Associate Professor Email: L.Mola@warwick.ac.uk Office: Rm 3.40 FAB Phone: 024 76574282, internal extension 74282 Term-Time Office Hours: Wednesdays 11:00-12:00 (week One Only Wednesday 14:00-15:00) and Thursdays 14:00-15:00

Academic Profile

I was born and grew up in Venice, where I received my first degree in history at Ca’ Foscari University in 1989. From 1990 to 1996 I did an MA and a Ph.D. at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. In 1997-98 I taught at the University of Venice, Department of Economics. In 1998-99 I was a fellow of the Harvard Center for Italian Renaissance Studies at Villa I Tatti in Florence. I have been a lecturer at the University of Warwick since autumn 1999. In the spring of 2006 I have been invited as Directeur d’Études at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris. Since 2008 I teach the graduate course Cultures of Technology in the Renaissance for the Victoria and Albert Museum-Royal College of Art MA in the History of Design in London. I have recently been appointed as Director of the Centre for the History of Innovation and Creativity (CHIC) at the University of Warwick, and from September 2010 I will take up the Chair in Early Modern History of Europe at the European University Institute in Fiesole (Florence).

Undergraduate Modules Taught

• Florence and Venice in the Renaissance, 1300-1600 (HI320)
• The Medieval World (HI127)
• The European World 1500-1720 (HI203)
• Historiography (HI323)
• Arts and Society in Early Modern Europe (HI3J3)

Postgraduate Modules Taught

• Contribution to the MA module Historical Research: Theory, Skills and Method 

Selected Publications

Books

The Silk Industry of Renaissance Venice, Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore-London 2000

La comunità dei lucchesi a Venezia: Immigrazione e industria della seta nel tardo Medioevo, Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti, Venice 1994

Edited Books

Il Rinascimento Italiano e l’Europa. Volume Terzo. Produzione e tecniche, eds. Philippe Braunstein and Luca Molà, Angelo Colla Editore, Treviso-Vicenza 2007

La seta in Italia dal Medioevo al Seicento. Dal baco al drappo, eds. Luca Molà, Reinhold C. Mueller and Claudio Zanier, Marsilio, Venice 2000

Articles and Essays

“The Silk Industry of Italy in the Renaissance”, Introduction to The Statutes of the Venetian Silk Weavers’ Guilds (XIV-XV centuries), Comitato per la Pubblicazione delle Fonti per la Storia di Venezia, bilingual (Italian-English) edition, Venice (forthcoming)

Entry “Silk Industry” for The Oxford Dictionary of the Middle Ages, Oxford (forthcoming)

“Traffici, mercanti, viaggiatori sullo scorcio del Medioevo”, in Italiani e stranieri nella tradizione letteraria. Atti del Convegno di Montepulciano, 8-10 ottobre 2007, Rome 2009

“Arts and Society”, in The European World 1500-1800. An Introduction to Early Modern History, ed. Beat Kumin, London-New York 2009

“Rinascimento”, in Le parole che noi usiamo. Categorie storiografiche e interpretative dell’Europa moderna, eds. Marcello Fantoni and Amedeo Quondam, Rome 2008

“Il mercante innovatore”, in Il Rinascimento Italiano e l’Europa. Volume Quarto. Commercio e cultura mercantile, eds. Franco Franceschi, Richard A. Goldthwaite, Reinhold C. Mueller, Treviso-Vicenza 2007

“States and Crafts: Relocating Technical Skills in Renaissance Italy”, in The Material Renaissance, eds. Evelyn Welch and Michelle O’Malley, Manchester University Press, Manchester 2007

“Stato e impresa: privilegi per l´introduzione di nuove arti e brevetti”, in Il Rinascimento Italiano e l’Europa. Volume Terzo. Produzione e tecniche, eds. Philippe Braunstein and Luca Molà, Treviso-Vicenza 2007

