Cultures of Exchange: Mercantile Mentalities Between Italy and the World (1100-1500)
Fordham Center for Medieval Studies presents
its 41st Annual Conference
Please join us for a hybrid conference! Virtual attendance is free, but registration is required for access to all Zoom links, which will be distributed the week of the conference. You can see the conference program here.
In order to accommodate the largest possible community of participants and audience, the conference will be held in a hybrid modality, both in-person in New York, and virtually on Zoom with both in-person and virtual audiences. Registered participants will receive a conference program with Zoom links for each session. Asterisk indicates a virtual presentation.
Please note that all times are listed in New York City local time (GMT-5:00).
Saturday, March 26, 2022
8:30 – 9:00 a.m. – Registration and Coffee
9:00 – 9:15 a.m. – Welcome –
Nicholas Paul, Director of the Center for Medieval Studies, Fordham University
9:15 – 10:15 a.m. – Plenary I –
International Commerce, Christianity and Florentine Capitalism
William Caferro, Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Professor of History, Vanderbilt University
10:30 – 12:00 p.m. – Session 1: Concurrent Sessions –
1A: MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTATION
Why Study Math? Abacus books in the south of Italy
Maria Teresa DeLuca, Rutgers University
Fibonacci and the Mathematics of the Merchants
Vincenzo Vespri, University of Firenze
Merchant Mentalities and Urban Chronicles: The representation of political economy
Giorgio Lizzul, University of Warwick | Columbia University, Italian Academy
1B: MERCHANT LETTERS
The Merchant of Prato and Her Husband: The case of Margherita Datini (1360–1423)
Unn Falkeid, University of Oslo
Recasting the Medieval Merchant-Banker Through the History of Marco Carelli, Benefactor of the Cathedral of Milan
Martina Saltamacchia, University of Nebraska at Omaha
Born Under Mercury: God’s influence on the future perspective of the medieval Italian merchant
Nicolò Zennaro, University of Antwerp
12:00 – 1:00 p.m. – Lunch (list of local restaurants provided)
1:15 – 2:45 p.m. – Session 2: Concurrent Sessions –
2A: WEALTH, ETHICS, AND NOBILITY
*Dante and the Merchants: A portrait of ambivalence
Teodolinda Barolini, Columbia University
*The Importance of Coins: Messer Torello’s story by the Master of Charles of Durazzo
Elsa Filosa, Vanderbilt University
*Medicine, Ethics, and the Notion of Wealth in Dante and the Mercantile Society
Paola Ureni, CUNY – College of Staten Island | CUNY Graduate Center
2B: MOBILITY, NETWORKS, AND DIGITAL METHODS
*Tracing Representations of Domestic Slavery in Medieval and Early Modern Italy
Beatrice Arduini, University of Washington
The Genoese Consulate in Seville: A study on the principles of association and the importance of guild-like economic institutions
Andres Mesa Guarín, University of Teramo | University of Seville
A Textbook for Merchants’ Sons: How La Sfera navigated the pandemic world online
Laura K. Morreale, Independent Scholar, affiliated with Fordham University
2:45 – 3:00 p.m. – Coffee Break –
3:00 – 4:30 p.m. – Session 3: Concurrent Sessions –
3A: CONTACT ZONES
An Ottoman-Venetian Merchant in the Sultan’s Service: Alvise Gritti (c. 1480-1534) and the competing Ottoman-Habsburg universalisms in the early sixteenth-century Mediterranean
Ebru Turan, Fordham University
Textuality in the Contact Zone: Italian merchants as scribes, writers, and translators
Laura Ingallinella, Wellesley College
3B: TEXTUAL PRACTICES AND CULTURES
Framing Medieval Italian Mercantile Culture Through Merchant Handbooks
Mathieu Harsch, Columbia University, Italian Academy
Between the Decameron and the Bill of Exchange: New insights on medieval merchants’ notebooks
Stefano Locatelli, Columbia University, Italian Academy
The Administration of Maritime Trade in Venice and Genoa (1000-1204)
Elena Shadrina, Harvard University
4:45 – 5:45 p.m. – Plenary II –
*Merchants, Friars, Nuns, and Jews: Visual Antisemitism in the Trecento
Anne Derbes, Emerita Professor of Art History, Hood College
5:45 – 7:00 p.m. – Reception
Sunday, March 27, 2022
8:30 – 9:00 a.m. – Registration and Coffee
9:00 – 9:15 a.m. – Welcome –
Susanna Barsella, Conference Chair
9:15 – 10:15 a.m. – Plenary III –
Transgressing Periphery, Dressing Otherness: Locating geo-cultural spaces of diversity in the medieval Mediterranean
Roberta Morosini, Professor of Italian, Wake Forest University
10:30 – 12:00 p.m. – Session 4: Concurrent Sessions –
4A: USURY, TRADE, AND GREED
*Money, Greed, and the Pope: Dante’s poetics of poverty
Alessandro Vettori, Rutgers University
The Invisible Merchant? The Fiore and the translation of debt
Filippo Petricca, University of Chicago
*The Treatment of Piracy and Robbery in the Decameron
Alessandro Ceteroni, University of Connecticut
4B: TRADE, TRAVEL, AND VISUAL EVIDENCE
*Baldassare degli Embriachi, World Maps and Trade Networks
Joanne Morice, University of Melbourne
*Translating Tribute: Felice Brancacci and mercantile culture in late medieval Florence
Mahnaz Yousefzadeh, New York University
*Medieval Money, Merchants, and Morality at the Morgan Library & Museum
Diane Wolfthal, Emerita Professor of Medieval & Early Modern European Art & Culture, Rice University
12:00 – 12:15 p.m. – Coffee Break –
12:15 – 1:45 p.m. – Session 5: Concurrent Sessions –
5A: RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS AND LEGAL STATUS
Why Such Fuss About Religious Status? Bologna and Pistoia, 1260-1310
Wolfgang Mueller, Fordham University
*Religious Freedom and Institutions in Pre-Modern Markets: Is Italy’s case a guide?
Germano Maifreda, University of Milan
5B: MATERIAL CULTURE
Down to the Wire
Ittai Weinryb, Bard Graduate Center
A Money-changer as Would-be Noble in Medieval Venice
Alan Stahl, Princeton University
Coordinating Color Across the Mediterranean: Medici merchants, Mediterranean dye markets, and the exchange of colored cloth in the late Middle Ages
Stephanie Leitzel, Harvard University
2:00 – 3:00 p.m. – Roundtable and Lunch –
Hannah Barker, Arizona State University
Giovanni Ceccarelli, Università degli Studi di Parma
Sharon Kinoshita, University of California – Santa Cruz
Kristina Olson, George Mason University
David Wallace, University of Pennsylvania