Michael Matheus (born 27 March 1953, in Graach) is a German historian.
Life Michael Matheus graduated from the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Gymnasium (Trier) in 1971. He studied history, political science and German at the universities of Trier, Bonn and Münster. After passing the state examination for secondary school teachers, he received his doctorate in Trier in 1981 under Alfred Haverkamp with the thesis “Trier at the End of the Middle Ages”. He was then a research assistant for medieval history at the University of Trier.
From 1986 to 1988 Matheus was a DFG scholarship holder and attached to the German Historical Institute (DHI) in Rome. In 1990, he completed his habilitation in Medieval History and Regional History at the University of Trier with an unpublished work on what in German is called Zensualität, focusing on relations between ecclesiastical institutions in the High Middle Ages and those laypeople who owed them certain taxes or dues in cash or kind. In 1990/91, he was a guest lecturer at the DHI in Rome and a lecturer at the University of Rome "La Sapienza". After working as a university lecturer at the University of Trier, he became Professor of Medieval History at the University GHS Essen in 1993. From 1994 to 2018, Michael Matheus taught and researched as Professor of Medieval and Modern History and Comparative Regional History at the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz. From 1994 to 2003 and from 2013 to 2020, he was again 1st Chairman and Director of the Institute of Regional History at the University of Mainz (IGL).
From October 2002 to September 2012, he served as director of the German Historical Institute in Rome. In 2008, to mark the 150th birthday of the former director Ludwig Quidde, the German Historical Institute in Rome dedicated a conference to the historian and Nobel Peace Prize winner. The contributions were published by Matheus in 2012. In 2011, on the occasion of the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther's journey to Rome, the German Historical Institute in Rome organized a conference. The Rome journey was often associated with the question of how far it can be regarded as a precondition for the Reformation. The resulting anthology was published by Matheus together with Arnold Nesselrath and Martin Wallraff in 2017 and appeared in Italian translation in 2019.
From October 2012 to September 2018, he was again professor and head of the Department of Medieval and Modern History and Comparative Regional History at the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz. Since September 2011, he has also been a member of the board of directors of the Roman Institute of the Görres Society (RIGG). From 2013 to 2021 he was chairman of the German Study Centre in Venice.
Since the 1990s, Matheus has promoted the connection between historical research and new media (digital humanities). Various regional portals were created under his leadership at the IGL. Since 2003, he has initiated several electronic publication formats at the DHI in Rome, which have been accessible on the platform "Romana Repertoria online/Roman Repertories online (RRO)" since 2012. In 2015, "mainzed - Mainz Centre for Digitality in the Humanities and Cultural Studies" was founded in Mainz. The IGL is one of the six founding members that concentrate their digital competence at the scholarly hub of Mainz. A new master’s program, "Digital Methodology in the Humanities and Cultural Studies," has been offered at the Johannes Gutenberg University from WS 2016/17.
Research
His research focuses on comparative studies of European history, especially of Germany and Italy in the High and Late Middle Ages, including the history of rural and urban settlements, the history of wine,Vgl. dazu Michael Matheus (Hrsg.): Weinkultur und Weingeschichte an Rhein, Nahe und Mosel. Stuttgart 2019. the history of education and universities,Michael Matheus (ed.): Friedensnobelpreis und historische Grundlagenforschung. Ludwig Quidde und die Erschließung der kurialen Registerüberlieferung. Berlin u. a. 2012; Michael Matheus (ed.): Deutsche Forschungs- und Kulturinstitute in der Nachkriegszeit. Tübingen 2007; Michael Matheus: Alma Mater Trevirensis. Die „alte“ Trierer Universität von 1473 bis 1798 (Katalog). Trier 1980; Michael Matheus: Fonti vaticane e storia dell’università. In: Gian Maria Varanini, Isabella Lazzarini, Paola Guglielmotti (eds.): Europa e Italia. Studi in onore di Giorgio Chittolini. Firenze 2011, S. 275–293; Michael Matheus: Roma docta. Rom als Studienort in der Renaissance. In: Quellen und Forschungen aus italienischen Archiven und Bibliotheken. 90 (2010), S. 128–168 (online); Michael Matheus: Rom und die Frühgeschichte der Mainzer Universität. In: Mechthild Dreyer, Jörg Rogge (ed.): Mainz im Mittelalter. Mainz 2009, S. 214–232; Michael Matheus: Rom und Mainz. Italienische und deutsche Universitäten im 15. und beginnenden 16. Jahrhundert. In: Römische Quartalschrift 102 (2007), S. 47–75; Michael Matheus: Das Verhältnis der Stadt Trier zur Universität in der zweiten Hälfte des 15. Jahrhunderts. In: Kurtrierisches Jahrbuch 20 (1980), S. 60–139. the history of transport and trade, Christians and Muslims in southern Italy,Lukas Clemens, Michael Matheus (eds.): Christen und Muslime in der Capitanata im 13. Jahrhundert. Archäologie und Geschichte. Trier 2018; Michael Matheus: Transformationen in einem Kernraum staufischer Herrschaft: Die Capitanata, Friedrich II. und die Bischöfe von Tertiveri. In: Andreas Gottsmann, Pierantonio Piatti, Andreas Rehberg (ed.): Monumenta incorrupta ecclesiam defendunt. Studi offerti a Mons. Sergio Pagano Prefetto dell’Archivio Segreto Vaticano. 4 Bde., Città del Vaticano: Archivio Segreto Vaticano, 2018, Bd. 2 pp. 1059–1082. the papacy, the Curia and Rome in the Renaissance. He also studies the history of national research cultures and their networking in international academic relations.
