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Fabien Montcher, Ph.D.

Associate Professor
History

Director
Center for Iberian Historical Studies

Education

Ph.D, Universidad Complutense (Madrid), 2013

Practice Areas

Montcher specializes in the social history of ideas and politics across the Iberian worlds (late medieval/early modern). He is interested in research questions related to both Iberian history (broadly defined), the history of empires, the history and theory of history, world history, spatial humanities, Mediterranean history, food and environmental history, visual cultures, and the history of knowledge. 

His research and teaching are informed by sustained and active intellectual engagement with diverse academic and research traditions, critical theory, and empirical enquiries in archives and libraries all around the world. He welcomes graduate students to work with him in the areas of historical enquiry listed above and below.  

As the Director of the Center for Iberian Historical Studies (CIHS), he is committed to fostering research interactions between students and colleagues between SLU campuses in St. Louis and Madrid. The CIHS is also open to national and international partnerships. If you are curious about CIHS events and if you would like to collaborate and/or support the CIHS, please visit the following website or contact the center at cihs@slu.edu. 

At SLU, he enjoys teaching undergraduate and graduate classes such as HIST-3390 “Seeds of Empires: An Introduction to Food and Environmental History,” HIST-2800 “The Historian’s Craft,” and HIST-5000 “Theory and Practice of History.” He regularly teaches classes/seminars (undergraduate and graduate levels) on the history of the Iberian worlds, the global renaissance, pre-modern geographies of knowledge, theory and practice of history, history of history, early modern political cultures, and food and environmental history.  

Research Interests

Montcher's book Mercenaries of Knowledge (Cambridge UP, 2023) explores the strategies and practices that displaced scholars cultivated to navigate the murky waters of Late Renaissance politics, from Lisbon to Rome via the Gulf of Guinee and the sugar mills of Northern Brazil. By tracing the life of the Portuguese jurist-scholar, Vicente Nogueira (1586-1654), across diverse social, cultural, and political spaces, his book reveals a world of religious conflicts and imperial rivalries. Here, knowledge agents developed the practice of “bibliopolitics” – using local and international systems for buying and selling books and manuscripts to foster political communication and debate, and ultimately negotiate their survival. Bibliopolitics fostered the advent of a generation of mercenaries of knowledge whose stories constitute a key part of seventeenth-century social and cultural history. This book also demonstrates their crucial role in creating a non-exclusive, international, and dynamic Republic of Letters with others who helped shape early modern intellectual and political worlds. 

He is currently working on a new book dedicated to the natural history of early modern politics. In this project, he explores how the fruit diplomacy associated with citruses and their derived products offers opportunities for historians to think rhizomatically (adopting a-centered, horizontal, non-hierarchal, and a-synchronic perspectives) about the history of empires and colonial societies. Beyond the traditional nature/culture divide that objectivizes nature and subjectivizes human beings, his work analyzes how acts of cooperation among a multitude of beings and things conditioned an interrelated ensemble of bodily transformations, labor relations, commercial exchanges, political representations, acts of environmental disruption and resistance, and alternative world making practices. He argues that this assemblage pushes historians to consider the contingent and improvised nature of early modern politics. This project aims to blur the scholarly divide between the humanities and the social and natural sciences. It stands at the crossroads of fields such as the philosophies of multiplicities, environmental history, and the social history of knowledge.  

He conceived this project as a steppingstone toward the writing of a third monograph. This monograph will build on his contributions to the history of bibliopolitics and biopolitics to add a rhizomatic framework to the traditional composite and polycentric ways of thinking about early modern Iberian worlds between the 1400s and the 1800s.  

Labs and Facilities

Publications and Media Placements

Monograph

Mercenaries of Knowledge: Vicente Nogueira, The Republic of Letters and the Making of Early Modern Politics (Cambridge University Press, 2023).

Co-edited Volume/Journal Special Issues:

  • Constructing European Historical Narratives in the Early Modern World, with Megan Armstrong of McMaster University and Hilary Bernstein of UC Santa Barbara. This collected volume will appear as a special volume published by the journal, Renaissance and Reformation.
  • Early Modern Geographies of Knowledge. I am co-authoring this book with Claire Gilbert and Charles Parker.
  • Savoirs et Pouvoir à l'âge de l'humanisme tardif, with Emmanuel Bury (eds.), Special
    Issue XVIIe siècle (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 2015)
  • With A. Alvar, M. Herrero, and A. Pérez Samper, La España de los Austrias. La experiencia política (Madrid: Istmo, 2011).

