Jacques Heers

Jacques Heers

Jacques Heers (born July 6, 1924 in Paris , † January 10, 2013 in Angers ) was a French historian whose specialty is the Middle Ages . He mainly taught at the University of Paris-Nanterre and was Director of Medieval Studies at the University of Paris IV . Although he was a student of Fernand Braudel , he did not belong to any school.

Life

Jacques Heers attended school in La Ferté-Bernard in the Sarthe department and in 1945 initially became a primary school teacher . From there he acquired his license in history at the Sorbonne and qualified successively in 1948 and 1949 as a high school teacher ( CAPES ) and as an Agrégé in history. Between 1949 and 1951 he was a high school teacher. From 1951 he joined the Center national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS), where he came across Fernand Braudel. At the instigation of the latter, he prepared his state doctorate in Italy with a thesis on the history of Genoa in the 15th century and was awarded " Gênes au XVe siècle: activités économiques et société " (Genoa in the 15th century: economic activities and Society). After his return from Italy he became an assistant to Georges Duby in Aix-en-Provence . In 1957 he was appointed to a chair at the University of Algiers and taught there until 1962, then in Caen , Rouen , at the University of Paris-Nanterre and at the Sorbonne.

research

In his research he devoted himself to the following topics:

• The city in the last centuries of the Middle Ages: In part of his work, he tries to prove that there is no justification for the historical tradition of separating in European history between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance . In his opinion, such a categorical periodic demarcation conceals, on the one hand, the actual termination of a line of continuity and, on the other hand, ignores obvious geographical differences.
• Trade in the Middle Ages in the 15th and 16th centuries: his doctoral thesis aims to prove that the spice trade in the Mediterranean was overrated by historians. According to his research, the trade in grain, salt and other products took a more important place in terms of volume and exchange value. Fernand Braudel, who on the other hand placed the value of the spice trade in the foreground, recognized the scientific value of Jacques Heer's work.
• The Arab contribution to the rediscovery of Greek thought in Europe: According to Jacques Heers, the contribution of the Arabs to the rediscovery of the work of Aristotle in the West is by far overrated. Rather, he assumes that the transmission of Greek thought, especially logic , was an uninterrupted task of the cathedral schools , which was then continued by the first universities. At that time, Latin translations of the originally Greek texts were used, which clergy and scholars in Constantinople carefully preserved and widely passed on. The translations from Greek into Arabic and from Arabic into Latin, which are usually ascribed to Avicenna and Averroes , appeared comparatively late, while in the Occident these fundamentals had long been taught and for more than a century the logic directly inspired by Aristotle as one of the Seven Liberal Arts was recognized in the university curriculum.
• In 2006 Jacques Heers caused a sensation with his book “ L'histoire assassinée. Les pièges de la mémoire ”( The murdered story. The traps of memory ). Since Jules Ferry , history has been turned into a weapon of attack in the hands of the state. The school of the French Republic had ensured in its textbooks that history was falsified and mutilated for the purpose of civic education. This has found its continuation in the press, fiction , national celebrations and festivals, on television and interventions in research and teaching. The state has recently been regulating historical research and restricting its freedom of research. - In addition, the book offers an outline of his research on how an erroneous picture of the Middle Ages was passed down and, above all, too much space was given to Arab cultural contributions.

Notoriety in Germany

In 1986, Jacques Heers became famous in Germany with his work “ Vom Mummenschanz zum Machttheater ”, which has also been translated into Italian, Portuguese and Spanish . European festival culture in the Middle Ages ”(“ Fêtes des fous et carnavals au Moyen Âge ”, 1983).
His work on the history of slavery in the Mediterranean in the Middle Ages, with which he succeeds Charles Verlinden , and on the Islamic slave trade have also attracted attention.

Works (selection)

• L'Occident aux XIVe et XVe siècles: aspects économiques et sociaux , Paris, PUF, 1961 (Nouvelle Clio); 6th edition 1990.
• Esclaves et domestiques au Moyen Âge dans le monde méditerranéen , Paris, Fayard, 1981; Paris, Hachette 1996.
• Christophe Colomb , Paris, Hachette, 1981; Paperback Marabout, 1983; 2nd edition 1991.
• Fêtes des fous et carnavals au Moyen Age , Paris, Fayard, 1983; Paris, Hachette, 1997 (German: From Mummenschanz to Power Theater. European Festival Culture in the Middle Ages , Fischer: Frankfurt a. M. 1986, ISBN 3-10030-702-X ).
• La ville au Moyen Age: paysages, pouvoirs, conflits , Paris, Fayard, 1990; Paris, Hachette 2004.
• 1492: la découverte de l'Amérique , Bruxelles, Complexe, 1991.
• Le Moyen Âge, une imposture , Paris, Perrin, 1992.
• Les Barbaresques, la course et la guerre en Méditerranée (XIVe-XVe siècles) , Paris, Perrin, 2001.
• Les négriers en terres d'Islam: la première traite des Noirs (VIIe-XVIe siècles) , Paris, Perrin, 2003.
• Chute et mort de Constantinople , Paris, Perrin, 2005.
• L'Histoire assassinée - Les pièges de la mémoire , Éditions de Paris, 2006.
• L'histoire oubliée des guerres d'Italie , Via Romana, 2009 ( book presentation (French) ).

Web links

• Publications by Jacques Heers in the Opac der Regesta Imperii

Individual evidence

1. ^ Biographical data from Jacques Heers in: Le Monde
2. ^ Gênes au XVe siècle: activités économiques et société , Paris, SEVPEN, 1961; abridged edition by Flammarion 1971.
3. ↑ See, inter alia, Le Moyen Âge , une imposture , Paris, Perrin, 1992 ( The Middle Ages: A false idea ).
4. ↑ Conversation with Jacques Heers in the Nouvelle Revue d'Histoire , No. 29, March-April 2007, p. 13.
5. ↑ See also Die Rolle der Araber (French). and The murdered story (French) ( Memento of the original from December 7, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
6. ↑ From Mummenschanz to the theater of power. European festival culture in the Middle Ages , Fischer: Frankfurt a. M. 1986, ISBN 3-10030-702-X . See donkeys in the church, games of fools at the altar .
7. ↑ Esclaves et domestiques au Moyen Âge dans le monde méditerranéen , Paris, Hachette, 1996, pp. 14, 23.
8. ↑ Les négriers en terres d'islam VIIe-XVIe siècles , Paris, Perrin, 2007.
9. ↑ Slavery in the Middle Ages - the Mediterranean region ( Memento of the original from September 7, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 69 kB).