Editorial Preface. The Urban Transition Changes in Progress

Prof. of Economic History in the «Magna Graecia» University (Catanzaro), P.M. has been Director of the Institute of Studies on Mediterranean Societies (ISSM-CNR) of the Italian National Research Council (CNR) from September 2002 until November 2013. P.M. received his education in Humanities at Scuola Normale Superiore (Pisa) and University of Pisa; has been Professor of Economic History in the University of Pisa (1977-94) and Economic History and Economics in the University «Magna Graecia» in Catanzaro (1994-2002). He is President of the European School for Training in Economic and Social Historical Research (ESTER)(University of Leiden) from 2000, member of the Scientific Committee and Giunta of the Istituto Internazionale di Storia Economica “F. Datini” (from 2008). He is member of the editorial board of the journals “Società e Storia” and “Rivista di Storia Economica”, corresponding editor of the “International Review of Social History” (from 1993), member of Consejo di “Investigaciones de Historia Economica“, member of the board of “TeMA Journal of Land Use, Mobility and Environment”, has been member of the board of the Italian Society of Historical Demography (SIDES)(2003-09), of the Executive Committee of the programme of Ramses2 coordinated by the Maison de la Méditerranée in Aix-en-Provence (2008-09), and Visiting Professor in the University of Economics of Bratislava (2012). He is member of the Editorial Board of the “Economic History Review”.

P.M. won the Figuerola Prize in September 2013 (for the article is When did England overtake Italy? Medieval and Early Modern Divergence in Prices and Wages). P.M. is member of the Academia Europaea (The Academy of Europe) from 2014.