In the grand narrative of the European past, Geneva’s history begins with the arrival of the Reformed faith. Historian Herbert D. Foster noted in 1903 that there was not a good history of Geneva written in English prior to the arrival of John Calvin. Sadly, this hole in the scholarship has not been filled more than a century later. The bulk of the works about Geneva focus on the period of John Calvin’s residency there. Louis Binz offers a detailed study in French of the episcopal world of the diocese of Geneva prior to the Reformation, but there is still much to be learned of what life was like in Geneva prior to the changes brought by the introduction of the Reformation. By exploring the civic life of Geneva after the Reformed faith transformed many aspects of the landscape and function of the city within the larger history of the place, a richer picture through multiple lenses emerges.1