6 postodcs were recruited between March and April 2022: 2 historians, 2 linguists and 2 paleographers. An information engineer was recruited in October 2022:
https://www.micoll-erc.eu/team/(s’ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre).
4 out of 7 postodcs hired at the beginning of the project left after having obtained permanent positions or won their own grants (including an ERC CoG). A new paleographer was recruited in January 2023.
The whole team worked on the realization of the 3 sub-objectives of the project:
SO1: DIG UP! – Searching, analyzing, updating
All secondary literature relevant for the project was identified. The same has been done for the edited sources, which are divided into 4 groups as far as the “Glossary of medieval and early modern commercial law terms” is concerned: commercial letters, contracts, statutes, and treatises. The archival research was conducted in all 4 cities foreseen in the project, i.e. Venice, Genoa, Lübeck, and Nuremberg, as well as in Augsburg, Lüneburg, and Florence. Several documents were digitized.
At the same time, also literature and sources to reconstruct the land trade routes have been collected. The medieval itineraries have been traced using especially pilgrims accounts. Otherwise, for the modern period, the main sources used have been so far printed postal itineraries.
SO2: SET UP! - Developing innovative IT tools for the history of commercial law and language
Both the glossary and the maps are still under construction and not available online. However, the layout of the maps has been already developed and 48 itineraries have been uploaded. The structure of the glossary is almost ready and the list of commercial law terms has been identified starting from a masterpiece of commercial law literature: Johannes Marquard’s, “Tractatus politico-juridicus de iure mercatorum et commerciorum” (1662). This kind of approach is unprecedent and will provide a useful tool for jurists, historians, and linguists.
SO3: KEEP UP! - Creating a model for future researches
This sub-objective is strictly connected to the previous one: both glossary and maps are being developed in order to create a model able to be implemented in the future by other researchers.
A series of workshops and conferences brought in further expertise and helped dissemination. The team members presented papers about the project in Italy (Padua, Trento, Udine, Turin, Rome, Palermo, Naples, Bologna), Germany (Frankfurt a.M.) and Great Britain (St. Andrews).
