Epistolary Networks: Information, News and Practical Knowledge in the Correspondence of the Poppel Lobkowitz Sisters from Early Seventeenth-Century Central Europe
Date
2023-09-01
Authors
Surján, Zsófia
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Abstract
The dissertation focuses on written communication and information exchange among close-kin elite noblewomen in the early seventeenth-century Habsburg Monarchy, using the extensive and previously unexplored bilingual (German and Czech) letter collection of the Poppel Lobkowitz sisters: Katharina Kurzbach (c.1570–1637), Maria Magdalena Trčzka (c.1570–1633), Sabina Solms (1584–1623) and Eva Poppel Lobkowitz Countess of Batthyány (c.1590–1640). This thesis painstakingly reconstructs what we can know of the lives of these sisters and conducts a paleographic close reading of their letters. It explores the practical aspects of letter delivery, the formal features of letter writing, and the written transmission of political news, secret messages, and practical medical knowledge in the early modern period. This study demonstrates that the complexities of the social, personal, and communicative dynamics among high-ranking female relatives can only be comprehended when one considers the interplay between the epistolary content, its material presentation on the page and the societal realities of the letter writers. The letters demonstrate how social and emotional disparities between the sisters both influenced the content and material formats of their ongoing written conversations and the degree of agency they could exercise. This thesis argues that the personalities, choices, and subsequent failures and successes of the sisters’ husbands largely determined the opportunities, limitations, and range of actions the Poppel Lobkowitz women could undertake on behalf of their families. While literacy granted these women the ability to communicate their experiences and daily pursuits through writing, their personal autonomy and agency was limited by the constraints imposed by the hierarchical structures and prevailing values of early modern society.
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Women's correspondence, Seventeenth century, Central Europe, Habsburg Monarchy, Women's history, Noblewomen, Communication, Early modern medicine, Early modern letter writing practices, Early modern women's agency, Epistolary secrecy, Written exchange of public news, Language use in early modern letters, Sibling relationships, Early modern Bohemia, Early modern Hungary