Recreating Early Modern Festivals project website/resource

In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in Early Modern Festivals. Early Modern Festivals were ‘multimedia’ spectacles that played out the tensions of the diverse social strata. Court and city spaces were converted for a few days into a dramatic tableau where everyone was part of the theatre cast, the main role being performed by the ruler, clergy, or foreign dignitaries. Books of festivals and chronicles played a critical role in the dissemination of political propaganda and in highlighting the achievements of participants. Representations of power were highly mediated and were ambiguous reflections of royal authority and rites of passage, since the demands and desires of the ruled, as well as of the ruler, often had to be reflected in words, images and gestures. Ephemeral architecture, theatre, musical performances and delicate objects such as tapestries, paintings, engravings and books were created solely to commemorate these events.The aim of this project is to explore the boundaries of historical research by re-creating or reconstructing Early Modern Festivals with an interdisciplinary approach, including scholars from diverse disciplines, such as architectural history, music, history, digital reconstruction among other disciplines.