Power and History in Europe from 15th to 18th century: Texts, Images and Political Legitimation
The aim of this programme is to analyse the links between the development of historical knowledge and the construction of modern States. Within a context of ongoing rivalries, it studies the way in which History provided political legitimisation and a crucible for the development of national consciousness, measuring the issues within the historical debate and assessing their nature and scope.
Research will be based on Europe as a whole and will take an inter-disciplinary approach. Study of explicit and underlying models of political thought will rely on cross-referencing literary and iconographic references, which do not necessarily go hand in hand. We start with an examination of iconographic and decorative programmes, from official historiography (a history drawn up by those in power, controlled, censored, a history learned by princes), from critical historiography and, more generally, from the collection of accounts of the past constructed by literary works.
Team
Project leader: Chantal Grell, Professor of Modern History at the Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines;
Jaime Alvar, Professor of History at the University Carlos III, Madrid;
Marc Bayard, project manager for History of Art at the Académie de France à Rome (Villa Medici);
Peter Campbell, Associate Professor of Modern History at the University of Sussex, England;
Jean-François Dubost, Professor of Modern History at the Université Paris-Est Créteil Val-de-Marne;
Gérard Laudin, Professor of German Language and Civilisation at the Université Paris-Sorbonne;
Patrick Michel, Professor of the History of Art at the Université Lille 3-Charles-de-Gaulle;
Gaetano Platania, Professor of Modern History and Director of the Centre Jean Sobieski sur l’Europe Centrale at the University of Viterbo, Italy;
Susanne Rau, lecturer in Modern History at the University of Dresden, Germany;
Maciej Serwanski, Professor of Modern History at the University of Poznan, Poland;
Diego Venturino, lecturer in Modern History at the Université de Lorraine, Metz;
Markus Volkel, Professor of Modern History at the University of Rostock, Germany.
In collaboration with the Académie de France à Rome (Villa Medici).
Productions
Symposium at Versailles Historical references and political models : images of imperial power in Europe, 16th to 18th centuries (5-7 June 2008 at the Palace of Versailles).
Participation in the symposium Political Mythologies and National Consciousness at the University of Carlos III in Madrid (5-7 November 2009).
Participation in the symposium Les enjeux religieux du discours historique à l’époque moderne at the University of Erfurt in germany (22-24 March 2012).
Publication of papers from the Versailles symposium directed by Chantal Grell and Gérard in the journal Revista de Historiografía, No. 14, VIII (1/2011), Madrid, Universidad Carlos III: Instituto de Historiografía Julio Caro Baroja.
Order the journal.
Publication of papers from the Madrid symposium directed by Jaime Alvar and Francisco Gómez Martos in the journal Revista de Historiografía, No.
15, VIII (2/2011), Madrid, Universidad Carlos III: Instituto de Historiografía Julio Caro Baroja.
Order the journal.
Publication of papers from the Erfurt symposium directed by Gérard Laudin and Susanne Rau in the journal Revista de Historiografía, no. 21, XI (2/2014), Madrid, Universidad Carlos III: Instituto de Historiografía Julio Caro Baroja.
Download the journal.
