H2020Individual fellowship2017–2019

INSPIrE · Intellectuals in History: Political Process and Cultural Impacts in Medieval Europe (14th and 15th centuries)

Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Duration
2017-04-01 → 2019-03-31
EU contribution
€185,076
Participants
1
Scheme
MSCA-IF-EF-ST

Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.

Results in brief

Intellectuals in History: Political Process and Cultural Impacts in Medieval Europe (14th and 15th centuries)

INSPIrE - Intellectuals in History: Political Process and Cultural Impacts in Medieval Europe is a project devoted to the evolution of political thought between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. The principal aim of INSPIrE is to give an overview of the relationship between politics and written culture in the 14th and 15th-century Europe, focusing on the Franco-German and Italian geographical areas. The project aims at identifying the development lines, breaking points, peculiar cases and matching patterns of the relationship between politics and written culture, reckoning with five key features: the combination of events, places, times, languages, gender (if possible) and literary genres will allow to map the networks of texts linked to historical events. INSPIrE is based on two pillars: first, texts and sources are analyzed in connection with their historical context, so that every intellectual reaction to political facts will be linked to historical data. Secondly, the network of texts that form the case studies of INSPIrE are not composed only of philosophical texts, but of different genres such as preaching, poetry, prophecy, chronicle, juridical texts, letters of the city chancelleries, and, in some cases, of iconographic testimonies. INSPIrE is born as a Medieval Studies project, but it also constitutes a ground-breaking chance to fill the gap between past and present, since it clarifies the roots and history of the connection between politics and culture in Europe, focusing on a period in which the national consciousness and the notion of ‘state’ were established. Furthermore, INSPIrE provides a paradigm for approaching cultural phenomena that can also be used to investigate later historical moments and modernity.

Data: CORDIS, © European Union

Project objective

The principal aim of INSPIrE is to create a picture of the relationship between politics and written culture in 14th and 15th century Europe, focusing on the Franco-German and Italian geographical areas. INSPIrE will answer several questions which have arisen regarding the link between intellectual production and major historical events, such as: which are the most relevant historical events for written culture? Can a philosophical treatise influence politics? How many women write political texts?The project aims to identify the development lines, breaking points, peculiar cases and matching patterns of the relationship between politics and written culture, reckoning with five key features: the combination of events, places, times, languages, gender and literary genres will allow us to map the networks of texts linked to historical events.In the first phase, data concerning texts linked to the historical events selected as relevant - four case studies are planned - will be gathered and arranged according to the five key features. In the second phase of the research, the analysis of collected and arranged data will produce the expected results.The bottom-up methodology, based only on concrete data, the synchronic and diachronic approach and the text/context connection are the most innovative elements of INSPIrE. The project represents an excellent topic for Medieval Studies and also constitutes a ground-breaking chance to fill the gap between past and present, since it clarifies the roots and history of the connection between politics and culture in Europe. Moreover INSPIrE addresses the guidelines of the Horizon 2020 Work programme 2016-2017: the project will promote interdisciplinary cross-fertilization to overtake the separation among SSH disciplines and better understand historical and cultural phenomena. INSPIrE will also use an innovative approach to research training, with special focus on the gender dimension in research contents.

Original text from CORDIS.

Participants

  • UNIVERSITE DE STRASBOURG · StrasbourgCoordinatorFrance

Links

Data: CORDIS, © European Union