A German Barber-Surgeon in the Atlantic Slave Trade. The Seventeenth-Century Journal of Johann Peter Oettinger, edited and translated by Craig Koslofsky and Roberto Zaugg, University of Virginia Press (series: Studies in Early Modern German History), Charlottesville 2020.  

As he traveled across the Holy Roman Empire and the Netherlands and sailed on Dutch and Brandenburg slave ships to the Caribbean and Africa from 1682 to 1696, the young German barber-surgeon Johann Peter Oettinger (1666–1746) recorded his experiences in a detailed diary, discovered by Roberto Zaugg and Craig Koslofsky in a Berlin archive. Oettinger’s journal describes shipboard life, trade in Africa, the horrors of the Middle Passage, and the sale of enslaved captives in the Caribbean. Translated here for the first time, A German Barber-Surgeon in the Atlantic Slave Trade documents Oettinger’s journeys across the Atlantic, his work as a surgeon, his role in the purchase and branding of enslaved Africans, and his experiences in France and the Netherlands. His descriptions of Amsterdam, Curaçao, St. Thomas, and Suriname, as well as his account of societies along the coast of West Africa, from Mauritania to Gabon, contain rare insights into all aspects of Europeans’ burgeoning trade in African captives in the late seventeenth century.

Reviews and media coverage:

- New West Indian Guide / Nieuwe West-Indische Gids, 97 (2023), pp. 144-145. https://brill.com/view/journals/nwig/97/1-2/article-p144_15.xml, 6 April 2023.

- H-Sci-Med-Tech / H-Net Reviews, September 2022, https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=57770

- Schweizerische Zeitschrift für Geschichte, 72 (2022), pp. 284-285.

- Europe Now, 5 April 2022.

- African Studies Review, 4 April 2022, doi:10.1017/asr.2022.21

- Canadian Journal of African Studies, 2021, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00083968.2021.1981602

- UZH Magazin, 2021, n. 1, p. 69. 

- Conversations at the Washington Library (podcast 196 and 197, 2021)

- Illinois News Bureau (24/02/2021)

Union in Separation. Diasporic Groups and Identities in the Eastern Mediterranean (1100-1800), ed. by Georg Christ, Franz-Julius Morche, Roberto Zaugg, Wolfgang Kaiser, Stefan Burkhardt and Alexander D. Beihammer, Viella (series: Viella Historical Research), Roma 2015, 821 pp. 

Union in Separation presents a series of case studies on diasporic groups in the late medieval and early modern Mediterranean and Black Sea regions. It explores how Armenian, Byzantine/Greek, Florentine, Genoese, Hospitaller, Jewish, Mamluk, and Venetian communities characterized by diasporic identities and inserted into local contexts navigated religious and socio-ethnic boundaries as well as other categories of difference. The volume draws on a wide range of historical and social-scientific methods and offers new perspectives on the arbitration of difference in the wider eastern Mediterranean from Tana to Cairo and Marseille to Isfahan prior to the emergence of nation states. It provides not only an analytical toolbox for historical diaspora studies but also reveals how, under the looming threat of crusade and within the daily routines of trade, diasporic groups and their hosts negotiated modes of coexistence that oscillated between cooperation and conflict, integration and rejection,  union and separation.

Reviews:
- Renaissance Quarterly 70/3 (2017), pp. 1108-1110
- Zeitschrift für historische Forschung, 44/2 (2017), pp. 303-305.
- Archivio Veneto, sesta serie, 12 (2016), pp 169-181.

Joseph Furttenbach, Lebenslauff, 1652-1664, edited by Kaspar von Greyerz, Kim Siebenhüner and Roberto Zaugg, Böhlau (series: Selbstzeugnisse der Neuzeit), Köln 2013, 358 pp.

Joseph Furttenbach  (1591-1667) wirkte als Architekt, Ingenieur, Baumeister, Sammler, Chronist und Tagebuchschreiber in der ersten Hälfte des 17. Jahrhunderts. Seine autobiographischen Aufzeichnungen waren bislang unveröffentlicht geblieben. Sie werfen faszinierende Schlaglichter auf das Leben eines protestantischen Vermittlers italienischer Barockkultur im Süden des Alten Reiches, auf die kulturellen und sozialen Aktivitäten eines Kunstkammerbsitzers sowie den Alltag eines Stadtbaumeisters und frommen Lutheraners in der Reichsstadt Ulm.

