Dr Ninon Dubourg

Titre : « Ad obsequium divinum inhabilem », La reconnaissance de la condition de personne infirme par la chancellerie pontificale (xii^e – xiv^e siècles)

Résumé : Les suppliques reçues et les lettres émises par la Chancellerie apostolique entre le xii^e et le xiv^e siècle attestent la reconnaissance de l’invalidité par l’institution pontificale. Elles actent l’existence d’une infirmité physique ou mentale et autorisent le suppliant à adapter ses missions de clerc ou de chrétien en fonction de ses capacités. Ces documents se situent à la frontière entre une parole institutionnelle et des sources de la pratique. La sollicitation provoque une intense et complexe production épistolaire, mettant en évidence les acteurs engagés dans ce processus – les individus invalides et les personnels curial et ecclésiastique. Elle dévoile les législations spécifiques à l’institution et entraîne une définition de l’infirmité par la Chancellerie pontificale, catégorisant les corps invalides selon leur condition physique ou mentale. Les réponses de la Curie, basées sur la tradition de compilation de cas similaires, connus par le droit et l’enregistrement, confirment la reconnaissance de la condition de personne infirme. Les suppliques et les lettres constituent ainsi un excellent laboratoire d’analyse pour étudier le handicap médiéval dans sa relation à la papauté comme institution.

Mots clefs : Handicap – infirmité – papauté – Chancellerie pontificale – suppliques – lettres – droit canon – identité – religiosité – clercs – laïcs – Chrétienté.

Title: « Ad obsequium divinum inhabilem », The Recognition of the disabled person’s condition by the Papal Chancery (12^th-14^th century)

Summary: The petitions received and the letters sent by the Papal Chancery between the 12^th-14^th century attest the recognition of invalidity by the Papacy. They acknowledge the existence of a physical or mental infirmity and allow the supplicant to adapt his missions of cleric or Christian according to his abilities. These documents lie at the boundary between the institutional word and practical sources. Supplicant’s solicitations bring about an intense and complex epistolary production, whose main actors are the disabled individuals and the curial and ecclesiastical personnel. They reveal the specific legislation of the institution and lead to a definition of infirmity by the Papal Chancery, one that categorizes invalid bodies according to their physical or mental condition. Curia’s replies to solicitations, based on a case law system, constitute further evidence of the recognition of the disabled person’s condition. The supplications and letters thus constitute an excellent laboratory of analysis to study medieval disability in its relation to the Papacy as an institution.

Keywords: Disability – infirmity – Papacy – Papal Chancery – petition – letters – canon law – identity – religiosity – clerics – lay – Christendom.

Manager of the research blog Hypothèses History of Disease, Disability & Medicine in Medieval Europe.

Job experience

2018-2019 : Temporary teaching, Université Paris Diderot – Paris 7.

2015-2017 : Temporary teaching and research position (ATER) in medieval history, Université Paris Diderot – Paris 7.

2012-2015 : Recipient doctoral student of the l’École Doctorale Économies, Espaces, Sociétés, Civilisations (ED 382) at the Université Paris Diderot – Paris 7, laboratory ICT (Identités, Cultures et Territoires, EA 337) in medieval history under the supervision of Didier Lett (Université Paris Diderot – Paris 7).

Entitled “‘Ad obsequium divinum inhabilem’ The Recognition of the disabled person’s condition by the Papal Chancery (12th-14th century)”, my dissertation seeks to question the integration of disabled persons into the clergy and the secular society, but also the utility that the Church withdraws from going against the laws it has enacted. Documents from Vatican Archives’ petition and letter registers, between norms and practices, allow researchers to see how the disabled person, whether cleric or secular, relies on the institution of which she is part to frame her life – and, conversely, to capture the gaze of the institution on these people.

2010-2012 : Research master History – history of art, Antiquity – Middle Ages, Université Paul Valéry Montpellier III. Dissertation on Les clercs handicapés et infirmes au xiii^e siècle, à travers les lettres de dispense d’Innocent III (1198-1216) et de Boniface VIII (1294-1303), defended in front of Julien Théry and Daniel Le Blévec.

Integration in international networks

Co-funder (with Gildas Brégain) of the Network of French-speaking researchers on history of disability and deafness.

