The composite world of early modern information

ABSTRACT

Information provided a crucial means for the aggregation of composite polities, a notion first developed in the context of late medieval European multiple kingdoms, but one that can be extended chronologically and geographically to include a wider range of political arrangements that extended to large parts of the early modern world. To what extent did communications networks hold composite polities together, and what challenges did those networks face? These concluding remarks on this special issue of European Review of History, entitled Information and the government of the composite polities of the Renaissance world (c. 1350-1650), assess the viability of the notion of composite polities, the role of information and the nature of their archives.