Introduction: Practices of diplomacy

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book contributes the ongoing reassessment of diplomatic history by leaving bird's eye perspective and zooming in on complex, multifarious, and interconnected practices of diplomacy in the early modern period. It illustrates the representatives of a given state had to adapt to diplomatic culture of the host court to some degree: European powers and their diplomatic traditions did not dominate diplomatic relations per se. The book shows diplomatic negotiation was achieved verbally, the ceremonial, visual, and material cultures of early modern courts were utilized to constitute, denote, and debate political relationships, and to complement and complicate the oral and written negotiations they surrounded. It presents state of the art of the discipline across different historiographical traditions as well as language boundaries. It highlights the benefits of sustained dialogue not only between disciplines but also between different trajectories of diplomatic history in different academies.