Italian Merchants

Renier Acorre est un marchand et changeur florentin devenu seigneur dans la Brie, receveur de Champagne et panetier à la cour des Capétiens. Son cartulaire privé (Paris, BNF, ms. fr. 8593) est bien connu parce qu'il représente l'un des rares exemples aujourd'hui conservés de cartulaires laïcs privés médiévaux. Par l'étude de ce manuscrit, je mets en lumière dans cet article un phénomène de concentration urbaine à l'échelle d'un quartier de Provins délimité par trois rues : la rue de Jacy, la rue Evrard de Jouy et  la grande rue de Froimantel. En étudiant à la fois la présence au sein de ce patrimoine d'au moins une "grande meson de pierre", ainsi qu'en analysant le privilège comtal permettant au Florentin d'avoir des fontaines dans ses maisons, j'interroge le lien entre achats fonciers et distinction sociale.

The news of the fall of the Byzantine Empire by the army of the
Turks had given a great shock to Europeans. Latin Christians viewed the
fall of Constantinople as a tragic disaster. The conquest of the Byzantine
Empire by the Turks has lead to other economic changes in the
Mediterranean world. French middle school history textbooks explain that the fall of the Byzantine Empire by the Turks was one of the main
reasons for Portugal and Spain discovering an alternative route to the
land of spices in Asia. According to them, after having conquered the
Byzantine Empire, the Ottoman Empire came to obstruct spices, silk, and
gold from Asia from being imported to Europe, and therefore European
countries tried to discover new routes to Asia to get Asian goods. This
interpretation has been still generally accepted. It presents the rise of the price of spices, caused by the decrease of the supplies of spices in
Europe, as evidence.
This article aims to rectify this interpretation by counting on specific
historical sources and data. Firstly, the Byzantine Empire was not located on the main routes of spices coming from Asia to Europe. The two Levantine ports of Alexandria and Beyrouth had been principal places for European merchants to make their purchases of spices for several centuries since Antiquity. Merchants of Venice also, who had a quasi monopoly of spice trades in the Mediterranean in the later Middle Ages, had purchased their spices mostly in Alexandria of Egypt and Beyrouth of Syria. Secondly, several historians’ works proved that spice prices did not rise in the second half of the fifteenth century. Many historical documents also show that spice prices decreased during the second half of the century. Lastly, Mehmed, the conqueror of Constantinople, never wanted to interrupt trade with European merchants. As soon as he had accomplished the conquest of Constantinople, he started conducting commercial negotiations with the Genoese and Latin nations.

Nella tradizione storiografica le ricerche sui radicali mutamenti politico-istituzionali che interessarono le città comunali italiane nel Duecento, e che si manifestarono soprattutto nell'affermazione dei movimenti di Popolo, e quelle sul ruolo centrale svolto dai mercanti italiani nella rivoluzione commerciale duecentesca sono per lo più procedute parallelamente, senza incontrarsi. Eppure i protagonisti dei due fenomeni, la "rivoluzione politica" del Popolo e la rivoluzione commerciale duecentesca, sono gli stessi. Questo libro è il tentativo, applicato a un case study specifico, la città di Lucca, di integrare le due prospettive. Esso è cioè uno studio sul cambiamento sociale che caratterizzò il Duecento lucchese, del quale furono parte il cambiamento economico e il cambiamento politico, la rivoluzione commerciale della seta e la rivoluzione politica del Popolo, e anche il mutamento delle strategie di affermazione individuale e familiare e dei canali di mobilità sociale. I diversi cambiamenti sono analizzati nel loro complesso intrecciarsi e nel loro imperfetto sovrapporsi, come elementi di un unico processo di trasformazione del tessuto sociale cittadino.
Ricollocate nel contesto delle loro interazioni, sia l'espansione economica duecentesca che l'evoluzione politico-istituzionale sono apparse in una luce in parte nuova. Il diverso punto di vista, cioè, ha consentito di giungere ad alcuni risultati inediti tanto sulla storia dell'industria e del commercio di Lucca quanto sulle vicende del Popolo nella città toscana.

