Education
1983, graduation (Laurea) in Early Modern History (Faculty of Letters and Philosophy, University of Bologna
1993, Ph.D. in History (Department of History, Michigan State University, USA)
1996, Ph.D. in Economic History (Istituto Universitario Navale, Naples)
Teaching
1986-93, Teaching Assistant and Instructor of European History (Michigan State University)
1987-88, Instructor of European History (Michigan Technological University)
1998-00, Lecturer of Early Modern History (National University of Ireland at Maynooth)
2000-01, Lecturer of Early Modern and Modern European History (Emerson College, Boston - at European Center, Well, The Netherlands)
2004-10 Special Topic Lecturer of Early Modern Italian History (National University of Ireland at Maynooth)
2001-10 Appointed Professor of History of Public Finance, Economic History of Non profit and Cooperative Organizations, Economic History (Faculty of Economics at Forlì)
2011- 20 Assistant Professor of Economic History
2020 - Associate Professor of Economic History
Other Activities:
International Relations, LLP/Erasmus and Overseas Coordinator (Faculty of Economics at Forlì)
Member of the Centro Studi sui Monti di Pietà e il Credito Solidaristico operating within the Fondazione del Monte di Bologna e Ravenna.
Member of the scientific board of the Summerschool in Finance, Institutions and History held at the Department of Economic Sciences of the "Ca' Foscari" University, Venice.
Seminars and Symposiums (since 2004)
Patrician Marriage Strategies in Early Modern Bologna, relazione presentata alla Sixteenth Century Studies Conference, Toronto, 28-31 October 2004.
Il servizio del debito pubblico a Bologna in età moderna, paper presented at Tra vecchi e nuovi equilibri. Domanda e offerta di servizi in Italia in età moderna e contemporanea, Torino, 12-13 November 2004.
La cooperazione di credito negli anni del fascismo, seminar held at Incontri del Centenario di Romagna Est Banca di Credito Cooperativo, Bellaria, 19 March 2005.
Capitalizing on Women: Patrician Alliances in Early Modern Bologna, Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies, University of Toronto, 11-12 November 2005.
Balancing the Books. Administration and Book-keeping in Renaissance and Early Modern Italy, seminar held at Victoria College, University of Toronto, 14 November 2005.
Il credito del Reggimento: evoluzione delle forme di finanziamento pubblico a Bologna in età moderna, paper presented at Le forme del credito nell'Italia d'antico regime, Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche, Università di Venezia Ca' Foscari, Venice, 7-8 April 2006.
Alle origini del fund raising: confraternite, predicatori e mercanti nelle città italiane (secc. XIV-XVIII), paper presented at Storia e prospettive del fund raising in Italia, Facoltà di Economia di Forlì, Università di Bologna, 12 May 2006.
L'evoluzione del debito pubblico nella periferia pontificia in età moderna: il caso della Legazione di Bologna, paper presented at Debito pubblico e mercati finanziari in Italia fra età moderna e contemporanea, Bergamo, 25-26 May 2006.
Public debt, guarantees and local elites in the Papal States (c. 16th- c. 18th), relazione presentata al Mellon Sawyer Seminar, Trinity Hall, University of Cambridge, 18 November 2006.
Le reti del credito tra pubblico e privato nella Bologna dell'Età Moderna, paper presented at El mercado de capitales durante la Edad Moderna. Agentes y receptores del credito en el àmbito europeo, Medina del Campo, 10-12 December 2007.
Learning from others' failures: the rise of the Monte di pietà in early modern Bologna, panel C-14, Seventh European Social Science History Conference, Lisbon, 26 February - 1 March 2008.
The Studio and the city: conflicting autonomies in Sixteenth-century Bologna, paper presented at The Renaissance Society of America, Annual Meeting, Chicago, 3-5 April 2008.
Shifting strategies of giving: donors and charities in Early Modern Bologna, paper presented at The Renaissance Society of America, Annual Meeting, Los Angeles, 19-21 March 2009.
Donatori, istituzioni e comunità: la personalizzazione della pietà , paper presented at the international symposium L'iconografia della solidarietà, Fondazione del Monte di Bologna e Ravenna, Bologna, 7-8 May 2009.