Articles:

  • “Iberian Bibliopolitics,” Routledge Resources Online-The Renaissance World (Forthcoming, 2025).
  • “Signboard, Skin, and Space. Street Censorship in Mid-Seventeenth Century Lisbon,” Word & Image, special issue on the “Art of Dissent” edited by G. Marcocci and Jorge Flores (Forthcoming, 2024).
  • “Bonds of Sweetness. A Political and Intellectual History of Citrus Circulations Across the Western Mediterranean during the Late Renaissance,” Pedralbes: Revista d’història moderna (2021), pp. 143-165.
  • “Intellectuals for Hire: Iberian Men of Letters and Papal Politics in Bologna during the Thirty Years’ War, ” Dimensioni e problemi della ricerca storica 2 (2019), pp. 179-210.
  • “Between the Map and the Territory. Arndt Brendecke’s Empirical Empire in Perspective,” Quaderni Storici, LIII-3 (2018), pp. 851-862.
  • "The Portable Archives of the Westphalian Negotiations: From Archival Arsenals to Archival Absolutism" Journal of Early Modern History 22 (2018).
  • "Politics and Government in the Spanish Empire during the 16th Century" in A Companion to the Spanish Renaissance, Hilaire Kallendorf (ed.), (Leiden: Renaissance Society of America-Brill, 2018).
  • "Politics, Scholarship and the Iberian Routes of the Republic of Letters. The Late Renaissance Itinerary of Vicente Nogueira (1586-1654)" Erudition and the Republic of Letters, 2 (2017), pp. 182-225. [2018 A. H. de Oliveira Marques Prize for the best peer-reviewed article on Portuguese history.]
  • "Collaborative Scholarship and Early Modern Censorship. Contextualizing Jacques Auguste de Thou's Historiae in the 1612's Spanish Inquisitorial Index" in Censorship and Historiography in Early Modern Spain, Cesc Esteve (ed.), (Abingdon: Routledge, 2018), pp. 88-107.
  • "Iberian Bibliopolitics: From a 17th Century Roman-Iberian Perspective" Pacific Coast Philology, 52-2 (2017), pp. 206-218.
  • "Autour de la raison d'État. Marché généalogique et réseaux tacitistes dans la Monarchie hispanique" in Tacite et le Tacitisme en Europe à l'époque moderne (XVIeXVIIe siècle), Alexandra Merle and Alicia Oïffer-Bomsel (eds.), (Paris: Honoré Champion, 2017), pp. 353-382.
  • "L'image et le culte de Saint Louis dans la Monarchie Hispanique" in La dame de cœur. Patronage et mécénat religieux des femmes de pouvoir en Europe, Cécile Vincent Cassy and Murielle Gaude-Ferragu (eds.), (Rennes: Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 2016), pp. 167-191.
  • "Archives and Empires: Scholarly Archival Practices, Royal Historiographers, and Historical Writing across the Iberian Empire (late 16th and early 17th century)" History of Historiography/Storia della Storiografia, 68-2 (2015), pp. 21-35.
  • "Cervantes anticuario. Letras y política en torno al Quijote de 1615" in El Quijote de 1615 (Guanajuato: Museo Iconográfico del Quijote, 2015), pp. 297-323.
  • "Miguel de Cervantes and the Political Turn of History (c. 1570-1615)" Co-authored with Alfredo Alvar Ezquerra, Cervantes. Bulletin of the Cervantes Society of America, 34-2 (2014), pp. 15-36. "The Transatlantic Mediation of Historical Knowledge across the Iberian Empire" eSpania, Université Paris-IV Sorbonne (2014), http://e-spania.revues.org/23697.
  • "Acquérir, partager et contrôler l'information sous le règne de Philippe III d'Espagne. Le cas de l'historiographe royal Antonio de Herrera (1549-1626)", Revue Circe 1 (2012), Université de Versailles, http://www.revue-circe.uvsq.fr/spip.php?rubrique4.
  • "La carta como taller historiográfico. Preparación y circulación de materiales genealógicos entre Alonso López de Haro y Diego Sarmiento de Acuña (1608-1620)" in La materialidad escrita, Manuel Salamanca (ed.), (Oviedo, 2011), pp. 87-162.
Book Chapters
  • “Baroque Commons. Natural Sovereignty between Parma and Rome (c. 1613),” in Global Networks in Early Modern Rome: Images, Objects, and Diplomacy, edited by F. Freddolini (Florence: Mandragora, 2025).
  • “Imperial Blind Spots. Indeterminacy and Thickness across the Iberian Monarchies,” in Imperios Incomparables e Historia Global, ed. by Eduardo Jones Corredera (Turnhout: Brepols, 2024).
  • “Fruit Diplomacy. Historical Writing amid the Baroque Citrus Folly,” in Polyhistor Europeus, edited by M.Da Vinha, B. El Gammal, M. Forychi, M. Zuili (Turnhout: Brepols, 2024).
  • “Politics and Government in the Spanish Empire during the 16th Century” in A Companion to the Spanish Renaissance, edited by H.Kallendorf (Leyden: Brill & Renaissance Society of America, 2019), pp. 61-86.
  • “L’archive historiographique et l’Empire Ibérique” in Archival Practices in the Early Modern World, edited by M.P. Donato (Paris: Classiques Garnier, 2019), pp. 323-47.
  • “Collaborative Scholarship and Early Modern Censorship. Contextualizing Jacques-Auguste de Thou’s Historiae in the 1612’s Spanish Inquisitorial Index,” in Censorship and Historiography in Early Modern Spain, edited by C. Esteve (Abingdon: Routledge, 2018), pp. 88-107.
