Luca Pocher, M.A.
Contact
luca.pocher@stud.uni-heidelberg.de
About
January-April 2023: Research stay at the German Historical Institute in Rome.
Since August 2022: Doctoral scholarship holder of the Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes.
Since September 2021: Doctoral project in history at the University of Heidelberg.
2019-2022: Research assistant at the chair of Prof. Dr. Nikolas Jaspert.
2018-2021: Master's programme in history at the University of Heidelberg.
2014-2017: Bachelor's programme ‚Classica et Orientalia‘ (Ancient History and Ancient Oriental Studies) at the University of Innsbruck, Austria.
2014: Abitur at the humanistic grammar school G. Prati in Trento, Italy.
Description of the PhD project
The project deals with the genesis of a new ruling class in Central Italy at the transition from the Early to the High Middle Ages. The 'Transformation of the Roman World', accompanied by economic and demographic crises, was often accompanied by a decline of older elites between the 4th and 8th/9th centuries. The resulting social vacuum was filled during the 10th and 11th centuries by new groups and associations whose social contours will be outlined on the basis of documentary sources. In central Italy, this tradition consists primarily of collections of documents (chartulars), which were conceived and copied by local Benedictine communities. In total, several thousand decrees from monasteries in Tuscany, Umbria and Lazio have been preserved, offering a deep insight into the lordly, administrative, legal and economic conditions of the period between c. 900-1100. These are mainly donations, purchase and lease contracts concluded between the monasteries and local as well as regional actors. This study aims to use the information contained in these documents, including personal names, honorific titles, occupations, kinship relations and places of origin, as a means to critically revise established research narratives and to create a new, source-based picture of social transformations in central Italy in the period around 1000.
Lectures
June 2023: Städtische Rechtskulturen in der Vormoderne, University of Regensburg. Internationale Jahrestagung des Mittelalterzentrums ‚Forum Mittelalter‘.
Lecture title: Le carte di Sant’Erasmo di Veroli: evoluzioni sociali e giuridiche di una civitas medievale nei secoli X e XI.
March 2023: Normen und Ideale, University of Würzburg. 19. Symposium des Mediävistenverbandes.
Lecture title: Die Stellung der Frauen in Mittelitalien im 10. und 11. Jahrhundert.
November 2022: Spuren der Oralität in mittelalterlicher Schriftlichkeit, University of Hamburg.
Lecture title: Mündliche Zeugnisse im Chartular von Subiaco: ein Beispiel aus dem Jahr 911.
September 2022: Le abbazie imperiali della Toscana, University of Pisa.
Lecture title: Il diploma imperiale di Ottone I al monastero di Subiaco.
