The Uncertain World of Renaissance Geneva and Savoy
Political Life, Factional Conflicts and Religious Turmoil
9789048566396
326 pages
Amsterdam University Press
Overview
Uncertainty and instability affected Geneva and the Duchy of Savoy since the mid-fifteenth century. French and Swiss expansionism had turned Savoy into part of a long geopolitical fault line, running from the North Sea to the Mediterranean along the border between France and the Empire. In Geneva, and partially in other towns of Piedmont and the Pays de Vaud, this instability fuelled urban factionalism, confessional conflicts, but also wider discussions about the ways in which society could be reformed. Conflicts were, in the end, the consequence of a struggle about the best political and religious option to reduce uncertainty. The Uncertain World of Renaissance Geneva and Savoy looks at how political life worked in a time of great instability, seeking to answer a straightforward—but not easy—question: how did people face and react to political and religious uncertainty?
Author Bio
Mathieu Caesar is Associate Professor in medieval history at the Université de Genève. He mainly works on social, cultural and political history, and has published on Renaissance Geneva and Savoy, taxation and public finances, revolts, late medieval preaching, princely legislation, early printing, and reversals of fortune.
