March 26-28, 2026, at Freie Universität Berlin
Conveners: Thomas Ertl (FU Berlin) and Colin Arnaud (U Münster)

How much was a house in a good urban location in the Middle Ages? Who could afford which type of house? How much did prices vary between different cities? There are numerous Late Medieval sources (land registers, deeds, tax records, etc.) that provide detailed information about property transactions and values. However, despite the impressive amount of data, comprehensive analyses remain scarce. At the conference, we aim to explore and discuss critical questions concerning the development of prices over time in single locations and the varying price levels across European cities during the late Middle Ages (up to the 16th century), seeking to identify patterns, causes, and broader implications.

Programme :

Thursday, March 26
14:00–14:30 Welcome and Introduction (Colin Arnaud and Thomas Ertl)

Panel 1: Property Market in Contexts of Legal and Ethnical Pluralism
14:30–15:30 Xinyu Wang (Cologne): From Marginal Space to Prime Waterfront: The Spatial Revaluation of the Golden Horn in Medieval Constantinople (5th–12th centuries)
16:00–17:00 Alexandr Osipian (Leipzig): Urban Property Prices in the situation of legal pluralism and spatial segregation in the multi-confessional city of Lemberg in 1382-1527

Keynote Lecture
17:00–18:00 Catherine Casson (Manchester – presenter): Property and Protest: Bury St Edmunds, 1300-1450 (paper written together with Mark Casson)

Friday, March 27
Panel 2: Property Prices in Basel
9:00–10:00 Ismail Prada Ziegler (Bern): Economic and Spatial Dynamics of Late Medieval and Early Modern Basel’s Property Market: A Digital Replication and Extension
10:00-11:00 Aline Vonwiller (Basel): Medieval Value: House Prices in the Context of Interest Rates and Market Dynamics in Basel (1400-1530)

Panel 3: Property Prices in Medieval Germany
11:30-12:30 Xenia Miller (Hannover): Domum suam – Values of houses and their spatial reference in late medieval Mühlhausen

Panel 4: Medieval Austrian Towns
14:00–15:00 Herbert Krammer (Wien) Moving the Immovables: Practices of Inheriting, Buying, and Transferring Property in Late Medieval Klosterneuburg
15:00–16:00 Thomas Ertl (Berlin): Property Prices in 15th-Century Vienna

Panel 5: Netherlands
16:30–17:30 Arie van Steensel (Groningen): Private Property Prices in Sixteenth-Century Leiden

Saturday, March 28

Panel 6: Italy
9:00–10:00 Cécile Troadec (Clermont): Access to housing for the popular classes in Italian cities (13th-15th centuries): buy or rent?
10:00–11:00 Colin Arnaud (Münster): Property Prices in Bologna: A comparison between 1296 and 1385

11:30–12:30 Concluding Discussion

Source : H-Soz-Kult