“L’economia del Rinascimento: dalle teorie della crisi alla ‘preistoria’ del consumismo”, co-written with Franco Franceschi, in Il Rinascimento Italiano e l’Europa. Volume Primo. Storia e storiografia, ed. Marcello Fantoni, Treviso-Vicenza 2006

“Le società per lo sfruttamento di invenzioni nell’Italia del Cinquecento”, in Cinquecento moderno, eds. Marco Bianchini and Marco Cattini, issued in “Cheiron”, 42 (2004)

"Il mercato delle innovazioni nell'Italia del Rinascimento", in Le technicien dans la cité en Europe Occidentale (1250-1650), eds. Mathieux Arnoux and Pierre Monnet, Rome 2004

“Leggi suntuarie in Veneto”, in Disciplinare il lusso: la legislazione suntuaria in Italia e in Europa tra Medioevo ed età moderna, eds. Maria Giuseppina Muzzarelli and Antonella Campanini, Rome 2003

“Energia e brevetti per invenzioni nell’Italia del Rinascimento”, in Energia ed economia. Secc. XIII-XVIII, ed. Simonetta Cavaciocchi, Atti della XXIV Settimana di Studi dell’Istituto F. Datini di Prato (Prato, 15-19 aprile 2002), Florence 2003

"Artigiani e brevetti nella Firenze del Cinquecento", in Arti fiorentine. La grande storia dell'artigianato. Vol. III: il Cinquecento, eds. Franco Franceschi and Gloria Fossi, Florence 2000

"Le donne nell'industria serica veneziana del Rinascimento", in La seta in Italia dal Medioevo al Seicento. Dal baco al drappo, eds. Luca Molà, Reinhold C. Mueller and Claudio Zanier, Venice 2000

"Oltre i confini della città: gli artigiani e gli imprenditori della seta fiorentini all'estero", in Arti fiorentine. La grande storia dell'artigianato. Vol. II: il Quattrocento, eds. Franco Franceschi and Gloria Fossi, Florence 1999

"Fondaci, mercanti, artigiani: le comunità dei Tedeschi e dei Turchi a Venezia", in Le Venezie e l'Europa, ed. Gino Barbieri, Padua 1998

"La via delle spezie e delle sete: il commercio d'esportazione dalle Venezie tra XIV e XVI secolo", in L'Europa e le Venezie. Viaggi nel giardino del mondo, ed. Gino Barbieri, Padua 1997

La comunità dei lucchesi a Venezia: immigrazione e industria della seta nel tardo Medioevo, Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti, Venice 1994

"Essere straniero a Venezia nel tardo Medioevo: accoglienza e rifiuto nei privilegi di cittadinanza e nelle sentenze criminali", co-author Reinhold C. Mueller, in Le migrazioni in Europa (secc. XIII-XVIII), ed. S. Cavaciocchi, Atti delle Settimane di Studi dell'Istituto Internazionale di Storia Economica F. Datini di Prato, 25, Florence 1994

"L'industria della seta a Lucca nel tardo Medioevo: emigrazione della manodopera e creazione di una rete produttiva a Bologna e Venezia", in La seta in Europa, secc. XIII-XX, ed. S. Cavaciocchi, Atti delle Settimane di Studi dell'Istituto Internazionale di Storia Economica F. Datini di Prato, 24, Florence 1993

"L'attività artigianale e mercantile dei lucchesi a Venezia nel tardo Medioevo", in Lucca e l'Europa degli affari. Secoli XV-XVII, eds. Tommaso Fanfani and Rita Mazzei, Lucca 1990

Research

My research interests focus on the history of the Italian Renaissance, on the economic and social history of Europe in the early modern period - particularly trading communities and commerce, artisans and industrial production, and the culture of technological change – and on the first age of globalisation

I am currently working on three main individual research projects:

1. Inventors, Entrepreneurs and Patents: The Market for Innovations in Renaissance Italy
2. Italy in the First Age of Globalisation: Economy, Technology and Culture, 1400-1650
3. The Prince and the Merchant in the Renaissance (contract for a book to be published by Salerno Editore, Rome, in 2011)

