{"id":18873,"date":"2024-05-05T06:04:21","date_gmt":"2024-05-05T06:04:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/manuscriptevidence.org\/wpme\/?page_id=18873"},"modified":"2024-05-06T23:29:22","modified_gmt":"2024-05-06T23:29:22","slug":"conrad-2024-congress","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/manuscriptevidence.org\/wpme\/abstracts\/conrad-2024-congress\/","title":{"rendered":"Conrad (2024 Congress)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Michael Allman Conrad
\n(University of Saint Gallen<\/em>)<\/h2>\n

\u201cWhen Mail Became Snail:
\nThe First Postal Contracts
\nand the Circulation of Information
\nBetween Spain and the Holy Roman Empire<\/a><\/strong>\u201d<\/h2>\n

Abstract of Paper
\npresented at the 59th International Congress on Medieval Studies
\n(Kalamazoo, 2024)<\/h3>\n

Session on
\n\u201cLetters, Couriers, and Post Offices:
\nMail in the Medieval World\u201d<\/h4>\n

Co-Sponsored by Postal History at Kalamazoo
\nand the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence<\/strong><\/p>\n

Organized by David W. Sorenson<\/h4>\n

2024 Congress Program<\/a><\/h4>\n

Abstract:<\/strong><\/p>\n

The so-called \u2018Postal Contracts\u2019 (Post\u00b7ver\u00b7tr\u00e4\u00b7ge<\/em>) of 1505, 1516, and 1517, between members of the Thurn and Taxis<\/a> family and Habsburg rulers<\/a> are considered milestones in the history of courier and postal services.\u00a0 For the first time, these contracts clearly regulate the times that the transport of letters and other documents must take for standard distances, as well as how to control that deliveries would follow these new guidelines.\u00a0 The correct execution of these first postal services was supervised by France of Taxis<\/a> \/ Francesco de Tasso (1621 [baptized] \u2013 1676), whom Philip I of Castile<\/a>, the father of Emperor Charles V<\/a>, had appointed as his first post officer\u00a0<\/em>(capitaine et maistre de nos postes<\/em>)\u00a0on March 1, 1501.<\/p>\n

Of course, these postal contracts were based on earlier experiences in respect to messenger services.\u00a0 The first take will therefore be to analyze these documents as traces of earlier messenger practices.\u00a0 What can we learn from them about how the work of messengers was organized in the late Middle Ages, what routes were considered best, what roads the safest?<\/p>\n

For this purpose, we are going to compare earlier postal\/courier services, such as the Compagnia dei Corrieri<\/a> in Milan and Venice, the Confraternities of Couriers in Castile and Catalonia<\/a>, and the older system of messengers at the University of Paris<\/a>.\u00a0 In this way, we can better assess the importance not only of these postal and courier services for bridging different territories in Europe, but also of the acceleration that the new postal system meant for spreading new ideas across different geographies, especially in the era of Humanism<\/a>, when viewed from the perspective of medieval media history.<\/p>\n

*****<\/p>\n

Note<\/em>:\u00a0 We warmly thank Michael for his many contributions to RGME Sessions at the ICMS, to our Symposia, and to Episodes in our online series “The Research Group Speaks”<\/a>.<\/p>\n

*****<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Michael Allman Conrad (University of Saint Gallen) \u201cWhen Mail Became Snail: The First Postal Contracts and the Circulation of Information Between Spain and the Holy Roman Empire\u201d Abstract of Paper presented at the 59th International Congress on Medieval Studies (Kalamazoo, 2024) Session on \u201cLetters, Couriers, and Post Offices: Mail in the Medieval World\u201d Co-Sponsored by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":1023,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/manuscriptevidence.org\/wpme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/18873"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/manuscriptevidence.org\/wpme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/manuscriptevidence.org\/wpme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manuscriptevidence.org\/wpme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manuscriptevidence.org\/wpme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18873"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/manuscriptevidence.org\/wpme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/18873\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18911,"href":"https:\/\/manuscriptevidence.org\/wpme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/18873\/revisions\/18911"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manuscriptevidence.org\/wpme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/manuscriptevidence.org\/wpme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}