Materielle Welten – Der virtuelle Salon am IMAREAL

Mittwoch, 8. Juni 2022  17:00 Uhr 

 

Household Containers and Their Uses. Marseille and Lucca, 1250-1450

Daniel L. Smail, Harvard University

Containers are a silent presence in every human society. Depending on what one calls a container, this has been true since the origins of the species some 200,000 years ago. In the vast repetoire of humanity’s material culture, containers are especially interesting as objects because of the role they play as entropy devices, either inhibiting or sometimes accelerating the natural tendency of things toward dispersal and decay. This talk explores the ecological role of the container with special reference to containers that appear in archival records from two later medieval cities, where the container can be seen as a signifier of social distinction and as a target of coercive practices.

Vortragssprache / Language: English

Daniel Lord Smail is professor of History at Harvard University. His work has explored the social and cultural history of the cities of Mediterranean Europe, with a focus on Marseille in the later Middle Ages. His current research approaches transformations in the material culture of the later Middle Ages using household inventories and inventories of debt recovery from Lucca and Marseille.

The lecture will take place online via Zoom. Afterwards, we invite you to continue the dialogue in our virtual salon (via wonder.me).

Please use our conference tool to register for the event. If you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact us via sekretariat.imareal@plus.ac.at.