Reviews:
- Zeitschrift für historische Forschung, 43/1 (2016),  pp. 199-201.
- Ulm und Oberschwaben, 59 (2015), pp. 375-377.
- Sehepunkte, 15/1 (2015)
- Mitteilungen des Instituts für Österreichische Geschichtsforschungs, 122 (2014), pp. 441-443.
See as well the stimulating reflections by Sebastian Fitzner

Kaspar von Greyerz, Von Menschen, die glauben, schreiben und wissen. Ausgewählte Aufsätze, edited by Kim Siebenhüner and Roberto Zaugg, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2013, 260 pp.

Kaspar von Greyerz hat mit seinen Arbeiten zur Selbstzeugnisforschung und zur Religions- und Wissensgeschichte der Frühen Neuzeit die historiografischen Debatten maßgeblich mitgeprägt. Dieser Band versammelt seine wichtigsten Texte aus fünf Jahrzehnten, die zentrale Fragen der Frühneuzeitforschung  berühren: Wie sehr war die Reformation von Brüchen und Kontinuitäten geprägt? Was bewegte gemeine Leute zur Reformation überzutreten? Wie lässt sich eine politisch- konfessionelle Geschichte des Oberrheins schreiben? Wie erlebte ein englischer Puritaner seinen alltäglichen Gott? Wo verlaufen die frühneuzeitlichen Grenzen zwischen Religion, Magie und Konfession? Welche Beharrungskräfte besaßen Alchemie, Hermetismus und Magie in der wissenschaftlichen Revolution? Und: Ist das letzte Wort zu Selbstzeugnissen schon gesprochen?

Reviews:
- Zeitschrift für historische Forschung, 42/3 (2015),  pp. 508-509.
- Revue d'histoire et de philosophie religieuses, 95/4 (2015), 505-506. - Das historisch-politische Buch, 6 (2014), pp. 573-574.
- Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 27.11.2013.

Roberto Zaugg, Stranieri di antico regime. Mercanti, giudici e consoli nella Napoli del Settecento, Viella (series: I libro di Viella), Roma 2011,  336 pp.

Negli Stati contemporanei, ideologicamente fondati sui principi dell’uguaglianza e della sovranità popolare, la distinzione tra cittadino e straniero costituisce una frontiera carica di significati politici, di meccanismi di esclusione e di potenzialità conflittuali. E prima? Cos’era lo “straniero” negli Stati di antico regime, in cui mancava una legittimazione nazionale e l’uguaglianza di fronte alla legge non era lontanamente contemplata? Quali diritti avevano i migranti e con quali discriminazioni dovevano fare i conti? Puntando lo sguardo sulla Napoli settecentesca – una metropoli mediterranea attraversata da una pluralità di flussi migratori e caratterizzata dalla presenza di numerose “nazioni” mercantili – questo libro cerca di fornire delle risposte a tali domande, mostrando cosa significasse essere straniero di fronte ad un doganiere del porto, agli occhi di un ufficiale di polizia, nella percezione del governo e, soprattutto, nelle aule di uno dei numerosi tribunali che si contendevano il controllo della città.

Reviews:
- Traverse, 2014/2, pp. 168-170.
- Journal of Modern Italian Studies, 2014/2, pp. 186-188.
- Revue suisse d'histoire, 2013/2, pp. 314-316.
- Archivio storico italiano, 2013/2, pp. 405-406.
- Le Carte e la Storia, 2012/1, pp. 127-128.

Le pouvoir en ville. Espaces, cultures matérielles, scénographies en Afrique avant le XX^e siècle / Power in the City. Spaces, Material Cultures, Scenographies in Africa before the 20_^th century, special issue of Afriques, 11 (2020), (with Clélia Coret and Gérard Chouin).

Quels nouveaux questionnements émergent plusieurs décennies après les premières études académiques ? Quelles sont les réponses apportées et quelles sources sont mobilisées ? Ce numéro thématique propose un bilan historiographique des recherches menées sur les villes, tout en s’inscrivant dans les réflexions méthodologiques les plus récentes autour de la question des relations entre le territoire urbain et l’exercice du pouvoir avant le XX^e siècle, à travers ses aspects matériels et symboliques.

