| dc.description.abstract | This thesis investigates the presence and identity of migrants from the Low Countries in
seventeenth-century Livorno, challenging the prevailing scholarly focus on merchants and
their economic networks. Drawing on church registers and other archival sources, the study
highlights the presence of non-merchant migrants, including women, artisans, and their
families, within the city’s diverse society.
The research situates itself within recent historiographical debates on migration and
identity, referencing key works by Francesca Trivellato, Stefano Villani, Guillaume Calafat,
and Marie-Christine Engels, who have examined Livorno’s foreign merchant communities.
The thesis critiques the dominant narrative that privileges male merchants and their nazioni
by foregrounding the experiences of women and non-merchant migrants, whose
contributions have been marginalised in existing scholarship.
Methodologically, the study draws on theoretical frameworks from Benedict
Anderson and Eric Hobsbawm, focusing on the concepts of imagined communities and
invented traditions. The thesis argues that migrant identity in Livorno was shaped not only
by economic interests and institutional affiliations but also by familial, professional and
religious networks. By broadening the scope of inquiry beyond the merchant elite, this
research aims to provide a more nuanced understanding of community formation and
identity among fiamminghi in early modern Mediterranean port cities. | |
