Carlo M. Cipolla Knihy

Dva vtipné eseje italského historika, poprvé vydané v roce 1976 v USA a roku 1988 v Itálii, popisují dva zásadní fenomény lidské společnosti: pepř a lidskou blbost. Autor spatřuje v pepři hybatele evropských dějin a původce technologického pokroku společnosti od starověku po průmyslovou revoluci a své postoje dokládá konkrétními historickými příklady. V hlupácích pak vidí skupinu mnohem mocnější nežli různé mafie a průmyslové lobby a explicitně formuluje pět zákonů lidské blbosti, z nichž vyplývají základní kritéria pro dělení osob podle toho, jak prospívají, nebo škodí sobě a druhým.

How did a time-keeping device affect the growth of crafts guilds and the scientific research that led to the Industrial Revolution? Clocks and Culture is a brief history of the changes wrought by and on Europe over four hundred years due to technological advances in timekeeping and the rise of a time- aware culture. In his introduction, Anthony Grafton, Henry Putnam University Professor of History at Princeton University, puts this classic book in perspective. schovat popis

From back cover: 'This book presents a global view of the demographic and economic development of mankind. Professor Cipolla has deliberately adopted a new point of view and has tried to trace the history of the great trends in population and wealth which have affected mankind as a while. For it would have been inadequate to regard such a global history as being merely the sum total of national economic histories in abridged form. Among the massive problems that face the human race the author emphasizes the demographic explosion, the economic backwardness of vast areas, the spread of industrial revolution and of technical knowledge,. Whilst hte theoretical approach can help our analysis of these problems, Professor Cipolla believes that they can only wholly grasped and solved when they are studied in their full historical perspective.

This book examines the methodological problems that have arisen from the clash of these two cultures, and aims to provide an account of the nature and substance of economic history.

Literacy and Development in the West( Pelican Original)

Cipolla untersucht die Geschichte der Uhr vom 14. bis zum 18. Jahrhundert. Seine kulturgeschichtliche Betrachtung ist in zwei große Abschnitte geteilt: die handwerkliche Entstehung der mechanischen Uhr in Europa und, zweitens, ihre Rolle im Tauschhandel mit Asien.

Eine höchst amüsante Satire auf bedeutungsschweres wissenschaftliches Schreiben Im ersten Teil weist in einem ausgefeilten Argumentationssystem nach, daß der Pfeffer die treibende Kraft in der wirtschaftlichen Entwicklung des Mittelalters gewesen sei, also das, was Marx den Motor der Geschichte nennt. Angesichts dieser unglaublichen Entwicklung, in die erstaunlicherweise Gott der Herr, goldene Münzen, Eremiten, Feudalherren und sarazenische Frauen verwickelt waren, verloren als einzige die Italiener nicht ihren Kopf: Deshalb beendeten sie das Mittelalter durch die Erfindung der Renaissance. Im zweiten Traktat erläutert er die fünf Prinzipien der menschlichen Dummheit.

Sono tre storie curiose, fuori dal comune, ma tutte rigorosamente vere. La prima storia è ambientata nel '300 e riguarda una famiglia fiorentina potentissima dall'intensa attività finanaziaria. Andati a picco per insolvenza della corona inglese cui avevano prestato somme ingentissime, ne combinano di tutti i colori: si danno a intrighi politici, al brigantaggio, agli omicidi, all'attività di falsari. La seconda storia riguarda una truffa clamorosa che, intorno alla metà del '600, ebbe come protagonisti alcuni nobili liguri. Nell'ultima storia Cipolla si sofferma su un'opera apparsa nella seconda metà del '600 in Francia, Le parfait négociant, una sorta di Bibbia del commercio e delle frodi relativa ai vari paesi d'Europa.