SEMINAR CANCELLED
The centuries of the early modern period show a significant increase in the demand for wood. This was partly due to population growth and partly to the establishment of numerous rural manufactories. The development and expansion of the timber supply chain required the use of complex infrastructure systems to reach forests far from waterways. Floating and free floating provided a special system of river transportation that allowed the use of timber resources that would otherwise have been unavailable. Timber floating can be seen as a perfect example of an "enviro-technical system" that is part of a more complex infrastructure context in which technical elements interact with natural ones. The contribution analyzes the environmental impact of timber exploitation, focusing on the analysis of infrastructure (locks, ports), as well as social relations, and political governance related to the complex management of the "timber frontier" between the Holy Roman Empire and the Republic of Venice, one of the most anthropized areas in early modern Europe.
Katia Occhi is permanent researcher at the Italian-German Historical Institute of the Fondazione Bruno Kessler (Trento) and Editor of the journal Annals. Reviews. Online. She works on environmental history, economic history and forest history of the Alpine regions in the early modern age. She was also P.I. of several research projects on the cultural history of archives, in collaboration with the archives of Trent and Innsbruck.
She is the author of Boschi e mercanti. Traffici di legname tra la contea del Tirolo e la repubblica di Venezia (XVI-XVII secolo), Bologna: 2006; "Exploiting the Alps. Wood Supplies and Waterways in Early Modern Europe," in Annali / Jahrbuch 46, (2020 / 2), pp. 33-67; "Scambi, parentele e prospettive generazionali. I mercanti di legname nelle Alpi orientali," in Quaderni Storici 1 (2023), pp. 21-50 and co-editor of Environment and Infrastructure from the Early Modern Period to the Present. Challenges, Knowledge and Innovation, Berlin-Boston: 2023.
