{"id":21452,"date":"2026-05-03T03:18:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-03T03:18:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/manuscriptevidence.org\/wpme\/?page_id=21452"},"modified":"2026-05-03T03:20:57","modified_gmt":"2026-05-03T03:20:57","slug":"congdon-2026-congress","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/manuscriptevidence.org\/wpme\/abstracts\/congdon-2026-congress\/","title":{"rendered":"Congdon (2026 Congress)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Eleanor A. Congdon
\n(Youngstown State University<\/em>)<\/h2>\n

Abstract of Paper
\npresented at the 61st International Congress on Medieval Studies
\n(Kalamazoo, 2026)<\/h3>\n

2026 International Congress on Medieval Studies: Program<\/a><\/h4>\n

Session on
\n“Moving the Mail: Letters, Couriers, and Post Offices in the Medieval World<\/a>“<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Sponsored by <\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  • Research Group on Manuscript Evidence<\/strong><\/li>\n
  • Postal History at Kalamazoo<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    Organized by<\/h4>\n

    David W. Sorenson (Allen Berman, Numismatist<\/em>)
    \nMildred Budny (Research Group on Manuscript Evidence<\/em>)<\/h3>\n

    Paper Title:<\/h3>\n

    “How Fifteenth Century Italian Merchants Shared Information”<\/h2>\n

    Abstract:<\/h3>\n

    What can different types of sources tell us about how Italian merchants sent and received information in the
    \nfifteenth century? In the archive of Francesco di Marco Datini da Prato, there are many examples of letters where
    \nthe author included the name of who would carry the letter to the recipient. Sometimes these were travelling
    \nagents, sometimes the captains of a ship, and sometimes a person on the ship for business reasons, but not
    \nnecessarily with direct links to the Datini organizations. Other times, the letter would said to be present on a ship
    \nor land-route, but no specific person was named. And in still other situations, a professional courier would be
    \nhired to carry the letter. In comparison, the merchants working in the Levant late in the century rarely named the
    \ncarrier of letters, possibly to make it more difficult for the Mamluk authorities to trace or disrupt the flow of
    \ninformation.<\/p>\n

    *****<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Eleanor A. Congdon (Youngstown State University) Abstract of Paper presented at the 61st International Congress on Medieval Studies (Kalamazoo, 2026) 2026 International Congress on Medieval Studies: Program Session on “Moving the Mail: Letters, Couriers, and Post Offices in the Medieval World“ Sponsored by Research Group on Manuscript Evidence Postal History at Kalamazoo Organized by David […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":1023,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/manuscriptevidence.org\/wpme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/21452"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/manuscriptevidence.org\/wpme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/manuscriptevidence.org\/wpme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manuscriptevidence.org\/wpme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manuscriptevidence.org\/wpme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21452"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/manuscriptevidence.org\/wpme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/21452\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21456,"href":"https:\/\/manuscriptevidence.org\/wpme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/21452\/revisions\/21456"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manuscriptevidence.org\/wpme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/manuscriptevidence.org\/wpme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}