DISSINET

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How inquisitive was medieval inquisition? Kaarel Sikk, David Zbíral, and Reima Välimäki have published a new study in Digital Scholarship in the Humanities that examines how Peter Zwicker's inquisition in Stettin (1393–94) utilised informatio...

📖 New publication announcement! 📖

Our study published in Digital Scholarship in the Humanities uses network and temporal data from Peter Zwicker's inquisition in Stettin (1393–94) to examine how information gathered from deponent testimonies affected subsequent interrogations.

Medieval anti-heretical hate speech: Support in submitting a Marie Skłodowska-Curie postdoc application (MSCA-PF), expression of interest by 16 March 2026 Doctoral graduates are invited to apply for a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action postdoctoral fellowship (MSCA-PF) within our digital humanities project using large‑scale computational methods to study med...

🎓 Funded Postdoc! 🎓

DISSINET is offering support for MSCA postdoc applications to work on our digital humanities project using large‑scale computational methods to study medieval hate speech and anti‑heretical discourse.

🗓️ Preliminary proposals are due 16 March 2026!

🔁 Please repost and share.

Medieval anti-heretical hate speech: Funded Ph.D. opportunity, deadline for expressions of interest: 16 March 2026 M.A. graduates are invited to apply for fully funded Ph.D. studies within our digital humanities project using large‑scale computational methods to study medieval hate speech and anti‑heretical discou...

🧑‍🎓 Funded Ph.D. Opportunity! 🧑‍🎓

M.A. graduates are invited to apply for fully funded Ph.D. studies within our digital humanities project using large‑scale computational methods to study medieval hate speech and anti‑heretical discourse.

🗓️ Proposals are due 16 March 2026!

🔁 Please repost and share.

How do trial records tell stories of heresy? A computational analysis of narrative in Peter Seila's 1241-42 inquisition register Recently published in Historical Research, a study by Robert L. J. Shaw, Tomáš Hampejs, and David Zbíral applies computational semantic modeling to Peter Seila’s 1241–42 inquisition register. By analy...

📖 New publication announcement! 📖

Our study in Historical Research applies computational semantic modeling to systematically analyse hundreds of crime summaries from Peter Seila’s 1241–42 inquisition register, revealing how the voices of inquisitor, notary and suspects were interwoven.

DISSICON: DISSINET lexico-semantic dataset now online We have published the DISSICON dataset (which stands for DISSINET Conceptual Network), offering an ontology for analysing medieval inquisition records and other trial documents. It formalizes actions,...

Our DISSICON dataset (which stands for DISSINET Conceptual Network) is available on Zenodo, offering an ontology for analysing medieval inquisition records and other trial documents. It formalizes actions, concepts, and their relationships to support computational analyses of historical material.

Occupation, socioeconomic status, and dissidence in medieval Bologna revisited In an innovative new article published in Reti Medievali Rivista, Katia Riccardo, David Zbíral, and Zoltán Brys provide new insights into the occupation and socioeconomic status of religious dissident...

📖 New publication announcement! 📖

Our new study in Reti Medievali Rivista challenges old ideas about the roots of religious dissent in medieval Bologna. Rather than being related to economic status or craft affiliation, heresy clustered in specific neighborhoods due to social and spatial networks.

Extracting data from historical texts using Large Language Models Large Language Models (LLMs) hold significant promise for extracting information from historical texts. If used appropriately, they can speed up the research process, compensating for resource limitat...

Large Language Models (LLMs) have invaded various aspects of our lives 🤖 🧠

Despite understandable skepticism, LLMs can serve as valuable tools for research-oriented information extraction from historical texts 📜

Read our methodological reflections on working with LLMs: dissinet.cz/news/article...

Medieval anti-heretical hate speech: Funded Ph.D. opportunity, deadline 31 July 2025 DISSINET is offering support to M.A. graduates applying for fully funded Ph.D. studies focusing on medieval anti-heretical hate speech using digital and quantitative methods. Send us a preliminary res...

