Tempo, Scales and Circulations: The Lazarets in Eighteenth-Century Trieste

This article reinterprets the circulations between the Mediterranean and continental Europe by studying the lazarets in eighteenth-century Trieste and explaining how they entangled and connected complex and autonomous systems for circulating information, knowledge, people and goods. It focuses on the various perspectives from which the history of lazarets and, more broadly, the history of circulations in an integrated Euro-Mediterranean area can be approached, and shows how the lazarets slowed down circulations, while also ensuring and encouraging them in a context of pandemic risks. In this way, it examines how eighteenth-century Habsburg history contributes to the history of the Mediterranean and inter-cultural exchanges from the perspective of German and Italian sources. In particular it highlights the value of the Litorale collections of the Hofkammer, which are held in the National Archives of Austria in Vienna, and the complementary nature of the Trieste and Vienna deposits. This article is part of the special theme section on Mobility and Displacement in and around the Mediterranean: A Historical Approach, guest-edited by Catia Antunes and Giedrė Blažytė.