La Frontière Comme Enjeu les Annales et la Sociologie

Since their beginnings in the 1930’s, the Annales periodically demarcated themselves with sociology. Focusing on three decisive moments (the foundation, the Braudel moment, and the eighties), this article documents the process of boundaries drawing, which is unvaryingly at stakes in the context of institutional and epistemological disputes. The collective identity of the Annales resulted from the definition of continuously adjusted values.     

Le Travail de Négociation à Barcelone au XVe Siècle

In the 15(th) century, political negotiations were conceived as "treaties" or "dialogues", but also as work. The study of the missions sent by Barcelona to the court of king of Aragon Alfonso the Magnanimous reveals how significant this terminology was for the naming of the various practices used in the negotiation process. It also sheds light of the efforts made by the men sent by the city of Barcelona to speak in one, efficient voice. The written testimonies left by these officials about their reflections reveal the existence, at the time, of a pragmatic expertise in the field of negotiation.     

Pragmatisme Logique et Probabilisme Radical dans la Philosophie Italienne du XXe Siècle

This article sketches the principal characteristics of a philosophical trend which has met with some resistance despite the recognized importance of its representatives. This text illustrates the ideas at the foundation of the logical and methodological pragmatism of Giovanni Vailati and Mario Calderoni. These are ideas which should have surfaced in the international debate about the principle of verification and the concept of analyticity. In addition, the links between these ideas and the development of the subjective conception of probability in the work of Bruno de Finetti are explored.     

La position de la France dans l'industrie européenne des machines à vapeur durant la seconde moitié du XIXe siècle∗

At least from the standpoint of the steam‐engine industry, the nature of industrial relations between France and other countries underwent a significant change during the half century which elapsed between 1860 and 1910. Towards 1860, the major characteristics are dispersion and nationalism; on the other hand, at the beginning of the twentieth century, while there is a new concentration on the national level, it confronts a distinct cosmopolitanism on the international level. To give an idea of this evolution, we will refer to two French works on steam‐engines, dated 1861–62 and 1913 respectively. They are of an essential practical nature and describe a large number of engines which were actually available on the market. Below, we will successively examine the early manufacturers existing through 1861–62, then those dating from 1913 only, and finally the establishments which have endured throughout the whole period under consideration. This study aims at pointing out the clear decadence of the French industry which became increasingly dependent upon foreign sources in the areas of technical creativeness as well as production.     

Le Théatre dans la Formation Oratoire des écoliers au XVIe Siècle

The importance of drama as pedagogic and didactic tool in the 15(th) and 16(th) century schools has long been ignored, and so has the role of theatrical practices in the education of young men in the context of urban sociability. Yet those two aspects can be analyzed thanks to numerous historical sources (municipal archives) and literary ones (plays contextualized thanks to archive data). Their study shows how often drama was used as a tool in the first stages of the training of men aspiring to start a career in rhetorical arts.     

Expertise et Construction de la Valeur Artistique (XIVe–XVe siècle)

Working from a body of Tuscan commission contracts from the 14(th) and 15(th) centuries, this article shows how painting was the object of concrete evaluative practices among professional painters before becoming the subject of discussion for scholars and humanists. This study rests on the legal and economic analysis of clauses of expertise by which painters and commissioners submitted the work to other painters in order to guarantee the proper execution of the contract, thus constituting an essential evaluative measure for the economy of painting.     

L’autobiographie allemande du XVIIIe siècle,interprétée à la lumière de la sociologie de niklas Luhmann

With the help of Luhmann’s theory, this essay tries to define the connection between the boom of autobiographical writing in the late 18th century and the rise of the middle classes. Central to this, is his definition of “career”, with which he describes the individuals’ behaviour in the new functional bourgeois society. Strictly speaking, the individual gains personal and social identity, through his or her spoken or written autobiography as can be seen clearly in Jung-Stilling’s autobiography, which was published bit by bit. The individual hereby improves its prospects of social advancement. On the other hand, K. P. Moritz in hisAnton Reiser describes his hero’s life as the “career” of a failure whose hyperactive imagination interferes with the formation of his identity. Thus autobiographical writing in the 18th century shows itself as the literary autopoiesis of the authors’ concrete individuality.     

Humanisme Juridique et Science du Droit au XVe Siècle

The question of legal humanism was often presented in the shape of the methodological progress brought successively by philological discoveries. The jurists converted to the blessings of the “learned approach” of texts would have modified at the same time their exegetical analysis and the way they taught (mos docendi). Considering several questions raised by the return ad fontes, the article tries to clarify the political scope of the setting-up of the jurisprudentia cultior which was much more than a philological conquest. It was a matter of fitting the law for the new challenges of the political culture, in particular for the slow emergence of the sovereignty which will find its fulfillment with Bodin.