Fra assistenza e previdenza: le doti dei poveri "rispettabili", paper presented at Il prezzo della sposa. Doti e patrimoni femminili in età moderna, Fondazione Bruno Kessler, Studi storici italo-germanici, Trento, 25-26 September 2009.
Marriage Strategies and Oligarchy in Early Modern Bologna, paper presented at the international conference To Have and To Hold. Marriage in Premodern Europe, 1200-1700, Victoria University, Toronto, 16-17 October 2009.
Organizer of the panel The Material Culture of Debt: Pawns and Pledges in Renaissance Italy and presenter of the paper Converting Goods into Cash: the "Immaterial" Life of Objects in Early Modern Bologna, at The Renaissance Society of America, Annual Meeting, Venice, 8-10 April 2010.
Onore e povertà : doti e matrimoni a Bologna in età moderna, paper presented at the international symposium Tomar Estado: Dotes e Casamentos (sèculos XVI-XIX), Universidade do Minho, Braga 6-7 May 2010.
From Communal to State Finance: a new Fiscal Pact in the Early Modern Papal States, paper presented at the international Colloque Ressource publiques et construction ètatique en Europe. Fiscalité et dette publique, XIIIe-XVIIIe siècle", Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, Ministère Economique et Financier, Paris 2-3 July 2012.
Il finanziamento delle società in accomandita a Bologna in età moderna, paper presented (with Massimo Fornasari) at the international symposium Reti di credito.Circuiti informali, impropri, nascosti (secoli XIII-XIX), Fondazione del Monte di Bologna e Ravenna, Bologna, 13-14 September 2012.
Fra tradizione e innovazione: la fiscalità papale nelle Legazioni fra '500 e '600, paper presented at the international symposium Fiscus est Respublica. Modelos fiscales desde la Edad Media hasta nuestros dìas, CSIC-EEHAR, Rome, 4-5 February 2013.
"Per sollievo della città e della sua Camera": carteggi fiscali fra Bologna e Roma in età moderna, paper presented at the international symposium "Visible and Invisible. Perceiving the city between descriptions and omissions", AISU, Catania, 12-14 September 2013.
"Il credito disciplinato. Affari e clientela del Monte di Bologna in età moderna", paper presented at the workshop Il credito informale in ambito mediterraneo fra età moderna e contemporanea, ABI, Rome, 18 October 2013.
"La finanza locale negli antichi Stati italiani: un profilo storico", paper presented at the workshop Il ruolo della finanza locale nel processo di formazione degli Stati europei tra età medievale e contemporanea, Cassino, 13-14 December 2013.
Pawnbrokers and pawnbroking in pre-modern societies: a comparative approach, seminar held at Osaka City University and at Hitotsubashi University (Tokyo), 1 and 5 February 2014.
The shaping of regulated credit systems in Renaissance Italy, seminar held at Kyoto University, 2 February 2014
Organizer of the panel Pawnbroking in pre-modern Europe: from economic considerations to moral connotation and presenter of the paper Lending to the poor, lending to the affluent: a moral approach to consumer credit at the European Social Science History Conference, Vienna (23-26 April 2014).
Co-organizer (with Matthew Sneider) of the panel Charity in Renaissance Bologna and presenter of the paper Pious bequests of common people in early modern Bologna at the Renaissance Society of America Annual Meeting, Berlin, 26-28 March 2015.
Fra etica e affari. Un nuovo modello di credito su pegno: i Monti di pietà, paper presented at the worshop Istituzioni, capitale sociale e stereotipi: storia economica e storia degli ebrei (secoli XV-XVIII). Un incontro possibile, Dept. of Economics, Università di Genova, 26-27 June 2015.
Organizer of the panel At the origins of consumer credit: pawn-broking in pre-industrial and developing societies. Economic concerns and moral connotations and presenter of the paper The civic model of Italian public pawnshops. An ethical approach to consumer credit at the XVII World Economic History Congress, Kyoto 3-7 August 2015.
Co-organizer (with Paola Avallone) of the panel B01, Il credito al consumo: fra etica ed economia, al VII Congress AISU "Food and the City", Padua 2-5 September 2015.
Disciplining Credit: the Civic Model of Public Pawnshops in Early Modern Italy, seminar held at the Institute of Historical Research, Senate House, University of London, School of Advanced Studies, 26 February 2016.
