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The CoMOR project

The financial crisis of 2008 contributed to re-invigorating research in economic and financial history and revive, despite the relatively brief nature of the crisis, studies of markets over long periods. More recently, attacks against structures which have governed modern international commerce have thrown institutional studies into doubt and provoked questions about the very future of globalized markets.

It is within this context of questions and doubts that the CoMOR project takes up the history of European fairs from the perspective of “market integrations”. Towards the end of the Middle Ages, fairs formed a system resting on a tightly organized schedule (“calendar of fairs”) which permitted merchants to meet in specific places on specific dates, known well in advance. At the same time, these fairs facilitated the interconnection between local and regional markets (rural as much as urban) and the trans-regional commercial networks. During the sixteenth century, a decoupling occurred between merchandise and financial fairs linked to the shift from financing products to pure money markets. The chronological boundaries of the project have as such been chosen in order to best account for these major transformations: from the decline of the old fair systems at Champagne, around 1320, through a cycle dominated by the fairs at Lyon, to the decline of the fairs at Besançon around 1630. The CoMOR project is particularly attached to studying the relational aspects (and their changes) of these merchant gatherings, the roles and the behaviours of the participants. These exchanges will be mapped for the first time in their spatial and temporal dimensions through an integrated database and GIS tracing the merchants through their fairs, items, itineraries, and rhythms. This fundamental digital axis of the project will be brought to life by the French team with respect to Digital Humanities and the German team for Spatial Humanities. The investigation centers on France, Germany, and Italy, the specialties of the core consortium researchers, with, we hope and expect, expansions towards other economic and cultural regions near the end of the project.

The Franco-German team in charge of CoMOR brings a number of specific ad-vantages to the project. Most importantly, a complementary specialization in different eras: French medievalists and early modernist Germans. This is followed by the shared closed focus on the project's main terrain, Southern Germany to Lyon, with both teams also counting among their members specialists in Northern Italy. Finally, while each team brings with it certain academic dispositions – in France, the strong emphasis on social history and sociology of economy, in Germany, a tradition of Handelsgeschichte, the history of finance and exchange – they share an ambition to contribute to the history of the European economy, rooted in the study of the integrating effects of fairs on economic and social patterns over the longue durée.

Why this HAL collection ?

  • To report all publications and products resulting from the project
  • To provide access to the full text of publications in accordance with the expectations of funders in an Open Science perspective

News

# 29/06 - 9:30 Turin State Archive, Piazza Castello 209 ## Welcome Gianluca Cuniberti (University of Turin, Department of Historical Studies) ## Introduction Jean-Louis Gaulin (University Lyon2) Susanne Rau (University of Erfurt) ## CREATING, DEFINING, AND ATTENDING FAIRS ### Ulf Christian Ewert (University of Erfurt) Meß and Markt: on the wording of privileges for "new" fairs in the late-medieval Holy Roman Empire ### Nicolas Sarzeaud (University Lyon2) Fairs for Relics, or Relics for Fairs? On the Association of the Liturgical and Economic Calendar in the Middle Ages ### Jean-Louis Gaulin (University Lyon2) Faire ses courses aux foires de Genève. Les registres des trésoriers généraux du duc de Savoie Amédée VIII Discussants: Alma Poloni (University of Pisa) Andrea Nicolotti (University of Turin) 14:30 ## CREDIT AND FINANCIAL TECHNIQUES ### Armand Jamme (CNRS) Papato, fiere e trasferimenti finanziari tra Due e Quattrocento ### Ezio Claudio Pia (CRISM) Interazioni tra mercati regionali e internazionali: Asti, credito e fiere tra Medioevo ed Età moderna ### Heinrich Lang (University of Erfurt) Accounting Fairs: Florentine and South German Merchant Bankers at the Fairs in Lyon (16th c.) ### Claudio Marsilio (University of Verona) Le fiere di cambio europee di Età moderna. I corsi dei cambi: una preziosa informazione finanziaria Discussants: Markus Denzel (University of Leipzig) Alessio Fiore (University of Turin) ## PRESENTATION OF THE COMOR WEBSITE: FAIRS IN HISTORY Noémie Lacroix (ENS de Lyon) Jean-Paul Rehr (University Lyon2) Leif Scheuermann (University of Trier) 30/06 - 9:30 Turin State Archive, Piazza Castello 209 ## MERCHANTS AT FAIRS Clément Lenoble (CNRS) The De' Pazzi family business between Avignon and Geneva: note on some bills of exchange and on the Pazzi's settlement in Lyon Pauline Gomes (ENS de Lyon) Des marchés de Chieri aux foires de Lyon, retracer la mobilité de la famille Pietraviva (XIIIe - XVe siècles) Marta Gravela (University of Turin) Lyon merchants and the establishment of fairs: a social group in decline? Matthias Baumgartl (University of Bamberg) Liquidity management through financial service providers and the role of fairs. The case of the Augsburg merchant David Gauger and the Bolzano merchant David Wagner Discussant: Francesco Guidi-Bruscoli (University of Florence) 14:45 University of Turin, via Sant'Ottavio 20, Department of Historical Studies, Stanza seminari, 3rd floor ## EUROPE AND BEYOND: TIME AND SPACE OF FAIRS ### Susanne Rau (University of Erfurt) Fair rhythms. On times, spaces, suspensions, reinstatements and experiences of fairs ### Boglárka Weisz (Hungarian Academy of Science) Merchants and Trading Routes in the Hungarian Kingdom in Medieval Ages ### François Gipouloux (EHESS) Les foires et leurs acteurs: marchands ambulants, boutiquiers et courtiers à la fin des Ming et sous les Qing ### Markus Denzel (University of Leipzig) East of Leipzig: Great Annual Markets and Fairs in Poland and Muscowy up to the 17th Century Discussant: Michel Pauly (University of Luxembourg) Conclusion 01/07 - 9:30 University of Turin, via Sant'Ottavio 20, ## Department of Historical Studies, Stanza seminari, 3rd floor COMOR group meeting

