Janissary Networks
Matteo Barbano

Matteo Barbano

Postdoctoral researcher

Matteo Barbano (Genoa, 1986) graduated in Modern and Contemporary History at the University of Genoa. In 2016 he completed his PhD in the Department of Antiquities, Philosophical and Historical Studies (DAFIST) at the University of Genoa, discussing a thesis with the title: “Within the Straits: the English, Tangier and Barbary (1661-1684)”. During his PhD research, he extensively explored the transnational economic and social networks across the early modern Mediterranean, devoting a particular interest to the development of intelligence networks and informal diplomacy activities on the Barbary Coast. As a post-doc researcher in the ERC Starting grant “Seafaring Lives in Transition. Mediterranean Maritime Labour and Shipping during Globalization, 1850s-1920s (SeaLiT)”, his studies switched to the “long nineteenth century”, focusing on the impact of the transition from sail to steam navigation on the Mediterranean maritime labour and shipping business, mainly observed through the study of the Austrian Lloyd steam navigation company and its workers. In the framework of the ERC Starting grant “Janissaries in Ottoman Port-Cities: Muslim Financial and Political Networks in the Early Modern Mediterranean (JaNet)” he attempts to track maritime commercial relations – especially concerning oil products – conducted by Ottoman Muslims in the Western Mediterranean between the 1770s and the 1820s, with a specific focus on the traffic of oil products from Crete and Mytilene to Genova.

 

This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No. 849911)