Associate member of the research group “Homo debilis. Dis/ability in Pre-Modern Societies”, Bremen University.

Member of the network « Jeunes chercheurs Handicap(s) et Sociétés, Programme Handicaps et Sociétés », EHESS, Paris.

Mentee of the American Historical Association Committee on Disability, Disability History Mentorship program (mentor : Catherine Kudlick).

Organisation and coordination of scientific works

Co-organisation of the monthly seminar “Construire une histoire du handicap et de la surdité au travers des siècles” (Building a history of disability and deafness through the centuries) with Gildas Brégain (Rennes, CNRS) (2021-2022) ;

Help in the organisation of the seminar “corps empêchés” (impaired bodies) in Angers in the framework of the ANR Fil_IAM of Carole Avignon (2020-2021) ;

Presentation of the last works of Henri-Jacques Stiker around a meeting with the author, « Anthropologie et histoire du handicap », Université Paris Diderot – Paris 7, 22 March 2017 ;

Workshop Utiliser l’Histoire : regards croisés sur la discipline historique, Université Paris Diderot – Paris 7, 21 September 2015 (with Maria Podzorova) ;

Workshop Habiter : lieux de vie et façons de vivre. Une approche pluridisciplinaire du quotidien, Université Paris Diderot – Paris 7, 22 September 2014 (with Delphine Piétu and Maria Podzorova) ;

Conducting a survey of students enrolled in the first year of the degree in history and their representations of medieval and contemporary history, presented at the General Assembly of the Department of History, Université Paris Diderot – Paris 7, 20 February 2014 (with Delphine Piétu).

Formations

Fellow of the French School of Rome, November 2014 ; April 2016 ; April 2017;

Workshop Histoire et informatique, Textométrie des sources historiques, organised by the French School of Rome, Rome, 2-6 June 2014 ;

Training course in medieval diplomacy organized by the GDR (research group) 3177 “Diplomatique”, CNRS, in the National archives, Paris, 26-28 mars 2014.

Outreach activities

• Scientific monitoring skills (management of the research blog Hypotheses History of Disease, Disability & Medicine in Medieval Europe).
• Promotion of open science and research, by the production and responsible distribution of research datasets: Excel database downloadable online on my personal website.
• Academic dissemination Skills (writing of an on-line section on “handicap” (disability) for undergraduate, graduate students and scholars on the French website Menestrel).
• Implication in outreach Activities (Blog’s article on the physical and mental disability in the Middle Ages and its representation in the TV-show Game of Thrones on the blog “Actuel Moyen Âge” (Lived Middle Ages), 20 June 2019).
• Participation in the “en direct du labo” (live from the lab) Twitter account to write threads about medieval disability and my research (audience 644,000), May 2019.

Publications

Oral interventions

Teaching

Medieval history

Histoire médiévale 1 : Haut Moyen Âge (v^e–x^e siècles), L2, S3 (2018, one semester), Université Paris Diderot – Paris 7, coordinated by Didier Lett ;

Histoire médiévale 2 : Bas Moyen Âge (xi^e–xv^e siècles), L2, S4 (2016-2017, two semesters) Université Paris Diderot – Paris 7, coordinated by Judicaël Petrowiste ;

Histoire médiévale 1 : Haut Moyen Âge (v^e–x^e siècles), L2, S3 (2015-2016, two semesters), Université Paris Diderot – Paris 7, coordinated by Maaike Van Der Lugt ;

Introduction à l’histoire médiévale, L1, S2 (2013-2014, two semesters), Université Paris Diderot – Paris 7, coordinated by Judicaël Petrowiste.

Bachelor & master degrees, generalists courses

Méthodologie du travail universitaire, L1, S1 (2013-2018, four semesters), Université Paris Diderot – Paris 7, coordinated by Aurélia Michel ;

Méthodes générales de la recherche, M1, S1 (4 courses in 2015), Université Paris Diderot – Paris 7, coordinated by Maaike Van Der Lugt ;

Historiographie : Occident et Mondes, L2, S4 (2016-2017, two semesters), Université Paris Diderot – Paris 7, coordinated by Nathalie Kouamé and Fabien Simon.

Administrative implications

Delegate of the doctoral students of the laboratory ICT (2014-2015) ;

Alternate representatives of PhD students from the École doctorale 382 (2013-2017).