Gino Luzzatto, born on January 9, 1878, in Padua and deceased on March 30, 1964, in Venice, was an Italian economic historian. He initially worked as a teacher in southern Italy before joining an economic institute in Trieste and later relocated to the University of Venice in 1922, where he eventually became a rector. Luzzatto became a member of the Socialist Party in 1906. However, with the rise of Mussolini's fascists, he faced challenges in publishing his work. He was imprisoned for several months in 1925, and despite his protests, he was compelled to retire in 1938 due to the establishment of Italian racial laws. Luzzatto was from a Jewish household. After the end of the war, he became rector again and led the institute until 1953.
Under the initial influence of Werner Sombart, whose main work he translated, Gino Luzzatto's scientific pursuits gradually shifted towards the study of urban economies, particularly focusing on the late Middle Ages, with Venice being his primary area of interest. His research shed light on the growing influence of merchants over ruling authorities and the manorial aspects of the economy. In the process, he became one of the best experts on the holdings of the Venetian State Archives, which he visited almost daily from 1922 to 1964.
Life and work
Gino Luzzatto was the fifth and last son of Giuseppe and Amelia Salom. His mother was a native of Venice, while his father was from Gorizia. In 1894, following the local tradition for Venetian families, Luzzatto began his studies in humanities (Lettere) at the University of Padua. Additionally, he attended lectures on legal history taught by Nino Tamassia. After completing his doctoral degree, he relocated to Florence and joined the Istituto Superiore Giovanni Marinelli, where he became deeply involved in the research conducted by the geographer Giuseppe Pennesi (1851-1909) concerning voyages of discovery. Notably, his doctoral thesis focused on a 17th-century historian, with no particular economic objective.
Southern Italy, a departure from the "heroic" historiography
Luzzatto went to a high school in the southern Italian city of Potenza. During this period, he engaged in writing studies on modern history, including a piece on Brigantism in Basilicata following the establishment of the Italian state in 1860. However, this particular study remained unfinished.
Karl Lamprecht's publications influenced Luzzatto to concentrate on feudalism's history and society, and less on the "court." Nevertheless, as he moved away from political-dynastic historiography, he was careful not to limit himself to statistically tangible points of view. Individual judgments, situational conditions, and the constellation's uniqueness were as important to him as the notion of supra-individual forces. His polemic against the uncontrolled, methodologically unsupported use of statistics made him known in wider circles for the first time. Without wanting to underestimate the importance of the numerical recording of historical conditions and processes, he nevertheless rejected the "mania of numbers".
Urbino, Pisa, Bari, turn to urban and commercial history (1902-1919) Luzzatto moved from Grosseto in 1901, where he had been teaching to Urbino in 1910 in order to continue his research on the Marche region. Subsequently, he decided to enroll in law at the University of Urbino, not intending to change his professional career but rather to cultivate a systematic approach and provide a counterbalance to the methods of the time. During this period, he dealt with Jewish bankers in ducal Urbino and also explored contemporary economic developments in Russia.
In 1902, Luzzatto was among the first to start working for the magazine Le Marche, which primarily focused on local studies under the editorship of Amedeo Crivellucci (1850-1914). Even after moving to Pisa in 1910, he continued his work. For the first time, Luzzatto's research interests and capabilities became apparent, particularly in his investigations into the "subjugation" of the rural nobility by the municipalities in the Marche region. He frequently explored themes such as the concentration on the markets and crafts in urban areas, the displacement of the feudal rural nobility to the communes, and the development of local laws through their own authority. However, after his work on the Servi, his attention gradually shifted toward urban history, specifically examining the dominance of the Curtes, the farm landlords, within the context of his studies.