Preliminary Programme

Early Modern parish registers of marriages and baptisms of the small Italian city of Ivrea are quite precise in recording origin of people involved at ceremonies, as marriage partner; parent of a child baptized; godparent or witness to marriage. Other than cives, i.e. citizens, of Ivrea and foreigners, of whom we know exactly the origin, we find a host of habitatores and incolae: words used to describe foreigners who, even if they lived since many years in Ivrea, had never been awarded full citizenship as normal in Ancien Régime Europe.
This information is the basis upon which a study of integration of immigrants in the host community can be built. The database Eporedia with its 37.000 nominative records spanning XVth-XVIIth Centuries offers ample means for checking how foreigners chose to establish formal social contacts (of marriage alliance or spiritual kinship, or through choice of marriage witnesses), which can be compared to choices made by citizens, i.e. by non-immigrants. Eporedia also allows to consider neighbourhood realationships, which other studies about migrants to Early Modern cities proved to be quite important in orientating the establishment of new social ties.
A preliminar check of the data suggested that immigrants to Ivrea, while showing a tendency to well integrate in the general social network of the community, nevertheless maintained strong links with their place of origin and also established formal ties with fellow immigrants. The data available will allow to check whether formal ties established with other foreigners residing in Ivrea followed a logic of provenience (immigrants coming from the same village, or area, established ties among themselves), or if immigrants tried and establish solidarity ties with each other regardless of provenience. In such an analysis, neighbourhood is a crucial variable because its influence should be clearly defined and isolated from the influence of sharing of roots.
Lastly, individual paths of netbuilding will be reconstructed, in order to check whether propension to establish formal ties of different kinds changed according to life cycle and “immigration cycle”. (Show less)

The population of Lyons is quite changed between the seventeenth and the eighteenth centuries : there is an important growth coming from countryside. But there are also newcomers from foreign countries having long lasting contacts with Lyons (Switzerland, Italy)

These new inhabitants of Lyons participate in social networks, for instance when they have to choose a godfather and a godmother for their child .

My paper is about the effects of their geographical origin on the creating and using these spiritual kinships.

Is there a correlation between this geographical origin and the use of professional kinships or family kinships when one chooses a godfather or a godmother ?
Let’s imagine a father whose family lives in Lyons for a long time. Does he prefer family kinships to professional kinships ? On the contrary, let’s imagine a father who has just arrived. Does he give preference to professional kinships ? Is it a voluntary choice, in order to settle in urban society ? Is it an inevitable choice, through lack of family kinships in Lyons ?

Does this choice between professional kinships and family kinships depend on the distance between Lyons and their place of origin ?


In order to answer these questions, we have to take into account various parameters which can influence on this newcomer’s choice. The determining factors are for instance professional and social position, religion (if he comes from Switzerland and professes Protestant religion…).
The point of view is original in the following sense : the focus is on newcomers, a social group which is on the fringe of society. The aim of the paper is to show that newcomers can settle in urban society thanks to spiritual kinships (Show less)

This paper tries to show how clergymen played a fundamental role to make his relatives wellcome. Many relatives came to the city from the rural areas because they had got a relative who was a clergyman. It will be attemped to know what kind of aid these ecclesiastics gave. The aid could be various because clergymen hadn´t got the same social position. If they belonged to the high clergy, his relatives could become integrated in very important social networks. Other times, clergymen helped his relatives to find a job or to iniciate studies. Clergymen also helped his relatives to come into the Church. Anyway many clergymen’s relatives could culminate their processes of social promotion. (Show less)