Domenico Cecere (Naples) 'Disasters that made the world shudder: How extreme events redefined communication and politics in the Spanish Monarchy'

At the start of the 17th century, improved logistics and postal networks, as well as the growing volume of news, spurred an intensification of its dissemination. The ‘relaciones’ recounting extraordinary, miraculous or tragic events emerged as the most popular vehicle for news, as evidenced by the extensive dissemination throughout the Spanish Monarchy of news about a number of serious disasters that occurred both in its American and Italian territories. Examining the extensive and diverse documentation generated by this increased interest in disasters reveals how information from the epicentre was re-elaborated as it moved along official and unofficial channels on its way to decision makers. By comparing government channels with other channels (such as those used by the Church), we will examine the mutual interactions between the changing role of government bodies in handling emergencies and changes in how disasters were reported and explained. 

Domenico Cecere is Associate Professor of Early Modern History at the University of Naples Federico II. His research focuses on popular politics and social conflicts, on integration and mobility in early modern Naples, and on perceptions of and reactions to disasters in the Spanish Empire. From 2018 he has coordinated the research group DisComPoSE: Disasters, Communication and Politics in Southwestern Europe, funded by the ERC. His publications include the monograph Le armi del popolo. Conflitti politici e strategie di resistenza nella Calabria del Settecento (EdiPuglia, 2013) and the collective volumes Disaster Narratives in Early Modern Naples: Politics, Communication and Culture (Viella, 2018) and Rischio, catastrofe e gestione dell’emergenza nel Mediterraneo occidentale e in Ispanoamerica in età moderna: omaggio a Jean-Philippe Luis (Universidad de Alicante – fedOA Press, 2022).