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From 30 March to 30 June 2023, the exhibition Fairs, Towns and Merchants (1350-1600) presents the CoMOR research programme 'Configuring European Fairs. Merchants, Objects, Routes (1350-1600) (UMR 5648 CIHAM, ENS Lyon, University of Erfurt) funded by the ANR in France and the DFG in Germany. Through various archival documents (maps, account books, fair calendars, municipal deliberations, etc.) and period objects (paintings, drawings, coins, abacus, city weights, etc.), the entire history of European fairs is traced, from the Champagne cycle to the emergence of exchange fairs, including the success of fairs in Lyon. Organised with the Departmental and Metropolitan Archives, this exhibition is supported by the Lyon Municipal Archives, the Lyon Museum of Fine Arts and the Gadagne Museum of History. Highlights... 20 April, 7 pm | Concert La Quinta Pars (16th century music) 4 May, 6 pm | Conference by Susanne RAU (University of Erfurt) and Sophie MALAVIEILLE (Archives départementales et métropolitaines) Archives départementales et métropolitaines | 34, rue Général-Mouton-Duvernet, Lyon 3rd district Free admission Tuesday to Friday, 8.30am to 5pm (6pm on Thursday) Guided tours: Tuesday 12.30 pm and 2 pm, Thursday 12.30 pm

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# February 3, 2023: 9:00 am - 7:00 pm 9:00 am - 9:15 am: Welcome ## Religion, ethics and trade 9h15 - 10h15 : Religion, trust and social institutions in premodern long-distance trade - Ulrich PFISTER 10h15 - 11h15 : Uomini d'affari vicentini alle fiere di Lione, Anversa, Francoforte e Lipsia nel Cinquecento - Edoardo DEMO 11h45 - 12h30 : Medieval accounting : ethics, religion and economic and economic rationality - Clément LENOBLE 12h30 - 13h15 : Relics, objects of fairs? The case of the fair of the Shroud at Besançon (c. 1523-1560) - Nicolas SARZEAUD ## Goods at fairs 14h45 - 15h30 : Spätmittelalterliche Warenströme in qualitativen und seriellen Quellengruppen - Michael ROTHMANN 15h30 - 16h15 : What kind of commodities merchant bankers traded with? The Salviati at the Lyon fairs (16th ct.) - Heinrich LANG 16h45 - 17h30 : Estimating trade volumes at the Leipzig fairs in early 17th ct. using the Görlitz customs register - Ulf Christian EWERT ## Database - Organization of the project 17h30 - 18h15 : Fairs in History: the CoMOR database opens to the public - Jean-Paul REHR 18h15 - 19h00 : Organization of the final workshop in Turin # February 4, 2023: 9:00 am - 11:30 am ## The CoMOR exhibition 9:00 am - 9:45 am : Presentation of the travelling exhibition " Fairs, cities and merchants (1350-1600) - Jean-Louis GAULIN / Noémie LACROIX / Martin ROČEK 10:00 am - 11:30 am: Guided tour of the Stadtgeschichtliches Museum Leipzig

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Contacts

Erfurt : S. Rau - susanne.rau@uni-erfurt.de

Ciham : JL. Gaulin - jean-louis.gaulin@univ-lyon2.fr