Florentine Merchants in the Age of the Medici: Letters and Documents from the Selfridge Collection of Medici Manuscripts [Reprint 2014 ed.] 9780674863804, 9780674862685

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FLORENTINE

MERCHANTS

IN T H E AGE OF T H E MEDICI

LONDON : H U M P H R E Y M I L F O R D OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS

VELLUM

COVER

OF M A N U S C R I P T

553

The letter-book of Raffaello de' Medici, showing the index letter of the volume, 1b, and also the sign of the firm, Medici and Company

FLORENTINE MERCHANTS IN THE AGE OF THE MEDICI Letters and Documents from the Selfridge Collection of Medici Manuscripts EDITED BY

GERTRUDE RANDOLPH BRAMLETTE RICHARDS

Cambridge, Massachusetts HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS 1932

COPYRIGHT, I 9 3 2 BY THE PRESIDENT AND FELLOWS OF HARVARD COLLEGE

PUBLISHED UNDER T H E AUSPICES OF HARVARD GRADUATE

UNIVERSITY

SCHOOL OF BUSINESS

GEORGE

F. BAKER

ADMINISTRATION

FOUNDATION

PRINTED AT THE HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS CAMBRIDGE, MASS., V. S. A.

TO Jí$. N o r t o n

àèelfrtògc

W I T H A P P R E C I A T I O N OF T H E

COURTESY

T H A T M A D E T H I S STUDY POSSIBLE

FOREWORD N THE fall of 1927, Mr. H. Gordon Selfridge of London was

I

good enough to lend his unique collection of Medici Manuscripts for study at the Graduate School of Business Administration, Harvard University. T h e latter had sought this loan by reason of its belief that from these account-books and letterbooks much could be learned concerning the business aspects of Florentine culture. After the receipt of these valuable documents at Cambridge, much time was consumed not only in the efforts to acquire familiarity with the difficult chirography, abbreviations, and the like, but also in the endeavor to learn the interrelation of the many volumes. A t first particular attention was given to ledgers and account-books, and, as part of this early project, the oldest document in this Collection — a " j o u r n a l " of Giovenco de' Medici covering the years 1406-18 — was entirely translated. In the end, however, this manner of attack was reluctantly abandoned, since satisfactory results came to appear possible only if a complete history of the Medici enterprises covering many decades could be painstakingly put together by research here and in Italy. Attention thereafter was transferred to the letter-books; and in October, X930, the present volume began to take shape. Even then the selection of material for publication was not an easy matter. Such a selection had to satisfy the dual aims of illustrating the scope of the Selfridge Collection for the benefit of students who were not familiar with its wealth, and of throwing light on the business methods and commercial activities of a period in Italian history hitherto largely unexplored from the economic point of view. It is our hope that in some measure these diverse aims have been attained, and especially that the material presented is fairly representative of the interesting documents contained in the Selfridge Collection. Professors Edwin F. G a y and Abbott P. Usher of the Department of Economics of Harvard University have given generously of most helpful advice, and in the early stages of the examination of the material, the assistance of Professor Norman S. B. Gras was decisive, and is remembered by the editor with

Vili

FOREWORD

appreciation. Dott. Armando Sapori of the R. Archivio di Stato of Florence, whose researches in the field of Italian economic history of the fourteenth century are so widely known, has offered helpful suggestions in the interpretation of an obscure passage. The constant courtesies extended by Mr. Walter B. Briggs of the Harvard College Library are gratefully recognized. The editor is especially appreciative of the careful and accurate reading of most difficult proof by the Harvard University Press, an assistance as invaluable as it is rare when the variations of text are so erratic as they are in these pages. It is not possible to mention by name all of those on the staff of Baker Library who have contributed generously of time and thought in so many ways to the facilitation of this research; nor to thank sufficiently Dean Wallace B. Donham and Mrs. Fancher E. Heard of the Graduate School of Business Administration for their constant interest and understanding during the days when the progress of the investigation seemed overslow. The preparation of the present volume has been carried through under the direction of Dr. Arthur H. Cole, Administrative Curator of Baker Library. It is hoped that his illuminating and constructive scholarship is not unworthily reflected in these pages, as in no other way could the editor express so adequately her sincere appreciation of his untiring assistance and constant inspiration. GERTRUDE RANDOLPH B A K E R LIBRARY HARVARD

UNIVERSITY

BRAMLETTE

RICHARDS

CONTENTS FOREWORD I.

VII

INTRODUCTION

3

1 . T H E SELFRIDGE COLLECTION OF MEDICI MANUSCRIPTS 2. MANUSCRIPT 5 4 7 :

. . .

3

LETTER-BOOK OF GIOVANNI DI FRANCESCO

MARINGHI II. III.

