Democracies of the Alps. Issues, practices and ideals of politics in mountain communities, 1300-1500

Introduction

DEMALPS studies late medieval mountain areas as the cradle of radically new political experiences, inspired by original values and practices of self-governance. The focus of the project is on the fourteenth- and fifteenth-century Western Alps, a broad territory (including modern French, Italian and Swiss regions) which saw unprecedented political unrest and experimentation with forms and institutions.

Political Context

This area was marked by numerous efforts at, and more than a few successes in, establishing autonomous collective governments. As a research opportunity, this branch of the Alps is characterised by an unparalleled abundance of exceptional rural sources for investigating this phenomenon: the registers of council proceedings, which reported the local assemblies’ composition, debates, and decisions over time.

Research Sources

This rich corpus of sources, mostly scattered across local municipal archives, offers an extraordinary insight into the Alpine inhabitants’ political ideals and connections, with forms of government and practices of political participation vividly emerging from the registers.

Methodology

To explore such a large and diverse region, DEMALPS will adopt an interdisciplinary approach combining:

1. Medieval history
2. Digital humanities
3. Diplomatics
4. Archival science

Project Goals

The project will not only address questions about the values and practices of Alpine politics, but also provide innovative diplomatic and archival analysis of Alpine sources in comparative perspective.

Digital Collaboration

To this end, DEMALPS proposes to be the first native digital project specifically designed for collaborative work and sharing data in medieval history on this scale; research hypothesis, data, and their analysis will be made publicly available online during and after the project.

Conclusion

The final goal of DEMALPS is to offer the scholarly community not only a new view of politics in late medieval Europe as they transformed into the modern institutions we know today, but also a research instrument to carry out further studies.