Travellers’ interactions in early modern Italy (TRAVEL)
One of the most pressing concerns of today’s society is mobility. From the refugee crisis to ongoing debates about migration, mobility is at the centre of the world’s attention. It is impossible to understand the dynamics of mobility without comprehending how they developed over time. Travellers’ interactions in early modern Italy (TRAVEL) aims to offer crucial insight into this matter by providing, for the first time, a comprehensive analysis of one of the most fundamental aspects of mobility: interpersonal encounters.
The various Italian states in the period 1400-1600 provide an ideal framework for this analysis, as the peninsula was a crossroads of global importance. Although certain aspects of travel in early modern Italy have long been objects of scholarship, there is a tendency to continue to overlook the crucial impact of more everyday practicalities of mobility. However, it is precisely these continuously existing, albeit at first sight perhaps less conspicuous, practicalities that had long-term significant impact on both the travellers and the people with whom they came into contact.
The time is now ripe for an overarching analysis of this most essential element of mobility: interpersonal encounters of travellers. TRAVEL aims to provide an in-depth analysis of these encounters in the full range of context in which they could occur. It does so through a combined focus on 4 main aspects of encounters of travellers (regulating encounters through law; situating encounters in urban spaces; encounters and communication; and encounters and material culture) in 5 types of cities (urban centres with a university; urban centres with a major pilgrimage destination; urban centres of Alpine transit; urban centres with a court; and urban centres with a harbour). The members of the research team will each focus on a specific geographical area, examining different aspects of encounters involving travellers (defined as everyone who was temporarily on the move, regardless of the reason). Sources produced both by the travellers and by the individuals and authorities they interacted with will be used. In this way, the project aims to provide a comprehensive analysis of the practical aspects of interactions involving people on the move, and, in doing so, contibute to our overall understanding of early modern mobility.
PI: Sandra Toffolo
HI: Italian-German Historical Institute, Fondazione Bruno Kessler
Funded by the Fondo Italiano per la Scienza (Consolidator Grant, FIS-2023-02909, CUP C53C25000710001)