10

F L O R E N C E UNDER THE M E D I C I MANUSCRIPT

547:

LETTERS

13

OF G I O V A N N I DI

FRANCESCO

M A R I N G H I , WRITTEN FROM P E R A TO F L O R E N C E , 1 5 0 1 - 0 2

54

Ι . LETTERS OF M A Y 4 , 1 5 0 1

54

2 . LETTERS TO SER NICOLO MICHELOZZI FROM M A Y 2 4 , 1 5 0 1 , TO M A Y 4, 1502 IV.

MANUSCRIPT

90

495:

INVENTORY

OF THE

POSSESSIONS

G I O V A N N I DI F R A N C E S C O M A R I N G H I , 1 5 0 6 ( O . S . ) V.

VI. VII.

MANUSCRIPT 553:

OF

. . . .

184

L E T T E R - B O O K OF R A F F A E L L O DI F R A N -

CESCO DE' M E D I C I FROM J U L Y 2 4 , 1 5 2 0 , ΤΟ A P R I L 2 4 , 1 5 2 1 .

202

M A N U S C R I P T 4 9 5 : A R T I C L E S OF A S S O C I A T I O N

227

M A N U S C R I P T 4 9 5 : B I L L S OF E X C H A N G E AND L E T T E R S FROM P I A C E N Z A TO COSIMO DE' M E D I C I IN F L O R E N C E , 1 6 2 7 .

.

.

252

APPENDICES A.

MISCELLANEOUS LETTERS

B.

TRANSCRIPTION D'ANTONIO PERA, M A Y

C.

THE

OF

RISALITI 4, 1501

THE

261 INSTRUCTIONS

GIVEN

TO

BERNARDO

BY GIOVANNI MARINGHI

IN

(MANUSCRIPT 547)

SELFRIDGE COLLECTION

TO THE M E D I C I F A M I L Y

OF M A N U S C R I P T S

274 RELATING 277

χ

CONTENTS

BIOGRAPHICAL INDEX

282

GEOGRAPHICAL INDEX

294

G L O S S A R Y OF B U S I N E S S T E R M S

299

G L O S S A R Y OF P A L E O G R A P H I C A L T E R M S

317

LIST

321

OF M E R C A N T I L E

SIGNS

BIBLIOGRAPHY

323

G E N E R A L INDEX

333

GENEALOGICAL T A B L E

OF T H E M E D I C I

MAPS

FAMILY

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS V E L L U M C O V E R OF M A N U S C R I P T 5 5 3

Frontispiece

E X C E R P T FROM M A N U S C R I P T 5 4 7

60

E X C E R P T FROM M A N U S C R I P T 5 4 7

96

E X C E R P T FROM M A N U S C R I P T 4 9 5

188

E X C E R P T FROM M A N U S C R I P T 4 9 5

240

E X C E R P T FROM M A N U S C R I P T 5 6 0 ,

272

FLORENTINE

MERCHANTS

IN THE AGE OF THE MEDICI

I INTRODUCTION 1. THE SELFRIDGE COLLECTION OF MEDICI MANUSCRIPTS OME years ago, when the devastation of war had made it necessary for many of the old nobility to seek purchasers for their treasures, two Florentine princes arrived in London, bringing with them a rare collection of family papers. In this collection were letters, diaries, and wills; marriage contracts, plans of fortresses, and investitures; papal bulls, royal decrees, and legal documents of all sorts. On the yellowing pages were found the names of men and women in every walk of life, interested in all sorts of enterprises from the selling of secondhand clothing in the Mercato Vecchio to the arranging of treaties between hostile states. It seems incredible that so rich a collection should have remained for so many centuries unknown and unnoticed.

S

These princes, Cosimo de' Medici, Marchese della Castellina, and his brother, the Marchese Averardo, were scions of a younger branch of the family, which, emerging from the relative obscurity of the Mugello 1 in the fourteenth century, produced a line of statesmen of extraordinary prominence, statesmen who through the prestige of their wealth, no less than through their outstanding administrative ability, became important factors in European affairs for more than two centuries. This younger branch of the family was in its way quite as important as the elder; but until now, its members have been neglected by historian and biographer alike. 2 Christie's catalogued the collection and found a purchaser for it; but before the transaction was completed the Italian Govern1. The Mugello is a valley northeast of Florence. Here both branches of the Medici held much property until comparatively recent times. 2. So little known was this branch of the family, even in Italy, that so careful a writer as Manfroni refers to the elder Francesco (see p. 9) as the son of Cosimo, Pater patriae, in his Storia della marina italiana, p. 131.

