Two times from a course of historiographical experiences: 1958-59 and 1970. The letters exchanged between Cecilia Westphalen Altiva Pilatti Balhana and Fernand Braudel

Abstract

The Cecilia Westphalen's intellectual journey was marked with domestic and foreign academic experiences that allowed her to create an extensive network of sociability. We will focus in two moments of her shifts, when between 1958 and 1959 she was in Cologne, West Germany, and Paris looking for expertise and collections to enlarge her thesis about Charles V; and in 1970 when she returned to these places looking for methodological guidance for her project on trade relations in Paranagua's Port, Parana, rooted in economic and quantitative history. In this short trace, we noticed evidences of changes in her historiographical position, what would have motivated them? Through the letters exchanged with Altiva Pilatti Balhana and Fernand Braudel, we will interpret this tournant historiographique and we will also analyze the strategies used to build her sociability network in order to understand her assessment of the French field between the end of the decade of 1950 and 1970.