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Visiting Fellow, 2013 – 2015

Mathieu Caesar

Associate Professor of Medieval History University of Chicago

Biography

Mathieu Caesar's research interests are centered on communes and their administration in the late medieval period, focusing on the city of Geneva and the small towns of the duchy of Savoy. He has treated these topics in his recent articles and PhD dissertation (published by Brepols under the title Le pouvoir en ville). As a 2013-2015 Neubauer Collegium Visiting Fellow, Caesar began his new research on European urban factions and their political languages during the 15th and 16th centuries. This study aimed to examine the ideological motives of partisanship and the urban political society through the in-depth analysis of Geneva’s factional struggles on the eve of the Reformation (1513-1536). Dealing with a large variety of archival sources, the research focused on about fifty criminal trials involving some 150 people. This well-documented case study helped enlighten the crucial period when Geneva became independent and Reformed. It also provided a new point of view for discussing European urban political society around 1500.