Chapters 4, 5, 6, 9, 12, 13 and 14 in this volume have already appeared in different publications in English. The editors of the present volume have avoided, as far as possible, modifying these essays in any substantial manner. They have limited their interventions to correcting typographical errors or minor errors of fact, ensuring a homogeneous format congruent with the other essays in the volume and, on a few occasions, making minor stylistic adjustments.
Part 1: Peasants, Landowners, Agronomists
Chapter 1. “Peasant Tricks and Landlord Strategies in the Bolognese Countryside, 17th to 19th Centuries.”
Paper presented at the Institute of Advanced Study, Princeton, New Jersey, 1980. Translated by Vivian R. Gruder.
Chapter 2. “Between Agriculture and the Manor: Structure, Strategy and Ambiguity in Agostino Gallo’s Dialogues.”
Originally published as “Struttura, strategie e ambiguità delle ‘Giornate’: Agostino Gallo fra l’agricoltura e la villa,” in Agostino Gallo nella Cultura del Cinquecento, M. Pegrari, ed. (Brescia, 1999), pp. 73–108; also in Intersezioni, 2 (1989). Translated by Carolyn Kadas.
Chapter 3. Carlo Poni and Roberto Scazzieri, “Environmental Crisis and the Shifting Practice of Property Rights: the Bolognese Marshlands, 17th to 19th Centuries.”
Originally published in The Rules of the Game: Institutions, Law and Economics, Aloys Prinz, Albert E. Steenge, Jörg Schmidt, eds. (Berlin, lit, 2007), pp. 81–101; initially presented at the Seminar in Economics, Wettringen-Rothenberge, December 7–8, 2006.
Chapter 4. “Family and Podere in Emilia-Romagna: Peasant Sharecroppers.”
The period covered is mainly the nineteenth century.
Written at the suggestion of the Fondazione delle Casse di Risparmio dell’Emilia Romagna and originally published in Italian in Cultura popolare nell’Emilia-Romagna. Struttura rurale e vita contadina (Milan, 1977). An English version, “Family and ‘Podere’ in Emilia Romagna,” appeared in The Journal of Italian History, i (2, Autumn, 1978), 201–34. A third publication, “La famiglia contadina e il podere in Emilia Romagna”, Fossi e cavedagne benedicon le campagne (Bologna, 1982) provides a more extensive analysis and bibliographical information. This chapter is an edited and revised version of the previous publications.
Chapter 5. “Norms and Disputes: The Shoemakers’ Guild in Eighteenth-Century Bologna.”
First presented at a workshop on “Work and Family in Pre-Industrial Europe” at the European University Institute of Florence and at a seminar at the Arbeitsbericht Wirtschafts-und Sozialgeschichte at the Free University of Berlin. It then was published in Past and Present, no. 123 (May, 1989), 80–108. The author benefited from the comments of Wolfram Fischer, Alberto Guenzi, Hartmut Kaelble, Reinhold Reith, Annamarie Kleinert, Gunther Teubner, Stuart Woolf and Chris Woodall. The author thanked Vivian Gruder who provided useful comments on the earliest draft, and to Philippe C. Schmitter for his acute suggestions and criticisms. Translated by Patrick Leech.
Chapter 6. “Local Market Rules and Practices: Three Guilds in the Same Line of Production in Early Modern Bologna.”
Originally published in Domestic Strategies: Work and Family in France and Italy 1600–1800, Stuart Woolf, ed. (Cambridge and Paris, 1991). © Maison des Sciences de l’Homme and Cambridge University Press 1991, reproduced with permission. It was first presented and discussed at the workshop on “Work and Family in Pre-industrial Europe” at the European University Institute of Florence (1984), and later during a seminar at the University of Pisa (1985), at the Wissenschaftkolleg zu Berlin (1986), and at the Department of Economics of the University of Bologna (1988). The author benefited from the stimulating comments and suggestions of Wolfram Fischer, Vivian Gruder, Abdellah Hammoudi, Christopher H. Johnson, Patrick Leech, Mario Mirri, Massimo Riccottilli, Michael Sonenscher, Heinrich A. Winkler, Stefano Zamagni. The author thanked Gunther Teubner, Philippe C. Schmitter and Terence Daintith who first introduced him to the idea of long-term contracts and negotiations; Wolf Lepenies for making difficult but fruitful criticisms; Patrizio Bianchi for suggesting useful tools of economic analysis; and Stuart Woolf who read carefully and provided many improvements to the text. Translated by Patrick Leech.