  • “Autour de la raison d’État. Marché généalogique et réseaux tacitistes dans la Monarchie hispanique,” in Tacite et le Tacitisme en Europe à l’époque moderne, edited by A. Merle and A. Oïffer-Bomsel (Paris: Honoré Champion, 2017), pp. 353-382.
  • “L’image et le culte de Saint Louis dans la Monarchie Hispanique,” in La dame de cœur. Patronage et mécénat religieux des femmes de pouvoir en Europe, edited by C. Vincent-Cassy and Gaude-Ferragu (Rennes: Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 2016), pp. 167-91.
  • “Cervantes anticuario. Letras y política en torno al Quijote de 1615,” in El Quijote de 1615, (Guanajuato, Museo Iconográfico del Quijote and U. de Guanajuato, 2015), pp. 297-323.
  • “La española inglesa de Cervantes en su contexto historiográfico,” in Visiones y revisiones cervantinas, edited by C. Strosetzki (Alcalá de Henares, 2011), pp. 617-628.
  • “La carta como taller historiográfico. Preparación y circulación de materiales genealógicos entre López de Haro y Sarmiento de Acuña (1608-1620),” in La materialidad escrita, edited by M. Salamanca (Oviedo, 2011), pp. 87-162.
  • “La senda inglesa de la historiografía real española: papeles y obras de Esteban de Garibay entre los manuscritos de la John Rylands University Library de Manchester,” in Reflejos y Miradas de la Literatura Hispánica (Universidad de Barcelona, 2011), pp. 44-54.
  • “La suerte historiográfica del Catastro de la Ensenada,” in Retrato Social de la Serranía de Cuenca a través del Catastro de la Ensenada (Madrid, CSIC, 2011), pp. 15-34.
  • “El hispanismo francés y la imagen de Carlos V (siglos XIX y XX),” in La bibliografía sobre el emperador Carlos V, edited by J. L. Gonzalo Sánchez Molero (Yuste: Fundación Académica Europea de Yuste, 2010), pp. 109-29.
Media Placements (book reviews and essays)
  • With Maria Vittoria Spissu (U. of Bologna), I am co-editing a set of three Online Stories for the Newberry Center for Renaissance Studies entitled Rhizome I, II, III: Entering the Iberian Rhizomatic Worlds (2024).
  • Book Review of L. Kattenberg, “The Power of Necessity. Reason of State in the Spanish Monarchy, c. 1590-1650),” in American Historical Review (2024).
  • Book Review of F. Caprioli, “Uluç Ali, el Almirante del Sultán: Carrera y familia política de un neófito musulmán el Imperio Otomano,” Renaissance Quarterly (2024).
  • Book Review of A. Master, “We, the King. Creating Royal Legislation in the Sixteenth-Century Spanish New World,” in Sixteenth-Century Journal (2024).
  • Essay “The Cortes of Castile,” blog Series on ‘Recovering Europe’s Parliamentary Culture, 1500-1700,’ Center for Intellectual History at the University of Oxford (2025).
  • Book Review of N. Schapira, “Maitres et secretaries (XVIe-XVIIIe siècles),” in H-France (2022).
  • Essay “A Natural Match: Iberian Parliamentary Cultures and Republicans of Letters,” Blog Series on ‘Recovering Europe’s Parliamentary Culture, 1500-1700,’ Center for Intellectual History at the University of Oxford (2021).
  • Book Review of S. Bauer, “The Invention of Papal History: Onofrio Panvinio Between Renaissance and Catholic Reform,” in Journal of Jesuit Studies (2020).
  • Essay “The Zest of Still-Life Empires. From Composite/Polycentric Monarchies to Rhizomatic Early Modern Ensembles,” in Iberian Connections, Yale University (2020), URL: https://iberian-connections.yale.edu/articles/the-zest-of-still-life-empires/
  • Book Review of Aude Plagnard, “Une épopée ibérique. Alonso de Ercilla et Jerónimo Corte-Real (1569-1589),” in Cuadernos de Historia Moderna (2020).
  • Book Review of R. von Friedeburg and J. Morrill (eds), “Monarchy Transformed. Princes and their Elites in Early Modern Western Europe, ” in Bulletin of the Comediantes (2019).
  • Book Review of J. Machielsen, “Martin Delrio. Demonology and Scholarship in the Counter-Reformation” in Erudition and the Republic of Letters (2018).
  • Book Review of J. W. Nelson Novoa, “Being the Nação in the Eternal City. New Christian Lives in Sixteenth-Century Rome,” in Annales. Histoire, Sciences Sociales (2016).
  • Book Review of A. Lemonde, I. Taddei, “Circulation des idées et des pratiques politiques. France et Italie (XIIIe-XVIe siècle)” in Renaissance Quarterly vol. 69-1 (2016).
  • Essay “A Clark Professor's Legacy: The Iberian Dimension of the Richard H. Popkin Papers,” in Center for 17th and 18th Century Studies, UCLA, (2014).
  • Essay “Richelieu, Olivares y la secular rivalidad hispano-francesa,” in Desperta Ferro. Historia Moderna, nº 9 (2014).
  • Book Review of Kagan, Richard L., “Clio and the Crown. The Politics of History in Medieval and Early Modern Spain,” in Renaissance & Reformation, vol. 36-4 (2013).
  • Essay “La historia como cantera en la obra de Shakespeare” in La Aventura de la Historia, nº 165 (2012).
  • Book Review of Marcos Martin, Alberto (ed.), “Hacer historia desde Simancas,” in Cuadernos de Historia Moderna, nº 37 (2012).
  • Essay “Los cronistas del rey” in La aventura de la Historia, nº 147 (2012).
  • Author of 22 articles in the Vth, VIth, and VIIth vol. Gran Enciclopedia Cervantina, Centro de Estudios Cervantinos, Alcalá de Henare (2008-2015).

