Communal Identity of Dutch Migrants in Seventeenth-century Livorno

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.