News
Publication and database on 16th-century merchants’ letters and merchants’ marks available online
Posthumus fellow Dr Justyna Wubs-Mrozewicz (University of Amsterdam) and emeritus Professor Stuart Jenks (Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg) are the editors of Message in a Bottle: Merchants’ letters, merchants’ marks and conflict management in 1533-34. A source edition, published this fall with Brepols.
The publication is based on a batch of merchants’ letters to be delivered from Antwerp to London that reached its destination, but ended up as part of a booty taken in the English Channel in August of 1533 by Lübeck privateers, only to be opened again in a Hanseatic archive almost 500 years later. The letters offer a fascinating glimpse into the world of the early 16th century, from hard-nosed business and prices in code sent to a wife, to the fond greetings of an English father to his three young sons or a secretive message of a grandmother from Antwerp. At the backdrop, war was looming: Henry VIII of England exploded with rage and restitution claims were made. Soon after, Lübeck realized the potential political cost of the action and an administrative machinery for the return of the booty was set in motion. Extensive documentation was produced under the eye of notaries, providing an overview of properties of the involved parties, including many merchant marks. The combination of unique letters and administrative documents offers new openings into the study of economic, political and social history of pre-modern northern Europe.
The book is available as open access online publication with Brepols. In addition, the database this publication is based on, is also available online.