Unternehmen, Institutionen, Territorien, edited by Pierre Eichenberger, Matthieu Leimgruber and Roberto Zaugg, special issue of Traverse 26/3 (2019).

After a phase in which cultural history had dominated the scene, social and economic history experience renewed interest. On this behalf, scholars are facing a variety of challenges, in particular divide between the economically interested historical science and the historically interested economics. This special issue of Traverse brings together contributions that explore the interactions between three classical themes of social and economic history: companies, institutions and territories. In this way, it aims at contributing the debate on the social and geographical embedding of entrepreneurial activities in different historical epochs.

Guerre, maladie, empire, edited by Roberto Zaugg, special issue of Histoire, médecine et santé 10 (2016).

This special issue discusses the role of military physicians in European colonies in the Caribbean, Africa, the Mediterranean and South-East Asia, as well as forms of inter-imperial cooperation and cross-cultural exchange in the production and circulation of medical knowledge about tropical diseases during the long 19th century.

Frodi marittime tra norme e istituzioni (secc. XVII-XIX) / Maritime frauds between norms and institutions (17th-19th c.), edited by Biagio Salvemini and Roberto Zaugg, special issue of Quaderni Storici, 48/143 (2013). 

This special issue of «Quaderni Storici» examines the relations between norms, institutions and economic behaviour with regard to the increasing regulation of maritime trade in the age of mercantilism and from the perspective of those widespread illegal practices performed by social actors. It argues that, in Mediterranean and Atlantic commerce, frauds were not so much the result of a lack of norms and of institutional control. Rather, they emerged through an intense interaction between social actors and institutional powers and through a manipulative use of legal norms.

«Intrecci transimperiali nell'Atlantico moderno: storiografia accademica e attivismo decoloniale in Germania e in Svizzera», Storica 79 (2021), pp. 9-51.

«Les villes en Afrique avant 1900. Bilan historiographique et perspectives de recherche», Afriques 11 (2020), https://journals.openedition.org/afriques/3043 (with Clélia Coret and Gérard Chouin).

«Cities in Africa before 1900. Historiography and Research Perspectives», Afriques 11 (2020),

https://journals.openedition.org/afriques/3088 (with Clélia Coret and Gérard Chouin).

«L'Italia nella storia globale. Un forum», Rivista storica svizzera 70/2 (2020), p. 261-282, (with Georg Christ, Sabina Brevaglieri and Marco Rovinello).

«Italien in der Globalgeschichte. Ein Forum», Schweizerische Zeitschrift für Geschichte 70/2 (2020), p. 237-260, (with Georg Christ, Sabina Brevaglieri and Marco Rovinello).

«Unternehmen, Institutionen, Territorien», Traverse 26/3 (2019), pp. 7-12, (with Pierre Eichenberger and Matthieu Leimgruber). 

«Entreprises, institutions, territoires», Traverse 26/3 (2019), pp. 13-19, (with Pierre Eichenberger and Matthieu Leimgruber). 

«The king’s Chinese spittoon. Global commodities, court culture, and Vodun in the kingdoms of Hueda and Dahomey (seventeenth to nineteenth centuries)», Annales. Histoire, Sciences Sociales - English Edition 73 (2018), special issue Microanalysis and Global History, edited by Romain Bertrand and Guillaume Calafat, pp. 115-153, https://doi.org/10.1017/ahsse.2020.7  

«Le crachoir chinois du roi. Marchandises globales, culture de cour et vodun dans les royaumes de Hueda et du Dahomey (XVIIe-XIXe siècle)», Annales. Histoire, Sciences Sociales 73 (2018), special issue Micro-analyse et histoire globale, edited by Romain Bertrand and Guillaume Calafat, pp. 119-159. 

«Travelling and writing between England and Nigeria. An interview with Noo Saro-Wiwa», Études de lettres 305 (2017), special issue Voir et lire l'Afrique contemporaine. Repenser les identités et les appartenances culturelles, edited by Christine Le Quellec Cottier and Irena Wyss, pp. 145-154.

