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-4:00). For reference, this means that the 9:15 plenary session begins:
Pacific Time (GMT-7): 6:15 a.m.
Eastern Time (GMT-4): 9:15 a.m.
Greenwich Mean Time (GMT-0): 1:15 p.m.
Central European Time (GMT +1): 2:15 p.m.
Gulf Standard Time (GMT +4): 5:15 p.m.
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
Chair: Nicholas Paul
10:30 – 12:00 p.m. – Session 1: Concurrent Sessions –
1A: MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTATION
Chair: Maryanne Kowaleski, History & Medieval Studies, Fordham University
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
Chair: David Myers, History, Fordham University
*The Merchant of Prato and Her Husband: The case of Margherita Datini (1360–1423)
Unn Falkeid, University of Oslo
For the Salvation of His Soul? The merchant Marco Carelli & his fabulous donation
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
Chair: Angela O’Donnell, The Francis and Ann Curran Center for American Catholic Studies, Fordham University
*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
Chair: Katherina Fostano, Art History & Medieval Studies, Fordham University
*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
Chair: Thomas O’Donnell, English & Medieval Studies, Fordham University
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
Chair: Elizabeth Comuzzi, History, Fordham University
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
Chair: Nina Rowe, Art History, Fordham University
Made possible by funding generously provided by the O’Connell Initiative for the Global History of Capitalism
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
Chair: Susanna Barsella
10:30 – 12:00 p.m. – Session 4: Concurrent Sessions –
4A: USURY, TRADE, AND GREED
Chair: Robert Davis, Theology, Fordham University
*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
Chair: Brian Reilly, French, Fordham University
*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
Chair: Giorgio Pini, Philosophy, Fordham University
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
Chair: Laurel Wilson, Affiliated Scholar, Fordham University
Down to the Wire
Ittai Weinryb, Bard Graduate Center
A Money-changer as Would-be Noble in Medieval Venice
Alan Stahl, Princeton University
Monopoly Making at the end of the Middle Ages: Italian merchant-bankers and the Political Economy of Alum
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
Made possible by funding generously provided by the O’Connell Initiative for the Global History of Capitalism