CALL FOR PAPERS : Circulation and wine trade in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Markets, trade, customers

The history of the wine trade in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance is based on a large number of articles which, renewing the first surveys, in particular those of Henri Pirenne, have been devoted since the 1960s to most regions of France (Y. Renouard, M.-K. James, J.-C. Cassard and S. Lavaud for Gascony and Aquitaine; H. Touchard for Brittany; H. Dubois for the Saône valley; A. Higounet-Nadal for the Périgueux region; J.-D. Clabaut for northern France). Research has also been carried out at regional level in several European countries. Very recently, the question has been the subject of academic works or global studies renewing our knowledge on the scale of larger territories (Vana Carmona for southern Italy, 2008), or even of the whole of the West (Susan Rose, 2011) or even taking an interest in the action in this field of the Jewish communities of the Rhine valley (Haym Soloveitchik, 2023).

Like the conference organised in 2019 ("Leather work and trade in the Middle Ages"), the CRECIM would like to focus on one of these consumer products which was at the heart of commercial exchanges in the West during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. What do we know about the circulation of wine? the routes and waterways used and the containers? the profile of sellers and merchants? the nature of the wines consumed and exported? the price of wine and the taxes imposed on it, as well as the methods of transaction and payment? the places of sale? the evolution of the profile of customers, the forms of consumption, the taste of wine? This day will attempt to answer these questions with regard to the evolution of demand over time by taking stock of the available sources - accounting, judicial, literary, epigraphic, iconographic, archaeological, etc. - and by outlining research perspectives for the years to come. Proposals for papers relating to the County of Champagne, and in particular to the area of Bar-sur-Bar, are particularly welcome.

This conference is co-organised by the Research Centre for Medieval International Trade (CRECIM/Centre de recherche sur le commerce international médiéval) and the Société Historique de Bar-sur-Aube et du Pays baralbin (S.H.B.P.B.).

Practical details:

Proposals for papers (half a page) must be sent before Friday, September, 29th, 2023 to Jean-Marie Yante (jean-marie.yante@uclouvain.be), Arnaud Baudin (arnaud.baudin@aube.fr) and Fabrice Perron (fabrice-perron@wanadoo.fr).

Lenght papers: 25 minutes (lectures) / 10 minutes (papers).

The proceedings of the conference will be published in 2025 by the Société Historique de Bar-sur-Aube et du pays baralbin. Articles (35,000 characters including spaces) and posters (20,000 characters including spaces) must be returned by Wednesday, January, 15th, 2025.

Organising Committee :

CRECIM : Arnaud BAUDIN, Patrick DEMOUY, Jean-Marie YANTE

S.H.B.P.B. : Fabrice PERRON

Scientific Committee :

• Arnaud BAUDIN, doctor in History, deputy director of Archives et Patrimoine de l’Aube
• Patrick DEMOUY, Professor Emeritus of the Reims Champagne-Ardenne University, President of CRECIM
• Thomas LACOMME, doctor in History, Temporarily Attached to Education and Research at Paris-Nanterre University
• Fabrice PERRON, doctor in History, President of the S.H.B.P.B.
• Judicaël PETROWISTE, lecturer at Paris Diderot University
• Jean-Marie YANTE, Professor Emeritus of the Catholic University of Louvain-la-Neuve (Belgium)