Preliminary Programme

Late medieval family books as well as the most ancient parish books of baptisms suggest that, at the end of the Middle Ages, godparents were very rarely selected from among kinsmen. This was true both where it was customary to have many godfathers and godmothers, and where they were few. The Council of Trent (ended 1563), which reformed deeply godparenthood, did not change this situation, and neither did the Reformation. It is only from early 18th century, or even later, that the number of godparents chosen from among kin increased significantly. The tendency would strengthen during the 19th century and finally, in the 20th, this kind of choice became the dominant one. This phenomenon seems to have affected all of Europe (although with chronological differences according to the area), independently of whether they were Catholic or Protestant. This paper will offer much new data, mainly from Italy, France and Sweden, to explore what still is an almost entirely unknown historical process. (Show less)

Within the framework of a big city as Lyon, it seems relevant to analyse the evolutions of the godparenthood over a long period, by taking care of the influences from social, economic or political modifications. The analysis will be led on the most populated and the most socially representative parish of Saint-Nizier. In a privileged long-term setting, the analysis will base itself on three years detailed examination. The parenthood’s place in godparents’ choice will be questioned for the middle of the 17th century (1655), 18thcentury (1740), and under the Empire period. To see if, as time goes by, the godparents are more and more chosen in the parents’ relatives, seems to be the most obvious question to answer.

Except a few cases, the family tie between the baptized and his or her godparents is never noticed in the registers of baptisms from Saint-Nizier. Of course, with the simple homonymy criterion weakness, the exact percentage of godparents related to baptized is not possible to determine. However, the registers’ silence can be broken by the perusal of other sources as marriage contracts and certificates. Thanks to the homonymy and to these additional searches, the intensity of the family relationships between parents and godparents can be compared the three analysed years. The main aim is to offer a solid base of comparison to similar analysis in other towns. That is why, the carefully determined criteria, will be chosen in a standardized way. It is necessary in particular to separate blood relationship and relationship by alliance, and to pay attention on the given or ignored registers of baptisms information. So, the mentioned or ignored identity of the godmother’s husband (dead or alive) by the registers of baptisms has an influence on the possibility of distinguishing or not a family tie with the parents. (Show less)

As recent research has pointed out, the study of godparenthood allows to make several considerations about social relations in pre-industrial societies. For example, in the past centuries, the frequency of the choice of godparents from among kinsmen was much less frequent than nowadays. Moreover, during the Old Regime the selection of a godparent could be a specific strategy for the creation of social relations amongst different groups of families.
The case study developed in this paper involves the analysis of the practices of godparenthood in a region situated at the border between the Duchy of Savoy and France. In fact, the city of Susa was a strategic place for its proximity to the Delfinato al di qua dai monti (Delfinato on the piedmontese side of Alps), very important for trades and transits across the Alps (using Moncenisio and Monginevro passes). Only in the 18th century, after the peace treaty of Utrecht (1713), this border was advanced and posed along the peaks of Alps. The natural caracteristics of this territory, where the western limit of the Po Valley gets to be mountain, make this an interesting case study for exploring social relations established amongst communities with strongly interconnected economies, as a large anthropological, historical and geographic literature has proved.
It is possible to reconstruct the territorial relations by looking at the acts of baptism, in particular when the parish identified the place of origin of the father and of the godparents. These data will be compared with the acts of marriage, that give information about the origins of the husbands and the wives. The database so built, with several and varied social contacts, each one corresponding to a community, permits to make hypotheses about social ties established amongst places posed at the boundaries of Savoy and France. In the Susa Valley, the oldest books of baptism and marriage start from the 1570s. The city of Susa has been chosen, as well as the mountain communities of Oulx and Bardonecchia, to study the social relations until 1750. The paper will also analyze the frequency of blood ties in godparenthood, comparing these data with other case studies for the 16th -18th centuries. (Show less)

My previous work on baptism and godparenthood has only focused on the families of the Bordeaux elite of the eighteenth century, showing in particular the frequent choice of kins as godparents.

This new study will extend my first analysis socially and chronologically. My paper will cover the entire population of Bordeaux and a period of about 250 years, from the Council of Trent until the French Revolution. The size of this city makes it impossible to complete a recount of all baptisms celebrated during this period, so I propose to work on samples (two to three years of baptisms selected approximately every 50 years): one in the second half of the sixteenth century, one in the first half of the seventeenth century, etc., which means 5 samples.

This important data will probably reveal changes in practices related to baptism and godparenthood strategies in a long-term perspective, regarding the baptism ceremony itself and the choice of a godfather and a godmother. From a common pattern that could be provided by the organizers of the session, my results regarding one of the largest cities of France under the Old Regime will allow productive comparisons with other rural or urban areas in France or in other countries of Christian Europe. Moreover, the large size of my samples will be an opportunity to emphasize on a differential analysis in a social perspective. (Show less)