HISTORY ON THE EDGE: BOTANIC GARDENS AND SPACE-MAKING IN THE HABSBURG LANDS
You are kindly invited to a new lecture in the History on the Edge series, which will take place on Wednesday, October 14, 2026, at the INZ premises or via the ZOOM link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/85093074535?pwd=chFdSCgScVg8fw1djh3bVz8h9gqWtm.1 . In the new season, lectures will take place at 10:30 and if you will be joining us in person, you are welcome to a coffee 20 minutes before the lecture begins.
The lecture will be given by Laura Meneghello, and the title of the lecture is “Botanic Gardens and Space-making in the Habsburg Lands”. The lecture will be held in English.
Botanic Gardens and Space-making in the Habsburg Lands
Through the lens of global, transimperial and entangled history, the lecture focuses on the making of botanic gardens as imperial spaces. It will enlighten processes of space-making and place-making through knowledge networks as well as through the establishment, changing spatial organization and use of experimental gardens. Specifically, it is asked how their spatial order entailed the definition of plants, regions and people(s) as “native” or “foreign”, “indigenous” or “exotic”, thus contributing to processes of self-definition, appropriation, demarcation and othering. Besides existing literature on botanic knowledge in the Habsburg Monarchy, the lecture will be based on primary sources from the nineteenth and early twentieth century, especially those concerning botanic gardens beyond the centre of the Empire, such as the ones in Ljubljana, Trieste, Innsbruck and Klagenfurt.
Everyone is welcome!