The conference seeks to address how ignorance about phenomena in different epistemic fields of the late medieval and early modern world was recognized (or not), used and coped with, differently from modern times. The Paris part is devoted to the history of coping with Ignorance within the realm of the history of economy, Travel, Communication, Politics and Geography. 

Presentation and argument

Sponsored by the German Science Foundation (DFG) and the German Historical Institute, the second part of an interdisciplinary two-place conference on Historicizing Ignorance in Late Medieval and Early Modern History is taking place at the German Historical Institute in Paris. The first part has taken place on Feb 19/20 at Harvard University, History Department, Robinson Hall. The conference seeks to address how ignorance about phenomena in different epistemic fields of the late medieval and early modern world was recognized (or not), used and coped with, differently from modern times. The Paris part is devoted to the history of coping with Ignorance within the realm of the history of economy, Travel, Communication, Politics and Geography. 

Program

Thursday, April 23

9.00 Welcome note Prof. Dr. Thomas Maissen, Director German Historical Institute

Short introductory note Prof. Dr. Cornel Zwierlein 

Economy I

Chair and Comment: Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Kaiser (Paris I/EHESS)

• 9.30 Prof. Dr. Daniel Smail (Harvard): Economic Measuring, Estimation and System Uncertainties in Late Medieval City Economies
• 10.00 Dr. Giovanni Ceccarelli (Parma): Coping with unknown risks in Renaissance Florence: Insurers, friars and abbaco teachers

Short discussion
10.30 Coffee break

• 11.00 Dr. Moritz Isenmann (Cologne): Non-knowledge and perception as factors for trade policy in the Seventeenth Century?
• 11.30 Prof. Dr. Cornel Zwierlein (Bochum/ Harvard): The unknown nation. Ignorance and Mercantilism in the Mediterranean 1660-1740

12.00 Panel discussion
12.30 Lunch

Economy II

Chair: Prof. Dr. Philippe Minard (Paris VII/EHESS)
14.00 Prof. Dr. Marie-Laure Legay (Lille): L’ignorance dans la culture financière de l’Etat au XVIIIe siècle 

• 14.30 Dr. William Deringer (Columbia): Modelling Ignorance: Uncertainty, Secrecy, and Financial Analysis in Eighteenth-Century Britain 
• 15.00 Dr. Magnus Ressel (Frankfurt/M): Institutionalization as compensation of market intransparency: The Fondaco dei Tedeschi in Venice and the Levant Market 

15.30 Panel discussion
16.00 Coffee break 
16.30 Comments on the Panels Economy I and Economy II

• Dr. Jean-Marc Rohrbasser (INED), Premodern Perspectives
• Prof. Dr. Alessandro Stanziani (EHESS), Modern Perspectives and Comparisons

Friday, April 24 

Travel, Geography, Communication, Politics

Chair: PD Dr. Rainer Babel 

• 9.00 Prof. Dr. Adam Kosto (Columbia): Ignorance about the traveller: Safe-Conduct in the Middle Ages 
• 9.30 Dr. Lucile Haguet (Rouen): D’Anville and the specified ignorance: an unexpected but powerful way of promoting maps and geography 

10.00 Short coffee break 

• 10.15 Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Behringer (Saarbrücken): Knowledge gaps, security and the development of Early Modern Transport communication
• 10.45 Dr. des. Devin Fitzgerald (Harvard): The blind Emperor: long-distance communication in 17th century China

11.15 Short coffee break

• 11.30 Dr. Fabrice Micallef (Paris I): Decision-making without knowledge. European powers and the ‘affairs of Provence’ (1589-1596) 
• 12.00 Dr. Albert Schirrmeister (HU Berlin/EHESS Paris), Ignorance before a war: attitudes and action of expectation (the Spanish War of Succession)

12.30 Comment on the Friday Panel Prof. Dr. Christine Lebeau, Paris I
Panel Discussion, Final Discussion and Conclusion
13.30 Lunch

Attendance is free, please register for purposes of organisation prior to April 15, 2015 under

Event@dhi-paris.fr

Websites

http://www.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/umweltgeschichte/forschung/projekte.html.en

http://history.fas.harvard.edu/event/nescience-nonknowledge-late-medieval-and-early-modern-coping-unknowns

http://scholar.harvard.edu/zwierlein/IgnorAbstracts