4

FLORENTINE MERCHANTS

ment heard what was taking place, and, realizing that most of the manuscripts were original documents and therefore were not duplicated in the national archives, declared them under the category of state papers and consequently inalienable. While this action of the government is readily comprehensible, one cannot but sympathize with the princes, who, after the most valuable items had been withdrawn, offered the sadly depleted collection again to Christie's. This time the documents came to the attention of Mr. H. Gordon Selfridge of London, who because of his interest in the commercial activities of Cosimo dei Medici, Pater patriae, purchased the collection of account-books and mercantile records, hoping to find in them material for a study of that merchant prince of long ago. The few documents belonging to the fourteenth century, together with those of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries which had not been claimed by the Italian Government, went to the John Rylands Library of Manchester, England. To his great disappointment, Mr. Selfridge found that, aside from a few unimportant letters addressed to Cosimo and a single fragment bearing the signature of that dignitary, the collection offered nothing that would serve his purpose. Some time later, when he was in America, he mentioned these manuscripts to certain members of the faculty of the Harvard School of Business Administration. Their very decided interest in such a collection prompted his generous loan of the manuscripts, should the Business School care to undertake a study of them — an offer that was gladly accepted. The continuity of these records is an outstanding merit of the collection. They cover the activities of several generations of one family and one firm devoted largely to the manufacture of wool, perhaps the greatest single industry of Mediaeval and Renaissance Florence. They cover a period (c. 1400-1600) of great significance in the history of international trade, a period which also marked the acme and decline of the wool industry in Florence. While, as has been said, single pages possess little independent value, the entire collection would, if translated and edited, throw much new light on the commercial activities of the Renaissance which made cultural and artistic achievements possible. The Selfridge Manuscripts fall into three groups: accountbooks, letter-books, and letters. The account-books include

INTRODUCTION

5

some one hundred fifty volumes, and belong for the most part to the firm of Medici and Company, Merchant-employers,1 a firm established in 1431 and continuing until 1579, at which time the wool industry had practically disappeared in Florence. The entries record the management of estates, the sale and purchase of raw wool and of finished cloth, of Spanish leather, of works of art, and of land and houses. Personal accounts, accounts of expenditures incurred by various members of the family who served as captains of cities and as commanders of troops, records of the Arte di Lana and of the commune, donations to hospitals, to churches, and to various charitable organizations, are all noted with meticulous fidelity. One bulky tome of some thirteen hundred pages contains miscellaneous documents of unusual importance: articles of association, bills of exchange, inventories, memoranda concerning bankruptcy, notes on the settlement of estates, contracts, bills of lading, and letters bearing on various aspects of public and private negotiations. Unfortunately this volume is in a bad state of preservation, so that translation, already rendered difficult because of the illegible script, is almost impossible. The four letter-books cover the years from 1500 to 1521 2 in unbroken sequence, and contain copies of the letters written by Francesco de' Medici and his son Raffaello to their agents in Italy and France, as well as copies of letters written by Giovanni di Francesco Maringhi (later associated with them in business) to his principals in Florence. These letters are copies of business correspondence and are concerned for the most part with shipments and sales of merchandise. The unbound letters include a few written to Cosimo dei Medici, dealing for the most part with personal affairs or business relating to his landed estates; a much larger number written by Lorenzo the Magnificent to Pietro Alamanni, Floren1. The phrase used by Medici and Company to describe their operations — a phrase which was really a part of the title of the firm and which was also employed by their competitors — was Lanaioli, or, strictly speaking, dealers and workers in wool. (See p. 13, η. i.) 2. MS. 547, Letter-book of Giovanni di Francesco Maringhi, 1500-03; MS. 538, Letter-book of Francesco de' Medici, 1503-09; MS. 539, Letter-book of Francesco dei Medici and Raffaello de' Medici, 1510-21; MS. 553, Letter-book of Raffaello dei Medici, 1520-21. The numerical designation of the manuscripts in the Selfridge Collection is that of Christie's second catalogue.

