Staff profile

Nicole Reinhardt researches on early modern European political culture, particularly in Italy, France, and the Iberian Peninsula. Her first book examined clientele and patronage in 17th century Bologna as a means of understanding the social mechanisms underlying state building. More recently she has focused on religious discourse in political contexts, and its roles in the representation and constitution of political power. These questions are explored in her second monograph Voices of Conscience (2016) which examines how moral theology and understandings of counsel of conscience shaped practices of political counsel in catholic monarchies during the 16th and 17th centuries. While she continues to work on norms, counsel and confession, she is also currently developing a new strand of research on the intellectual and political horizons of sixteenth and seventeenth-century Aristotelians in Bologna.

Nicole has wide interests in intellectual history, the history of political thought, moral theology and in questions of theory and historiography. 

Nicole was Fellow of the Max-Weber-Centre (Erfurt) and member of the research group on 'Religious individualisation in historical perspective' (2010-2011) financed by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft.
In 2010 she taught at the International PhD Summer School of the Herzog-August-Bibliothek in Wolfenbüttel, and in 2011 she was professeur invité at the Sorbonne (Paris I). In January 2013 Nicole participated in a conference at Versailles, which can be heard through an audio archive.

Nicole has held a research fellowship from the Leverhulme Foundation and in 2014/15 she was a Elizabeth and J Richardson Dilworth Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton.
In 2017 she held an Andrew Mellon Fellowship for research at the Harry Ransom Center in Austin (Texas) and was a Visiting Fellow at the Kolleg für Humanwissenschaften in Bad Homburg. In July 2018 she was a Visiting Fellow at the Center for Advanced Studies at the Ludwig-Maximilians University in Munich.

Nicole would be happy to supervise research students working on early modern European religious and political culture.

• interaction between religion and politics
• norms, ethics and institutions in early modern Europe

• Britain and Continental Europe
• Early Modern
• Political Cultures
• Theology and Religion
• Transnational History

Authored book

• Reinhardt, Nicole (2016). Voices of Conscience.Royal Confessors and Political Counsel in Seventeenth-Century Spain and France. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• (2000). Macht und Ohnmacht der Verflechtung. Rom und Bologna unter Paul V. Studien zur frühneuzeitlichen Mikropolitik im Kirchenstaat. Tübingen: Bibliotheca Academica Verlag.

