The Coin Cabinet of the Royal Library of Belgium (Brussels) organizes a symposium on:
"The Transport of Coins through the Ages"

Friday May 20^th 2005
Lucien de Hirsch conference room

     

The topic of this one-day conference shall be: "Transport of coins through the ages". This looks as a neglected albeit important question for which we aim to provide a diachronic view inviting a panel of scholars, each one for a different period. To quote some of the issues involved by this topic, it deals with transport costs (how protected were such convoys ? how frequent ?), the nature of mints (fixed or itinerant ?), the purpose of coinages (commercial or military ?), or the economic rationality of past societies. The hope is to build, beyond anecdotes, a frame as intelligible as we may for this truly historical phenomenon.

• Contact
• Program
• Registration

Contact :

• François de Callataÿ
  Royal Library of Belgium - Coin Cabinet -
  Boulevard de l'Empereur 4, B-1000 Brussels (Belgium)
  Tel.: ++/32/2/519.56.03 - Fax:++/32/2/519.56.02 - francois.de.callatay@kbr.be
• Johan van Heesch
  Royal Library of Belgium - Coin Cabinet -
  Boulevard de l'Empereur 4, B-1000 Brussels (Belgium)
  Tel.: ++/32/2/519.56.08 - Fax:++/32/2/519.56.02 - johan.vanheesch@kbr.be

Program

The participation at this event is free of charge but it is necessary to register as the Lucien de Hirsch conference room is not too large.
If you want to take part at the official lunch with the speakers, we would also appreciate it if you could let us know (since the number of places is limited). Otherwise, the cafetaria of the Royal Library of Belgium is a large self-service which affords different possibilities.

You may also be interested to know that the monthly meeting of the Belgian Royal Numismatic Society shall be held the day after our meeting on May 21^th at 2.30 p.m. (in the Lucien de Hirsch conference room as well).

Le 6 novembre 2009, la Bibliothèque royale de Belgique et l’Université Libre de Bruxelles, dans le cadre du projet « Ville et Société dans les Pays-Bas, 1200-1800 : espaces, savoirs, capital social » (PAI VI/32), en collaboration avec le Consortium of European Research Libraries, organisent un colloque autour du thème de l’imprimeur dans la ville.

L’imprimerie, depuis son apparition au milieu du XV^e siècle, a imprégné la culture occidentale d’Ancien Régime et conquis l’espace urbain. Le typographe est en effet le point de convergence d’une série de circuits intellectuels, industriels et commerciaux. C’est en ville que l’imprimeur trouve les débouchés et les compétences propices au développement de son activité.

Ce colloque a pour but de favoriser les rencontres et échanges internationaux entre chercheurs de disciplines transversales autour de la problématique de l’imprimeur dans la ville. Dans le prolongement des réflexions méthodologiques et historiographiques menées en histoire urbaine et dans le cadre de l’histoire du livre, l’ambition est de porter un regard nouveau sur l’identité urbaine du médiateur culturel qu’est l’imprimeur. Dans quel environnement évolue-t-il? Qu’en est-il de son assise spatiale et sociale? Existe-t-il des spécificités, des continuités, des processus régissant l’organisation des rapports entre l’imprimeur et les élites urbaines? Quelles sont les stratégies commerciales développées par les typographes et leurs applications sur les politiques éditoriales ?

On 6 November 2009, the Royal Library of Belgium and the Free University of Brussels are organising a symposium on the theme of the printer in town, within the framework of the project “City and Society in the Low Countries, 1200-1800 : space, knowledge, social capital” (IAP VI/32), in collaboration with the Consortium of European Research Libraries.

Since it appeared in the middle of the 15^th century, printing has imbued Western culture of the Ancien Régime and conquered the urban space. Typography is indeed the point of convergence in a series of intellectual, industrial and commercial circuits. It is in town that the printer found openings and the competences favourable to the development of his activity.

This symposium is the occasion to encourage international encounters and exchanges between researchers in horizontal disciplines, based on the problem of the printer in town. Developing the methodological and historiographic discussions conducted in urban history and within the framework of the history of the book, the aim is to take a new look at the urban identity of the printer as a cultural mediator. In which environment is he evolving? What about his spatial and social foundation? Are there specificities, continuities, processes governing the organisation of relationships between the printer and urban elites? Which are the commercial strategies developed by typographers and their applications in editorial policies?