Alessandro Maria Bruni

Old Slavic codices of Orations of St. Gregory of Nazianzen and their Byzantine prototypes. October 6th, 2004

Elena V. Kazbekova

The Novellae of Pope Innocent IV (1243-1254) and their impact upon canonical law. December 19th, 2004
The dissertation analyzes the development of decretal law in the middle and second half of 13th century, as well as legislative activity of Roman popes, institutional history of the papacy and aspects of source study of the codes of decretal law.

Marina A. Kurysheva

Ethno-demographic processes in medieval Southern Italy: Greek population in 11th–12th centuries. June 23rd, 2004
The dissertation appears to be the first complex study on Greek population of Southern Italy based on sources in different languages and different genres, including private legal documents. The dissertation contains a pioneering for the region under examination complex prosopographic study based on anthroponymic analysis.

Elena V. Litovskih

Genealogic concepts in medieval Icelandic society (based on The Niala Saga). June 23rd, 2004
The dissertation examines medieval Icelandic genealogical concepts and their functions as presented in Icelandic patrimonial sagas and historical writings.

Vladimir V. Rybakov

Adam of Bremen and the Christianisation of Scandinavia. May 2004
The author for the first time in world scholarship conducts thorough and comprehensive analysis of all evidence on the Christianization of Scandinavia contained in The Acts of archbishops of Hamburg Church by Adam of Bremen. The author aims at revealing latent informational reserves within well known and studied sources.

2003

Marina B. Bessudnova

The master of Livonic Order Walter von Plettenber and the transformation of Livonic Order State in the late 15th – early 16th centuries. November 2003
The present dissertation is the first study in Russian-language scholarship fully dedicated to the master Walter von Plettenberg. It fills up a number of important lacunae in history and typology of early modern state as well as in the study of monastic-knightly orders and order states in Baltic history.

Maria Yu. Paramonova

Doctoral dissertation: Vatslav and Boris-and-Gleb cults: comparative historical analysis of Latin and Old Russian cults of sainted rulers. May 21st, 2003
The author compares two cults that developed in Latin and Russian orthodox traditions – those of Czech prince St. Vatslav and Old Russian princes Boris and Gleb. The main issues of the study are the following: formation of the cults, their special social functions, ideological and semantic structure of hagiographic and narrative sources on these saints. The dissertation was published as a book: Saint Rulers of Latin Europe and Old Russia (Moscow, 2003)

Marina V. Vinokurova

Doctoral dissertation: The world of English manor (based on the inventories of Lancashire and Wiltshire of the second half of 16th – first third of 17th centuries). April 2nd, 2003
The dissertation is devoted to the study of early modern English manor in Wiltshire (Southwest) and Lancashire (Northwest). The study is based on the sources of standard type, that is manor inventories, rental lists, curial reports, codes of customs. The author comes to conclusions about atypical development of agrarian capitalism in the "marginal" regions of England. The dissertation also applies micro-historical approach for examination of the daily life of English manor.

Pavel Yu. Uvarov

Doctoral thesis: French society of the 16th century: Essays in reconstruction based on notarial acts.March 12th, 2003
The dissertation examines the social history of French society in 1539–1559, its stratification and individual-society relations. In a certain sense the present work is a remake of main methodological trends in social history of the late 20th century (social-structural approach, historical anthropology, micro-history). Therefore the author achieves two objects: he elaborates the question of French social structure on the eve of Religious wars and in the meantime he tests different methodologies on similar historical material. However, he main task of the study is to reveal new potential of notarial acts being typical sources for social history but still underestimated.