Revisiting the Royal Chancelleries: Research Paths

October 15th and 16th, 2026

Porto/Coimbra

Call for Papers – until April 20, 2026

Thirty-five years after the CID Technical Colloquium on the Typology of Royal Acts was held in Porto and Coimbra, it is time to return to the documentary production and the specific spaces that made up the chancelleries of the sovereigns. In addition to the essential assessment of what has been produced since then, it is increasingly important to broaden the reflections provided by traditional comparative diplomacy, and to take into account not only the characteristics of the various documents, their composition, but also the writers and the conditions in which they were written.

It is necessary to delve into various approaches to the subject. Firstly, to understand when the chancellery of a king, queen or princeps emerged as a structured institution and when it could in fact be properly designated as such. It is also important to analyze the tasks performed in these spaces, as well as the forms and uses of writing within these institutions.

Another fundamental area of research concerns the internal organization of the chancelleries of kings, queens and princes, understood as a result of the progressive increase in documentary production, seeking to identify continuities and systematic changes over time. In this context, it is particularly important to study the control of goods and people exercised through letters of chancery, as instruments of power and administration. We also analyzed the documents produced by the royal chancellery for the central and peripheral administrations, as well as those from these same administrative levels.

As this is a topic that has never ceased to be present in diplomatic research, this scientific meeting, held under the patronage of the International Commission on Diplomacy, aims above all to offer young researchers who are dedicated to diplomacy a space for dialog and debate. At the same time, the more experienced members of the IADC, who are expected to take part in the meeting, will help to build bridges between what has already been researched and new approaches and conceptions of diplomacy.

Applications are invited for papers on the following main themes:

1. typology of royal acts: administration; economic management; justice;
2. practical management of the chancellery: chancellery staff and relationship with their manager(s);
3. workflow in chancelleries: gray papers; dispatch; records;
4. organization of documents and archives: the preservation of memory in royal chancelleries;
5. relationships/influences between chancelleriesimported and exported models;
6. chancelleries as centers of power: perception of the assertion of sovereign powers through chancelleries.

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Proposals can be submitted in English, French, Spanish or Italian and should be sent by April 20, 2026 to royalchanceriesrevisited@gmail.com and must include:

=> Name, position and institutional affiliation of the author(s) of the proposal.

=> Summary of the contribution with a maximum of 2500 characters (including spaces).

=> Brief CV (with a maximum of 750 characters, including spaces).

For more information: royalchanceriesrevisited@gmail.com

Contacts

Organizing Committee

Maria Cristina Cunha (Faculty of Letters of the University of Porto / Transdisciplinary Research Center “Culture, Space and Memory”)

Maria João Oliveira Silva (Faculty of Letters of the University of Porto / Transdisciplinary Research Center “Culture, Space and Memory”)

Maria Helena da Cruz Coelho (Faculty of Letters of the University of Coimbra / Center for the History of Society and Culture)

Saúl António Gomes (Faculty of Letters of the University of Coimbra / Center for the History of Society and Culture)

Maria do Rosário Morujão (Faculty of Letters of the University of Coimbra / Center for the History of Society and Culture)