Today the Conclave starts in the Sistine Chapel. In a previous post on our blog, @nicolozennaro.bsky.social & @jeroenputtevils.bsky.social wrote about the conclave of 1394. Jeroen now moves to that of 1559 and to the subject of betting on the next pope.

To end this thread and the conference: Nicolò Zennaro (Back2theFuture) presented a chapter from his PhD (which he was still writing at that time). Nicolò uses the wealth of the medieval Datini archive. The title of his talk: The Ermine’s game. Mercantile futures and warfare in late medieval Venice

The passing away of Pope Francis I and the funeral that is about to take place made a few members of the Back to the Future team think about historical futures and the deaths of popes, their funerals and the ensuing conclaves.

Nicolò Zennaro is the first in line and he has found stunning details in the famous letters of the Datini company on the death of Antipope Clement VII in Avignon in 1394. This leads him to reflect on parallels to what is happening today and in the near future. medium.com/@JeroenPutte...

Our team member Nicolò Zennaro will defend his PhD dissertation next week, on Friday 9 May. You can attend when you're in Belgium! He has also written a blogpost on his dissertation for the blog of the Faculty of Arts @uantwerpenfsw.bsky.social of @uantwerpen.be . blog.uantwerpen.be/bladspiegel/...