Vita
Eva Schlotheuber studied at the universities of Göttingen and Copenhagen and earned her doctorate in Göttingen in 1994 with the dissertation “Die Franziskaner in Göttingen. Die Geschichte des Klosters und seiner Bibliothek“ (Prof Hartmut Hoffmann). From 1999 to 2001, she worked as a research assistant under Prof Claudia Märtl at the University of Braunschweig, then from 2001 onwards, at the University of Munich (LMU). There she habilitated in 2003 with a thesis on a convent diary of a late medieval Cistercian. After a time working as senior research assistant at LMU, she was appointed professor of medieval history and auxiliary sciences at the University of Münster, where she taught from 2007 to 2010.
Since 2010, she has held the Chair of Medieval History at the University of Düsseldorf as successor to Johannes Laudage. In the winter semester 2021, she held a visiting professorship at the University of Pavia, Italy (Dipartimento di Sudi Umanistici, Prof Daniela Rando). Since 2014, she has been a full member of the central directorate of Monumenta Germaniae Historica, and since 2016, a member of the Konstanzer Arbeitskreis für Mittelalterliche Geschichte. In 2020, she was elected Corresponding Fellow of the Medieval Academy of America as well as a member of the American Philosophical Society (APS). From 2016 to 2021, she served as president of the Verband der Historiker und Historikerinnen Deutschlands (German Association of Historians).
Her main research interests include the political theories of the 14th century, Emperor Charles IV's conception and practice of rule, the history of education and libraries and, in particular, the system of knowledge in digital transformation. An important research focus continues to be the history of culture and religious orders, especially life and forms of expression in medieval nunneries. Since 2016, she has headed the digital edition “The ‘Nuns’ Network/Netzwerke der Nonnen. Digital and Print Edition of the Letter Collection of the Benedictine Nuns of Lüne (ca. 1460-1555)” in collaboration with Prof Henrike Lähnemann (Chair in Medieval German, Oxford), funded by the Gerda Henkel Foundation and the Thyssen Foundation.
Research Project
The Golden Bull of 1356 – The First Written Constitution of the Holy Roman Empire
The aim of the research project is to analyse the relevance of the context in which the Golden Bull was written, the legitimisation of legal standardisation by Charles IV as a political instrument, and the legal and political impact of the first written constitution of the Holy Roman Empire from a European perspective. The opening hypothesis is that the writing of constitutions in the pre-modern period is the result of profound conflicts and the search for solutions and compromises associated with them. Therefore, they cannot be understood in their effects without knowledge of the underlying power struggles and fundamental lines of conflict. The widespread assumption that the Golden Bull of 1356 more or less ‘only’ codified already implemented customary law or, as a ‘European unicum’, excluded the Empire from future developments, falls short in any case. The Golden Bull was not least the result of complex negotiation processes between the Roman Curia and Emperor Charles IV. Since the hegemonic character of the imperial and papal dignities established a common sphere of power, in which the Holy Roman Empire and Italy became inseparably linked, the reorganisation of relations associated with these negotiation processes affected both Italy and the Empire. They were therefore reflected in two major constitutional drafts, namely the Golden Bull of 1356, the first constitution for the Empire, and the Constitutiones Aegidianae of 1357 for the Papal States, both of which had an impressive period of validity lasting over 650 years.
Selected Publications
Schlotheuber, Eva, Reassessing Charles IV’s imperial coronation journey and the role of Petrarch (45 pp., mit editio princeps des Briefes von Niccolò Acciaiuoli 1354), in: Rando, Daniela/Schlotheuber, Eva (Eds.), Carlo IV e l'Italia. Atti dei convegni Milano-Pavia e Roma, maggio-settembre 2019, Roma, Istituto Storico Italiano per il Medio Evo [in preparation, 2022].
Schlotheuber, Eva/Hamburger, Jeffrey/Marti, Susan/Fassler, Margot, Liturgical Life and Latin Learning at Paradies bei Soest, 1300-1425: Inscription and Illumination in the Choir Books of a North German Dominican Convent, Münster 2017, 2 vols.
Schlotheuber, Eva, Der weise König. Herrschaftskonzeption und Vermittlungsstrategien Kaiser Karls IV. († 1378), in: Hémecht. Zeitschrift für Luxemburger Geschichte 63/3 (2011), 265-279.
Schlotheuber, Eva, Das Privilegium maius – eine habsburgische Fälschung im Ringen um Rang und Einfluss, in: Schmid, Peter/Wanderwitz, Heinrich (Eds.), Die Geburt Österreichs. 850 Jahre Privilegium minus (Regensburger Kulturleben 4), Regensburg 2007, 143-165.
Schlotheuber, Eva, Die Autobiographie Karls IV. und die mittelalterlichen Vorstellungen vom Menschen am Scheideweg, in: Historische Zeitschrift 281 (2005), 561-591.
Schlotheuber, Eva, Klostereintritt und Bildung. Die Lebenswelt der Nonnen im späten Mittelalter. Mit einer Edition des ‚Konventstagebuchs‘ einer Zisterzienserin von Heilig-Kreuz bei Braunschweig (1484-1507) (Spätmittelalter und Reformation; Neue Reihe 24), Tübingen 2004.