Alfonso X el Sabio re di Castiglia e Leon (1252-1284), grande riformatore del diritto e mecenate delle scienze e della cultura, è stato uno dei più famosi monarchi dell’età medievale. Da diversi decenni si studia la sua produzione giuridica, letteraria, musicale e artistica. La sua vasta cultura, che lo rendeva degno erede dello zio Federico II di Svevia, lo portò fin dai primi anni del suo regno a cercare un ruolo da protagonista nello scacchiere europeo, prima con il progetto di una grande crociata in Africa settentrionale, poi con il sogno di cingere la corona del Sacro Romano Impero e di raccogliere l’eredità sveva. L’Autore accende i riflettori su un tema tralatizio della storiografia spagnola suggerendo prospettive e interpretazioni innovative del fecho del Imperio. Mentre gran parte degli storici spagnoli vedono nel sogno imperiale del rey Sabio un tentativo di estendere l’egemonia castigliana sugli altri regni iberici, l’Autore coglie il desiderio di universalità del re castigliano ricostruendo passo passo le relazioni diplomatiche con il papa, i monarchi europei, i principi tedeschi e, soprattutto, con i signori e i comuni italiani, che videro in Alfonso imperatore una speranza di riscossa contro il potere angioino nell’Italia centro-settentrionale. In questo saggio si mette in risalto non solo il punto di vista di Alfonso X, ma anche quello di ogni singolo signore, podestà o capo-fazione ricostruendone l’esperienza politica, le ambizioni, le aspettative e le speranze nell’alleanza con Alfonso X. Il re vedeva in essi la via per arrivare alla corona imperiale e per ottenere una solida base di potere in Italia. In questa impresa investì un enorme capitale in risorse finaziarie, militari, umane e di comunicazione politica. L’apparato propagandistico di cui Alfonso si servì fu degno della sua fama: solenni cerimonie feudali, opere pubbliche e artistiche, musica e poesia di argomento politico sono solo alcuni esempi, messi in luce e analizzati nell’opera. La ricerca, che vuol portare un contributo su un tema dibattuto, è stata condotta utilizzando un’ampia gamma di fonti storiche di diversa natura e documenti editi e inediti provenienti da diversi archivi italiani e spagnoli.

Après une présentation codicologique et une histoire de la transmission du cartulaire de la collégiale séculière Saint-Étienne de Troyes (Paris, BNF, ms. lat. 17098), je propose d'examiner dans cet article le contexte et les acteurs politiques qui ont présidé à la première vague de cartularisation.

The Church’s Ban on Usury and the Rise of Capitalism
Jongkuk Nam
This article aims to review Jacques Le Goff’s thesis that the church’s ban on usury deterred the growth of capitalism in the West. The analysis of decrees of the general councils in the 12-3th centuries reveals that the general councils were focused on punishing manifest usurers lending money at an exorbitant rate of interest, even recognizing the legitimacy of charging moderate interest in the realities of everyday life. On the other hand, many preachers and theologians condemned the taking of any interest, saying that prelates and princes were tolerating or even supporting usurers. Kings of England and France have not been held constant in enforcing the ban on usury, sometimes welcoming or expelling usurers. After considering these different attitudes toward usury, we can conclude that religious and social attack on usury was not so powerful in chorus to deter the growth of capitalism.

(Ewha Woman’s University / namjk0513@ewha.ac.kr)

Key words: usura, usury, capitalism, Jews, Italian Merchants, Innocent III, Jacques Le Goff.

A companhia Neroni-Salviati, pertencente a uma das principais famílias florentinas, foi protagonista de uma intensa atividade comercial e financeira que desde meados do século XV a colocou em contacto com as principais praças da Europa. Com sede em Pisa, especializou-se nas relações com a Península Ibérica, nomeadamente Barcelona, Valência, Cádis, Lisboa e Porto. O presente projeto de doutoramento irá incidir nas relações comerciais com a Península Ibérica, e não apenas com Portugal. A principal fonte para o estudo da atividade desta companhia são os seus livros de contas, desde 1454 até 1470, depositados no Arquivo Salviati de Pisa. O trabalho dividir-se-á em quatro partes interligadas com os principais objetivos do projeto. A primeira parte será dedicada à análise do ponto de vista arquivístico e de tipologia das fontes em estudo, atendendo à sua particularidade técnica sem precedentes para a realidade ibérica do período em causa. A segunda passará por um estudo dos protagonistas, com a finalidade de perceber de que forma se processou a integração da companhia Neroni no grupo Salviati e qual a posição no seio deste grupo, bem como no panorama das companhias mercantis florentinas. A terceira e quarta partes dividem-se de acordo com o tipo de atividade económica: comercial ou financeira. A metodologia aplicada a ambas terá como finalidade traçar o perfil dos negócios da companhia através de um estudo transversal ao espaço geográfico abrangido neste projeto. Procurar-se-á identificar os agentes de negócios e definir os níveis de ligação existentes, com a finalidade de reconstituir a rede social de interesses da companhia, que ultrapassa o âmbito económico e nos permitirá entrever eventuais jogos políticos e institucionais que lhe estão associados.

