Preliminary Programme

Manna is a secretion that is formed by the hardening of the liquid that gushes out of an incision in the trunk of an ash tree. During the course of the Modern Age, it was in high demand on international markets for its medical and purifying properties. The objective of this paper is to investigate some aspects of the manna production in Sicily between the eighteent and the nineteenth centuries and its export on the foreign markets. The sources comprise documents kept in Italian and foreign archives, including the Archivio di Stato of Messina, the Archivio di Stato of Naples, the Archivio di Stato of Palermo, the Archivio di Stato of Turin, the Archives de la Chambre de Commerce et Industrie de Marseille and the National Archives (London). (Show less)

The contribution presents some general reflections based on the analysis of archivistic resources to formulate some general reflections on the phenomenon of slavery in Messina, a port of relevant importance in the Mediterranean in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The purpose of the investigation is to examine the characteristics of this phenomenon in Sicily and compare it to other territories of the Mediterranean area.

Furthermore, my paper aims to analyze the slave ownership by the Sicilian Jewish. Notably the Jews were forbidden to possess Christian slaves and in addition to that, in Sicily, the church facilitated the liberation of converted slaves and their integration into society. Members of the clergy lent the necessary money and fostered the marriage of the freedmen.

Jewish law, however, did not assign a statute different from Roman law to the slave, even though excessive violence towards the slaves was forbidden of it. In my contribution, this aspect of slavery in Sicily will also be discussed. (Show less)

Between late 18th and early 19th centuries the Mediterranean was the area that developed major transportation networks for trading Calabrian products (wheat, wine, vinegar, grape, silk, etc.). Besides the ports of Reggio - the region’s leading seaport mainly visited by foreign merchants and shipowners - and Crotone, with its strategic location between Taranto and Messina, there were some “scari”, “caricatoi” e “rade” (ports of call and natural harbours), more suitable for narrow and fast boats like “feluche” “uzzi” and “paranze” (feluccas, fishing boats and trawlers) sailing to Malta, Marseille, Istria, as well as Trieste, Venice and France. Reggio produced and exported silk, whereas the coastal area between Reggio and Villa produced and exported citrus fruits, hemp, and bergamot essence, which, together with lemons and barrels, were sent to the markets in Genoa, Venice, Livorno and even on the Adriatic coast, where the ports of Trieste and Fiume, the maritime emporiums of the vast German-Austrian hinterland, had strategic locations. Reggio provided Genoa with drugs (nutmeg, gum arabic, antimony, etc.), and Trieste and Venice with fabrics. Most of the abundant production of olive-oil of the piana of Gioia was destined to Marseille.
Calabrian trade growth reached its peak between the treaty of Campoformio and the proclamation of the Parthenopean Republic: indeed, it was a period of flourishing fishing activity in Pizzo and Bivona (tuna-fishing), between Scilla and Bagnara (swordfishing), and in Ionian Calabria (anchovies and sardines). This lively trade revealed the great initiative of the fishing fleet, whose wealth was increasing in the Mediterranean scenario dominated by Messina, its international financial and trade centre: the Mediterranean trade routes included the eastern shipping lanes (Venezia, Trieste), used by the seamen from Scilla, and the western (Livorno, Genova, Marsiglia) chosen by the seamen from Bagnara and Parghelia. (Show less)

The introduction of silk in Sicily is a topic much debated by historians internationally with various historiographical theses (Epstein, Gotein, Barco, Abulafia, Trasselli). In the late Middle Ages the documents show an increasing development of sericulture in Valdemone, still insufficiently investigated economically and socially. The present paper will therefore describe the stages of production and marketing of this product in the late Middle Ages in Northeastern Sicily in the fifteenth century and how it became a leader in the production and export through the port of Messina.
Archival sources such as social actors that were involved in the silk trade, trade routes, and implications on the Peloritan Society will be discussed. Sources of data include purchase agreements, total inventories and wills. (Show less)