The RELEVEN project held its international workshop entitled Social networks in medieval and Renaissance studies. Thirty years after “Robust action” on June 22, 2023, which was co-sponsored by the Faculty of Cultural and Historical Studies at the University of Vienna. The title was inspired by John F. Padgett’s and Christopher K. Ansell’s article entitled Robust Action and the Rise of the Medici, 1400-1434 which appeared exactly thirty years ago, in 1993. The workshop brought together some of the leading scholars who work on related issues worldwide.
We started our morning session with a welcome from our project leader, Tara L. Andrews, in which she offered a short overview of the digital humanities program at the University of Vienna. The morning session was chaired by Balázs Vedres, founder of the Network Science Department at the Central European University. The speakers of the morning session included Professor Andrews, John Giebfried, who is a specialist of the Crusades and our colleague at the Department of History, and David Zbíral, leader of the ERC consolidator project entitled ‘Dissident Networks’ at Masaryk University. Tara Andrews presented in her talk the implication of the STAR model for 11th-century data, underscoring the challenges the development of the model faces in relation to historical uncertainties. John Giebfried showed us the preliminary results of his visualization of pilgrimage networks in Jerusalem of the twelfth century. In the lunch break the speakers and in-person attendees had the opportunity to discuss further some of the questions which had arisen during the talks.
In the afternoon session, chaired by Maria Elena Cortese from the University of Genoa who is a specialist of eleventh- and twelfth-century Italian history and archeology, we had four papers. The first paper was delivered by Giuseppe Albertoni, from the University of Trento, one of the leaders of the ‘Ruling in Hard Times’ project focusing on Carolingian Italy. He and his colleague presented some of the results of the project via Zoom, emphasizing especially the possibilities that arise from cross-referencing archival data with the help of digital methods. The next paper was delivered by the Dean of our faculty, Christina Lutter, who spoke about her own project targeting the social structure of late medieval Vienna. Next, John Padgett re-interpreted some of the data we collected and analyzed together for our two joint papers on Florentine advisory councils, which will provide the subject of a third article. My own paper was about a new research project that I hope to pursue after my time on the RELEVEN project, on some of the migratory groups present in the Adriatic between the 1350s and the 1420s which witnessed the struggle for its dominion. The main historical problems of the area connected to migration and trade are deeply rooted in the eleventh century. Working on eleventh-century Adriatic in the framework of the RELEVEN project has proved to be essential in developing a new interpretation of the social and economic networks in the late Middle Ages. It is especially so when talking about the great metanarratives of the Mediterranean, as for example the direct dominion versus economic expansion exercised by the Republic of Venice.
The workshop saw the participation of over fifty scholars worldwide, both in person and online. Our speakers’ picture taken in front of the fireplace may well capture the collegial spirit of the event. In case you are interested in learning more about the workshop, do not hesitate to contact Marin for the link to the registered content.
