About us

The egodocument database is the result of several projects funded by the Swiss national Science Foundation (SNF) :

Deutschschweizerische Selbstzeugnisse (1500-1800) als Quellen der Mentalitätsgeschichte was led from 1996 to 2003 first at the University of Zurich and then at the University of Basel under the supervision of Prof. Kaspar von Greyerz.

L’éducation domestique au miroir des écrits personnels en Suisse romande (1750-1820) and Valorisation scientifique des écrits personnels de l’époque moderne en Suisse latine (1500-1820) were both directed from 2011 to 2018 by Prof. Danièle Tosato-Rigo at the University of Lausanne.

The database maintains a record of documents written from 1500 to 1820 available at the main swiss archives and librairies  (see List of institutions).

Egodocuments encompass texts in which an author writes about his or her own acts, thoughts and feelings or about his or her family or local community. It may take the form of autobiography, diary, travel diary, chronicle or family record. (Personal correspondence has been excluded of this inventory for reasons of practicality, with the exception of letters copy books.)

The database is not an exhaustive inventory and is concerned mainly with conserving archive materials from the various cantons. Indeed, it concentrates on only one part of the documents identified by the various FNS projects (work still in progress thanks to the network of associate members of egodocuments.ch and the valuable collaboration of external contributors) (see User Guide)

Scientific manager : Sylvie Moret Petrini, University of Lausanne
Directors of the SNF projects :

Kaspar von Greyerz, University of Basel

Danièle Tosato-Rigo, University of Lausanne

Research Associates :

Sebastian Leutert, University of Basel

Gudrun Piller, University of Basel

Lorenz Heiligensetzer, University of Basel

Fiona Fleischner, University of Lausanne

Maïla Kocher Girinshuti, University of Lausanne

Miriam Nicoli, University of Lausanne

Temporary employees :

Roland Hofer, statesarchivs, Schaffhouse

Urs Martin Zahnd, University of Berne

Nathalie Dahn, University of Lausanne

Lucas Rappo, University of Lausanne

Webmasters :

Jacqueline Frey, University of Lausanne, Centre informatique

Isabelle Moullet, University of Lausanne, Centre informatique

FileMaker :

Jan Hodel

Karl Larson

Elias Kreyenbühl