MIDDLE AGES

Old Rulers of the Middle Ages. Kings, Doges and Popes. A Contribution to Gerontological Medieval Studies

Dr. Christian Alexander Neumann

Old age is a universal phenomenon that has multiple facets: on the one hand it is a gradual and continuous biological process, while on the other hand it is a cultural construction and therefore a variable research object. The overarching question is that of the relevance of the factor “age” on the nature of human behaviour, with particular focus on holders of political power. In concrete terms, the aim is to analyse the period of old age of  ...   


MIDDLE AGES

Christen und Muslime im nördlichen Apulien (Capitanata) im 13. Jahrhundert

Projekt unter Federführung von Prof. Dr. Michael Matheus (Mainz)

Seit den 20er Jahren des 13. Jahrhunderts veranlasste der staufische Kaiser Friedrich II. die Deportation tausender auf Sizilien lebender Muslime in die Capitanata, wo in Lucera eine muslimische Stadt entstand. Damit begann ein bis ins 14. Jahrhundert reichendes Kapitel muslimisch-arabischer Kultur in Europa, das im Vergleich zur muslimischen Präsenz in Südspanien und Sizilien bisher wenig beachtet wurde. Unter den Anjou  ...   


MODERN AGE, CONTEMPORARY HISTORY

The Fortune of the Casa di San Giorgio and the Origins of the Corporations

Dr. Carlo Taviani (project in collaboration with Villa I Tatti, University of Harvard)

Corporations are currently among the strongest and most influential organizations in the world. One important turning point in the development of their capacities took place in the early modern period when they successfully acquired huge amounts of capital in order to better afford the exorbitant costs and risks of travel from Europe to Africa, Asia and America. During this period they also assumed political tasks, progressively ruling lands and  ...   


MODERN AGE

Genoese Merchant Networks in Africa and across the Atlantic Ocean (ca. 1450–1530)

Dr. Carlo Taviani (in collaboration with Takin.solutions and the Università degli Studi di Teramo)

Previously funded by the international research project of the Max Weber Foundation Knowledge Unbound (2019–2021) Documentary
MedAtlantic. Perspectives on the Past (20  ...   


CONTEMPORARY HISTORY

The Restitution of Looted Cultural Property in Italy, the Federal Republic of Germany and Austria, 1945–1998

Dr. Bianca Gaudenzi

The restitution of looted cultural heritage is one of the most widely debated topics of the year. Countless bottles of ink have been spent over what has emphatically been described as the "biggest art theft in history", and new provenance works now appear on a monthly basis. Yet very few studies have so far endeavoured to historicise such emotionally-charged subject within the bigger framework of postwar European history. This project  ...   


CONTEMPORARY HISTORY

Technocrats with Government Authority in Italy since the 1990s

Dr. Sarah Lias Ceide

As part of the project "Re-Constructions of the German-Italian Academic Forum for Contemporary History and Politics" (financed by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research [BMBF], in cooperation with Villa Vigoni – German-Italian Centre for the European Dialogue). Over the course of the last decades, 'technocrats' have strongly impacted Italian politics, as demonstrated by the example of the  ...   


MODERN AGE

Venice and the Radical Reformation

PD Dr. Riccarda Suitner

The religious landscape of the mid-16th-century Republic of Venice was characterized by the attempt of the Inquisition to infiltrate and repress the (prevalently Anabaptist) reformed conventicles which had sprung up throughout the Region. The penetration of ideas of the so-called “Radical Reformation” into this territory was easier than elsewhere in Italy, given many factors: the larger volume of international contacts and the existence of  ...   


CONTEMPORARY HISTORY

On the "Transformation" of the New Political Elites in Italy – from the 1990s to Today

PD Dr. Francesco Di Palma

As part of the project "Re-Constructions of the German-Italian Academic Forum for Contemporary History and Politics" (financed by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research [BMBF], in cooperation with Villa Vigoni – German-Italian Centre for the European Dialogue).

This research project examines the question of whether, to what extent and why there has been a "transformation"  ...