The notion of being on the road, or even the concept of mobility, has proved hard to grasp for historians, partially because of the issue of the large dark number of moves that went unregistered. Although individuals travelling often left few traces, from the viewpoint of cities parishes there was an ever-present but always changing stream of people passing through. These transient migrants would for example stay overnight in a lodging house, or make a stop in the city to change from barges to overland travel. Cities in the early in French as 'passant' and could be translated as 'passer-by'.

In this workshop, we will explore the concept of passanten and its different iterations in history, discussing the meaning of and changes in transient migration in early modern European cities and parishes and beyond. More...