Towns and Communication, Volume 1: Communication in Towns

Preface

preface In September 2006 the International Commission for the History of Towns (ICHT) gathered for its annual assembly in Zagreb (Croatia). In order to prepare for this meeting, members of the Commission wrote and received emails or letters inviting them to come to Zagreb or to give a paper at the congress. They answered these invitations in the same way. They came to Zagreb by plane, by train or by car from all over Europe, even from Japan. In Zagreb they made a special round trip in a tramway to visit the city. By bus they visited other towns of Croatia. During this conference, the members had many talks with each other, but they also listened to some of their colleagues giving papers on the historical aspects of communication in towns and had structured discussions afterwards. Most of them had some difficulty understanding the Croatian language spoken all around them in the city, but speaking English or German or French was the easiest way to talk with one another. Through this experience, the members of the Commission practised what communication means: exchanging information and opinions, written or oral, by letter or by electronic mail or by phone, but also by going from one place to another inside a town, from the airport to the center, from the railway station to the university hall, from Zagreb to Varaždin, from Luxembourg, Vienna or Tokyo to Zagreb and so on. And a city, Zagreb, was either the starting point, or the target, or the place where these communications took place. All of these aspects of communication were intended to be treated in a historical perspective during the conference that was organized during the annual meeting of the ICHT. This was the first of a three-year cycle beginning in 2006 with Internal communication in towns in Zagreb, continuing in 2007 in London with Communications between towns, and between towns and their hinterlands and closing 2008 in Lecce with Towns and long-distance and inter-continental communication . Those responsible for the scientific aspects of this cycle were our members Katalin Szende (Hungary) and Finn-Einar Eliassen (Norway) and the local 7 organizer was Neven Budak. Having been elected president of the Commission in Zagreb, I am very glad to thank these colleagues for the good job they have done and, of course, all the contributors from inside and outside the Commission who have given papers on this theme. The innovative and multidisciplinary approach of the ICHT was recognized by the International Committee for Historical Sciences (ICHS), which accepted the theme City, Knowledge and Communication for a joint session at its International Congress to be held in Amsterdam in 2010. The International Commission for the History of Towns (ICHT), affiliated with the ICHS, was founded at the International Congress for Historical Sciences at Rome in 1955 with the aim of facilitating contacts between urban historians and building up a number of research tools. Up to now the Commission has issued the Elenchus fontium historiae urbanae, national bibliographies on urban history, and historical atlases of towns. Following common criteria, these tools facilitate a comparative approach to urban history in time and space. I am sure that the present publication as well as those which will follow for the conferences in London and Lecce will contribute to making the Commission’s work better known by scholars all over the world dealing with urban history. Michel Pauly Professor, University of Luxembourg President of the ICHT preface 8 ...