Chapter in book

• Reinardt, Nicole (2023). Orizzonti (non) solo europei in un archivio patrizio Bolognese. La collezione di manoscritti di Vincenzo Ferdinando Ranuzzi Cospi tra Bologna, Londra e Austin/Texas. In Il patriziato bolognese e l’Europa (Secoli XVI-XIX). Atti del convegno di studi (Bologna, 23-25 maggio 2019). Alongi, Salvatore, Boris, Francesca & Guerrini, Maria Teresa Bologna: Il Chiostro dei Celestini.
• Reinhardt, Nicole (2022). Confessors. In Early Modern Court Culture. Griffey, Erin London: Routledge.
• Reinhardt Nicole (2021). For the love of God’? The First Commandment and sacramental confession in early modern Catholic Europe. In Rules and Ethics: Global perspectives from anthropology and history. Corran, Emily & Clarke, Morgan Manchester University Press. 124-144.
• Reinhardt, Nicole (2021). ‘Le confesseur royal. Un expert de théologie morale en politique?’. In Parole d’experts. Une histoire sociale du politique (Europe, XVIe-XVIIIe siècle). Hermant, Héloïse & Brétéché, Marion Presses Universitaires de Rennes. 249-264.
• Reinhardt, N. (2021). 'For the Love of God'? The first commandment and sacramental confession in early modern Catholic Europe. In Rules and Ethics: Perspectives from Anthropology and History. Clarke, M. & Corran, E. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
• Reinhardt, Nicole (2013). Das konigliche Gewissen in Prisma jansenistischer Kritik. In Der Jansenismus: Eine "katholische Häresie"? Das Ringen um Gnade, Rechtfertigung und die Autorität Augustins in der frühen Neuzeit?. Burkard, Dominik & Thanner, Tanja Stuttgart: Aschendorff, Munster. 349-371.
• Reinhardt, Nicole (2012). Der Beichtvater in der Frühen Neuzeit als Berater, Richter und Prophet. In Machtfaktor Religion. Formen religiöser Einflussnahme auf Politik und Gesellschaft. Oberndorfer, B. & Waldmann, P. Köln-Weimar-Wien: Böhlau. 59-90.
• Reinhardt, Nicole (2011). ‘Sotto il “mantello della religione” – Camillo Baldi, un proto-libertino nello stato della Chiesa?’. In La fede degli Italiani. Per Adriano. Dall’Olio, Guido & et al Pisa: Edizioni della Scuola Normale di Pisa. I: 81-95.
• Reinhardt, Nicole (2009). ‘Y a-t-il une casuistique pour les rois?’. In La casuistique classique genèse, histoire, devenir. Boarini, Serge Saint-Etienne: Publications de l’Université de Saint-Etienne. 59-73.
• Reinhardt, Nicole (2009). Correspondances, clientèle et culture politique dans l’État ecclésiastique au début du xvii e siècle. In La politique par correspondance: Les usages politiques de la lettre en Italie (XIVe-XVIIIe siècle). Boutier, Jean, Landi, Sandro & Rouchon, Olivier Presses Universitaires de Rennes. 131-151.
• Reinhardt, Nicole (2007). Juan de Mariana: Bibelexegese und Tyrannenmord. In Die Bibel als politisches Argument. Pecar, Andreas & Trampedach, Kai München: De Gruyter Oldenbourg. 273-294.
• Wolfgang Reinhard (2007). Dissimulation, Politik und Moral. In Krumme Touren. Anthropologie kommunikativer Umwege. Vienna: Vienna: Böhlau. 165-182.
• Reinhardt, Nicole (2007). The King’s confessor: changing images. In Monarchy and Religion: The Transformation of Royal Culture in Eighteenth Century Europe. Schaich, Michael Oxford: Oxford University Press. 153-185.
• Reinhardt, Nicole (2005). Bolonais à Rome – Romains à Bologne? Carrières et stratégies entre centre et périphérie. Une esquisse. In Offices et papauté (XIVe-XVIIe siècle) Charges, hommes, destins. Jamme, Armand & Poncet, Olivier Rome: Ecole française de Rome. 237-249.
• Reinhardt, Nicole (2002). Verflechtung – ein Blick zurück nach vorn. In Historische Anstöße. Festschrift für Wolfgang Reinhard zum 65. Geburtstag am 10. April 2002. Burschel, Peter Häberlein, Mark Reinhardt, Volker Weber, Wolfgang E.J. & Wendt, Reinhard Berlin: Berlin: Akademie Verlag. 235-262.

Edited Journal

• Reinhardt, Nicole (2014). Journal of Early Modern History. 18

Journal Article

• Reinhardt, Nicole (2017). Hernando de Mendoça (1562–1617), General Acquaviva and the Controversy over Confession, Counsel, and Obedience. Journal of Jesuit Studies 4(2): 209-229.
• Reinhardt, Nicole (2015). How individual was conscience in the early-modern period? Observations on the development of Catholic moral theology. Religion 45(3): 409-428.
• Reinhardt, Nicole (2014). Just War, Royal Conscience and the Crisis of Theological Counsel in the Early Seventeenth Century. Journal of Early Modern History 18(5): 495-521.
• Reinhardt, Nicole (2014). Introduction: War, Conscience, and Counsel in early modern Catholic Europe. Journal of Early Modern History 18(5): 435-446.
• Reinhardt, Nicole (2013). Betrachtungen eines Unpolitischen? Uberlegungen zur Geschichte der politischen Ideen im Kirchenstaat. Zeitschrift für Historische Forschung 48: 99-125.
• Nicole Reinhardt (2009). Spin-doctor of conscience? The royal confessor and the Christian prince. Renaissance Studies 23(4): 568-590.
• Reinhardt, Nicole (2006). Zwischen Blockade und Voluntarismus: der französische Übersetzungsmarkt in den Geistes- und Sozialwissenschaften. Historische Zeitschrift. Beihefte 42: 139-156.
• Emich, Birgit Reinhardt, Nicole von Thiesson, Hillard & Wieland, Christian (2005). Stand und Perspektiven der Patronageforschung. Zugleich eine Antwort auf Heiko Droste. Zeitschrift für historische Forschung 32(2): 233-265.
• (2003). Les relations internationales à travers les femmes au temps de Louis XIV. “L’amitié qu’elle a pour moi fait qu’elle m’écoute et son mari aussi”. Revue d’histoire diplomatique 3: 193-230.
• (2001). Quanto è differente Bologna? La città tra amici, padroni e miti all’inizio del Seicento. Dimensioni e problemi della ricerca storica 2: 107-146.