Description du projet
Nouvelles perspectives sur les pratiques économiques de la Custodie franciscaine
La Custodie franciscaine de Terre Sainte, établie au XIIIe siècle, assurait l’entretien du Saint-Sépulcre et la présence des frères en Terre Sainte. Cependant, la Custodie reste peu étudiée et ses riches archives inexploitées. Le projet HOLYLAB, financé par l’UE, étudiera l’organisation économique de la Custodie à travers ses livres de comptes entre 1600 et 1800, faisant ainsi progresser la recherche actuelle sur les pratiques franciscaines. Le projet combinera une analyse des pratiques économiques au niveau local, régional et mondial, avec la recherche des structures organisationnelles et des mécanismes qui ont permis son fonctionnement et son maintien. HOLYLAB étudiera la circulation globale des personnes, de l’argent et des objets ainsi que l’organisation des institutions.
Objectif
The Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land (Custodia Terræ Sanctæ, established in the 13th century) is a global organization that, thanks to a complex system of alms gathering, has ensured throughout the centuries the maintenance of the Holy Sepulchre and the friars’ presence in the Holy Land. Despite its importance in Mediterranean History, the Custody has remained understudied, and its rich archive scarcely exploited. Inspired by recent studies on Franciscan economic thought and accounting in Mediaeval convents, and deploying concepts drawn taken from organizational studies, HOLYLAB combines an analysis of economic practices on a local, regional and global level, with a study of the organizational structures and the mechanisms that enabled the Custody to function, attain its goals, survive organizational changes and maintain legitimation. The aim of the project is to study the Custody’s economic organization in the early modern period and, in so doing, to address more general issues concerning the global circulation of people, money and objects and the organization of early modern institutions. In order to do so, the project’s analysis will rely on a rich and unstudied corpus of account documents issued by the Custody’s headquarters – the St Saviour convent in Jerusalem – and its commissariats located in several Franciscan provinces. Methodologically, the project combines qualitative and quantitative approaches and bridges micro- and macro-levels of analysis by emphasising the meso-level of the organization. Thanks to the novelty of the subject, the use of unstudied account books, an interdisciplinary approach and an innovative methodology, HOLYLAB will both advance current research on Franciscan economic practices, and open new paths in research on the global circulation of people and objects, religious orders and sociology of organizations. Finally, by making available a large amount of data on the objects that circulated through the Custody’s global network, their
Champ scientifique
Programme(s)
Régime de financement
ERC-COG - Consolidator GrantInstitution d’accueil
00154 Roma
Italie