Thesis defence Hard Times in the Levant Trade, Mobility and Kinship in the Early Modern Mediterranean (1680s–1710s) Add to calendar 2024-11-18 15:30 2024-11-18 17:30 Europe/Rome Hard Times in the Levant Villa Salviati, Sala del Torrino and Zoom YYYY-MM-DD Print Share: Share on Facebook Share on BlueSky Share on X Share on LinkedIn Send by email Scheduled dates Nov 18 2024 15:30 - 17:30 CET Villa Salviati, Sala del Torrino and Zoom Organised by Department of History PhD thesis defence by Matteo Calcagni Leaving one’s home without resources to seek fortune in an unfamiliar destination, such as the Levant at the close of the seventeenth century, is an act that requires extraordinary courage. The young men who embarked on this path of long-distance trade faced the challenge of learning new languages, adapting to unfamiliar habits, and striving to establish themselves in foreign ports and merchant communities, which were often less than welcoming and offered little in the way of understanding or support. This dissertation examines the Tuscan traders who trafficked in the Levant at the turn of the eighteenth century. Specifically, the life and activities of two Tuscan merchant brothers, Francesco and Domenico Adami (1654–1702; 1655–1715), who left the port of Livorno in 1686 to gradually move towards the Eastern Mediterranean, will be analysed here. During their long period abroad, the Adami brothers experienced trading in the Levant in difficult times, a period bracketed by the War of Morea (1684–99) and the War of the Spanish Succession (1702–14), during which they found themselves under the protection of European powers in conflict with each other at the macro level but interested in maintaining stable and reciprocal trade flows at the micro one. Describing these individual migratory experiences in such complex scenarios has been made possible by the discovery of the extraordinary testimony left behind by the two merchants, the Adami-Lami archives, including their private and commercial correspondence, amassed over some 30 years spent in business on the coasts of Ottoman Syria. So, this research operates on two distinct levels of investigation. The first is a broader analysis of the Mediterranean, and more specifically the Tuscan context, at the turn of the eighteenth centuries, utilising newly uncovered sources. The second focuses on the entirely unpublished and highly specific case of the Adami brothers. To bridge these two often challenging levels, a third dimension has been incorporated—using digital humanities tools to unearth data that would have otherwise remained hidden. So, the dissertation is divided into three thematic areas, each linked to the other through an overarching focus on the case of the Adami brothers, and which collectively offer new insights into their activities in the Ottoman Empire and, in consequence, the larger reality of Tuscany’s economic engagement with the Ottoman Levant at the turn of the eighteenth century.