6

FLORENTINE

MERCHANTS

tine Ambassador first to Milan and later to Rome and to Naples; and even more written by the order of the Otto di Pratica to Alamanni. There are also a few brief and rather unimportant communications from Lionello d'Esté, Lodovico Sforza, the Orsini, Charles V i l i of France, the King of Naples, etc.1 It was the custom then, particularly among the Italians, for diplomats to hold all communications addressed to them, whether on official business or not, as their private and personal property, so that Alamanni's correspondence remained in the hands of his descendants until the sixteenth century. In 1577 his granddaughter, Costanza Alamanni, married the younger Raffaello de' Medici, and at that time all of the family papers in her possession were transferred to the Medici archives. The greater part of these were retained by the Italian Government, but such as were offered for sale were purchased by Mr. Selfridge. The earlier account-books are bound simply in sheets of vellum, the edges of which are seldom even folded over. The later account-books and ledgers are more ornate. They have tooled bindings, illuminated edges, and parchment fly-leaves made from pages of thirteenth and fourteenth century copies of the sermons of St. Jerome, St. Gregory, or of the Gospels; an index to one of the ledgers has for its cover a page from a beautiful old choir-book. The paper on which the accounts are entered is fine of texture, cream-white and hand-laid, with interesting watermarks. On the margins of the pages and on the vellum covers are quaint notarial signs, or "trade-marks," of the various firms.2 Usually there is a fly-leaf containing an invocation such as this: In the name of the Omnipotent God and of the glorious Virgin, Madonna Saint Mary, and of St. John the Baptist, and of St. Peter, and of St. Paul, and of St. Nicholas, and of St. Stephen, our advocate, 3 and of St. Biagio, and of all the holy virgins and of all the celestial court of Paradise, that they pray God, that by His grace and mercy, He will give us good profit with the salvation of our souls and bodies.

The sign of the cross was placed at the top of each page con1. Since these letters will probably be published independently later on, fuller comment as to their contents is omitted. 2. See List of Mercantile Signs. 3. The patron saint of the firm.

INTRODUCTION

7

taining record of any transactions involving money, to prevent dishonest entries. T h e two princes who had trundled their treasures to London, the Marchese Averardo and the Marchese Cosimo de' Medici, are descendants of one Giovenco (11322), who was the brother of Chiarissimo, 1 the great-grandfather of Cosimo the Elder. Although even the names of this younger branch are forgotten, they were by no means unimportant men in their own day. As patrons of art and letters they approached, if they did not equal, their illustrious kinsman, Lorenzo the Magnificent. T h e y intermarried with the Guiducci, the Rucellai, the Bardi, the Albizzi, and other families of equal importance. If they failed to attain as high eminence in the control of public affairs as did those of the elder line, they are at the same time less culpable for the catastrophies which historians lay to the charge of dictator and Grand Duke. T h e earliest account-books of the Selfridge Collection belonged to Giovenco di Giuliano de' Medici, founder of the firm of Medici and Company, Merchant-employers. Nothing is known of him prior to 1406.2 A t that time he was employed by his kinsmen, the della Stufa, an important firm of wool merchants. H e parcelled out wool among the contadine (peasants), paying them for the spinning, or else bought from them spun wool which they had obtained from other sources.3 He also bought raw wool from different individuals. Some of his earlier ventures, however, were undertaken independently of the firm. He sold oil and olives, straw and horses, from the estate in the Mugello; he purchased figs and sugar, pens, tables, and spinningwheels, as well as the coarse woolen panno used by the peasants for their tunics. 4 Then, too, he had charge of the houses and shops in the Mercato Vecchio or on the Ponte Vecchio, which belonged to his mother. 5 In 1431 he established the firm of Medici and Company, Merchant-employers, his partner in the enterprise being his cousin, Giovenco d'Antonio de' Medici. 6 1. Salvestro, called Chiarissimo. Litta, Famiglie celebri italiane, voi. n , tav. iii. 2. A t that time Giovenco was probably about twenty years old, since his father, Giuliano di Giovenco de' Medici (castellano of Belforte), was married in 1385, to Mattea Ciacchi. M S . 491 of the Medici Collection in the John Rylands Library. 3. M S . 492. Strictly speaking, contadine were those living in the contado. 4. M S . 492. 5. MS. 493. 6. M S . 495. Prior to this time, in 1426, Giovenco was a member of the firm of Corbinelli and Company, Merchant-employers, along with Giovenco d'Antonio.