«Hermes, the Leviathan, and the grand narrative of New Institutional Economics. The quest for development in the eighteenth-century Kingdom of Naples», Journal of Modern European History 15 (2017), pp. 109-129, (with Alida Clemente).

«Guerre, maladie, empire. Les services de santé militaires en situation coloniale pendant le long XIXe siècle», Histoire, médecine et santé 10 (2016), pp. 9-16.

«Guerres napoléoniennes, savoirs médicaux, anthropologie raciale. Le médecin militaire Antonio Savaresi entre Égypte, Caraïbes et Italie», Histoire, médecine et santé 10 (2016), pp. 17-44, (with Andrea Graf).

«Les siècles des Oettinger. Écrits et mémoires d'une famille allemande au fil des générations (1682-1936)», Études de lettres 300 (2016),  special issue Appel à témoins. Écrits personnels et pratiques socioculturelles (XVIe-XXe siècles), edited by Danièle Tosato-Rigo, pp. 183-216.

«Guglielmo Francesco Galletti. Un tipografo e giornalista valsesiano nella Parigi rivoluzionaria», de Valle Sicida 26 (2016), pp. 121-153.

«Ein einzig Volk? Schweizer Migranten in Neapel (18.-20. Jahrhundert)», Schweizerisches Jahrbuch für Wirtschafts- und Sozialgeschichte 29 (2015), special issue Die Schweiz anderswo. AuslandschweizerInnen – SchweizerInnen im Ausland, edited by Caroline Arni, Jon Mathieu, Brigitte Studer, Laurent Tissot et Walter Leimgruber, pp. 103-125, (with Daniela Luigia Caglioti and Marco Rovinello).

«Johann Peter Oettinger entre histoire atlantique, mémoire familiale et littérature coloniale (XVIIe-XXe siècle). Un projet de recherche», Revue de l'Institut français d'histoire en Allemagne 6 (2014), http://ifha.revues.org/8068.

«Entre diplomatie et pratiques judiciaires. La condition des étrangers dans l’ancien régime napolitain», Revue d’histoire maritime 17 (2013), pp. 321-333.

«Introduction», in Quaderni Storici, 48/143 (2013), special issue Frodi marittime tra norme e istituzioni (secc. XVII-XIX) / Maritime frauds between norms and institutions (17th-19th c.), pp. 311-332, (with Biagio Salvemini).

«Vom Nutzen der Ausländer und ihrer Auswahl. Aktuelle Debatten im Spiegel migrationspolitischer Utilitarismen der Vormoderne», Schweizerische Zeitschrift für Geschichte 62/2 (2012), pp. 287-298, (a revised Italian version has been published in La cittadinanza molteplice. Ipotesi e comparazioni, edited by Daniele Andreozzi and Sara Tonolo, Edizioni Università di Trieste, Trieste 2016).

«Entre europeização e africanização. A construção visual de Cabo Verde nos postais do periodo colonial», Revista de Estudos Caboverdianos 4 (2012), pp. 167-193.

«Zwischen Europäisierung und Afrikanisierung. Zur visuellen Konstruktion der Kapverden auf kolonialen Postkarten», Fotogeschichte 30/118 (2010), special issue Zeigen, grüssen, senden: Aspekte der fotografisch illustrierten Postkarte, sous la direction de Timm Starl et Eva Tropper, pp. 17-28, (an extended Portuguese version has been published in Revista de Estudos Caboverdianos, 2012).

«Mercanti stranieri e giudici napoletani. La gestione dei conflitti in antico regime», Quaderni Storici 45/133 (2010), pp. 139-171.

«Judging foreigners. Conflict strategies, consular interventions and institutional changes in eighteenth-century Naples», Journal of Modern Italian Studies 13/2 (2008), special issue Elite migrations in modern Italy: patterns of settlement, integration and identity negotiation, edited by Daniela Luigia Caglioti, pp. 171-195.

«I giornali di Guglielmo Francesco Galletti. Imprenditoria tipografica e conformismo politico nella Parigi rivoluzionaria», Rivista Storica Italiana 119/3 (2007), pp. 1001-1047 (a shortened and slightly revised version has been published in de Valle Sicida, 2016). 

«Préface», in Christopher Denis-Delacour, Les Défis de la souveraineté maritime. Navigations napolitaines en mer ottomane (1734-1856), Paris 2021, pp. 15-24.

