Books by Lisa Kattenberg
Ideas in Context, Cambridge University Press, 2023
Exploring reason of state in a global monarchy, The Power of Necessity examines how thinkers and ... more Exploring reason of state in a global monarchy, The Power of Necessity examines how thinkers and agents in the Spanish monarchy navigated the tension between political pragmatism and moral-religious principle. This tension lies at the very heart of Counter-Reformation reason of state. Nowhere was the need for pragmatic state management greater than in the overstretched Spanish Empire of the seventeenth century. However, pragmatic politics were problematic for a Catholic monarchy steeped in ideals of justice and divine justifications of power and kingship. Presenting a broad cast of characters from across Europe, and uniting published sources with a wide range of archival material, Lisa Kattenberg shows how non-canonical thinkers and agents confronted the political-moral dilemmas of their age by creatively employing the legitimizing power of necessity. Pioneering new ways of bridging the persistent gap between theory and practice in the history of political thought, The Power of Necessity casts fresh light on the struggle to preserve the monarchy in a modernizing world.
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Papers by Lisa Kattenberg
Séditions et Révoltes dans la réflexion politique de l’Europe moderne, 2022
This essay explores how the experience of the Dutch Revolt shaped Spanish debates on whether to m... more This essay explores how the experience of the Dutch Revolt shaped Spanish debates on whether to make peace or truce with the rebels during the second half of the Eighty Years’ War. Confronting the tension between principles of sovereignty and religion, and pragmatic considerations, these debates centered around reason of state. This essay shows how the experience of sedition both influenced reason of state, and how this discourse in turn helped shape the course of the war itself.
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History of European Ideas, 2022
Navigating the tension between moral virtue and realism in a ruler’s effort to preserve power, Ju... more Navigating the tension between moral virtue and realism in a ruler’s effort to preserve power, Justus Lipsius’ Politicorum libri sex (1589) was a foundational text in Catholic reason of state, but its ambiguous form and content leave it open for interpretation. The present article shows how in his Italian translation, the Ferrarese secretary and scholar Ercole Cato offers an individual reading of the Politica, transforming it to underline its usefulness and enhance its orthodoxy. Through a creative use of examples from ancient and modern history, Cato presented Lipsius’ political prudence as one that rejected political calculation without virtue, and placed in direct dialogue with contemporary political events. This article argues that in reshaping and expanding the Politica, Cato presented his own intervention in the debate on Catholic reason of state, and it suggests that translators like Cato should be taken seriously as active and inventive participants in early modern political languages.
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BMGN - Low Countries Historical Review, 2016
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Discourses of Decline: Essays on Republicanism in Honor of Wyger R.E. Velema, eds. Oddens, Rutjes and Weststeijn, Leiden etc.: Brill, 2021
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Soldados de los Tercios, 2020
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It is well known that historical writings and historical information played a crucial role in the... more It is well known that historical writings and historical information played a crucial role in the development of ideas on reason of state and 'modern' political thought (including natural law). The reverse relation, i.e. the effects of the rise of reason of state in political thought on the methods, questions and approaches in history has reeived far less attention. The purpose of this meeting is an exchange of ideas about this side of the relationship between researchers in the broad field of intellectual history (coming from disciplines such as history, literature, law and philosophy) working on reason of state in the 16 th-18 th century in various regions in Europe. Possible specific topics for papers include the changes in historiography as a result of changing ideas on ethics and historical causality and/or the nature of human society; effects of secularisation, and of a sharper distinction between secular and ecclesiastical (or confessional) politics; of the rise of economic thought and the emergence of 'social sciences' (such as in the Strasbourg school, which has deep roots in late humanism); connections between growing doubts and controversies regarding the relevance of the Classics in the contemporary world (Querelle des Anciens et Modernes); and questions as to the different effects of reason of state-thought between Catholic and Protestant regions in Europe.
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Lisa Kattenberg en Rosanne Baars, ‘ "Het leezen van goede boeken, … is al te noodigen zaek". Boekenbezit van Amsterdamse kunstenaars, 1650-1700', Amstelodamum 101-3 (2014) 22-38., 2014
Het zeventiende-eeuwse Amsterdam was bij uitstek een plaats waar men gemakkelijk aan boeken kon k... more Het zeventiende-eeuwse Amsterdam was bij uitstek een plaats waar men gemakkelijk aan boeken kon komen. De stad was een centrum van culturele bedrijvigheid waar uitgevers, drukkers, schilders, graveurs, kunsthandelaren en schrijvers elkaar stimuleerden. Hierdoor ontstond er een heuse ‘culturele industrie’. Kunstenaars maakten boeken, maar hadden ze natuurlijk ook in bezit. Dit artikel geeft antwoord op de vraag: Welke boeken bezaten Amsterdamse kunstenaars in de tweede helft van de zeventiende eeuw?