8

FLORENTINE MERCHANTS

As a rule the Medici associations were established for three years. 1 In 1434 Giovenco di Giuliano and Giovenco d'Antonio formed a new association, including this time the brother of the latter, Bernardo de' Medici. A fourth association, formed in 1437, consisted of Bernardo d'Antonio, Giovenco di Giuliano, and Giovanni di Lionardo Bennini,2 and lasted also three years. All of these were undertaken for traffico in wool under the Arte di Lana, the same bottega in the Via Maggio being the headquarters of the several Medici associations.3 Only one account-book remains for this period.4 It is one of the smaller volumes 5 and contains entries of transactions with wool-workers, weavers, dyers, and other Florentine firms, among whom are Cosimo the Elder and his brother Lorenzo, the Alessandri, the Albizzi (then the greatest of Florentine woolen manufacturers), the Albertini, the Bardi, the Serristori, the Altoviti, etc. After 1440 4 Giovenco seems to have retired from active association in the business in order to devote himself to his estates.7 He died in 1463.8 From a list which his son made of the public honors conferred upon him, it is easy to see the high regard in which he was held by his contemporaries. He held practically every office in the Arte di Lana·,9 he also served the city both as prior and as Gonfaloniere di Giustizia.I0 There are no articles of association from 1440 to 1458; the ledgers covering those dates belonged to Averardo, son of Bernardo 11 de' Medici. From 1458 to 1498 the account-books are ι. Such associations usually lasted from two to five years. Bensa, Francesco di Marco da Prato, p. 136. 2. For these rather confused relationships, see the Genealogical Table. 3. Later (in 1453) the Medici bottega was removed to Via Porta Rossa. MS. 495, sec. ab, f. 36. 4. M S . 496. 5. Sixty-six pages quarto. 6. In 1459 Giovenco was again mentioned in an article of association as a member of the firm, but he died not long afterwards. 7. In 1422 he bought a house in Comeana in the Val d'Arno at a place called Le Corti, and a piece of land in the same parish, size not given, for 80 gold florins. MS. 34. 8. MS. 41. All of his possessions went to his son Giuliano, aside from a few bequests, among which are 200 pounds of wax to San Miniato al Monte, a chasuble to San Tommaso di Mercato Vecchio, the parish church of the Medici, and 3 lire in gold to the Sacristy of the Duomo, in which he wished to be buried. The will is dated December 21, 1462, and was accepted by the consuls of the Arte di Lana at their meeting the following January, 1462 (O. S.). 9. MS. 39. io. MS. 500. l i . Bernardo died in 1465, and his son Antonio was admitted in his stead without other alterations in the organization of the firm. MS. 495, f. 32.

INTRODUCTION

9

1

listed as belonging to Giuliano, the son of Giovenco, and Francesco, the son of Giuliano, while the articles of association for those dates indicate that the firm was under the management of Giuliano and certain of his cousins.2 About the year 1471 Francesco di Giuliano was in Pera, apparently engaged in business for the firm of Medici and Company. Later he was interested in banking, in the purchase and sale of jewels, ornaments, and gold and silver articles. In 1495 he took over the management of the firm of Merchant-employers. 3 Both Giuliano and Francesco purchased land in and about Florence, 4 and both were active in the municipal life of their day. After 1501 Francesco's son, Raffaello, previously engaged in dyeing wool, entered the firm.5 After his death in 1555 his sons and grandsons continued the business, but the glory of the great Florentine industry had departed along with the downfall of the Republic, and the firm sank into desuetude. After 1597 there is no further record of its existence.6 Manuscripts of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries are admittedly difficult to translate, even the best of them. The newly invented printing-press was gradually replacing the careful scribes of the preceding centuries, whose handwriting had been as clear as print, and who had followed definite rules as to the abbreviation and contraction of words. Y e t when even the chancery documents of this later period show marked variations, how much more would documents such as these, written by apprentices, who spelled words according to sound and who never heard twice alike! These letter-books were written in the vernacular; both terms and names of commodities were constantly changing. Foreign goods kept their original nomenclature for a short time, and then became Italianized, but with little, if any, similarity in the different sections of the country. ι . This son of Giovenco's second wife, Giovanna Bartolini, married in 1448 Lionarda Deti, with whom he received a dowry of ι,οοο gold florins. MS. 500. 2. 1459, Bernardo, Giovenco, et al.·, 1459, Bernardo and Giuliano; 1461, the same; 1461, Bernardo and Giovenco; 1463, Bernardo and Giuliano; 1483, Giuliano, Francesco, et al.·, 1495, Francesco et al.·, 1506, Francesco, Maringhi, et al.·, 1508, Francesco and his brother; 1 5 1 3 , Raffaello, Francesco, et al. MS. 495. 3. MS. 536. 4. At San Piero a Sieve in the Mugello; at San Michele a Comeana in the Mugello; in the parish of Santa Maria in Campo. MS. 42. 5. M SS. 545, 546. 6. From 1556 to 1579 the firm was managed by Maddalena Capponi, mother of the younger Raffaello.