Honors and Awards

  • Newberry Library Long-Term Fellow, 2023-2024.
  • Recipient of the Scholarly Award for the Best Book, Junior Faculty, Office of the Vice President for Research, SLU. 
  • Recipient of the College of Arts & Sciences Faculty Excellence, Graduate Teaching Award, SLU. 
  • PI, NEH Institute "Global Geographies of Knowledge," $200,000+ Grant, 2023. 
  • Invited Professor, Université Clermont Auvergne, Centre d’Histoire “Espaces et Cultures,” 2023. 
  • Luso-Americana (FLAD) and National Library of Portugal Research Fellowship, 2022. 
  • Invited Professor, Sapienza Università di Roma, 2021. 
  • Invited Professor, Université de Nantes, 2019. 
  • Huntington Library, Mayers Research Fellow, 2018. 
  • Invited Professor, Haifa Center for Mediterranean History, 2018. 
  • ASPHS Oliveira Marques Prize, Best peer-reviewed article on Portuguese history, 2018. 
  • ACLS Fellow, American Council of Learned Societies, 2017. 
  • IAS Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, Inaugural Sir John H. Elliot Member, 2016-17. 
  • American Philosophical Association, Franklin Research Grant, 2016. 
  • Invited Professor at Centro de História d'Aquem e d'Além-Mar (CHAM), Lisbon, 2016. 
  • EUCOST-Action/Oxford U. Research Fellowship, Reassembling the Republic of Letters, 2016.  
  • Invited Professor, Center Foundation of Modernity, LMU Munich, 2015.  
  • Centre de recherche du château de Versailles Research Fellowship, 2014-15. 
  • Ahmanson-Getty Postdoctoral Fellowship, UCLA, 2013-14. 
  • Ph.D. Fellowship sponsored by Spanish National Research Council, 2009-13. 
  • Prado Museum (Madrid), Cátedra del Prado Fellowship, 2012. 
  • British Council & Fund. Hispano-Británica Research Prize, John Rylands Library, 2009-10.