International Commission for the History of Towns
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The commission was established at the Tenth International Congress of the Historical Sciences in Rome (4–11 September 1955) at the initiative of Hector Amann (1894–1967) and Edith Ennen (1907–1999), following a decision by the International Committee of Historical Sciences.[1][2] The aim was to create a forum for comparative urban history research and develop an international network of urban history researchers. Annual general meetings[3] were held for the first time in Dijon in 1956, and agreed on a program which focused on three projects: the "Elenchus fontium historiae urbanae", providing sources for high medieval urban development, urban history bibliographies and historic towns atlases. From the beginning, the main languages of the commission were German, French, and English.
The first two projects were discontinued after a series of relevant publications[4] in response to newer internet-based research possibilities, but the historic towns atlases have developed into a groundbreaking project. As of 2019, there were 19 national historic towns atlas series.[5][6][7] Guidelines to ensure comparability were adopted in 1968, and upgraded several times. In 1969 the British Atlas of Historic Towns started publication,[8] followed by atlases for other European countries. With the fall of communism in 1989/90, countries in East Central Europe and Eastern Europe also joined the project.[9] The national historic towns atlases together constitute the "European Historic Towns Atlas" project, as listed on the website of the Institute for Comparative Urban History in Munster and of the Royal Irish Academy in Dublin and up to 2014 in Appendix A of the book Lords and Towns, published by Ashgate in 2015.[6][10] The Commission's Atlas Working Group has been in existence since 1993.
According to the current statutes, the commission is formed by a maximum of 70 European and 10 intercontinental full members (with the right to vote), as well as honorary members; the number of members to be appointed by individual European countries is fixed.[11] The commission elects a board that looks after upcoming business (such as conferences, publications, and membership). The General Assembly, upon the proposal of members, decides on a common research focus for the period between the International Congresses of the Historical Sciences. For the period 2016-2019 the topic was "Essential Functionalities of Urban Spaces in Transition". Recent General Assemblies focused on the following topics: Kiel (2016): Social functions of urban spaces in transformation, Cologne, Weimar and Vienna; Cracow (2017): Political functions of urban spaces in transformation; Salzburg (2018): Cultural functions of urban spaces in transformation; Budapest (2019): Economic functions of urban spaces in transformation.
The commission has a website on which its annual reports (Newsletter of the International Commission for the History of Towns) can be found.[12]
Presidents
- Hermann Aubin, University of Hamburg [1885–1969] (1956–1958)
- Hector Ammann, University of Saarbrücken [1894–1967] (1959–1967)
- Philippe Wolff, University of Toulouse [1913–2001] (1968–1980)
- Sergij Vilfan, University of Ljubljana [1919–1996] (1981–1991)
- Adriaan Verhulst, Ghent University [1929–2002] (1992–2001)
- Thomas Riis, University of Kiel (2002–2006)
- Michel Pauly, University of Luxembourg (2007–2016)
- Roman Czaja, University of Toruń (2017–)
