Biography

Ingrid Houssaye Michienzi earned her PhD in History and Civilization from the European University Institute (Florence, 2010). She is the author of Datini, Majorque et le Maghreb (14^e-15^e siècles). Réseaux, espaces méditerranées et stratégies marchandes (Brill, 2013). She has recently been a part of a collective research project: ENPrESA (Entreprise, négoce et production en Europe: les compagnies Salviati, XIVe-XVIe siècles). Her interests encompass the Mediterranean commercial relationships in the Later Middle Ages with a particular focus on interreligious trade, merchant networks and strategies, commercial methods and practices, Florentine trade companies, and the articulation between economy and social relationships.

Project summary

This project explores the business connections between Florence and the Ottoman Empire around 1500, through the analysis of account books and the correspondence of Florentine merchants. It focuses on commercial strategies, Mediterranean dynamics, and intercultural trade and will lead to an edition of some letters written in Ottoman Constantinople and Bursa.