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1st session

The conditions of disappearance, survival or revival of serfdom in Western and Mediterranean Europe in the late Middle Ages and Early Modern centuries.

Papers are requested dealing with the conditions which promoted the disappearance, survival or revival of serfdom (seen as the economic side of the seigniorial regime) in several Western and Southern European regions during the late Middle Ages. This session will deal with regions of Europe from Scandinavia and England to the Mediterranean regions such as Italy, France, Spain and Portugal, to Germany (until the Elbe river).

1.  The geography of the late European serfdom;
2.  The chronology of its disappearance and survival in several European countries;
3.  The revival or survival of serfdom during the Early Modern centuries;
4.  Serfdom and feudalism;
5.  Iconographic and literary sources.

2nd session

The spread of serfdom and the strenghtening of the economy of the seignioral regimes in Eastern Europe since the second half of the 15th century and their relationships with the world economy; distinguishing between the Centre and North of Europe (linked to West-European markets) and the South (Balkan regions of the Ottoman empire).

1.  The chronology of serfdom in Central, Eastern and Balkan Europe;
2.  The quantitative importance and economic impact of serfdom;
3.  Seignioral systems in Central and Eastern Europe: local and regional developments;
4.  Institutional changes in the structure of serfdom from about 1450 until the 18th century;
5.  Iconographic and literary sources.

3rd session

The slavery in Europe from the Middle Ages until the 18th century. Directions and volume of the slave trade in Europe and the main centres of the slave trade. Slave trade and the international economy.

1.  Slaves from the Black Sea and the Eastern Mediterranean (13th-16th centuries);
2.  Slaves in the cities and in the countryside: the slaves' labour;
3.  European slaves in Islamic countries and Muslim slaves in Europe (10th to 17th centuries);
4.  Chronological developments: influence of the 14th century crisis on the slave trade;
5.  Where did slaves come from? Ways and means of the acquisition of slaves;
6.  Iconographic and literary sources.

4th session

The slave trade: the trade of slave manpower from Africa to the American colonies: European merchants and companies in the slave trade.

1.  The flows of the slave trade (the origins of the slaves and their export to America);
2.  The organization of the companies involved in the slave trade;
3.  The quantitative importance of the slave trade (how many slaves? Profits from the slave trade);
4.  Ottoman expansion and new routes and dimensions of the slave trade;
5.  Iconographic and literary sources.

5th session

Medieval and early modern serfdom and slavery: structural features and contexts compared (a round table).

Scholars are invited to assess these premises and to send their presentation proposals by filling out the form provided, which has been prepared to help the Scientific Committee perform a careful evaluation of the proposals.
The intervention must be an original contribution. It must be in the form of a report (contribution in a general and comparative style) or a communication (contribution in a specific style or presentation of a case study).
Projects presented by work groups that bring together scholars from different disciplines will be evaluated with particular interest for the purpose of achieving a comparative analysis of the proposed subject in geographic or diachronic terms through two or more related contributions. In this latter case, the proposal could be written using a single form.

The format used to fill out the proposal should be submitted by September 30, 2011 at the following address:

Fondazione Istituto Internazionale di Storia Economica "F. Datini"
via Muzzi 38, I 59100 Prato, ITALY
e-mail: datini@istitutodatini.it

The Scientific Committee will only consider formats which have been filled out completely. Acceptances will be decided by the year 2011.

The members of the Committee are: Wim Blockmans (Leiden, President), Michele Cassandro (Siena, Vice President), Miguel Ángel Ladero Quesada (Madrid, Vice President), Giampiero Nigro (Florence, Scientific Director), Erik Aerts (Leuven), Murat Çizakça (Istanbul), Antonio Di Vittorio (Bari), Laurence Fontaine (Paris), Alberto Grohmann (Perugia), Paolo Malanima (Naples), Adam Manikowski (Warsaw), Paola Massa (Genoa), Michael North (Greifswald).

All of the works presented at the conference must be original and should not have been previously published or translated from prior publications.

The provisional texts of the selected contributions for the Week of Studies should be submitted to the Datini Foundation by February 28, 2013. Such contributions will be put online on the web pages of the Foundation before the Week of Studies (with protected access reserved for the speakers, the communicators and the members of the Scientific Committee), in order to allow a more thorough discussion of the contents.

During the convention, participants will present a synthesis of their contribution, which should last 20 minutes for the reports and 10 minutes for the oral presentation, in one of the three official languages of the conference (Italian, French and English). Simultaneous translation will be provided for the above mentioned languages.

The definitive texts of the works presented, reviewed by the authors (maximum 70,000 characters for the reports; 40,000 characters for the communications) should be sent to the Foundation by June 30, 2013. The communications are being subject to an anonymous refeee. If they will pass it, they will be published (with an abstract in two languages to be prepared by the author) in the Conference Proceedings of the Week of Studies within one year. Texts written in Spanish or German will also be accepted for publication in the Conference Proceedings.

The Datini Foundation will cover the following costs for participants who are definitively invited:
- Train ticket (first class) or plane ticket (special fare in a tourist class), according to the conditions indicated in a letter which will be sent a few months before the convention
- Lodging for 5 nights in Prato in hotels which collaborate with the Foundation (overnight stay including breakfast)
- 20 Euros a day in meal vouchers, which can be used at restaurants with discounted prices which are affiliated with the Foundation
- No monetary reimbursement.