IO

FLORENTINE MERCHANTS

Other words have completely slipped out of the dictionaries since the products they designate are no longer used. Nor have any of the admirable results of the research of those engaged in the study of-economic documents of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries been of assistance in the deciphering of these intricate pages of the Medici manuscripts. For all of these reasons this has been a truly pioneer task. 2. MANUSCRIPT 547: LETTER-BOOK OF GIOVANNI DI FRANCESCO MARINGHI MS. 547 of the Selfridge Collection of Medici Papers is a small folio volume, 35 X 2.0 cm., bound in a single piece of vellum, folded along the edges, but having neither boards nor clasps. The sole reinforcement is furnished by two dark leather straps laced onto the back. On the outside cover is scrawled Copie di Lettere — 1500 Raff>° Med ci in an eighteenth century hand, together with a few figures that seem to be calculations of some sort. The label on the back, "Di Raffaello di Francesco —1500," is likewise in an eighteenth century hand. Unlike most of the other manuscripts, it has no title-page; the sign of the cross seldom appears at the top of the pages; the letters are without signature, and, with one or two exceptions, without salutation. Generally there is only a marginal check — something like a cross — and the words Siamo addj to indicate where a new letter commences. Nor do the letters follow in any recognizable sequence. One page may have a letter to Ser Nicolo; instead of continuing this on the reverse, the scribe may have written there a letter to Antonio Melini, for example, and bearing quite another date, while the unfinished letter to Ser Nicolo may be carried over several pages, and then again be left unfinished. At times there is a marginal note near the bottom of the page to show where the remainder of the letter may be found, but it is not always there, nor, when it is there, is it always accurate. Until the work of translation was well on,its way, there was nothing to suggest that Raffaello de' Medici was not the author

INTRODUCTION

il

of these letters. The first clue to the contrary was found in a letter written in 1501 from Pera and addressed to Ser Nicolo Michelozzi in Florence, in which the writer said: " I was glad of the news about your daughters, for after you they belong to me. I have no wife and shall never have one. Consequently all that I have will go to you and yours." 1 Since Raffaello was married at the time, this statement called for immediate investigation. Other manuscripts of that period were duly examined; the search revealed the following facts: Raffaello was married in Florence in 1502 2 to Margarita Bonciani.3 In the same volume in which he himself records this, he also makes note of having attended mass in Florence on the very day that the abovementioned letter was written, and he transacted business daily in that city during the entire period covered by these letters. Furthermore, the title-page and entries in his account-books show that from 1498 to 1502 he was the head of a firm engaged in dyeing; 4 and what business he transacted with Constantinople was done through the firm of Medici and Company, of which his father was head. The next clue as to the authorship was found in the frequent occurrence of the letters " G di M . " Since it was known that a Giovanni de' Medici, brother of Francesco, was conducting business in the Orient, and that Francesco had a son Giuliano, the first thought was to fasten the authorship on one or the other of these; each, however, failed to fit all requirements of the case. Finally the mystery was unexpectedly solved by three bits of unrelated and indisputable evidence: in MS. 495 there was found an article of association between Francesco de' Medici, Giovanni di Giuliano de' Medici, Ser Nicolo Michelozzi, and Giovanni Maringhi of Pera; 5 in MS. 538, the letter-book of Francesco de' Medici, were letters written to Giovanni Maringhi in Pera; and in MS. 547 itself, in an instruction to a messenger, was found: " I record these commissions to you . . . given by me, Giovanni Maringhi in Pera." 6 Who Maringhi was, remained, and for that matter still is, a question. Nothing concerning his life has come to light during these months of investigation, save that he was in Pera as early as 1497; 7 that he died there February 11, 1507,8 and died bankI. See p. 170. J. See p. 240.

2. MS. 549. 6. See p. 60.

3. Ibid. 7. See p. 184.

4. MSS. 545, 546. 8. MS. 538, 1506 O.S.

12

FLORENTINE MERCHANTS

rupt. 1 The family had once been rather important in Florence, but while Maringhi's heirs are mentioned in the documents relating to the settlement of his estate, that name is not found in any available contemporary record of Florence during the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. The first fifty and the last one hundred and fifty folios of this manuscript are practically illegible; they are in a different handwriting from the rest of the volume, and the paper has not resisted the ink as well as has the middle section. The ink not only shows through, but in some places it has quite corroded the paper. While many words in these pages are legible, it would take years to decipher them all, and it is doubtful if the contents finally transcribed would add much to what is here translated, as far as knowledge of business methods of the time is concerned. A t best the manuscript covers a very short period, 1500 to 1503, and is concerned with a mere fragment of Maringhi's business activities in Pera. What is here presented probably gives an adequate picture of his relations with the firms which he represented in the Levant. The pages are closely written; the abbreviations follow no definite system; they vary on every page, even as does the spelling, and to have deciphered a letter to Neri Venturi, for example, does not in the least insure one's ability to decipher a letter written on the same day to Francesco Galilei regarding the same purchases or sales. The letters, by and large, show over-much repetition, in what is written both to separate firms and to individuals. Perhaps experience had taught Maringhi that until a fact had been stated at least three times he could not be certain that it had been grasped, but this practice certainly makes his letters somewhat tedious. He also seems to have sent with each letter a copy of the preceding communication, so that, if one carrier failed to arrive, the full series of his messages might still reach their destinations. Partly because of the repetition and partly because of the textual difficulties, it was decided to select one group of letters written all on one day to the more important Florentine firms whose interests Maringhi represented, and then one year's correspondence with Ser Nicolo Michelozzi, his sponsor and friend as well as his most important principal. ι. MS. 49J, sec. c.

