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On 15 April, the Centre for Humanities at ZRS Koper hosted the presentation of the new international fellowship programme, the Santorio Residential Fellowship. The initiative was launched by ZRS Koper and the Centre for the Study of Medicine and the Body in the Renaissance (CSMBR) in Pisa, which joined forces to establish the programme and named it after the Capodistrian scientist Santorio Santorio (1561–1636), a pioneer of experimental medicine. A series of events is also being held in honour of this renowned native of Koper as part of the Santorio Year 2026.
The Santorio Residential Fellowship programme was presented by Dr Fabrizio Bigotti (CSMBR) and Dr Tilen Glavina (ZRS Koper). It is designed to support mid-career researchers working on archival sources in the Istrian-Venetian and Adriatic regions. ZRS Koper provides fellows with one month of accommodation at the Centre for Humanities (Tiepolo–Gravisi Palace in Koper), while CSMBR covers part of the additional costs. The event also included a lecture by the first fellowship recipient, Dr Johann Petitjean, entitled: “Public Health Frontiers: Information, Knowledge, and Governance in the Early Modern Adriatic”.
Dr Petitjean comes from the University of Poitiers in France, and his research focuses on public health registers in the early modern Adriatic context. As part of his research work in Koper, he examines how public health governance in the Republic of Venice during the early modern period functioned as a key instrument of state administration, shaping political authority and territorial control in Adriatic and Balkan border regions. He also analyses the circulation of knowledge on health, regulations, and information about epidemics between central Venetian institutions and peripheral areas such as Dalmatia, Istria, Ottoman Albania, and the Greek islands.
During his stay in Koper, Dr Johann Petitjean is primarily engaged in collecting archival material. “Usually, when I ask about specific documents, I am told that they are certainly located in Venice – but perhaps also in one of the cupboards here,” the historian remarked He will remain in Koper until the end of April.
