Issues, Practices and Ideals of Politics in Mountain Communities, 1300-1500
- Pictured: Medieval porticos of Barge (Piedmont, Italy)
Homo selvadego (1464), Sacco, Italy
Savage mountain men or political actors?
Which political ideals inspired mountain populations in the late Middle Ages? Who could take part in politics and how? What were the main themes at stake in the debates that formed collective, public life? How were the records of the communities debates and discussions produced and preserved?
Council register (1435), Courgnè, Italy, first folio
The Alps in the Late Middle Ages
The European Research Council Starting Grant DEMALPS project (Democracies of the Alps. Issues, Practices and Ideals of Politics in Mountain Communities, 1300-1500) examines mountain areas in the late Middle Ages as the basis for new political experiences, inspired by original values and practices of self-government. The project focuses on the Western Alps of the 14 – 15th centuries, a vast territory (including regions that are now French, Italian and Swiss) that witnessed unprecedented political ferment and lively experimentation with political forms and institutions.
Council register (1435), Courgnè, Italy, cover
A digitally native project
Thanks to a rich corpus of sources scattered across the archives of the subject communities, DemAlps will offer an exceptional insight into the political ideals of the inhabitants of the late medieval Western Alps, investigated with an interdisciplinary approach that combines medieval history, digital humanities, archival science and diplomatics. DemAlps is a ‘digital native’ project, conceived expressly with a view to group research, thanks to the development of an online platform for collecting, analysing and sharing data within the research team and with the greater scientific community.
DemAlps is an ERC Starting Grant Project lead by Marta Gravela and based out of the Università di Torino in Turin, Italy
The DemAlps Team
The DemAlps project is lead by the principal investigator Marta Gravela, at the Università di Torino, who has assembled a group of postdoctoral fellows, researchers, and PhD candidates, and invites external contributions (affiliate researchers) as well.
Marta Gravela
Marta Gravela is Associate Professor of Medieval History at the University of Turin and Principal Investigator of the projects ERC DemAlps Democracies of the Alps. Issues, Practices and Ideals of Poli... read more
Clément Carnielli
Clément Carnielli is a postdoctoral fellow with DemAlps and studies political and social history in the late medieval northern-Italy and southern France. He obtained his PhD at the Université Gustave ... read more
Chiara Corradini
A graduate in Medieval History from the University of Naples (2019), in 2023 Chiara Corradini obtained a second-level master’s degree in Creation, Management and Preservation of digital archives at th... read more
Noémie Lacroix
Noémie Lacroix is currently PhD candidate at the University of Turin within the project DemAlps, focusing on rural communities of the Durance’s valley, from Briançon to Embrun between the 14th and the... read more
Davide Morra
Davide Morra is a medievalist and postdoctoral fellow with DemAlps. He received his PhD from the University of Naples “Federico II” in 2021, with a project that led him to collaborate with the Italian... read more
Jean-Paul Rehr
Jean-Paul Rehr is a postdoctoral fellow with DemAlps at the Università di Torino. Originally from Toronto, Canada, Jean-paul spent 15 years in business and technology startups before leaving for Europ... read more
Andrea Barsacchi
Università degli Studi di Milano
Pietro D’Orlando
Università degli Studi di Milano
Federica Giordani
Università degli Studi “La Sapienza” di Roma
Patrick Hegarty-Morrish
Oxford University
Marta Mangini
Università degli Studi di Milano
Leonardo Mineo
Università degli Studi di Torino
Flavia Negro
Università degli Studi del Piemonte Orientale “Amedeo Avogadro”
Fabrizio Pagnoni
Università degli Studi di Milano
Upcoming events
Public talks, presentations and other events involving the DemAlps team. See all events past, present and future here.
Workshop: Making Decisions as a Community. Records of Deliberation and Political Cultures in the Late Medieval Alps
A combined workshop of projects ERC Starting Grant 2022 DemAlps and PRIN 2022 Writing Communities, Jul 22-24, Aosta, Italy.
ViewDissenso politico e dissenso religioso nelle Alpi occidentali alla fine del medioevo. Primi spunti dal progetto DemAlps
Presentation of DemAlps project and database by Marta Gravela and Jean-Paul Rehr at Società di Studi Valdesi, Scuola estiva 2024 (Sep 3-5, 2024)
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