The Neroni-Salviati’s company based in Pisa, belonging to one of the most important Florentine families, was the protagonist of an intense commercial and financial activity from the mid-15th century with the main European cities. Since this company specializes in relations with Barcelona, Valencia, Cadiz, Lisbon, and Oporto, this Ph.D. project will focus on trade relations with the Iberian Peninsula, and not just with Portugal. The primary source for the research of the activity of this company is their books of accounts, from 1454 until 1470, deposited in the Archivio Salviati at Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa. The work will be divided into four parts connected with the main goals of the project. The first part will be dedicated to an archival and source's typology analysis since its unprecedented technical peculiarity to the Iberian reality for this period. The second part will focus on a study of the protagonists, in order to understand how the integration of the Neroni company in the Salviati's group took place, determine its position in this commercial group, as well as in the panorama of the other Florentine merchant companies. The third and fourth parts are divided according to the type of economic activity: commercial or financial. The methodology applied to both will have as purpose to trace the profile of the company's business through a cross-sectional study to geographical space covered in this project. One of the goals is to identify the business actors and agents set the existing connection levels. That allows us to reconstruct the company's social network of interests, beyond the economic sphere and will allow us to understand any political and social interests.

Nei primissimi anni del Duecento quasi tutte le città dell'Italia centro-settentrionale furono attraversate da un'ondata di rivolte. Un movimento di opposizione radicale contestava l'egemonia dell'aristocrazia terriera che allora dominava la vita sociale e politica dei Comuni. Gli insorti scelsero per la propria organizzazione il nome di "popolo": un termine generico, che indicava la massa indistinta degli esclusi dal potere. Con un linguaggio chiaro e un taglio espositivo inedito, il volume racconta la storia di questo fronte eterogeneo attraverso i suoi protagonisti, le sue lotte e i suoi cambiamenti, analizzandone il programma teorico e gettando luce sui processi di istituzionalizzazione che si affermarono nella seconda metà del Xlll secolo, quando il popolo, da gruppo antagonista, divenne in molti casi forza di governo.

Robert Wilson's The Three Ladies of London offered its first audiences entertaining stereotypes of 'naturally' vicious southerners who corrupt the vulnerable English with lechery, greed, papistry, and love of foreign luxuries. The only word-mangling clown in the play is the Italian merchant Mercadorus, whose total sexual abasement to Lady Lucre renders him absurd and effeminized. His double-dealings with the Jewish moneylender Gerontus have drawn a great deal of critical attention, but this essay will examine the Italian sex comedy that Wilson uses to leaven his far more solemn-minded plot. Wilson deploys a typical commedia dell'arte character system. In some arte plots a Venetian courtesan toys with, tricks, and robs the lovesick merchant Pantalone, whose low Venetian dialect render his attempts at love-talk and eloquence laughable. Mercadorus's vows to 'Madonna' Lucre bear a distinct echo of Pantalone's romantic and linguistic excesses, a sample of which reached print in the comic letters of the clown-author Andrea Calmo.

Il Duecento, per Pisa come per molti altri Comuni dell’Italia centro-settentrionale, fu un secolo di profondi rivolgimenti. All’inizio del Trecento la città si trovò con un ceto dirigente dalla fisionomia radicalmente rinnovata e una configurazione istituzionale che poco aveva a che fare con quella dell’età consolare e podestarile. Il libro nasce proprio dall’interesse per questi rapidi processi di cambiamento, e per il rapporto – in quegli anni insolitamente stretto – tra crescita economica, trasformazioni sociali e mutamenti delle strutture politiche. Al centro dello studio è dunque il nesso tra economia, società e politica. L’indagine procede attraverso la ricostruzione delle storie personali e familiari degli uomini che nei decenni centrali del XIII secolo si affacciarono sulla scena cittadina e diedero vita alle organizzazioni di Popolo. Il lavoro prosopografico è stato affiancato dall’analisi delle forme istituzionali nelle quali i protagonisti di questa fase “rivoluzionaria” incanalarono la propria pressione sul sistema politico comunale. È infatti nella traduzione di confuse ambizioni di ascesa sociale in concreta e organizzata azione istituzionale che essi raggiunsero, in quanto gruppo, unità, consapevolezza e riconoscibilità politica: che divennero, insomma, un ceto dirigente.

