PhD Dissertation Defense: Marloes Cornelissen
We cordially invite you to
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, PhD Dissertation Defense of Marloes Cornelissen (PhD Candidate in History)
Dissertation Jury:
- Tülay Artan (Dissertation Supervisor)
- Hülya Canbakal
- Hülya Adak
- Hans Theunissen (Leiden University)
- Suraiya Faroqhi (Bilgi University)
Title: THE WORLD OF AMBASSADOR JACOBUS COLYER: MATERIAL CULTURE OF THE DUTCH ‘NATION’ IN ISTANBUL DURING THE FIRST HALF OF THE 18TH CENTURY
Date & Time: December 18, 2015 & 09:00
Place: Karaköy Minerva Han
Keywords: material culture and consumption – the Dutch ‘nation’ – inventory records – eighteenth-century Ottoman Istanbul – recirculation of goods
Abstract: This dissertation concerns the study of material culture of the Dutch ‘nation’ residing in Istanbul between 1700 and 1750. This ‘nation,’ connected to each other through Ambassador Jacobus Colyer (d. 1725), was a community of diplomats, merchants and other individuals that enjoyed Dutch protection in Ottoman realms. The topic of this dissertation, then, stands at the crossroads of the study of Ottoman and Dutch history as well as Material Culture and Consumption Studies. Its main objective is to recreate their material ‘world’ through an analysis of personal belongings, which they left behind when they died or departed the Ottoman capital. This dissertation is primarily based on their inventory records, auction records and final wills, which were recorded in multiple languages and infused with Ottoman terms. The Dutch community was nearly all but Dutch and consisted mainly of people whose families had lived in the Ottoman Empire for several generations. Many of them enjoyed Dutch protection because they shared religious beliefs, worked for the Dutch Embassy or had managed to set up (a connection with) merchant companies on Dutch grounds. They not only had close ties with other Europeans but they were also in contact with Ottoman merchants, brokers and members of the local elite. They navigated between multiple consumption cultures, and created a cultural context of their own of mixed European, Ottoman and Eastern material culture. While most studies on material culture and consumption focus on supply and demand, this dissertation shows that the understudied topic of recirculation of goods was equally important in eighteenth-century Istanbul.