Upcoming: CoMOR exhibition in Leipzig

We are happy to announce the opening of the CoMOR project, which was partyl developed at Erfurt University. The exhibition will be open to the public from 1 September until 15 October 2023 at the Altes Rathaus in Leipzig.

The CoMOR project – short for “Configurations of European Fairs. Merchants, Objects. Routes (1350-1600)” – took up the history of European fairs from the perspective of “market integrations”. Towards the end of the Middle Ages, fairs formed a system resting on a tightly organised schedule (“calendar of fairs”) which permitted merchants to meet in specific places on specific dates, known well in advance. At the same time, these fairs facilitated the interconnection between local and regional markets (rural as much as urban) and the transregional commercial networks. During the sixteenth century, a decoupling occured between merchandise and financial fairs linked to the shift from financing products to pure money markets.

The exhibition traces the history of European fairs from the mid-14th century to the beginning of the 17th century. On display are documents and objects that were created or used in the context of fairs and fair trade, each selected by the members of the Franco-German research project “Configurations of European Fairs. Merchants, Objects, Routes (ca. 1350-1600).” In keeping with this research focus, therefore, the cities and fairs referred to are located primarily in the French, German, Swiss, and Italian regions. The project team consisted of Ulf Christian Ewert, Jean-Louis Gaulin, Noémie Lacroix, Heinrich Lang (currently a fellow of the “Religion and Urbanity” group at Erfurt) and Susanne Rau.

Above: excerpt from the online exhibition

The exhibition, first on view at the Archives départementales et métropolitaines in Lyon from March 30 to June 30, 2023, makes archival records, objects, and research data available for teaching, research, and an interested public. Both project and exhibition are funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) as well as the Agence nationale de la recherche (ANR) and is hosted by the Stadtgeschichtliches Museum Leipzig with the support of the Altes Rathaus Leipzig.

The exhibition is also available online as a free bilingual German-French database: Fairs in History. Free admission to this exhibition for participants of the 2023 Deutsche Historikertag upon presentation of the participant ID/accreditation.

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