Summary
This work package will focus on defining what people in the Late Middle Ages and the early modern period considered an event and how these occurrences structured their perception of time. To achieve this, several lines of inquiry will be developed, exploring a spectrum ranging from the collective to the individual—from major international political events to key moments in private life.
Description
The conception of time is often structured around events—whether they are seen as beginnings, milestones, or endings. The transitional period between the fourteenth and the seventeenth century is particularly rich for understanding this process. This is due, on the one hand, to the increase in written records during this time, which allows for a detailed analysis of how individuals related to time. More importantly, this period is marked by significant technological, political, and social transformations. As written documents and their formats became more accessible, dates began to be recorded and remembered more frequently, as seen in libri rationis, where families documented the major events of their lives. Furthermore, the circulation of news intensified, driven by the first major conflicts on a European scale (such as the Hundred Years’ War, the Italian Wars, and the Thirty Years’ War) and the resulting human mobility, as well as the religious divide brought about by the Reformation. Innovations such as the printing press and the development of postal networks also contributed to the spread of news. This work package aims to define what people of this period considered an event and how these occurrences transformed into markers of time in their perception. To achieve this, three lines of inquiry will be developed, covering a spectrum from the collective to the individual—from major international political events to key moments in private life—and exploring the representation of events both in text (printed and handwritten) and in space.
Current Research Projects
Moments that Matter: Private and Public Event in Ego-Documents (1450-1550)
Doctoral thesis conducted by Lucie Rizzo under the supervision of Thalia Brero and Aude-Marie Certin
Expanding Horizons: Media Impact of International Events in Printed News Reports during the Italian Wars
Doctoral thesis conducted by Marie Verbiest under the supervision of Thalia Brero and Marion Pouspin
Chronotopes: How Temporal Markers Define Space
Doctoral thesis conducted by Sebastian Hackbarth under the supervision of Elodie Lecuppre-Desjardin and Olivier Richard Trauffer
Ego-Events and Individual Calendars: The Emergence of Personal Dates
