“Agents of Censorship and the Circulation of Printed Material in Central Europe (1500–1800)”

Over the course of several days, participants will engage with a wide range of topics, including preventive censorship, self-censorship, the impact of regulatory frameworks, and the circulation of printed materials across linguistic, confessional, and political boundaries.

The program features two keynote lectures, dedicated thematic sessions, and a roundtable discussion, offering insights into both institutional and informal mechanisms of control. Contributions address case studies from across the region—from the Ottoman Empire and the Habsburg lands to the Balkans and beyond—highlighting the complexity and variability of censorship practices in the early modern period .

In addition to the academic sessions, the conference includes excursions to major cultural and research institutions, as well as opportunities for discussion and networking.

Programme

Monday | 18 May Arrival 

Tuesday | 19 May 

• 09:00-09:30 Opening 
  Chair: Maria Baramova 
• 09:30-10:30 Keynote: Prof. Orlin Sabev 
  Tolerance, Restrictions, and Censorship: Policies Towards the Circulation of Printed Material in the Ottoman Empire (1500–1800) 
• 10:30-11:00 Coffee Break 
• 11:00-12:00 Session 1: From debates to implementation 
  Chair: Simon Dagenais 
  • Annemieke Romein, Preventive Censorship in Early Modern Policeygesetzgebung: Patterns and Practices in Bern's Regulatory Framework 
  • Paolo Astorri, Burning, Expurgating, Permitting: Protestant Regimes of Reading and Censorship in the Seventeenth Century 
• 12:00-13:00 Session 2: Selfcensorhip 
  Chair: Olha Maksymchuk 
  • Anna Piotrowska, Rhapsody and the Politics of Self-Censorship in the Early Modern Period 
  • Ardian Muhaj, Between Script and Silence: Dhaskal Todri and the Censorship of Albanian Liturgical Print Culture in the Late Ottoman Balkans (18th–Early 19th Century) 
• 13:00-14:00 Lunch 
• 14:00-15:30 Session 3: Impact of censorship 
  Chair: Valentyna Bochkovska 
  • Irena Ipšić and Minela Fulurija Vučić, Censorship Practices in Dubrovnik upon the Establishment of the First Printing House in 1783 
  • Aleksandar Zhabov, Orthodox Printing in the Balkans and the Religious Encounter between the Counter-Reformation and Eastern Orthodoxy: Early Instances of Indirect Censorship in the First Half of the 17th Century 
  • Olena Kurhanov, The 1720 Decree and the Decline of Ukrainian Heraldic Poetry: Cause or Coincidence? 
• 15:30-16:00 Coffee Break 
• 16:00-17:00 Session 4: Censorship across Genres 
  Chair: Nina Lamal 
  • Michael Wögerbauer, ‘The readers' assumption that Cotta can be manipulated is actually a problem.’ Cotta's newspapers, the Habsburg monarchy and its impossible task of invisibly controlling public opinion around 1830 
  • Kaarel Vanamölder, An Attempt to Control Newspaper Reporting: Censorship Practices in Riga and St. Petersburg Newspapers in the 17th and 18th Centuries 
• 17:00-17:30 Coffee Break 
• 17:30-18:30 SC-Roundtable 
  • Joëlle Weis: „Princesses' Libraries and Knowledge Practices in 18th-Century Germany. Reconstruction, Function, and Significance”
• 19:00 Reception

Wednesday | 20 May 

Chair: Mona Garloff

• 09:00-10:00 Keynote: Dr. Ivona Kollárová, 
  Staffng, Transgressions, and Conflicts among Supervisory Officials as the Background of the System of Social Discipline in (Upper) Hungary in the Late 18th Century 
• 10:00-10:15 Coffee Break 
• 10:15-11:15 Session 5: Music and censorship 
  Chair: Inês Thomas Almeida 
  • Vassilis Vavoulis, Negotiating the Sacred: Censorship Practices and Operatic Speech in Seventeenth-Century Venice 
  • Lorenzo Santoro, Censorship and Cultural Policy on Opera in the Writings of Joseph von Sonnenfels 
• 11:15-11:45 Coffee Break 
• 11:45-13:00 Session 6: Censorship: textual case studies 
  Chair: Kerstin Manninger 
  • Anna-Marie Pípalová, Censorship, Print, and Circulation in Seventeenth-Century Bohemia: Censoring Bohuslav Balbín’s Epitome in Context 
  • Anisia Iacob, Negotiating the Trinity: Anti-Trinitarianism between banishment and self-censorship in late 16th century Transylvania 
• 13:00-14:00 Joint Lunch 
• Excursion Afternoon 
  • Tour 1: Centre for Slavo-Byzantine Studies “Prof. Ivan Dujčev” (max. 18 Pers.) + visit in the Boyana Church (max. 18 Pers.) 
  • Tour 2: National Library Sofia (max. 18 Pers.) + Tour Sofia 
  • Tour 3: University Library (max 18 Pers.) + Tour Sofia 
• 19:00 Joint Dinner 

Thursday | 21 May 

• 09:00-11:00 Compendium: Presentation & Discussion of Chapter 2.7 und 2.8 
• 11:00-11:30 Coffee Break 
• 11:30-12:30 SC-Workshop 
• 13:00 Departure