Language, Settings, and Networks for Early Modern Private Conversations

Abstract This chapter introduces the research area by proposing the angle of privacy to analyse the subject of everyday conversations in early modern Europe. Such conversations are especially hard to tackle, as they were very rarely recorded, either for being considered trivial exchanges or for dealing with issues that people preferred to keep out of public scrutiny. Nevertheless, through a careful exploration of diaries, court cases, art and material culture, as well as literary and intellectual developments, it is possible to peek through the veil of privacy in early modern conversations. Against this background, the chapter presents the overall aim of the volume to examine the language, settings, and networks of conversations perceived as private.