Status Updates From El despliegue de Europa. 16...

"the future would show...the impact on the continent of English affairs, assets, & ideas, mattered no less during the next two centuries; but the truth is that, both before & after 1688, changes of apparently local or regional importance in widely scattered areas interact to produce complex results. In this lies the perennial fascination of history"

"James II lacked flair for the manoeuvring required. Nor did he compensate for this by an awareness of international problems. He could not see that England belonged to Europe as well as to the Catholic church"

" In the 1680s the educated public in western Europe already had a glimpse of new worlds coming nearer - as it gazed at the printed editions of Verbiest's letters [ from China], or at the glazes of Chinese porcelain before the experts of Dresden learnt to copy them. But perhaps such messages from outer space will always have to compete, then as now, with more dismal & more threatening intelligence nearer home"

"Widespread persecution, unenlightened autocracies & oligarchies by comparison with those of a later period, & poverty for the masses, all continued throughout the age of Louis XIV. Its marvellous vitality & variety have to be set in this austere frame"

The Venetians "ventured instead to Athens, bombarded & captured the Acropolis - where the Parthenon was a Turkish powder magazine as well as a mosque, so that one explosion on 26 September 1687 did more damage than the slow wear of centuries-& then found that the defence of so large a city some miles from the sea appeared impossible."

"As Racine put it, referring to the Dictionary on which the Academie Francaise had been working for so many years:'Every word in the language, every syllable, is precious to us, because we consider them as the instruments which must serve the glory of our august protector' The truth is that the Academy wasted very valuable energy on a continuous series of panegyrics for the king its master"

Emperor Leopold "may have combined irresolution with obstinacy, but hated Louis XIV with absolute consistency for the last 30 years of his life. In general, French diplomats & statesmen did not underrate this element at the Viennese court"

"an enemy on the Netherlands frontier, in the days of Richelieu & Mazarin, was dangerously close to Paris...this proximity suited Louis, who wanted a style of life enabling him to both dominate his court & capital, & to appear as a soldier-king who led his forces across the border, took the credit fr their victories & then came back to Paris before the campaigning season ended. The distances fitted the time table"

"The Spaniards also at last began to build more freely, applying a wealth of novel surface ornament to façades, & indulging a passion for height marvellously expressed in new building at the ancient shrine of Santiago da Compostella"

which amused me - in the context of Kalliope's recent review on the construction of the Romanesque shrine

France 1650s "There was here little idea of balancing expenditure against revenue. The administration simply worked on the short-term problem of collecting enough revenue to secure its credit with the fund-raisers - among whom were, of course, Mazarin, Fouquet & their clients. If the authority of the monarchy had been restored, so also was a financial system which was its chief weakness"

"in spite of answering whispers from Bordeaux & even Hamburg, & rejoicing among scattered Protestants in eastern Europe, the response was slight. the 'English', by comparison with the 'French' or 'Russian' revolutions of a later age, was a parochial affair in the context of 17th century Europe"

Of 'New Sweden' & the Swedish Africa Company "the Swedes still depended on Dutch capital & shipping in these overseas ventures, & the loss of New Sweden in 1655 was a blow struck at one set of Dutchmen by another as much as a defeat for the Swedish government"

Velazquez's "many studies of Philip IV surpass the portraiture of any other monarch in European history since 1640. His marvellous Las Meninas of 1650 - with its rendering of dwarves & obeisances, & the elaborate costume of princes in even informal moments- show that this sometimes grotesque manner of life could provide the opportunity for a cultural achievement of the highest quality"