Registering Social Change in the “Livres de Raison”, c. 1400–1600: Preliminary Findings and Methodological Gains

Emanating from the literate middle classes and kept by the pater familias with the practical aim of managing the family affairs, the livres de raison are hybrid registers, compiling records about the family patrimony, acquisitions, revenues and expenses, alongside notes about family and local events, and occasionally advice for posterity and the author’s personal reflections. This talk will focus on the methodological aspects of an exploratory research project that seeks to test whether the livres de raison enable us to ascertain how the broad societal trends of the period 1400–1600 are reflected in the private records of the literate middle classes. The starting point for this research is that while the major political-institutional, socioeconomic, and cultural developments of the period are well-documented, their impact on everyday life has proved more difficult to assess. This talk will propose, among others, a list of key topics present in the livres de raison from both the 15th and the 16th century, which can be read as indicators of the impact of large-scale historical changes on the households of the middle classes: to illustrate, the growing presence of the French state in the lives of its subjects can be triangulated from mentions in the livres to local officials, tax levies, and legal proceedings. Because the period 1400–1600 witnessed fundamental transformations in Western European society, politics, and culture, it can be argued that the macro-historical trends reflected in the livres de raison are largely coextensive with historical change.

Speaker

Dr Ionuț Epurescu-Pascovici

LE STUDIUM  Visiting Researcher 

FROM: University of Bucharest - RO
IN RESIDENCE AT: Institute for Research and History of Texts (IRHT) / CNRS - FR