 
I have been a member of the following collaborative research projects and networks:

The Material Renaissance. Costs and Consumption in Italy, 1400-1650, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Board (UK) and the Getty Foundation, 2001-2004

Patents in History, British Academy network, 2002-2008

Cultures of Commerce and Invention, 1550-1850, University of Warwick-CNAM Research Interchange sponsored by the Leverhulme Foundation, 2002-2005

 Global Arts: East Meets West. Creativity and Cultural Interchange in the Early Modern World, AHRC research network, University of Warwick, Victoria and Albert Museum and Ashmolean Museum, 2007-2009

State-sponsored group for the publication of the Italian sumptuary legislation (1300-1600), with the task of supervising research and editing a volume on the sumptuary legislation of the Veneto region, 2000-

 

I am currently a member of the Global History and Culture Centre (http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/history/ghcc/) and the Centre for the Study of the Renaissance (http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/ren/) at the University of Warwick, and of Europa delle Corti. Centro di Studi sulle Società di Antico Regime (http://www.europadellecorti.it/)

 

Since 2002 I planned and organized a long-term project entitled Il Rinascimento Italiano e l’Europa, aimed at the publication of 12 collaborative volumes on the reciprocal influences of Italy and Europe during the Renaissance. This project is funded by the Fondazione Cassamarca of Treviso, and I have been appointed as its scientific co-ordinator together with professor Giovanni Luigi Fontana of the University of Padua (http://www.angelocollaeditore.it/libri-colla-editore.php?id_coll=15)

Volumes published:

1. Storia e storiografia [History and Historiography], ed. Marcello Fantoni (2005)

2. Umanesimo ed educazione [Humanism and Education], eds. Gino Belloni and Riccardo Drusi (2007)

3. Produzione e tecniche [Production and Techniques], eds. Philippe Braunstein and Luca Molà (2007)

4. Commercio e cultura mercantile [Trade and Mercantile Culture], eds. Franco Franceschi, Richard A. Goldthwaite and Reinhold C. Mueller (2008)

5. Le Scienze [Sciences], eds. Antonio Clericuzio and Germana Ernst (2008)

 

Forthcoming volumes:

6. Rituali e stili di vita [Rituals and Lifestyles], eds. Allen Grieco, Guido Guerzoni and Evelyn Welch

7. Lo Stato [The State], eds. John Law and Maria Antonietta Visceglia

8. Spazi, luoghi e architetture [Spaces and Architecture], eds. Donatella Calabi and Elena Svalduz

9. La circolazione delle arti [The Circulation of the Arts], eds. Bernard Aikema and Donatella Calabi

10. Religione e pietà popolare [Religion and Popular Piety], eds. Simon Ditchfield and Gian Vittorio Signorotto

11. La filosofia [Philosophy], eds. Gregorio Piaia and Saverio Ricci

12. Il Rinascimento e il mondo extra-europeo [The Renaissance and the Extra-European World], eds. tba

 

Conferences and Seminars

2010, March - Centro Italo-Tedesco Villa Vigoni, Loveno di Menaggio (Lake Como), organization of a conference on Europas Aufstieg als Problem: Eine globalgeschichtliche Verortung des europäischen Mittelalters. Zweiter Teil: Politik, Militär, Gewalt, together with Thomas Ertl (Georg-August-Universität Göttingen)

2010, January - Stanford University (CA), Department of History, workshop on Early Modern Objects

2009, December - Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Berlin, organization of the workshop Historical Systems of Innovation: The Appropriation of Silk Production in the Early Modern World (14^th-18^th Century). A Cross-Cultural Approach, together with Dagmar Schäfer (MPIWG)

2009, December - University of Warwick in Venice, conference in memory of Michael Mallett / paper: Venice in the First Age of Globalization: A New Perspective

2009, November - Centro Studi Leon Battista Alberti & Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz, Max-Planck-Institut & Villa i Tatti, The Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies, Mantua and Florence, conference on Cosimo Bartoli / paper: Diplomazia e innovazione: Cosimo Bartoli e l’ambiente tecnico veneziano

