Joseph Bergin

Joseph Bergin (born February 11, 1948 in Rathkyle , County Kilkenny ) is an Irish historian and professor emeritus of history at the University of Manchester .

Life

Bergin attended Byrnesgrove National School and Rockwell College (graduated in 1966). He then studied history at University College Dublin , where he earned his BA in 1970 and MA in 1972, and early modern French history at the University of Cambridge , where he received his doctorate in philosophy in 1977. He spent two years at the National University of Ireland, Maynooth (NUIM) and then taught early modern history at the University of Manchester from 1978 until his retirement in 2011 (full professor in 1996). He was also visiting professor at the Universities of Lyon , Nancy , Montpellier , the Sorbonne , the École des Chartes (Paris) and the École des hautes études en sciences sociales (Paris) (EHESS).

In several monographs Bergin deals with various aspects of French history in the 17th century , especially the connections between social status, power and the church. His two books on Richelieu (1985 and 1991) were translated into French. His interest in the interface between church and politics led him to a prosopographical study of the entire French episcopate from the end of the wars of religion to the death of Louis XIV (1589-1715), called The Making of the French Episcopate (1589-1661) and Crown , Church and Episcopate Under Louis XIV. (Published 1996 and 2004, respectively). He also works as a translator from French. For his translation The Saint Bartholomew's Day Massacre he received the Russell Major Prize of the American Historical Association in 2014 .

In 1995 he received the Prix ​​Richelieu and in 1996 became a Fellow of the British Academy . For 15 years he was chairman of the editorial committee of Manchester University Press. In 2011, on the occasion of his retirement, he was the first to receive the silver Richelieu Medal from the Sorbonne for the advancement of scientific excellence and in the same year became a member of the Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres . In 2019 the Sorbonne awarded him an honorary doctorate.

Works

• Cardinal Richelieu: Power and the Pursuit of Wealth. J Bergin. Yale University Press, 1985
• Cardinal de La Rochefoucauld: leadership and reform in the French Church. Yale University Press, 1987
• The Making of the French Episcopate, 1589-1661. Yale University Press, 1996
• The rise of Richelieu. Manchester University Press, 1997
• Crown, Church, and Episcopate Under Louis XIV. Yale University Press, 2004
• Church, Society and Religious Change in France, 1580-1730. Yale University Press, 2009
• The politics of religion in early modern France. Yale University Press, 2014

Web links

• Brief biography at the British Academy
• Announcement from Manchester University of the 2019 Honorary Doctorate