Repertorium Bernense

The Repertorium Academicum Bernense (RAB) is a regional sub-corpus of the Repertorium Academicum Helveticum (RAH). It examines the significance of students, scholars, and officeholders in the Bernese territory between 1250 and 1550. While the Helveticum records university visitors from the historical research area of Switzerland, the Bernense focuses on Bern as a political, administrative, and cultural territory.

The Bernense currently comprises 842 students and scholars connected with the Bernese territory. Of these, 675 individuals originated from this area; 167 external students and scholars are documented as having been active in the Bernese territory. This corpus is complemented by 2,311 Bernese officeholders without university education. This makes it possible to compare academically trained and non-academically trained knowledge carriers (As of 05/2026).

The project makes visible the roles these individuals played in administration, government, church, law, education, and culture, and how knowledge became effective in premodern Bern. At the same time, it newly opens up central parts of Bern’s cultural heritage from archives and libraries: the “Bernese treasures” are made digitally accessible, interlinked, and available for research, teaching, and the wider public.

Places of origin of students 1300-1550 in the area of present-day Switzerland (Sources: RAH and RB)

Places of study of Bernese students 1300-1550 (Source: RB), larger image: http://repac.ch//CMS/upload/RBStudyplaces.png