Sebastian Hackbarth

My phd is part of the SNSF-Sinergia project “Capturing the Present in Northwestern Europe (1348–1648): A Cultural History of the Present before the Age of Presentism”, led by the University of Neuchâtel. This project aims to understand how “the present” was perceived and experienced in Northwestern Europe between the mid-14th and mid-17th centuries. It is an interdisciplinary and international project in collaboration with researchers from the University of Neuchâtel, the University of Lausanne, and the University of Lille.

Within this project, my research at the University of Lille is titled “The Present in the City: Comparison of Temporal Markers in the Cities of the Former Low Countries and the Alemannic Region”, under the supervision of Élodie Lecuppre-Desjardin (IRHiS, U-Lille) and Olivier Richard-Trauffer (University of Fribourg, Switzerland). The goal is to understand the urban spaces that structured daily life in 14th- and 15th-century society, as well as to grasp how these spaces were activated during extraordinary events such as princely entries and catastrophies. To this end, I compare cities of Mons from the former Low Countries —with the Alemannic city of Bern, located in present-day Switzerland.

My research is based on various types of sources that help me identify temporal rhythms, such as urban chronicles, normative and practical legal sources, and Council Registers. The thesis contributes to research on urban spaces within the Holy Roman Empire, gender history, and medieval and early modern temporalities.