Stefania Montemezzo is an economic historian specializing in the study of commercial networks and mercantile legal practices in Renaissance Venice. After obtaining a PhD from the University of Verona with a thesis on trade networks between Europe and the Near East during the Renaissance, she has conducted research as a fellow at prestigious institutions such as the University of Bologna, Harvard University’s I Tatti, Aalto University in Helsinki, and the University of Padua, and as visiting fellow at the University of Cambridge, University of St. Andrews, and Université Gustave Eiffel (Paris).

Her work has particularly focused on the role of Venetian merchant courts and the formal and informal strategies employed by merchants to resolve commercial disputes in the 15th-16th centuries. She was the principal investigator of the “JusTrade” project at the University of Padua, which explored the functioning of Renaissance merchant courts in Venice. A second line of research examines the consumption of textiles and luxury goods in Renaissance Italy, as well as the role of peddlers in spreading consumer fashions and trends. She is currently carrying out research on topics such as the availability of fashionable items in artisan households and the dissemination of clothing styles by itinerant vendors.

Among her recent publications are the volume Networks in the Early History of Capitalism: Merchant Practices in Renaissance Venice (Routledge, 2025) and the article “Resilience in conflict: Venetian merchants and the dynamics of trade in wartime in the Renaissance,” published in Business History (Feb. 2025).