Elizabeth Comuzzi

Ph. D. History, 2020, University of California, Los Angeles

M.A. History, 2014, University of California, Los Angeles

B.A. English Literature and Medieval Studies (High Honors), 2011, Swarthmore College

I am broadly interested in the social and economic history of the late medieval Mediterranean (c 1100-1450), with a particular focus on Catalonia in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. My work often relies on the use of notarial registers. These are books of legal and economic acts (such as wills, pre-nuptial agreements, labor contracts, sales, loans, etc.), which record the day to day activities of common medieval men and women. Some of my previous research projects have focused on apprenticeship, artisanal labor and guild formation, trade between Tuscany and Catalonia, the organization and spread of notarial culture, and the extent of “oligarchy” in medieval town governments.

I am currently working on a book that examines the early-fourteenth-century European transition from widespread economic growth to enduring decline, often called the “crisis of the fourteenth century,” focusing on the Pyrenean town of Puigcerdà, and its surrounding valley, Cerdanya, from 1177 to 1360. In this work I argue that in the case of Puigcerdà, institutional shifts, often related to the Catalano-Aragonese and Mallorcan states’ desire for greater territorial control and consolidation, were a significant driver of both economic growth and decline during this period. This fact suggests that we should give greater attention to state-building and state-directed institutional changes, particularly those related to medieval states’ desire for greater jurisdictional and territorial power, in enabling economic growth and economic decline in the later middle ages, and bolsters the view that the economic crisis of the fourteenth century should be partly understood as a spasm of growing pains in the process of European state centralization and integration.

I am also working on a variety of other projects, including studies on the varied customs of marital assigns (donations given at marriage, such as dowry, dower, etc.) in medieval Catalonia and their impact on women’s assets and economic activities, on the extent of coinless exchange in medieval Pyrenean trade, on common people’s motivations for participating in the Iberian “Reconquest,” and on women’s participation and representation in medieval Catalan notarial acts. I am also interested in standards of living and inequality in the middle ages, and am in the process of co-editing a primary source reader on wealth, poverty and inequality in late medieval Europe.

My research has been supported by a Fulbright U.S. Student Grant to Spain, a Frederic C. Lane Dissertation Grant from the Medieval Academy of America, and a UCLA Lynn White Fellowship, among other sources.

“Guild formation and the artisanal labour market: the example of Castelló d’Empúries, 1260-1310.” Journal of Medieval History 48, no.3 (2022): 368-395.

“Mediterranean Trade in the Pyrenees: Italian Merchants in Puigcerdà 1300-1350.” Pedralbes 40, (2020): 55-74.

Undergraduate: 

HIST 1300: Understanding Historical Change: Medieval

HIST 3050: Christians, Muslims and Jews in Medieval Iberia

HIST 3216: Rich and Poor in the Middle Ages

HIST 3301: Medieval Women's Lives 

Graduate:

HIST 6155: Medieval Towns: Urbanization and Urban Life in Medieval Europe

HIST 7024/8024: Proseminar/Seminar: Making Money in the Middle Ages

MVST 5071: Archives, Sources and Materials for Medievalists 

I am not currently available to serve as a dissertation advisor to PhD students. I am available to serve as a committee member for graduate students admitted by my colleagues and in that capacity I am happy to answer questions from prospective students whose interests overlap with my own. 

Available on Request