Dr James Shaw

M.A. (Edin.), Ph.D. (E.U.I. Florence)

School of History, Philosophy and Digital Humanities

Senior Lecturer in Early Modern History

Director of Education

j.e.shaw@sheffield.ac.uk
+44 114 222 2591
9 Mappin Street

Full contact details

Dr James Shaw
School of History, Philosophy and Digital Humanities
9 Mappin Street
Sheffield
S1 4DT
Profile

I joined the University of Sheffield in 2005. Before this I was an undergraduate at the University of Edinburgh and completed my Ph.D. at the (1998). I subsequently held a at the University of Oxford, for a research project examining petty crime and small claims litigation in early modern Venice. This research won a British Academy Competition for Postdoctoral Monographs and following publication in 2006 as , was awarded of the Royal Historical Society.

In collaboration with , I was Postdoctoral Researcher for the project Selling Health in Renaissance Italy from 2002 to 2005, based at the University of Sussex and subsequently Queen Mary University of London. The project examined how pharmaceutical remedies were bought and sold in Renaissance Italy. Through quantitative analysis of the accounts of an apothecary shop, it showed how such businesses acted as intermediaries between changing medical theories and contemporary practice. At the same time, the project emphasized how exchange in this period was strongly embedded in personal connections. This research was published in 2011 as . See the reviews in the , and Journals.

Additionally, I won a in 2009.

Research interests

My research focuses on the relationship of legal structures (laws, practices, institutions) to the daily practices of economic life. During 2009-10, I examined credit disputes in early modern Florence through close study of supplications for justice. These sources are invaluable for presenting credit disputes embedded in a narrative of personal circumstances, providing rich evidence of market practices, laws and ethics, as well as key aspects of the operation of justice, authority and power in the early modern state.

My new project applies this approach to early modern Venice using denunciations for fraud. Here plaintiffs typically made a moral case that their contractual relations must be interpreted with regard to personal circumstances, in contrast to the normally dry and formal records of debt litigation. I aim to use these records to explore what ethical and legal concepts meant in practice for those operating in the market.

I am presently seeking to develop a research group with interests in the operation of markets, laws and ethics in the early modern period. I welcome contacts with other researchers working in this field, particularly where the approach spans legal, economic and social history.

Publications

Books

  • Shaw J & Welch E (2011) Making and Marketing Medicine in Renaissance Florence. Editions Rodopi B.V..
  • Shaw JE (2006) The Justice of Venice: Authorities and Liberties in the Urban Economy, 1550-1700. OUP/British Academy.
Back to top

Edited books

  • Middleton S & James Shaw (Ed.) (2017) Market Ethics and Practices, c.1300–1850. Routledge.
Back to top

Journal articles

  • Shaw JE (2025) . Continuity and Change.
  • SHAW JE (2022) . Gender & History, 34(2), 556-557.
  • Shaw JE (2020) . The American Historical Review, 125(5), 1992-1993.
  • Shaw J (2020) . Quaderni storici, 2020(1), 185-210.
  • Shaw JE (2020) The Lion's Share: Inequality and the Rise of the Fiscal State in Preindustrial Europe. AMERICAN HISTORICAL REVIEW, 125(5), 1992-1993.
  • Shaw JE (2020) "CONTRACTS DAMNED BY GOD AND BY THE WORLD" LITIGATING THE JUST PRICE IN XVIITH CENTURY VENICE. QUADERNI STORICI, 55(1), 185-210.
  • Shaw JE (2018) . Historical Journal, 61(3), 623-642.
  • Shaw JE (2016) Was the renaissance a new age? Assessing the early modern period. Modern History Review, 19(2).
  • Shaw JE (2012) . Past and Present, 215(1), 51-83.
  • Shaw JE (2011) Zanobi Machiavelli, Battista Strozzi and the high altar of the Badia Fiesolana. The Burlington Magazine, 153(1305), 794-796.
  • Shaw JE (2010) . The American Historical Review, 115(2), 631-632.
  • Shaw J (2008) . The English Historical Review, CXXIII(500), 183-184.
  • SHAW J (2007) . History, 92(305), 115-116.
  • Shaw J (2007) Agents of empire: Spanish ambassadors in sixteenth-century Italy.. HISTORY, 92(305), 115-116.
  • Walker J, de Vivo F & Shaw J (2006) . Rethinking History, 10(3), 323-344.
  • Shaw JE (2002) . Journal of Early Modern History: contacts, comparisons, contrasts, 6(4).
  • Shaw JE () . Renaissance Studies.
Back to top

