On Friday, December 14, Laurent Ripart, Associate Professor of Medieval History and researcher atthe Laboratory of Languages, Literatures, Societies, Cross-Border and International Studies (LLSETI) at the University of Savoie Mont Blanc (USMB), will present "Writing History, Thinking Power. États de Savoie, XVe-XVIe siècles" (Writing History, Thinking Power: The States of Savoy, 15th-16th Centuries), a collection of texts that he has compiled and edited into a single volume.
The presentation of the book will take place at the USMB Presidency in Chambéry, in the Decottignies amphitheater, at 5 p.m. Admission is free.
ABOUT THE BOOK
Savoyard historiography began in 1417, when Duke Amédée VIII ordered the writing of the Chronicles of Savoy. From then on, the states of Savoy became a land of historical writing, producing a large collection of chronicles, genealogies, annals, and other memoirs in the 15th and 16th centuries. This rich but little-known material is the subject of this book, which examines the political implications of writing about Savoy's past. It seeks to place this boom in historiographical writing in the context of the growing interest in history, which was one of the constituent elements of the new humanist culture. It also highlights the diversity of approaches—but also voices—to history in the Renaissance, showing that they offered a plurality of interpretations of the dynastic past that tended to disappear in the age of absolutism. The writing in 1660 of Samuel Guichenon's Histoire généalogique de la royale maison de Savoie (Genealogical History of the Royal House of Savoy), which the ducal authorities had published in large numbers, provided the states of Savoy with a widely disseminated official history, which was to remain authoritative until the first half of the 19th century.
