More than Mere Spectacle

More than Mere Spectacle brings together new research on the numerous coronations and inaugurations in the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Habsburg Monarchy, examining why so many of them still took place, what political, legal, social, and cultural significance they bore, and how they adapted to actual circumstances. It takes the flexibility of their format as the key to understanding their lasting relevance.

Klaas Van Gelder is a postdoctoral researcher at the State Archives in Ghent and at Ghent University, Belgium. He is the author of Regime Change at a Distance: Austria and the Southern Netherlands following the War of the Spanish Succession (1716–1725) (Leuven, 2016).

Klaas Van Gelder is a postdoctoral researcher at the State Archives in Ghent and at Ghent University, Belgium. He is the author of Regime Change at a Distance: Austria and the Southern Netherlands following the War of the Spanish Succession (1716–1725) (Leuven, 2016).

“…excellent research by a younger cadre of historians, for it testifies that they lay the important groundwork for interdisciplinary research at the intersection of culture and power. These prospects will also be possible thanks to the visual reproductions, the index, and the general care by the editor and publisher, as each essay closes with meticulous notes and a bibliography.” • Journal of Austrian Studies

“A significant and welcome contribution to the literature on political symbols and ritual that argues for their continued relevance through the early modern era and into the nineteenth century and, by implication, beyond.” • Hugh Agnew, The George Washington University

“This is an interesting, coherent, and important collection. It provides broad geographic coverage (from the Low Countries to Galicia) of a topic and an era that has heretofore been relatively understudied.” • Nancy M. Wingfield, Northern Illinois University