2009, September - Bilgi University, Istanbul, conference on Consumption and Material Culture in the Ottoman Empire / paper: Technology and innovation between Venice and the Ottoman Court

2009, September - Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Sevilla, conference on Génova y la Monarquia Hispánica (1528-1713) / paper: Venezia, Genova e lo spazio economico della monarchia spagnola nel Cinquecento

2009, August - 15th Economic History Congress, Utrecht, Session Q-5 on Global Commodities: The Material Culture of Early Modern Connections / paper: From the Silk Road to Global Silk

2009, May - The Centre for Renaissance and Early Modern Studies, Queen Mary, University of London, round table on Circulation, with Paula Findlen (Stanford) and David Gentilcore (Leicester)

2009, May - Centro Italiano di Studi di Storia e d’Arte, Pistoia, conference on La ricerca del benessere individuale e sociale: ingredienti materiali e immateriali (città italiane, XII-XV secolo) / paper: Sentirsi ricchi, sentirsi poveri: percezione dello status e realtà

2009, March - Centro Italo-Tedesco Villa Vigoni, Loveno di Menaggio (Lake Como), conference on Europas Aufstieg als Problem: Eine globalgeschichtliche Verortung des europäischen Mittelalters. Erster Teil: Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft / paper: Innovazione tecnica tra Oriente e Occidente

2009, February - University of Geneva, Deparment of Economic History / paper: Patents in Renassaince Italy and Europe

2009, February - Victoria and Albert Museum, London, conference on Global History of Design / paper: The Global Renaissance (together with Marta Ajmar)

2008, December - Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Berlin / paper: The Patent System in Renaissance Italy, XVth and XVIth Centuries

2008, December - Europa delle Corti, Centro di Studi sulle società di Antico Regime, Annual Meeting, Kent State University, Florence / paper: Gli spazi della produzione nelle corti del Rinascimento

2008, October - Society for the History of Technology, Annual Meeting, Lisbon / paper: Women and Silk Technology in Renassaince Venice

2008, October - Centro Studi Leon Battista Alberti, Mantua, conference on La civiltà delle acque tra Medioevo e Rinascimento / paper: La Repubblica di Venezia tra acque dolci e acque salse: investimenti in tecnologia idraulica a Lizzafusina nel Rinascimento

2007, December - University of Warwick in Venice, 39th Annual Symposium on Themes in Renaissance History and History of Art, Venice / paper: Creative Dynasties of the Italian Renaissance: A Collective Biography?

2007, November - Victoria and Albert Museum, London, workshop on Court and State Manufactures: Trasmission and Transformation, Production and Consumption / paper (together with Guido Guerzoni): Italian Courts’ Luxury Manufactures, XVth-XVIIth Centuries

2007, October - Centro di Studi per la ricerca letteraria, linguistica e filologica Pio Rajna and Università degli Studi di Siena, Montepulciano, conference on Italiani e stranieri nella tradizione letteraria / paper: Traffici, mercanti, viaggiatori sullo scorcio del Medioevo

2007, September - Università di Palermo and École Française de Rome, workshop on Familles, savoirs, reproduction sociale dans l’ancien régime. Atelier II: La transmission des savoirs techniques: à travers et en dehors des familles (Europe, XIVe-XVIIIe siècles) / paper: La diffusione dei segreti tecnici nell’Italia del Rinascimento: famiglie, dinastie, mercati

2006, November - Victoria and Albert Museum, conference on At Home in the Renaissance / paper: Patenting objects for the house in Renaissance Italy

2006, June - École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris / paper: Les sociétés pour l’exploitation des inventions dans l’Italie du XVIe siècle

2006, May - École Normale Superieure, Paris / paper: La politica economica della tecnologia: concorrenza internazionale e manodopera specializzata nell’Italia del Rinascimento

