An IASH Work-in-Progress seminar, delivered by Professor Marta Gravela (Nominated Fellow, 2026).
Making an Alpine nation? The “Republique des Escartons” in the late medieval period.
In the public debate mountain regions are still often represented as isolated and culturally backward areas, fragmented into a plurality of small villages not infrequently in conflict with each other. An outdated world, subject to decisions taken by distant central administrations, against which protest and resistance – in the past as nowadays – emerge as the only political manifestation of the local populations. By contrast, mountain inhabitants sometimes interpreted political experiences of the past, with particular reference to the late medieval period, as the first expression of a peculiar Alpine political identity and practice, further insisting on the opposition to superior authorities and the inclusion in larger polities (duchies, principalities and kingdoms, new emerging states).
The seminar will present an ongoing research carried out in the framework of the ERC project DEMALPS - Democracies of the Alps. Issues, practices and ideals of politics in mountain communities, 1300-1500, by focusing on a case-study from the western Alpine region, the Escartons of the territories of the Hautes-Alpes and Western Piedmont. The Escartonswere a group of communities located on both sides of the Alps (in Briançonnais, Oulx, Casteldelfino, Val Chisone and Queyras) which obtained a special semi-autonomous status in 1343, when the Dauphin issued them a privilege known as Grande Charte. These territories were marked by increasing privileges over the centuries, acquiring in modern times the name of “Republique des Escartons”. Despite the popularity of the notion and its history, scholars have not investigated the late medieval phenomenon which lies at the basis of the construction of a collective identity and narrative of autonomy. By scrutinising the features and prerogatives of these medieval communities, and comparing them to the myth of the Escartons, the final goal of this research is to understand the contribution of Alpine communities to the process of state formation which took place in Europe from the 14th century onward.
Meeting ID: 330 559 911 604 72
Passcode: ta7pP9sK