II FLORENCE UNDER THE MEDICI i PATRONS of culture the Medici of Florence are familiar figures; as captains of industry they are practically unknown; yet from old Giovanni di Bicci who rebuilt San Lorenzo, to Lorenzo the Magnificent for whom Botticelli, Fra Lippo Lippi, and Ghirlandaio painted their masterpieces, these men were all of them essentially dominated by the spirit of the market-place, and the policies of each in turn were shaped to fit the economic life of the city. While they differed widely both in ability and in the manifestation of interest in commerce, yet each of them possessed the family trait of practical common sense; each regarded the "glad and golden age of the Renaissance" primarily from the point of view of its material prosperity. So, too, with the younger branch of the family, the Merchant-employers whose records form the Selfridge Collection. They were but distantly related, it is true, to the elder line; yet because the fortunes of the lanaioli1 varied with the power of their kinsmen, because the years of their greatest prosperity coincided almost exactly with the supremacy of Cosimo and his immediate descendants,2 and because not only these younger Medici 3 but those with whom they were associated were important factors in the maintenance of that supremacy, a study of the political and economic factors shaping Florentine life of the fifteenth and early six1. Wool-workers. Originally weavers, these firms had come to be merchants and exporters as well. The term is translated "Merchant-employers" in the following pages, a term which expresses as fully as any one word can the activities involved. 2. Giovenco de' Medici established the firm of Medici and Company, Merchantemployers, in 1431. While it lasted nominally until 1597, the glory of the house departed with the death of Giovenco's grandson, Francesco, in 1528. 3. See the Genealogical Table. The various Medici referred to in the following pages are all the descendants of one Averardo (f 1314). The elder line, which includes Giovanni di Bicci and his descendants, were bankers; the Averardo who shared Cosimo's exile was, like Cosimo, the grandson of Averardo called Bicci. The younger line is descended from a cousin of Averardo Bicci; this was the family of lanaioli whose records are included in the Selfridge Collection.

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teenth centuries is essential to a proper understanding of the significance of the records translated in the following pages. T h e early history of Italy — a history in which the citizens of Florence played a leading rôle — is a tale of continuing strife between commune and commune, between party and party, each striving for supremacy. While Florence suffered less from such disturbances and disorders than did some of her neighbors, yet the forces of disintegration were constantly at work in and around her. There is no period in her development when she stands forth as an orderly democracy. Even during the years of her greatest industrial prosperity, her civic life was dominated by virulent animosities among groups and classes, handed down from earlier generations and rendered destructive by alliances with neighboring states. Such conditions made purposeful self-government exceedingly difficult, if not impossible, and by the early fifteenth century the citizens, weary of struggle and discord between Black and White, between Guelf and Ghibelline, between grandi and popolani, between Buondelmonti and Uberti, were ready to welcome whatever respite a strong rule might bring to their distracted councils. T h e constant aim of the Republic, as of the earlier commune, had been to devise some form of government under which the artisans and merchants might pursue their activities in peace and freedom, unmolested by factions within the walls and free from besieging armies outside the gates of the city. T h a t ideal, however, was never achieved, probably because at no time in her development would it have answered her yet more basic needs — never have satisfied that intense individualism which, while making the Florentines the artistic and intellectual leaders of civilization, rendered quite impossible those sacrifices that civic co-operation has always demanded. So for centuries they alternated between party strife and experimental constitutions, until the coming of the Medici provided (under welldisguised control) the continuity of power which put an end to factions and contentions as well as to inter-communal war, and gave them that peace by which industrial prosperity would be best promoted. T h e Medici originated in the Mugello, a valley in the foothills of the Apennines, some fifteen miles northeast of Florence. As early as the twelfth century, the name is found in the records of the city, and in 1296 the family furnished the first of the long

