The Production of Military Normative Knowledge and the Book Trade

Abstract

The article analyses the production of normative military knowledge between 1588 and 1630, focusing on the production of military manuals and religious books for soldiers in Flanders and Milan, and their distribution at the Frankfurt Fair. It examines the fair as a key centre for the dissemination of these texts, highlighting the role of publishers, merchants and the influence of military events on the spread of these books between Flanders and Milan. The article further observes the impact of the Spanish military organisation, particularly the army of Flanders, as a ‚paradigm army‘ in the circulation of normative military knowledge through the infrastructure of the book trade.