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Moslims, ‘morale deuchden’ en commercieel succes: Het slavernijverslag van Emanuel d’Aranda, 1640-1682, 2012
Historie vande Turckse Slavernie, the narrative of Emanuel d'Aranda's North-Africancaptivity, is ... more Historie vande Turckse Slavernie, the narrative of Emanuel d'Aranda's North-Africancaptivity, is a unique case within the genre of early modern captivity tales. Besides several seventeenth-century editions, we can dispose of the recently discovered original manuscript. Compared to the first edition in print, it seems that tone and content of the manuscript were radically altered to accommodate a concept of universal morality, which was further accentuated in all subsequent editions. This article argues that d'Aranda and his publishers transformed Turckse Slavernie to fit the genre of moral prose, aiming to reach a broad and international audience.
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Skript Historisch Tijdschrift 31-4, 2009
In Dutch nationalist historiography the Revolt against the Spanish monarchy has traditionally bee... more In Dutch nationalist historiography the Revolt against the Spanish monarchy has traditionally been considered a war of independence, fought by a small, freedom loving people against a much stronger and oppressive enemy wanting to impose its religion on the Dutch. In her article on the Spanish humanist Fadrique Furió Ceriol, Lisa Kattenberg argues that this conception is in need of some serious revision. Furió's writings show that during the first years of the conflict, at the Spanish court opinions on the attitude to be taken towards the Dutch rebellion were far from unanimous. Furió and others were strong supporters of a soft, reconciliative approach. They advised king Philip II to show his love to the people of the Netherlands and to forgive the revolt's leaders. Although in the end their efforts proved fruitless, at times the Spanish monarch was willing to listen to these voices in favour of peace.
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Talks by Lisa Kattenberg
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Conference Presentations by Lisa Kattenberg
Part of panel 'Ancient Enmities: Classicism and Religious Others', sponsored by the Centre for Early Modern Classical Receptions, RSA Annual Meeting 2019, Toronto, 2019
From the perspective of the seventeenth-century Spanish empire, both the war in the Chilean regio... more From the perspective of the seventeenth-century Spanish empire, both the war in the Chilean region Araucanía and the war in the Netherlands were protracted and seemingly interminable confrontations with a fierce, non-Catholic enemy. Contemporary Spanish and Dutch authors frequently compared the two conflicts with reference to the Batavians, described by Tacitus as a fierce and freedom loving people. To what extent did the Batavian model shape Spanish perceptions of the Arauco War and the Dutch Revolt, and did this have consequences for concrete decision making in the continuation of warfare? Did an idea of shared ‘Batavian’ values among the Dutch contribute to the sense of affiliation with the Araucanians and their cause? Exploring perceptions of the Batavian parallel within the Spanish-Dutch-Arauco triangle, this paper intends to contribute new insight into the role of classical models in defining a non-Catholic other in the context of armed conflict, within Europe and beyond.
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Knowledge & Governance in the Early Modern Spanish Empire International Workshop, Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen, 29-30 November 2018, 2018
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Books by Lisa Kattenberg
Papers by Lisa Kattenberg
Talks by Lisa Kattenberg
Conference Presentations by Lisa Kattenberg
Although Emanuel d’Aranda comes across as a wonderfully objective observer, and is often hailed as a beacon of tolerance, on closer examination he did not abstain from judgment at all. Algiers and it’s Slavery clearly distinguishes between good and bad on the basis of rules of moral experience, to which Christians and Muslims were equally subject. This morality appears to have been consciously worked into the first published version of the book, and further emphasized in subsequent editions. Exploring Algiers and it’s Slavery in the context of the manuscript reworking, its publishing history and contemporary literary-philosophical trends, this essay argues that in the editions, d’Aranda and his publishers engaged with a literary genre of neostoic moral prose. While adapting the manuscript, they introduced a moral frame which emphasized the stoic virtues of patience and resignation in the face of adversity, naturally fitting the setting of captivity. D’Aranda’s slavery was transformed into a hybrid piece of prose: both captivity narrative, and neostoic exercise in the search for inner tranquility.