Since November, SHOC researcher William Torbeyns has been in Bologna for a three-month international research stay. As a visiting PhD student at the Alma Mater Studiorum – Università di Bologna, he is advancing his doctoral project on late medieval migration, supported by a scholarship from the Collegio dei Fiamminghi, one of the university’s oldest colleges.
William is conducting archival research at the Archivio di Stato di Bologna, focusing on sources that shed light on mobility in fifteenth-century Italy. In particular, he is studying the Libri delle presentazioni dei forestieri, registers that recorded every foreign visitor to the city. These remarkable documents allow him to trace who passed through Bologna, where they came from, and where they went next.
With the assistance of Talent for Research intern Noémi Tomaszynski, William is building a detailed database based on these records. Once complete, it will offer new insights into patterns of step migration and broader mobility across late medieval Europe.