Microhistory, proto-industry, knowledges. Remembering Carlo Poni

All the papers here collected have been presented at the seminar Microstoria, proto-indusria, saperi. Ricerche di storia del lavoro oggi ricordando Carlo Poni, organized in October 2019 by the Italian Society of Labour History and the Gramsci Emilia-Romagna Foundation, jointly with the Department of History and Cultures of the University of Bologna. They aim at valuing Carlo Poni’s lesson, outlining how the research paths he set out decades ago, have been evolving over time and are still developing nowadays. The papers mainly focus on his contribution to microhistory (Ginzburg), historical demography (Fornasin), history of technology (Orsini), the concept of proto-industry (Maitte), and finally his involvement in the establishment of historical museums (Ciuffetti). The branching out of each single topic reflects the progressive development into different research fields shaping academic knowledge nowadays. We hope, on the contrary, that these papers will show to what extent Poni’s multidisciplinary approach is still crucial to grasp the complexity of our past.