Organizer (with Anne Murphy) of the panel At the origins of the business revolution: Shaping a clerical class in pre-modern Europe at the XI European Social Science History Conference, Valencia 30 March - 2 April 2016.
A "conservatione et augumento" del patrimonio dei poveri: Monti di pietà e governo etico del credito in età moderna, paper given at the international conference Politiche di misericordia: Fare il bene tra medioevo e prima età moderna, held in Bologna at Fondazione del Monte di Bologna e Ravenna, 28-29 April 2016.
Financing Business Ventures in Early Modern Bologna, paper given at the international workshop The Funding of Preindustrial Business, Utrecht University, 19-20 May 2017.
Soccorrere i poveri rispettabili nell'Italia dell'età moderna, paper given at the workshop Culture dell'Assistenza in Italia nei Secoli dell'Età Moderna, CNR-ISSM, Naples 19 June 2017.
Building trust and preventing fraud: Management innovation in the financial sector in late Renaissance Italy, paper given at the Annual Meeting of the Renaissance Society of America, New Orleans 22-24 March 2018.
Between Ethics and Profit: Shaping a Coordinated Credit Network in Pre-Modern and Modern Italy, paper given (with Massimo Fornasari) at Social Aims of Finance, Annual Meeting of the European Association for Banking History, Turin 14-15 June 2018.
Co-organizer (with Paola Avallone and Nicholas Terpstra) of the panel At the Origins of Welfare: Institutions and Practices of Social Assistance in Europe (14th-19th Centuries); and paper presenter (Strapped for Cash: Providing Credit at the Lower End of the Market in Pre-Modern Italy) in the panel Multiple Payment Systems in Globalizing Economies; XVIII World Economic History Conference "Waves of Globalization", Boston 29 July - 3 August 2018.
Gli Albergati fra Francia e Impero, paper given at the conference Il patriziato bolognese e l'Europa (secoli XVI-XIX), Archivio di Stato di Bologna and Department of History Culture Civilization, Università di Bologna, 23- 25 May 2019.
Lending to the Working Poor: the Rise of Public Pawn Banks in Early Modern Italy, paper given at the International Academy Conference, Change and Transformation of Premodern Credit Markets: the Importance of Small-Scale Credit, Heidelberg 28-30 October 2019.
Pubbliche prestanze e autonomia cittadina: il caso di Bologna fra '400 e '500, paper given at the international conference Los origines de la deuda publica en la Europa Mediterranea (Siglos XIII-XVI), EEHAR-ISIME, Rome 4-6 November 2019.
Building trust and preventing fraud: control mechanisms in Italian public pawn banks, paper given at the workshop Bookkeeping, Intermediation and Financial Organizations in Early Modern Europe , Uppsala Universitet, 5-6 December 2019.
La narrazione dell'assistenza: rappresentazione e autorappresentazione, paper given at the international conference Alle origini del welfare (XIII-XVI secolo). Radici medievali e moderne della cultura dell'assistenza e delle forme di protezione sociale e credito solidale, Università di Siena January - 1 February 2020.
Family formation and civic identity:Funding dowries in early modern Bologna, paper given at the international conference Mobilizing Money for the Public Good, Fondazione del Monte di Bologna e Ravenna, 7-8 November 2022.
Banking for the Laboring Poor in Late Renaissance Bologna, paper given at the 69th Annual Meeting of the Renaissance Society of America, San Juan 9-11 March 2023.
Early Steps of Eldercare in Early Modern Italy:Bologna's Asylum for the Septuagenarians, paper given at the European Social Science History Conference, Gothenburg 12-15 April 2023.
Balancing the Books: the Invention of a Global Business Language, paper given at the Colloque International L'usage des sources didactiques des marchands au Moyen Age et à L'Epoque moderne (XIIIe-XVIIIe siècles), entre Théorie et pratiques, SOCIAMM Université Libre, Brussels 2-3 May 2023.
Banking for the Poor: Community Microfinance Initiatives in the Northern Papal States (XVI-XIX centuries), paper given (with Omar Mazzotti) at the European Rural History Organization, International Conference, Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca 11-14 September 2023.