In this article, we present the main aspects of our Master dissertation. The study is based on Michele da Colle's account books, Tuscan merchant in Lisbon in the second half of the 15th century, written in 1462 and 1463. The dissertation is structured into three main groups, guided also by the starting questions. In the first chapter, we analyze the subject of accounting and the characteristics of the double-entry method. The second part is about the commercial activity, in which we analyze the products that Michele trades, their prices, and the main customers. The third part is devoted to the financial activity of the merchant, in which we seek to identify the financial instruments that he uses, and the values and agents involved. Finally, we try to establish a balance between these two activities.


Neste artigo, apresentamos os pontos principais da nossa dissertação de mestrado. O nosso estudo tem por base os dois livros de contabilidade de Michele da Colle, mercador toscano estante em Lisboa na segunda metade do século XV, que foram redigidos em 1462 e 1463. A dissertação está estruturada em três grandes grupos, orientados também pelas questões de partida. Em primeiro lugar, temos um capítulo sobre a contabilidade e sobre a aplicação do método de partidas dobradas. A segunda parte é relativa à atividade comercial, na qual se analisam os produtos transacionados, os valores movimentados e se identificam os respetivos clientes. A terceira parte é dedicada à atividade financeira do mercador, na qual se identificam os instrumentos financeiros utilizados e respetivos valores e agentes envolvidos. Por fim, pretende-se perceber qual o peso relativo de cada uma destas duas atividades do mercador.

Two Latin tombstones were discovered in Yangzhou in 1951 by the People’s Liberation Army. These two gravestones are unusual and very interesting above their historical implications. Their Christian names, iconographies and Latin inscription make us imagine that they were certainly Christians and probably Europeans. The following questions naturally arise: Who were two owners of the tombstones, Caterina and Antonio? Were they local Chinese people or foreign dwellers living temporarily in Yangzhou for the reasons of commerce or religion? It is generally accepted that Caterina and Antonio belonged to an Italian merchant family, even if many historians disagree on their city of origin. Most researchers of the tombstones agree that Franciscan friars were responsible for the process of making them, which is suggested by the Latin inscription in that friars were good at Latin while generally ordinary people like merchants did not know Latin. Several sources including these two tombstones attest to the formation of a non-negligible European community in such a far-away unfamiliar Chinese city during the period of Pax Mongolica , which was composed of Italian merchants and Franciscan friars for the sake of profit and religion.

The  first  years  of  commercial  and  financial  activity  in  Lisbon  of  Michele  da  Colle,  Pisan  merchant-banker in Portugal between 1462 and 1474, left traces in the two double-entry account books that he wrote in Portugal. This is a singular source, that we can find at the Archive of the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa, that allows us to know with great detail the commercial and financial activity developed by this merchant during his first two years at Lisbon. Our main purposes are the analysis of the multiple examples of taxes found in these two account books and a deep reflection on the amount and diversity of taxes that a foreign merchant was exposed to in 15th century Lisbon during the development of his business.

In 1336, the great Khan Toghon Temür (1333-1368) sent an embassy
to Pope Benedict XII in Avignon to bring horses and other marvelous
things from Europe. At first glance, this mission seems to have been
initiated by the great Khan, but others actually played a leading role
in this diplomatic exchange. This paper aims to reveal who played the
most important role in dispatching the embassy. Toward this end, this
paper examines diplomatic correspondence between the Mongol realm
and the Papacy, travel accounts, commercial documents left by Genoese merchants, Venetian Senate documents, and papal records.
It was the chiefs of the Alans, forming the backbone of the Mongol army for the Great Khan, that asked him to send an envoy to Avignon. An Indo-European tribe who had been living in the Caucasus, they were defeated by the Mongol forces in the mid-thirteenth century, and were transported across Asia from their homeland to serve the Mongol khan. After converting to Roman Catholicism, they sent a letter to the Pope requesting a successor to the Archbishop of Beijing who had died in 1328. Being about seventeen years old in 1336, and lacking a firm hold on power, the great khan had no choice but to accept their demands.
However, the mission was led not by chiefs of the Alans but by Genoese merchants. How could the Mongol embassy sent to Avignon by the Great khan have been led by Genoese merchants, instead of the Mongol people? At that time, Genoese merchants were able to play a leading role in the Mongol embassy because they had a commercial base in Beijing and were actively conducting commerce between Europe and Beijing. This paper also finds that it was not Andalò da Savignone but Andrea de Nassio who led the Mongol embassy.