DISSINET is offering support to M.A. graduates applying for fully funded Ph.D. studies on medieval anti-heretical hate speech using digital and quantitative methods. Go to dissinet.cz/news/article... to find out more. Proposals are due 31 July 2025! Please share with anyone who might be interested.

Variation and order in the stories of guilt in Peter Seila's register: From Seeing to Belief The inquisitional register of Peter Seila (1241-2, Languedoc) is evidence of a thorough investigation trying to weigh the extent of guilt carefully. Allow detailed counting of individual misdeeds of 6...

How did medieval inquisitors weigh the extent of heretics' guilt? ⚖️

Have a look at our interactive visualisation of the relationship between heretical crimes and sentencing in the register of Peter Seila (1241-2). dissinet.cz/data-snapsho...

DISSINET publishes most comprehensive statement of its research agenda The article recently published in Acta Historica Tallinnensia argues for the importance of integrating digital history methods with source criticism and highlights DISSINET's contributions to this fie...

How can historians benefit from digital methods without sacrificing the rigours of close reading and source criticism?

Read our recently published article in Acta Historica Tallinnensia to find out!

dissinet.cz/news/article...

Reminder: join us tomorrow at 🕓 4 pm CET!

DISSINET Data on Witchcraft Trials featured on Aktuálně.cz Our comprehensive dataset of witchcraft trials in Czech lands has been utilised by the popular online publication Aktuálně.cz to create a new map.

The popular online publication Aktuálně.cz has used our comprehensive dataset of witchcraft trials in Czech lands to create a new map! Their article also features several other helpful visualisations and findings based on our data. Click here to read more: dissinet.cz/news/article...

If you are interested in the study of generative network models, join us next week on 29 May for a talk by Daniel Gotthardt of the University of Hamburg, who will present on "Analyzing non-local influence processes in dynamic networks". Click here for the Zoom link: dissinet.cz/news/events-...

Did the people investigated by the inquisition in Bologna form a few cohesive communities, or are they better understood as many small groups or individuals who drew the attention of the inquisitors separately?

To find out, take a look at our most recent data snapshot! dissinet.cz/data-snapsho...

Only one more day left to apply!

The deadline is tomorrow!

Gender, kinship, and other social predictors of incrimination in the inquisition register of Bologna (1291–1310): Results from an exponential random graph model The medieval inquisition of heresy strongly relied on depositions, where witnesses were expected to report on the crimes of others and oneself. The resulting patterns of incrimination could be influen...

One of the most common ways inquisitors determined whom to investigate was by asking deponents to incriminate others. Interestingly, men and women exhibited different patterns when providing incriminations.

Find out more in our recent study published in PLOS One: journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...

Medieval anti-heretical hate speech: Support in submitting a Marie Skłodowska Curie postdoc application (MSCA-PF) DISSINET is searching for Ph.D. graduates inerested in applying for a post-doc position focusing on medieval anti-heretical hate speech using digital and quantitative methods. Send us a preliminary re...

DISSINET is offering support for MSCA postdoc applications on medieval anti-heretical hate speech using digital and quantitative methods. Go to dissinet.cz/news/article... to find out more.

Preliminary proposals are due 15 April 2025!

Please share with anyone who might be interested.

Medieval anti-heretical hate speech: Funded Ph.D. opportunity DISSINET is offering support to M.A. graduates applying for fully funded Ph.D. studies focusing on medieval anti-heretical hate speech using digital and quantitative methods. Send us a preliminary res...

DISSINET is offering support to M.A. graduates applying for fully funded Ph.D. studies on medieval anti-heretical hate speech using digital and quantitative methods. Go to dissinet.cz/news/article... to find out more. Proposals are due 15 April 2025! Please share with anyone who might be interested.

Our principal investigator @davidzbiral.bsky.social and research fellow K. Suba recently investigated the Cathar practice of endura. The results are available as a pre-print on Zenodo: zenodo.org/records/1373....