From ramparts to mountains

Historian Stéphane Gal, from the Laboratoire de recherche historique Rhône-Alpes (Larhra), is organizing a study day on the theme of “Verticalities and military knowledge” on November 26, 2021 at the Maison des Sciences de l’Homme – Alpes on the Grenoble campus.

Taking as his starting point the first ascent of Mont Aiguille in the Vercors in 1492 – presented as the birth of mountaineering – Stéphane Gal proposes to revisit the event from the angle of the military knowledge involved in this achievement, recalling in passing that its main protagonist, Antoine de Ville, was a man of war.

” While giving birth to the modern concept of “climbing”, the ascent of 1492 made the mountain a place of accomplishment and surpassing for Renaissance man. In so doing, it entered the sphere of the political and war symbolism of the kings of France “, writes Stéphane Gal. This study day is part of the Carmo research project he is leading within Labex ITTEM, and is organized in partnership with theTransalpes axis of MSH-Alpes.

The day will be punctuated by a variety of presentations, against a backdrop of questions such as: What military techniques were deployed? What do we know about “échelade” or “escalade” as it was practiced during assaults in the Middle Ages? How can we measure the biomechanical strengths of these techniques using contemporary technologies? How do mountain troops today deal with verticality to maintain a tactical optimum?

Find the full program on the MSH-Alpes website.