ABSTRACT
The early modern period was marked by an acceleration of the cultural effects of the mobility of people, objects and ideas. The multiplication of interactions and exchanges among the different parts of the globe, far from being uniform in its spread and linear in its developments, had a polycentric nature. It was the versatile product of impulses with a variety of inspirations and geographical origins. All that is even truer in the case of the cultural encounters that resulted from an unprecedented circulation of people across the planet. Behaviours and traditions, languages and writings of any kind came into contact with unexpected outcomes. A key distinction that will be considered in greater detail is that between individual and group mobility.