Book chapters

  • Shaw JE (2022) Reputation, trust and credit In Reinke-Williams T (Ed.), A Cultural History of Shopping, Volume 3 : A Cultural History of Shopping in the Early Modern Age (pp. 169-190). London: Bloomsbury Academic.
  • Shaw JE (2018) In Dermineur E (Ed.), Women and Credit in Pre-Industrial Europe Turnhout: Brepols Publishers.
  • Shaw JE & Middleton S (2017) Introduction: Markets, Ethics, Practices In Middleton S & Shaw JE (Ed.), Market Ethics and Practices, c. 1300–1850 Routledge
  • Shaw JE (2011) Interessi privati e polizia dei mercati a Venezia, sec. XVI-XVII In Antonielli L (Ed.), La polizia del lavoro: il definirsi di un ambito di controllo (Messina, 30 novembre-1 dicembre 2007) (pp. 23-36). Soveria Mannelli: Rubbettino.
  • (2011) Keeping shop. (pp. 53-78).
  • Shaw J & Welch E (2011) MAKING AND MARKETING MEDICINE IN RENAISSANCE FLORENCE Introduction and Acknowledgements, MAKING AND MARKETING MEDICINE IN RENAISSANCE FLORENCE (pp. 17-+).
  • (2011) Medicines. (pp. 233-289).
  • (2011) People and their Purchases. (pp. 81-122).
  • (2011) Recovering debts. (pp. 123-156).
  • (2011) Sugar and spice. (pp. 191-231).
  • (2011) The shop and the city. (pp. 31-51).
  • Shaw J & Welch E (2011) The Shop and the Court Epilogue, MAKING AND MARKETING MEDICINE IN RENAISSANCE FLORENCE (pp. 291-312).
  • (2011) Wax. (pp. 159-189).
  • Shaw JE (2006) Liquidation or Certification? Small Claims Disputes and Retail Credit in Seventeenth-Century Venice In Blondé B, Stabel P & Stobart J (Ed.), Buyers and Sellers: Retail circuits and practices in medieval and early modern Europe (pp. 277-296). Brepols Publishers
  • Shaw JE (2006) Institutional Controls and the Retail of Paintings: The Painters' Guild of Early Modern Venice In Marchi ND & Miegroet HJV (Ed.), Mapping markets for paintings in Europe 1450-1750 (pp. 107-122). Brepols Pub
  • Shaw JE (2004) Justice in the Marketplace: Corruption at the Giustizia Vecchia in Early Modern Venice In Goldgar A & Frost RI (Ed.), Institutional culture in early modern society (pp. 281-316). Leiden: Brill Academic Publishing.
Back to top

Book reviews

  • Shaw J (2023) L’économie ‘du mouchoir’ : crédit et microcrédit à Venise au XVIIIe siècle. Annali Recensioni Online, VI(1).
  • Shaw JE (2019) . The Economic History Review, 72(1), 398-399.
  • Shaw JE (2017) . The English Historical Review, 132(556), 695-697.
  • Shaw JE (2015) . Renaissance Quarterly, 68(4), 1386-1387.
  • Shaw J (2015) . French History, 29(2), 264-264.
  • Shaw JE (2014) . The American Historical Review, 119(5), 1795-1795.
  • Shaw JE (2014) . Social History of Medicine, 27(4), 813-814.
  • Shaw JE (2012) . ENGLISH HISTORICAL REVIEW, 127(524), 164-166.
  • Shaw J (2010) . Medical History, 54(3), 403-404.
  • Shaw JE (2010) Men of Empire: Power and Negotiation in Venice's Maritime State.. AM HIST REV, 115(2), 631-632.
  • Shaw J (2009) . The English Historical Review, CXXIV(511), 1487-1488.
  • SHAW J (2009) . History, 94(315), 391-392.
  • SHAW J (2008) . History, 93(311), 422-423.
  • Shaw J (2008) . The English Historical Review, CXXIII(501), 451-452.
  • Shaw J (2008) . The Economic History Review, 61(1), 252-253.
  • Shaw J (2008) Florence and Tuscany, XIVth-XIXth centuries: Dynamics of an Italian state. ENGLISH HISTORICAL REVIEW, 123(500), 183-184.
  • SHAW J (2007) . History, 92(308), 570-572.
  • SHAW J (2007) . History, 92(306), 259-260.
  • SHAW J (2006) . History, 91(303), 453-453.
Back to top
Research group

Research supervision

I welcome applications from postgraduate students with an interest in the history of early modern Italy, particularly projects adopting social, economic and legal approaches.

Current Students

Second Supervisor

Tobias Gardner

PhD Student (History)
School of History, Philosophy and Digital Humanities

Title: Sheffield and Slavery in the Atlantic World c.1760-1888
Email
tgardner2@sheffield.ac.uk
Photo of Tobias Gardner
Profile picture of Photo of Tobias Gardner

All current students

Completed Students
  • Joe Tryner - The rascal with his fire stick': Gun Culture and Firearms Violence in Sixteenth Century Bologna.
  • Katherine Everitt (second supervisor)- The Role of Trust, Social Capital and Reputation in the Networks and Connections of British Industrialising Cotton-Spinning Mills, c. 1780-1840.
  • Philip Back - ‘If you build it, they will come': the origins of Scotland’s Country Parks.
  • Richard Scott (second supervisor) - Dreams and Passions in Revolutionary England.

Find out more about ¾Ã²Ý¸£Àû in History

Teaching activities

Undergraduate:

  • HST202 - Historians and History
  • HST2010 - The Myth of Venice
  • HST3085/86 - Art, Power and History: Ideals and Reality in Renaissance Florence
  • HST3304 - Debt, Money and Morality

Postgraduate: 

  • HST6055 - Microhistory and the History of Everyday Life
Professional activities and memberships
  • - Fellow
  • - Member

Administrative roles:

I am currently the Director of Postgraduate Studies for the History Department.

Previously, I have served as Exams Officer, Senior Tutor, Level 3 Tutor and Unfair Means Officer.