Datini - ESTER
Advanced Seminar 2026
“From craft guilds to unions”

The seminar is jointly organized by the members of the board of the Datini-Ester Seminar: Guido Alfani (Fondazione Datini), Ben Gales (ESTER), Jaco Zuijderduijn (ESTER), Francesco Ammannati (Fondazione "F. Datini"). The members of the board, together with other colleagues, specialist in the field, will participate in the seminar as instructors.

The Datini-ESTER Advanced Seminar consists of two complementary parts:

a) the participation in the international Datini congress (LVII Settimana di Studi), devoted in 2026 to “Trade associations in the economy of the pre-industrial Europe (12th-18th centuries”. The congress will be held in Prato, from May 10 (opening 18.00 [exact time to be confirmed] with the inaugural speech in the municipal building) until May 14 (afternoon) 2026. For information on the congress:
https://www.istitutodatini.it/temi/htm/temi57.htm;

b) a two-day workshop from May 15 (morning) until May 16 (late afternoon) 2026, in a reserved room of the Datini Palace in Prato [place to be confirmed].
The workshop will bring together a number of senior researchers from different countries. Prior to the workshop, students will be asked to prepare a paper. They will have the opportunity of presenting their research project dealing with one or more core problems of their research field and discussing them with both senior researchers and other fellow students. Each paper will be presented by the author during the seminar and then examined and discussed by one of the participating students and by one of the instructors, after which a general discussion among all participants will take place. The students will be guests of the Fondazione Istituto Internazionale di Storia Economica “F. Datini” from Sunday May 10 (in) until Sunday May 17 morning (out). On May 16, at the end of the seminar, the students will receive diplomas attesting their participation in the Datini congress and Datini-ESTER.
The diplomas will be delivered only to the students who will take part BOTH in the Datini congress AND the seminar.
Besides providing a feedback opportunity for ongoing projects, the seminar will provide the opportunity to attend the international Datini congress, and foster cooperation between economic and social historians coming from different countries.
This Advanced Datini-Ester Seminar is open to 15 PhD-students and Post-Docs (who finished their doctorate less than five years prior to the seminar).

• the student must meet the deadline for submission of his/her paper (whose deadline isthe 15th of March 2026);
• the paper must be of sufficient academic quality and the level of the English used inthe paper must be sufficient.