Silent Republics? Secrecy and Collective Rule in the Early Modern Period

International Conference, University of Bern: 26–28 March 2026

13:30 Welcome Coffee

14.00–14:30 Nadir Weber (Bern) Introduction

Section 1: Practices and Institutions of Secrecy

Chair 
Debora Heim (Bern)

14:30-15:15: Ioanna Iordanou (Oxford)
Hidden Feelings: The Emotional Labour of State Secrecy in the Early Modern Venetian Republic

15:15-16:00: Vedran Stojanović (Dubrovnik)
Cultivating Secrecy in the Republic of Ragusa: The Needs of the State and the Fate of Individuals

16:00-16:30: Coffee Break

16:30-17:15: Andreas Würgler (Geneva)
Open Secrets? The Swiss Diet and Republican Politics in the Early Modern Confederacy

17:15-17:45: Panel Discussion

Friday, 27 March 2026

Conference Venue: University of Bern, Haus der Universität Schlösslistr. 5, 3008 Bern

Chair: Lavinia Gambini (Bern)

09:00-09:45: Ronald Sluijter (Amsterdam)
The Secret Committee of the Dutch States General (1671–1702)

09:45-10:30: Susanne Friedrich (Munich)
From Open Windows to Closed Doors: The Audits of the Dutch East India Company before the States General between Secrecy of State and Accountability

10:30-11:00: Coffee break

11:00-11:45: Noah Businger (Bern)
Keeping Trade Secret: Merchant Practices and Republican Management of Smuggling in Eighteenth-Century Basel

11:45-12:15: Panel Discussion

Section 3: Representations of Secrecy and Silence

Chair: Jan Haugner (Bern)

14:00-14:45: Alessandro Metlica (Padova)
Printed Secrets: What Republican Festival Books Say (and What They Do Not) (via Zoom)

14:45-15:30: Giorgia Gallucci (Venice) 
Representing Silence and Tyranny in Lucca’s Republican Theatre

15.30–16.00: Coffee Break

16:00-16:45: Anna Grześkowiak-Krwawicz (Warsaw)
Between Efficiency and Freedom: Discussions about Secrecy in Politics in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth

16:45-17:15: Panel Discussion

Saturday, 28 March 2026 

Conference Venue:
University of Bern, Main Building, Hochschulstr. 4, Room 028

Section 4: Councils, Archives, and Participation

09:00-09:45: Matthias Schnettger (Mainz)
Secret Deputations: Civic Participation and Governmental Arcana in the Imperial City of Frankfurt

09:45-10:30: Debora Heim (Bern)
Producing Public Secrets: Secret Councils in the Old Swiss Confederacy

10:30-11:00: Coffee Break

11:00-11:45: Thomas Weller (Mainz)
Republics and Princely States: Secrecy and the Use of Archives in Hanseatic– Spanish Relations, 1570–1700

11:45-12:30: Jan Haugner (Bern)
Restricted Access as a Means of Secrecy in Early Modern Swiss Archives

12:30-13:00: Panel Discussion

Section 5: Secrecy in the Age of Revolutions

Chair: Andreas Berger (Bern)

14:00-14:45: Katlyn Carter (Notre Dame)
Secrecy and Legitimacy in the Early American Republic (via Zoom)

14:45-15:30: Nicole Bauer (Tulsa)
In the Kingdom of Shadows: Secrecy and Transparency in Eighteenth-Cen- tury France

15:30-16:00: Coffee Break

16:00-16:45: Joris Oddens (Amsterdam)
A Secretive Fremdkörper: The Dutch National Assembly’s Committee of Foreign Affairs (1796–98)

Closing Comment and Final Discussion

Chair: Nadir Weber (Bern)

16:45-17:15: Thomas Maissen (Heidelberg)
Closing Comment

17:15-18:00: Final Discussion

Registration: carole.mast@unibe.ch

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