2006, May - Victoria and Albert Museum and Royal College of Art, workshop on Technology in the Renaissance: Revolution, Genius and Magic / paper: Technology and the Renaissance

2006, May - Discussant at the conference Vivere d’arte. Finanze e carriere di artisti nell’Italia dell’età moderna, Università di Teramo, Facoltà di Scienze della Comunicazione

2006, March - Johns Hopkins University, Villa Spelman, Florence / paper: States and Crafts: Relocating Technical Skills in Renaissance Italy

2005, December - Europa delle Corti, Centro di Studi sulle società di Antico Regime, Università La Sapienza di Roma, Rome, conference on Le parole che noi usiamo. Categorie storiografiche e interpretative dell’Europa moderna / paper: Il Rinascimento

2005, July - Centre d’Études Supérieurs de la Renaissance, Université François Rabelais, Tours, conference on Les machines à la Renaissance / paper: Machines et privilèges d’invention à Florence et Venise à la Renaissance

2005, May - Victoria and Albert Museum and Royal College of Art, London, workshop on Cool in History / paper: Cool in the Italian Renaissance

2005, April - Dibner Institute for the History of Science and Technology, MIT, Cambridge (MA), conference on Reconceptualizing the Industrial Revolution / paper: The Political Economy of the Italian Renaissance States

2005, February - Courtauld Institute of Art and National Gallery, London, conference on European Trade in Painters’ Materials to 1700 / paper: The supply of materials for the Italian tapestry industry in the early seventeenth century

2004, October - Society for the History of Technology, Annual Meeting, Amsterdam / paper: The birth of the patent system in Europe, 1474-1624

2004, June - CDHT-CNAM, CNRS, Université Paris VIII and Leverhulme Trust Foundation, Paris, conference on Minorités et circulation techniques du Moyen Age à l’époque moderne / paper: Minorities and techniques in Renaissance Venice

2004, March - University of Manchester, Manchester, conference on The Material Renaissance: Costs and Consumption in Italy, 1400-1650 / paper: States and Crafts: Relocating Technical Skills in Renaissance Italy

2003, November - Società Italiana delle Storiche, Third Congress, Florence, section on Generi, mestieri e apprendistati tra Medioevo ed epoca moderna / paper: Mestieri di donne, mestieri di uomini a Venezia nel Cinquecento

2003, October - Georgetown University, Villa Le Balze, Florence / paper: Inventors and innovations in Renaissance Italy

2003, July - Warwick-CNAM Research Interchange on Cultures of Commerce and Invention, workshop on Useful Knowledge, London / discussant on Learning and Tacit Knowledge

2003, March - Smith College, Northampton (MA), conference on Silk Unraveled / paper: Italy and Silk in the Early Modern Period (XIVth-XVIIth Centuries)

2003, January - University of Oxford, Department of Modern History / paper: The establishment of new crafts in Renaissance Italy: mechanisms and strategies

2002, November - Discussant at the conference La storia dell’impresa nella lunga durata: continuità e discontinuità, Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche, Università Ca’ Foscari di Venezia, Venice

2002, September - Università di Bologna, Bologna, international conference on Disciplinare il lusso:

la legislazione suntuaria in Italia e in Europa tra Medioevo ed Età moderna / paper: Il caso veneto

2002, July - Courtauld Institute of Art, London, and University of Reading, conference on Medieval Dyestuffs and Dyeing / paper: The trade in dyestuffs and their application in 14th and 15th century Venice

2002, May - Organisation of the workshop on Courts, Elites and Technology in Renaissance Italy, University of Warwick, AHRB Centre for the Study of Renaissance Elites and Court Cultures

2002, April - Istituto Internazionale di Storia Economica F. Datini, Prato, conference on Energia ed economia, XIII-XIX secc. / paper: Energia e brevetti per invenzioni nell’Italia del Rinascimento

2002, February - Centre for the Study of the Renaissance, University of Warwick / paper: Foreigners and Technology in Late Medieval Genoa and Venice

