Encounters: Medieval Economy in 50 Objects

Part 1. Economic thought and knowledge  1. The Plan of the Monastery of Saint Gall 2. The Polyptyque of St. Germain des Prés  3. Inventory  4. Trading Scene  5. The Inferno in the Capella Bolognini, Bologna  6. Choir Stalls of the Merchants of Stralsund  7. Credit and Caritas in Il Pignoramento  8. Guildhall of Leicester  9. How did Merchants learn Mathematics? A 16th Century Math Book  10. Size matters: Bread Standards in Freiburg Cathedral  11. Portolan Map  Part 2. Production  12. The Plough from Drumlee, Northern Ireland  13. A Harness Padding from Geldern  14. Watermill: Hydropower and Landmark  15. Bread  16. A Spindle Whorl from Mertloch  17. Thimble  18. Weaving Tablets from the Oseberg Ship Burial  19. King Roger’s II Coronation Gown  20. A 13th Century Lion Mould from Magdeburg  21. The Behaim Beaker  Part 3. Trade and Commerce  22. A Medieval Shoe  23. Woolen Cloth  24. A Cloth Seal from Ulm  25. The Covered Market of Cadouin  26. The Krämerbrücke of Erfurt  27. A Wine Jug from Lesnes Abbey  28. An iron Shackle from Breest  29. The Bremen Cog  30. A Birchbark Letter from Novgorod  31. Yersinia Pestis: a Bacterium that shaped History  Part 4. Finance and Money  32. The Florentine Guilder  33. A Letter of Exchange from 14th Century France  34. Table of a Moneychanger from the Southern Netherlands  35. The English Pipe Rolls  36. Tally Sticks from England  37. A Medieval Accounting Table from Southern Germany  38. A Reckoning Penny from Nuremberg  39. Folding Scales with Weights and Case from Rugard  Part 5. Daily Life  40. The Wedding Chest  41. Drinking Mug  42. Wooden Barrel  43. Water Drain  44. Floor Tile with Wild Boar  45. A Sovereign’s Banquet  46. A Mechanical Clock from Nuremberg  47. Pilgrim Badge  48. Gothic Washing Cabinet  49. Pomander or Olfactory Ball  50. Paternoster

Biography

Tanja Skambraks is professor of Medieval History at the University of Graz, Austria. Before that she was assistant professor at the University of Mannheim, where she got her PhD in 2014 and wrote her second book on the Monti di Pietà (Karitativer Kredit. Monti di Pietà, franziskanische Wirtschaftsethik und städtische Sozialpolitik in Italien (15. und 16. Jahrhundert) Stuttgart 2023). She studied Medieval History, English Literature and Communication Science at the Technical University Dresden and the University of Edinburgh. Her current research focuses on economic and social history, especially financial and banking history as well as the moral economy, mercantile ethics and material culture.  

Christina Antenhofer is a University Professor of Medieval History and the head of the Interdisciplinary Centre for Medieval and Early Modern Studies at the University of Salzburg. She studied History, German, French and Latin at the Universities of Innsbruck and Sorbonne (Paris IV) as well as at the Collège International de Philosophie. Subsequently, she researched and taught at the Universities of Innsbruck and New Orleans. Her research focusses on the cultural, social, communication and gender history of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. She is particularly interested in the material culture of this period from a transcultural perspective. 

Elisabeth Gruber is Associate Professor of Medieval History and Head of the Institute for Medieval and Early Modern Material Culture. She studied History and German Studies at the University of Salzburg and completed a master's degree at the Institute for Austrian Historical Research in Vienna. She has worked on urban history in medieval Austria, monastic-civic networks, and material culture. Her research focuses on the significance of material culture in religious and secular spaces where various forms of entanglement overlap. 

Ulrich Müller is an archaeologist whose research focuses on the Middle Ages and contemporary archaeology at the University of Kiel. He pursued his academic studies at the universities of Kiel, Mainz, and Konstanz, and has held positions at various institutions, including those in Lübeck, Greifswald, Bergen, and Freiburg. The present author's current research focuses on high medieval urbanization in Europe and the Anthropocene. His research has encompassed the archaeology of the northwestern Slavs, medieval castles, and the theoretical underpinnings of historical archaeology. Since 2018, he has served as deputy spokesperson for the subcluster UrbanRoots within Kiel's Excellence Cluster ROOTS: Social, Environmental, and Cultural Connectivity in Past Societies.

The Medieval Economy in 50 Objects takes a novel approach, using carefully selected examples from the material world as varied and vivid points of entry into the world of medieval production, consumption and exchange. Each chapter places the example in its context and provides valuable pointers for readers seeking to deepen their understanding of the medieval European economy and its global interconnections.
Christopher Briggs, University of Cambridge

Just as one presses one's ear against the opening of a seashell to hear the sound of the sea, this volume happily invites us to listen to some of the placid witnesses of a medieval economy that speak of everyday life on a human scale. The work is based on an original idea and is treated with rare finesse and sensitivity. The choice of objects is delicate. It has been made intelligently, combining the expected with the unusual in order to reweave the backdrop of an economy that does not rely solely on the “big merchants.” It is a success that I can only applaud.
Philippe Bernardi, CNRS/Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne