Acknowledgments
The present volume is the result of the international workshop Fire Management in the Early Modern Age: Knowledge, Technology, Economy, held at the University of Neuchâtel on 16–17 September 2021. The event was supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) as part of the research project Mesure du temps, chimie et cuisine: formalisation des pratiques au XVIIe et au XVIIIe siècle (grant number 100011_184856).
This book contains a selection of the papers presented at the conference as well as new contributions (chapters 2, 8 and 10). Chapter 10 is the English version of an article originally published in French under the title “Ce que la lutte contre l’incendie nous apprend de la police urbaine au XVIIIe siècle”, Orages, Littérature et culture (1760–1830) 10 (2011) 17–36. We are grateful to Catherine Denys and the editors of Orages for agreeing to publish an updated version of this text in our volume.
We would like to thank the University of Neuchâtel for its practical help in organising the workshop, the editorial staff of Brill’s Intersections series for their support, and all the libraries and institutions that allowed us to reproduce images from their collections.
We are grateful to Mark F. Rogers for revising the English texts of the non- native authors. Special thanks to Nadège Barbezat and Catherine Herr-Laporte for their help in organising the workshop, and to Aude Monié for her assistance in proofreading the volume.
Gianenrico Bernasconi and Marco Storni
January 2024