«In der Hängematte. Anmerkungen zu einer transatlantischen Objektgeschichte zwischen Neuer Welt und Afrika», in Materialized Histories. Eine Festschrift 2.0, edited by Tina Asmussen, Eva Brugger, Maike Christadler, Anja Rathmann-Lutz, Anna Reimann, Carla Roth, Sarah-Maria Schober and Ina Serif, 17 May 2021, https://mhistories.hypotheses.org/?p=1513.

«Na rede de descanso. Notas para uma história transatlântica de um objeto, entre o Novo Mundo e a África», in Materialized Histories. Eine Festschrift 2.0, edited by Tina Asmussen, Eva Brugger, Maike Christadler, Anja Rathmann-Lutz, Anna Reimann, Carla Roth, Sarah-Maria Schober and Ina Serif,, 30 September 2021, https://mhistories.hypotheses.org/?p=5125.

«1683: Großfriedrichsburg - Brandenburg in Afrika», in Deutschland. Globalgeschichte einer Nation, edited by Andreas Fahrmeir, München 2020, pp. 228-231.

«Parasol et hamac – objets de prestige pour élites africaines», in Une Suisse exotique? Regarder l’ailleurs en Suisse au siècle des Lumières, edited by Noémie Étienne, Claire Brizon, Chonja Lee and Etienne Wismer, Zürich 2020, pp. 310-311.

«Parasol and hammock – prestige objets for African elites», in Exotic Switzerland? Looking Outward in the Age of Enlightenment, edited by Noémie Étienne, Claire Brizon, Chonja Lee and Etienne Wismer, Zürich 2020, pp. 304-305.

«Grossfriedrichsburg, the first German colony in Africa? Brandenburg-Prussia, Atlantic entanglements and national memory», in Shadows of Empire in West Africa. New Perspectives on European Fortifications, edited by John Kwadwo Osei-Tutu and Victoria Ellen Smith, Palgrave Macmillan, New York 2018, pp. 33-73.

«Ship’s Surgeon Johann Peter Oettinger. A Hinterlander in the Atlantic Slave Trade, 1682-1696», in Slavery Hinterland. Transatlantic Slavery and Continental Europe, 1680-1850, edited by Felix Brahm and Eve Rosenhaft, Boydell & Brewer, Suffolk 2016, pp. 27-44, (with Craig Koslofsky).

«Protektionsbeziehungen in pluralistischen Gesellschaften. Konsulate und Nationen in italienischen Hafenstädten des Ancien Régimes», in Protegierte und Protektoren. Asymmetrische politische Beziehungen zwischen Partnerschaft und Dominanz (16. bis frühes 20. Jahrhundert), edited by Tilman Haug, Nadir Weber and Christian Windler, Böhlau, Köln 2016, pp. 365-383, (with Guillaume Calafat). 

«'Abbiamo bisogno degli immigrati'. Cittadinanze, discorsi utilitaristici e politiche migratorie dal basso medioevo ai giorni nostri», in La cittadinanza molteplice. Ipotesi e comparazioni, edited by Daniele Andreozzi and Sara Tonolo, Edizioni Università di Trieste, Trieste 2016, pp. 77-88.

«On the Use of Legal Resources and the Definition of Group Boundaries. A Prosopographic Analysis of the French Nation and the British Factory in Eighteenth-Century Naples», in Union in Separation. Diasporic Groups and Identities in the Eastern Mediterranean (1100-1800), edited by Georg Christ, Roberto Zaugg, Franz Julius Morche, Wolfgang Kaiser, Stefan Burkhardt and Alexander Beihammer, Viella, Roma 2015, pp. 699-713. 

«‘bey den Jtalienern recht sinnreiche Gedancken […] gespürt’. Joseph Furttenbach als kultureller Vermittler», in Joseph Furttenbach, Lebenslauff 1652-1664, edited by Kaspar von Greyerz, Kim Siebenhüner and Roberto Zaugg, Böhlau, Köln 2013, pp. 25-43.

«Dreizehn Aufsätze aus fünf Jahrzehnten. Ein Vorwort», in Kaspar von Greyerz, Von Menschen, die glauben, schreiben und wissen. Ausgewählte Aufsätze, edited by Kim Siebenhüner and Roberto Zaugg, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2013, pp. 7-14, (with Kim Siebenhüner).

