Please note that this lecture will be delivered in Dutch!

On Friday 29th April 2022 (12.00 CEST), Prof. dr. Louis Sicking (Leiden University & VU Amsterdam, NL) will speak on 'De sprietzeilrevolutie. Overheidsbemoeienis, wetgeving en zeiltechniek in de Nederlanden, ca. 1525-1565'.

The lecture will take place in lecture room 1.3 of the Rozier building in Ghent (entrance Rozier 44). Here's the route! The lecture is part of the Medieval Seminar Series of the Pirenne Institute but is open to all! Please register by sending an email to our coordinator.

Abstract

The sprit sail is a fore-and-aft sail, that is a sail that is usually hanging in the fore-and-aft or longitudal direction of the ship as opposed to square sails, which were usually applied at seagoing vessels in Northwestern Europe in the sixteenth century, which were rigged athwartships. According to contemporary sources the introduction of the sprit sail at sea was a new and spectacular phenomenon which seriously reduced travel times. This lecture aims to discuss the introduction of the sprit sail at seagoing vessels in the Low Countries around the middle of the sixteenth century. What was the importance of the sprit sail for seafaring navigation? Why was the central government opposed to its use? The context within which the discussion on the introduction of the sprit sail at sea took place offers the possibility to study the role of government interference in the use of new technology.

Speaker

Louis Sicking is Aemilius Papinianus professor of History of Public International Law at VU Amsterdam and university lecturer in medieval and early modern history at the Institute for History of Leiden University. Recent work includes his monography De Bijl van Sint Olav (2021) on Norwegian Church treasure in The Netherlands and two edited volumes with Brill Publishers: Conflict Management in the Mediterranean and the Atlantic 1000-1800 (2020) and Beyond Ambassadors: Consuls, Missionaries and Spies in Premodern Diplomacy (2020).