2002, February - Victoria and Albert Museum, London / seminar: Design and Innovation in the Renaissance

2002, February - Ateneo Veneto, Venice / paper: I lucchesi: una vicenda fortunata

2002, February - Institute of Historical Research, London / paper: Adventurers and Patents in Renaissance Italy

2001, December - Victoria and Albert Museum, London / paper: Innnovations, Inventions and Patents: the Demand for Novelties in Renaissance Italy

2001, November - Sarah Lawrence College, Florence / seminar: Guilds, Corporatism and Industrial Production in Venice and Florence: A Comparison

2001, October - Meeting of Session 16 of the XIIIth Congress of the International Economic History Association, Vicenza, conference on Wool: products and markets, 13th to 20th century / paper: Invenzioni e brevetti nell’industria laniera italiana del Cinquecento

2001, June - CNAM, Paris, conference on Artisan, industrie. Nouvelle innovations / paper: The Market for Innovation in Renaissance Italy

2001, May - Victoria and Albert Museum, London / paper: The Market for Innovation in Renaissance Italy

2001, March - Department of History, Università Ca’ Foscari di Venezia, Venice / paper: Il mercato delle innovazioni nell'Italia del Rinascimento

2000, May - Max-Planck-Institut für Geschichte, Göttingen, conference on Le technicien dans la cité en Europe Occidentale (1250-1650) / paper: Inventori, imprenditori e mercato delle innovazioni nell'Italia del Rinascimento

2000, March - Società Ligure di Storia Patria, Genoa; conference on Venezia e Genova (secoli XII-XIII) / paper: Gli stranieri a Genova e Venezia (sec. XIII-XV)

1998, November - Université Paris I, Panthéon-Sorbonne, Paris; conference on Mobilité du capital humain et industrialisation régionale en Europe: entrepreneurs, téchniciens et main-d'oeuvre specialisée (XVIe – XXe siècles) / paper: The spread of the silk industry in Renaissance Italy and Europe: governments' policies, private enterprises, and the international labour market

1998, March - Istituto Storico Lucchese, Lucca / paper: La Comunità dei lucchesi a Venezia nel tardo Medioevo

1997, December - University of Warwick in Venice, 29th Annual Symposium on Themes in Renaissance History and History of Art / paper: Dyes, colours, and fashion in Renaissance Venice

1997, November - Organization of the conference: Dal baco al drappo: la seta in Italia dal Medioevo al Seicento, together with R.C. Mueller and C. Zanier, Fondazione G. Cini, Venice

1997, May - The Italian Chapel of the European Historical Economics Society, VIth Seminar, Venice / paper: La seta dello Stato veneziano di Terraferma nel Cinquecento: produzione, commercio, politica daziaria

1997, April - Istituto Internazionale di Storia Economica F. Datini, Prato, XIXth Course on Economic History / lecture and seminar: La porta dell'Oriente: prodotti e tecniche del Levante nelle fonti pubbliche e private veneziane del XIV e XV secolo

1997, February - Princeton University, Department of History, Princeton / paper: The Silk Industry of Renaissance Venice: The Challenge of Innovation in a Mercantilist Economy

1996, June - Courtauld Institute of Art, London; conference on: Dress and visual culture in Italy, 1300-1600 / paper: Conservatism and innovation in the silk industry of Renaissance Venice

1996, January - American Historical Association, 110th Annual Meeting, Atlanta / paper: "Not Under the Same Roof": Conflicts Between Merchants and Artisans in the Silk Industry of Sixteenth-Century Venice

1994, May - École des Hautes Études en Science Sociales, Paris / paper: Soieries italiennes à la fin du Moyen Age: un réseau de production

1991, April - Johns Hopkins University, Department of History, Baltimore / paper: Individualism in the Business World of Fifteenth-Century Genoa

1989, December - Lucca, conference on Lucca e l’Europa degli affari, secoli XV-XVII / paper: L’attività artigianale e mercantile dei lucchesi a Venezia nel tardo Medioevo