Mathieu Harsch

Università di Padova (Italy)

Color names for clothing dyes: between nature and culture

2021-2022: Fall

Mathieu Harsch is a medieval historian specializing in economic history and the history of technology. His doctoral dissertation "Dyeing and natural dyes in the late Middle Ages. Florence, Tuscany, the Mediterranean" deals with the question of dyeing and the economy of natural dyes within a general history of textiles by confronting technical treatises, sources of economic history such as entrepreneurial accounts, and a second-hand scientific literature on the chemistry of dyes or the biology of dye plants. His research extends to related topics such as labor history, commercial history, or color history. At the Academy, he will work on this last topic, especially on the relationship between natural dyes and color names.

Mathieu Harsch holds a Ph.D. from the consortium of the Universities of Padua, Venice Ca' Foscari and Verona in joint supervision with the University of Paris (2020), an M.A. degree from the Universities of Bologna and Paris Diderot (2015), and a B.A. degree from the University of Lorraine (2013). He also taught Medieval Urban History at the Gustave Eiffel University.