«Basler Selbstzeugnisse», in Editionen in Basel. Begleitpublikation zur Ausstellung ‘Sammeln, sichten, sichtbar machen. Editionen in Basel’, edited by Sulamith Gehr, Fritz Nagel and Barbara von Reibnitz, Schwabe, Basel 2010, pp. 18-19, (with Kaspar von Greyerz).

«La mediazione contestata. Appunti sui consoli francesi nella Napoli del Settecento», in Lo spazio tirrenico nella ‘grande trasformazione’. Merci, uomini e istituzioni nel Settecento e nel primo Ottocento, edited by Biagio Salvemini, Edipuglia, Bari 2009, pp. 441-454.

«Guerra, rivoluzione, xenofobia. L'espulsione dei francesi dal Regno di Napoli (1793)», in Il Mediterraneo delle città. Scambi, confronti, culture, rappresentazioni, edited by Franco Salvatori, Viella, Roma 2008, pp. 299-322.

«L'insostenibile linearità dell'essere. Cesure politiche e percorsi migratori francesi a Napoli tra Sette e Ottocento», in Donne e uomini migranti. Storie e geografie tra breve e lunga distanza, edited by Angiolina Arru, Daniela Luigia Caglioti and Franco Ramella, Donzelli, Roma 2008, pp. 303-328, (with Marco Rovinello).

Luca Addante, I cannibali dei Borbone. Antropofagia e politica nell’Europa moderna (Roma 2021), Historische Zeitschrift, 315 (2022), pp. 145-147.

Olivier Pavillon, Des Suisses au coeur de la traite négrière. De Marseille à l’Île de France, d’Amsterdam aux Guyanes (1770–1840), (Lausanne 2017), xviii.ch, 10 (2019), pp. 206-209.

Il tesoro di un povero: Il Memoriale di Francesco Bentaccordi, fiorentino in Provenza (1400 ca.), ed. by Simona Brambilla and Jérôme Hayez, (Roma 2016), Renaissance Quarterly, 71 (2018), pp. 289-290.

Teresa Bertilotti, Caro Presidente. Gli italiani scrivono al Quirinale (1946-1971), (Milano 2016), Il mestiere di storico, 9/2 (2017), p. 90.

Pietro Leopoldo d’Asburgo Lorena, Relazione sullo Stato della monarchia (1784), edited by Derek Beales and Renato Pasta (Roma 2013), Mitteilungen des Instituts für Österreichischen Geschichtsforschung, 123/2 (2015), pp. 465-466. 

Calixthe Beyala, Le Christ selon l'Afrique (Paris 2014), Afrika-Bulletin, 158 (2015), p. 14.

Alessandra Brivio, Italiani in Ghana. Storia e antropologia di una migrazione, 1900-1946 (Roma 2013),  Journal of Modern Italian Studies , 20/1 (2015), pp. 146-149

Francesca Trivellato, The Familiarity of Strangers. The Sephardic Diaspora, Livorno, and Cross-cultural Trade in the Early Modern Period (New Haven 2009), The Medieval History Journal, 15 (2012), pp. 225-228.

Joachim Zeller, Weisse Blicke - Schwarze Körper. Afrikaner im Spiegel westlicher Alltagskultur (Erfurt 2010), Fotogeschichte, 31(2011), pp. 66-67.

Margareth Lanzinger, Edith Saurer (eds.), Politiken der Verwandtschaft. Beziehungsnetze, Geschlecht und Recht (Göttingen 2007), Società e Storia, 32 (2009), pp. 695-697.

Marco Bellabarba, La giustizia nell'Italia moderna. XVI-XVIII secolo (Roma 2008), Zeitschrift für historische Forschung, 36 (2009), pp. 683-685.

Peter Sahlins, Unnaturally French. Foreign Citizens in the Old Regime and after (Ithaca 2004), Rivista Storica Italiana, 118 (2006), pp. 295-302.

Bernhard Siegert, Passagiere und Papiere. Schreibakte auf der Schwelle zwischen Spanien und Amerika (München 2006), Storica, 12 (2006), pp. 265-270.