Chapter 7. “‘Measure for Measure’: From Fine Thread to Rigid Labor Control. Changing Conditions of Work in Silk Factories.”
Originally published in Quaderni storici, vol. 16, no. 47 (1981), 385–422; it was republished and translated from “Misura contro misura: come il filo di seta divenne sottile e rotondo,” in La seta in Italia. Una grande industria prima della rivoluzione industriale (Bologna, 2009), pp. 405–441. Translated by Carolyn Kadas.
Chapter 8. “Technology, Organization of Production and the Gender Division of Labor.”
Chapter 9. “Fashion and Innovation: Strategies of Lyon Silk Merchants in the Eighteenth Century.”
Originally published in French in Revue d’histoire moderne et contemporaine, xlv, no. 3 (1998), 589–625; then published in English in World of possibilities: flexibility and mass production in western industrialization,” eds. C.F. Sabel and J. Zeitlin (Cambridge, 1997, reproduced with permission), pp. 37–44; and published in Italian in La seta in Italia. Una grande industria prima della rivoluzione industriale (Bologna, 2009), pp. 497–542. Translated by Patrick Leech. This essay benefited from the criticisms and suggestions of many of the author’s colleagues and friends, and in particular Fernand Braudel, Immanuel Wallerstein, Mario Mirri, Vivian Gruder, Peter Laslett, and Emma Rothschild. In the final phase, the author discussed the text both with Jonathan Zeitlin and colleagues in the Department of Economics of the University of Bologna. The author thanked in particular Roberto Scazzieri, Patrizio Bianchi and Gianpaolo Rossini for their stimulating suggestions and criticisms. The author benefitted from the help of Leonard Wetzler, who permitted a comparison of the notes and photocopies he had made in the Archives Nationales de Paris with the author’s own notes.
Part 3: Engineers and Theorists
Chapter 10. Alberto Guenzi and Carlo Poni, “The Synergy between Two Innovations: Canals and Silk Mills in Bologna.”
Originally published as “Sinergia di due innovazioni. Claviche e Mulini da Seta a Bologna,” in Quaderni storici, vol. 22, no. 64 (1987), 111–127. Translated by Carolyn Kadas.
Chapter 11. “Behind the Scenes: The Staging of a Theater of Machines.”
Originally published as “Scenari e fuori scena di un teatro di macchine,” introduction to the first modern edition of Vittorio Zonca, Novo teatro di machine et edificii, 1607, Carlo Poni, ed. (Milan, 1985), pp. ix–liii. Translated by Carolyn Kadas.
Chapter 12. “The Craftsman and the Good Engineer: Technical Practice and Theoretical Mechanics in J.T. Desaguliers.”
Chapter 13. “The Worlds of Work: Formal Knowledge and Practical Abilities in Diderot’s Encyclopédie.”
Originally published in Jahrbuch für Wirtschaftsgeschichte, Economic History Yearbook (Munich, De Gruyter, 2009/1), 135–149 (
Part 4: Methods
Chapter 14. Carlo Ginzburg and Carlo Poni, “The Name and the Game: Unequal Exchange and the Historiographic Marketplace.”
Originally published in Microhistory and the Lost Peoples of Europe: Selections from Quaderni Storici, eds. Edward Muir and Guido Ruggiero (Baltimore, 1991), pp. 1–10. Reprinted with permission of Johns Hopkins University Press; in Italian, published as “Il nome e il come: scambio ineguale e mercato storiografico,” Quaderni storici, vol. 14, no. 40 (1979), 181–190; and originally presented as a paper at the conference on “The Annales and Italian Historiography,” Rome, January 1979.
Chapter 15. “The Silk Mill: A Path of Research.”
Originally published as “Il mulino da seta: percorso di una ricerca,” in ScuolaOfficina, Museo de Patrimonio Industriale di Bologna, June–December 1985 and republished in La seta in Italia. Una grande industria prima della rivoluzione industriale (Bologna, 2009), pp. xv–xxii. Translated by Vivian Gruder. PostscriptsChapter 16, “Remembering Carlo Poni” by Carlo Ginzburg, was originally published in Italian with the title “Ricordando Carlo Poni: Una rilettura de ‘Il nome e il come,” Quaderni storici, vol. 54 (2019), 552-556. Translated by Gabriella Gruder-Poni.