In his dissertation, he examined the constitutional and socio-historical situation of Trier in the late Middle Ages, mainly on the basis of municipal accounts. The treasurer’s accounts evaluated by Matheus are virtually complete for the period from 1370 to 1520. This is the first time that historical account books have been analyzed in this way to illuminate general aspects of the city's history. In addition, this study examined the members of nine leading Trier families, incorporating aspects of educational history.See: Ernst-Dieter Hehl in: Deutsches Archiv für Erforschung des Mittelalters 42, 1986, pp. 335 f. (online); John B. Freed in: Speculum 63, 1988, pp. 434–436; Ronnie Po-Chia Hsia in: The Journal of Economic History 47, 1987, S. 519–520; Eva-Marie Felschow in: Zeitschrift für Historische Forschung 17, 1990, pp. 356–357; Karl-Heinz Spieß in: Historische Zeitschrift 240, 1985, pp. 416–418. In another extensive study, he devoted himself to harbor cranes in the period between 1300 and 1600, with a geographical focus on the Rhine and its tributaries between Strasbourg and Düsseldorf. In doing so, he placed this technical innovation in its economic, socio-historical and cultural historical context.See: Alexander Patschovsky in: Deutsches Archiv für Erforschung des Mittelalters 43, 1987, pp. 711 f. (online).
History of hospitals and welfare institutions Another focus is the history of hospitals and welfare institutions. The conference "Functional and Structural Change of Late Medieval Hospitals in European Comparison," which Matheus chaired in Alzey in 1999, was based on the thesis that "the capacity for structural change ... seems to be virtually constitutive for the long-term existence of hospitals and thus also for their history."Michael Matheus: Einleitung. In: Michael Matheus (ed.): Funktions- und Strukturwandel spätmittelalterlicher Hospitäler im europäischen Vergleich. Stuttgart 2005, pp. VII–XII, S. X. The conference was acknowledged as a milestone in German hospital research. The proven differentiation of various types of hospitals inspired an intensive discussion of the concept of the hospital and its scope.Gisela Drossbach, François-Olivier Touati, Thomas Frank: Einführung: Zur Perspektivität und Komplexität des mittelalterlichen Hospitals – Forschungsstand, Arbeitstechniken, Zielsetzungen. In: Gisela Drossbach (ed.): Hospitäler in Mittelalter und Früher Neuzeit. Frankreich, Deutschland und Italien. Eine vergleichende Geschichte = Hôpitaux au moyen âge et au temps modernes. Munich, pp. 9–24, here: p. 12 (online). The conference was also a great success.
History of education, science and universities His studies of university history in the region of the Holy Roman Empire north of the Alps are primarily concerned with the competing universities in Trier and Mainz in the fifteenth and twentieth centuries.Michael Matheus: Das Verhältnis der Stadt Trier zur Universität in der zweiten Hälfte des 15. Jahrhunderts. In: Kurtrierisches Jahrbuch 20, 1980, pp. 60–139; Michael Matheus: Zum Einzugsgebiet der „alten“ Trierer Universität (1473–1477). In: Kurtrierisches Jahrbuch 21, 1981, pp. 55–69. Michael Matheus: Rom und die Frühgeschichte der Mainzer Universität. In: Mechthild Dreyer und Jörg Rogge (ed.): Mainz im Mittelalter. Mainz 2009, pp. 214–232. Michael Matheus: Von der Universität zur Kaserne, von der Kaserne zur Universität. In: Joachim Schneider, Matthias Schnettger (ed.): Verborgen – Verloren – Wiederentdeckt. Erinnerungsorte in Mainz von der Antike bis zum 20. Jahrhundert. Darmstadt, Mainz 2012, pp. 96–109. Matheus was the author of the book “The History of Universities.”
At a conference in Tübingen in 1996 dedicated to the repeatedly noted second wave of university foundings in the fifteenth century, Matheus argued for a European comparative view of late medieval university history. Where as Nicholas of Cusa had previously been claimed as the author of the papal foundation privilege of February 2, 1455 for the University of Trier, Matheus proved that the text of the bull largely corresponds to that of the bulls for Besançon (1450) and Glasgow (1451). In addition, he suggested relativizing the thesis of a second wave of university foundations in the Roman-German Empire from a comparative European perspective.Michael Matheus: Heiliges Jahr, Nikolaus V. und das Trierer Universitätsprojekt: Eine Universitätsgründung in Etappen (1430–1473). In: Sönke Lorenz (ed.): Attempto – oder wie stiftet man eine Universität. Die Universitätsgründungen der sogenannten zweiten Gründungswelle im Vergleich. Stuttgart 1999, pp. 35–53. Matheus analyzed the foundings of the universities in Trier and Mainz in the context of intensive efforts at church reform and a general educational awakening in the Roman-German Empire, especially from the middle of the fifteenth century.Michael Matheus: Schnittstellen zwischen Kirche und Welt. Spätmittelalterliche Bildungseinrichtungen am Mittelrhein. In: Gordon Blennemann, Christine Kleinjung und Thomas Kohl (ed.): Konstanz und Wandel. Religiöse Lebensformen im europäischen Mittelalter. Affalterbach 2016, pp. 247–280. Matheus also showed that the first wave of university foundings in the Roman-German Empire was not a first wave.