The Amsterdam Center for the Study of Early Modernity (ACSEM) organises an interdisciplinary seminar about uncertainty, ignorance and secrecy. Was not-knowing a problem to overcome, or also an opportunity to profit from? How did early modern humans deal with and discuss what they did not know (for sure) and how can 21st-researchers find out early modern secrecy and ignorance?

This afternoon features ACSEM’s own directors Feike Dietz and Djoeke van Netten, who will share the floor with Beatrix van Dam (Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg; former guest researcher ACSEM), Wenrui Zhao (University of Utah; Vossius fellow UvA), and Joost Oosterhuis (UvA RMA history, ACSEM team). Together they combine the history of knowledge, cartography, literary studies, and military history, drawing on a wide variety of primary sources.

The programme consists of five short presentations based on original research, followed by a discussion with the audience. 

This seminar will take place in an unknown room at the university. Please assemble at the entrance of the Bushuis. Afterwards it is quite certain that there will be drinks.