En aquest article tractarem d’entendre la comunitat mercantil dels milanesos durant el segle XVII com a exemple d’articulació de la confiança a la Mediterrània, aplicant una perspectiva que supere les fronteres com a marc d’anàlisi. L’article es dividirà en quatre grans apartats. En primer lloc, es presentaran les principals línies de recerca sobre la confiança aplicables a les comunitats mercantils a l’època moderna. Tot seguit, presentarem tres apartats segons les dimensions de la confiança analitzades: la dimensió cognitiva, l’emocional i la cultural.

The aim of this paper is to understand the Milanese merchant community during the 17th century as an example of the trust articulation in the Western Mediterranean. It is applied a transnational perspective, allowing us to overcome the borders as analytic framework. The article is divided in four topics. Firstly, it will be presented the main research topics about trust in the early modern merchant communities. Following the paper it will be exposed three sections in order to analyse the different trust dimensions: the cognitive, emotional and cultural.

Dès la Renaissance, les maisons des champs se sont développées dans les environs de Lyon, accompagnées parfois de jardins élaborés dotés de grottes ou de nymphées. On connait aujourd’hui neuf grottes documentées possiblement pour la période 1550-1700 dont six subsistent – à tout point de vue, un nombre étonnamment élevé en France. Trois grottes pourraient se rattacher à la deuxième moitié du XVIe siècle avec un décor de l’émerveillement basé sur l’emploi d’une architecture classique de pierres polychromes et d’effets d’eau. Dans ces plaisirs rustiques, le nymphée d’Ombreval se rattache à la culture de la cour par sa sculpture monumentale et sophistiquée, tandis que les grottes de La Porte et de Beauregard mettent en scène les collections d’antiques lyonnaises ou le réemploi de la sculpture de la Renaissance. Elles permettent de montrer la continuité des savoir-faire spécialisés en hydraulique, rocaille, sculpture comme leur évolution au service des usages sociaux et du goût.

From the Renaissance, country homes were built in the surroudings of Lyon, sometimes with beautiful gardens ornamented with grottos and nymphaeums. Nine grottoes are documented for the period 1550-1700 of whom six have survived. A very high number for a French town ! Three grottos can be linked to the second half of 16th centhury with a search for astonishment based on the use classical architecture with colored stones and water effects. In these rustic pleasures, the nymphaeum of Ombreval looks towards a courtly culture stamped by monumental and refined sculptures, while the grottoes of La Porte and Beauregard stage a collection of ancient artefacts or the reuse of Renaissance sculptures. They point to the continuity of highly skilled crafts in hydraulics, rockwork, sculpture as well as their link to social uses and taste.

The meaning of usury has gradually transformed from any kind of
interest to monetary loans charging excessive interest rates. This change toward the usury or interest took place, first in Italian cities during the late middle Ages. This article aims to survey the transformation of economic mentalités of usury, making an analysis of the Scrovegni family, who were great usurers of Padua in the 1300s. What did their contemporaries think of them? In his Divin e C o m e d y , Dante placed Reginald Scrovegni in the inner ring of the seventh circle of Hell, where the violent, including usurers were eternally punished. Giovanni da Nono, a Paduan chronicler of the early 14th century, harshly disdained the Scrovegni family. He considered Reginald a notorious usurer, who made a great amount of money through the usury and stated that his son, Enrico, was a hypocrite for deceiving the pope. However, the Scrovegni family have never been punished for the usury, which is the interest loan that was condemned a sin. The usury was prohibited, and anyone using it was punished for many centuries by the church. In fact, the Scrovegni family had a close relationship with the popes and bishops, who were in a position to excommunicate or impose a penalty on them. The General Councils of the 12th and 13th centuries took a relaxed stance of condemning not all kinds of interest loans, but manifest usurers, who charged excessive interest rate publicly. Italian cities permitted some degree of interest. The Scrovegni family did not think that their interest loans
서양중세사연구 제40호(2017.9)    117
were such a deadly sin, that it would prevent them from having eternal salvation. Reginald and Enrico never gave up their interest loan business entirely. They did however, travel to Rome to ask popes to absolve them and built the Arena Chapel to expiate their sin of using usury and to save their souls. In that respect, their attitudes toward the usury were more or less distinct from contemporary people, who scorned them. To Dante and Giovanni da Nono, they were still evident usurers and would be condemned to Hell.