Session Abstract

The history of information has primarily focused on public information and the so-called public sphere.  This panel seeks to examine a number of European examples of state information use and circulation in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.  It looks to understand the material culture of state information (memos, papers) as well as systems of communication, circulation, archiving and analysis.  In order to understand public information and its circulation, it is necessary to understand how states developed information networks both internally in secret and potentially in public.