Corine Maitte is Professor of Early Modern History at Gustave Eiffel University (Marne-la-Vallée), France, and Head of the interdisciplinary laboratory Analyses comparées des pouvoirs. Her research explores the economic and social history of Italy, with a particular focus on the glass and textile sectors, the migration of craftspeople, and the organisation of different forms of labour.Didier Terrier is Emeritus Professor of Economic and Social History at Université Polytechnique des Hauts-de-France, France. His research explores the economic and social history of Northern France and Belgium, with a particular focus on self-writing in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, as well as urban and rural textiles.

• Chapter 1: Work through time, from the 14th to the 18th century.- Chapter 2: Schedules and punctuality (14th-19th centuries).- Chapter 3: What is a working year?.- Chapter 4: Containing labor instability: an ongoing concern (14th-19th centuries).- Chapter 5: Making work more efficient (14th-18th centuries).- Chapter 6: The factory, a laboratory for optimized working hours.- Chapter 7: Work intensification outside the factory.

Corine Maitte is Professor of Early Modern History at Gustave Eiffel University (Marne-la-Vallée), France, and Head of the interdisciplinary laboratory Analyses comparées des pouvoirs. Her research explores the economic and social history of Italy, with a particular focus on the glass and textile sectors, the migration of craftspeople, and the organisation of different forms of labour.Didier Terrier is Emeritus Professor of Economic and Social History at Université Polytechnique des Hauts-de-France, France. His research explores the economic and social history of Northern France and Belgium, with a particular focus on self-writing in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, as well as urban and rural textiles.

• Chapter 1: Work through time, from the 14th to the 18th century.- Chapter 2: Schedules and punctuality (14th-19th centuries).- Chapter 3: What is a working year?.- Chapter 4: Containing labor instability: an ongoing concern (14th-19th centuries).- Chapter 5: Making work more efficient (14th-18th centuries).- Chapter 6: The factory, a laboratory for optimized working hours.- Chapter 7: Work intensification outside the factory.