Dr William R. Day, Jr

Former Research Associate, Department of Coins and Medals

Responsibilities

William R. Day, Jr, was responsible, in collaboration with Philip Grierson, Alan M. Stahl, and Lucia Travaini, for Medieval European Coinage 13: Italy (II) (Central Italy), i. e. Emilia-Romagna, Tuscany, Umbria, the Marches, and Rome and Lazio. He also collaborated with Philip Grierson, Michael Matzke, and Andrea Saccocci on Medieval European Coinage 12: Italy (I) (North Italy), i. e. the Piedmont, Liguria, Lombardy, the greater Veneto (incl. Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol, Friuli-Venezia Giulia). He is a contributing author for both volumes and remains responsible for co-ordinating the contributions of other authors and preparing the appendices, catalogue and photographic plates.

Appointments and academic history

2008-9 Jean-François Malle Fellow, Villa I Tatti (Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies, Florence)

2001-8 Research Associate, Department of Coins and Medals, Fitzwilliam Museum

2000-1 Part-time Lecturer, Department of Medieval and Modern History, University of Birmingham: 'Florence, 1000-1500: the foundations of the renaissance'

1999-2000 Teaching Assistant, Department of Medieval and Modern History, University of Birmingham

1994-9 Ph. D., London School of Economics and Political Science. Dissertation, The early development of the Florentine economy, c. 1100-1275

1995-6 Visiting Researcher, European University Institute (Florence, Italy), Department of History and Civilisation

1991-4 M. A., Catholic University of America (Washington, DC, USA), Medieval History. Master's thesis, 'The circulation of money in early medieval southern Italy, c. 750-1075'.

1979-82 & 1988-91 B. A., Towson State University (Towson, Maryland, USA), History. Senior thesis, 'Crisis and innovation: guelfs, ghibellines, and historiography in late medieval Florence'.

Other responsibilities

6-7 September 2007 Organising conference The Debasement of Coinage in Medieval Europe and the Mediterranean, c. 1000-1500, at Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge.

10-12 July 2007 Co-organising strand (with Edward Coleman, University College Dublin), Cities in Medieval Italy and Italians in Medieval Cities, 8 sessions, International Medieval Congress, University of Leeds.

7-8 September 2005 Organised conference Roma Caput Mundi: the administrative, economic & political background to the coinage and monetary history of Rome & the Papal States, c. 1000-1500, at Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge.

3-4 April 2003 Organised conference Medieval Italy I: Transition and transformation in Medieval Italy, c. 500-1000, at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge.

Research interests

Italy, c. 750-1500, economic and monetary history, numismatics.

Principal Publications

'A small hoard of Venetian grossi from Jordan' in Cercetari numismatice (Muzeul national de istorie a României) 12 (2006), in press

'Florentine mint-masters abroad and the commercial revolution of the Middle Ages' in Travel and Movement in Medieval and Renaissance Italy (Aldershot: Ashgate Publishers), in press

'The imitation gold florin of the «ex» marquises of Carretto, Piedmont, c. 1350' in Rivista italiana di numismatica e scienze affini 107 (2006), 447-69

'The land market in pre-industrial Europe: some implications of recent research on the rural economy (review essay)', Le Marché de la terre au Moyen Âge, eds Laurent Feller & Chris Wickham (Rome: École française de Rome, 2005; Collection de l'École française de Rome 350), 49-61 & 659-60

'The petty coinage of Genoa under the early doges, 1339-1396', XIII Congreso internacional de numismática (Madrid, 15-19 septiembre 2003): Actas – Proceedings – Actes, eds C. Alfaro, C. Marcos & P. Otero, 2 vols (Madrid: Ministerio de cultura, 2005), 1295-1304.

'Early imitations of the gold florin of Florence and the imitation florin of Chivasso in the name of Theodore I Paleologus, Marquis of Montferrat (1306-1338)', Numismatic Chronicle 164 (2004), 183-199

'L'agontano di Chiusi' (co-authored with Lucia Travaini), L'agontano: una moneta d'argento per l'Italia medievale, Convegno in ricordo di Angelo Finetti, Trevi (Perugia), 11-12 ottobre 2001, ed. Lucia Travaini (Perugia: Centro Stampa della Regione di Umbria, 2003), 141-152

'The population of Florence before the Black Death: survey and synthesis', Journal of Medieval History 28 (2002), 93-129.

'Population growth and productivity: rural-urban migration and the expansion of the manufacturing sector in thirteenth century Florence', in Labour and labour markets between town and countryside (middle ages - 19th century), eds Bruno Blondé, Eric Vanhaute, Michèle Galand (Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols Publishers, 2001), 82-110.

'The monetary reforms of Charlemagne and the circulation of money in early medieval Campania', Early Medieval Europe 6 (1997), 25-45.

Forthcoming: Florence before Dante: the early development of the Florentine economy, c. 1115-1265 (under contract with Brill Publishers, Leiden, Netherlands)