了新的见解。第三次研究链将提供与Huis Van Aken（安特卫普宫殿）和Engenho -SãoJorgeDos Erasmos（前巴西糖厂属于宫殿所有者）的相互联系的历史。这将允许对创建这种联系的流量进行深入的检查，包括工厂的奴役劳动与流回安特卫普的财富之间的联系。不仅可以提高我们对城市结构上技术，环境和美学变化的经济，宗教，政治和社会联系，而且对这些交流另一端个人的经验的理解，该项目将有助于知识的非殖民化。它还将促进跨国遗产的概念，以理解早期现代流动已在城市景观中实现的方式，以及在一个地方属于一个地方，一个人也属于与他们家相关的所有其他地方。这个概念为项目的遗产政策工作提供了信息。它还为虚拟现实体验提供了基础，该体验将创造出来，以提供安特卫普宫与巴西糖厂之间相互联系的内在体验。正如联合国秘书长古特雷斯（Guterres）在COP27上警告的那样：“人类有选择：合作或灭亡。”应对全球挑战的自上而下的方法显然无效。行星意识还需要在社区内部和社区之间进行护理。城市是人类一半以上的所在地，其结构内包含历史联系，可以使这种相互联系和对世界各地的责任感。该项目开发了至关重要的见解和工具，可以为城市居民和其他人带来这些联系，从而在我们时代的全球危机和不确定性中提供了前进的途径。