The early modern system of brokerage as a widespread practice of transmission and dissemination of political, intellectual and cultural ideas and objects has, in recent years, received some scholarly attention. Agents from different professional backgrounds – diplomats, scholars, artists, priests, booksellers and merchants – have, however, been studied mostly from a single, disciplinary perspective. The chapters making up this present volume all focus on individuals and professional groups who, in the course of their careers, became involved in multiple modes of cultural and political transfer. Together they present an international and interdisciplinary examination of early modern brokerage, a phenomenon which was permeating early modern society – and possibly even one of the fundamental organizational principles of that society.

Contributors include: Robert Hill, Thomas Kirk, Bianca Chen, Maartje van Gelder, Maurits A. Ebben, Peter Hauge, Susanna Kubersky-Piredda, Salvador Salort Pons, Martin Dönike, Badeloch Vera Noldus, and Marika Keblusek.

This publication was financed by NWO (Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research) as part of the VIDI research project "Double Agents: Cultural and Political Brokerage in Early Modern Europe".