The contribution of the International Commission for the History of Representative and Parliamentary Institutions (ICHRPI) to the meetings of the Comité International des Sciences Historiques (CISH), International Committee of Historical Sciences (1985–2015)

Speech delivered by Emeritus Professor Maria Sofia Corciulo, Sapienza University of Rome, Italy, ICHRPI Honorary President, Coordinator ICHRPI/CISH, 23rd International Congress of Historical Sciences/CISH, Poznań, Poland, 25 August 2022. I am very happy to have the opportunity, on this occasion, of speaking about the International Commission for the History of Representative and Parliamentary Institutions and its commitment in the various CISH meetings that have been held from the second half of the twentieth century onwards. I can personally testify as to the scientific path, having taken part in those meetings, starting in 1975, where the ICHRPI has always held scientific sessions. It is therefore appropriate for me to dedicate the first part of my report to make known the cultural motivation that led to the constitution of the ICHRPI long ago in 1936 (it was one of the first international commissions recognized by the CISH). Running through the life of the International Commission, right from its outset and through to the present, means, so to speak, taking stock of the historical studies of European parliamentary institutions of the last century, starting with its founder, the Belgian Émile Lousse, professor at Louvain University. In 1933, at the seventh International Meeting of Historical Sciences, held inWarsaw, he promoted the creation of a permanent Commission – within the CISH – that could deal with the complex problem of the formation of the first state assemblies. Professor Lousse’s hopes were realized in 1936 when such a Commission was launched at the Bucharest International Meeting, and he became secretary-general. The Frenchman Colville was handed the presidency and the Italian Pier Silverio Leicht was the vice-president (recent research has revealed that he had a much more important role in the creation of the International Commission than was previously thought). The Commission’s name was Commission pour l’étude des origines des Assemblées d’États; initially consisting of a limited number of scholars – 10who gradually brought into being the French, German, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Polish, Hungarian and Belgian national sections, this last one being the most numerous and active.