Identità, valore, prezzo: nuove proposte di analisi e comparazione sul mercato degli schiavi a Napoli in età moderna

This article aims at studying the formation process of personal identities of men forced to work at the oar in Naples and Valencia during the 16th and 17th centuries. At that time, Naples and Valencia were two of the most important slave markets as well as trading cities of the Spanish Empire. The research will take into account three types of sources that have remained largely unexplored by historiography to date, and especially a book dating back to 1585 detailing the biographies of 657 slaves. This will make it possible to focus in depth on slaves identities and in particular on the estimation process regarding their price. Who were the slaves? How was their price calculated? What was the relationship between their price and personal 'identity'? What was the difference between their use-value and trading value? In general, what were the negotiation processes underpinning the markets of men and what was the role played by the slaves themselves? These are the main questions the project aims to answer. The idea is that aspects involved in negotiation processes were at the same time economic, social and psychological, insofar as they significantly affected self-perception.