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list of magistrates that it was to give to the commune. 1 In that year Ardingo de' Medici was elected gonfaloniere, an office then closed to nobles and their descendants by the Ordinamenti della Giustizia,2 which would indicate that the Medici were numbered among the popolani. One may still read in a curious old document, the Ricordi or Memoirs of one Foligno de' Medici, an account of the family possessions in 1373. In the Mercato Vecchio, he says there was " a house with shops in front in the parish of San Tommaso; 3 the first side fronts on the street or rather the Mercato Vecchio, the second boundary is ours, 4 the third is the street wherein stands S. Tommaso, the fourth is Talento di Chiarissimo de' Medici and ourselves. Adjoining this house are two others, three smaller ones and several shops, also a place with a courtyard, an orchard and a well, in the parish of San Lorenzo of Florence, in Via Larga di S. M a r c o " 5 while in the Mugello there was " t h e half of a palace with houses around it; a courtyard, a loggia, and a wall and moat, with an orchard outside in Cafaggiuolo, in the parish of San Giovanniin-Petroio, together with the sixth part of the interior courtyard, and the old walls, and all other things pertaining thereto that are in the division. T h e broad road is to be seven feet eight inches wide round the old enclosure of Cafaggiuolo, so that the sons of Messer Giovenco 6 cannot prevent us from using the road in front of the palace and by their wall, as far as the bridge. T h e moat around Cafaggiuolo is entirely ours as it touches our walls." 7 B u t all of this brought little comfort to Foligno, who wrote to his sons: " I beg you to maintain both the wealth and the state attained by our ancestors. These are great, but they should be greater, and they are beginning to decline on account of a dearth of capable men. Once we had many of these, but since 1. Cambi, Storie, vol. I, names thirty-five Medici who held the office of gonfaloniere between 1293 and 1497. 2. First passed in 1293. For an account of this law, often termed the Magna Carta of Florence, see Villari, Iprimi due secoli della storia di Firenze, Chapter V i l i . Ardingo married one of the Bardi, which may explain his election to this high office. 3. There was a church at each corner of the Mercato Vecchio. 4. Possibly he means a house owned by the family but occupied by others. J. Med. A v . Princ., Registro della famiglia de' Medici. 6. Usually called "Giovenco the Knight." He was an ancestor in direct line of the Marchese della Castellina. See p. 13. 7. Med. A v . Princ.. op. cit.

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I was born about one hundred of them have died. W e have few families and few descendants." 1 Had Foligno possessed the power of divination, he would have known that his fears were needless; a young cousin of his, then barely in his teens, was soon to give to the Medici a position in the city such as no single family had held or would ever again hold while Florence remained an independent community. This was Giovanni di Bicci de' Medici, who was born in 1360. He came into power when still a young man and served both as prior and as gonfaloniere during periods of national crisis; he was also sent on various important missions to Milan, to Venice, and to Rome. But his peculiar genius was financial rather than administrative. B y shrewd manipulation of the exchange during the Councils of Basle and of Constance, he acquired a large fortune, which was steadily increased by his remarkable aptitude for all things commercial, so that for some years prior to his death in 1429 he controlled the finances of Italy. Indeed, his contemporaries said of him that he was able to effect a financial crisis in any quarter of Europe at any time that he desired. In the light of the power enjoyed by his descendants, Giovanni's charge to his sons as he lay dying is both interesting and significant: " I leave you with a larger business than any other merchant in the Tuscan land. . . . If you are faithful to the traditions of your ancestors, the people will be generous in giving you honors. . . . Never strive against the will of the people, unless they advocate a baneful project. Speak not as though giving advice, but rather discuss matters with gentle and kindly reasoning. Be chary of frequenting the Palace; rather wait to be summoned, and then be obedient, and not puffed up with pride at receiving many votes. Have a care to keep the people at peace, and to increase the commerce of the city. Avoid litigation or any attempt to influence justice, for whoso impedes justice will perish by justice." 2 It has long been the fashion to blame the Medici for the corruption of the Florentine state. Contemporary chroniclers and later historians alike have combined to show how despotic was their rule and how devastating it was to the virtues of a free 1. Med. A v . Princ., op. cit. 2. Cavalcanti, Istorie fiorentine, ι, 262.

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and independent people; while the defenders of Medicean power have been either too partisan in their panegyrics to carry conviction or else they have dwelt entirely on their patronage of art and letters. N o more inviting task awaits the historian than that of discovering, if possible, whether these arbiters of Florence really shaped her history or if their policies were merely born of a discriminating understanding of the national spirit. Despots had arisen in the commune, at not infrequent intervals from the days of Matilda on. 1 Each had offered some new panacea for the constitutional ills, had enjoyed a brief day of prosperity, and had then followed his predecessor to that oblivion of ingratitude which a republic so often provides for those who have come forth to serve her need.2 Giovanni de' Medici was the first notable exception to this rule. H e had come into power largely through his advocacy of the minor artisans against the selfish aggrandisement of the Albizzi, and he retained that power quite as much by his consistent self-effacement as by any positive administrative gifts which he possessed. B y chance, by shrewd insight, and by good management, he survived the various cataclysms which characterized the third decade of the fifteenth century, and for over sixty years no opposition was strong enough to remove him or his line from their self-assumed authority. T o us today, their supremacy seems to have been quite as definitely the result of a community of sympathy between the rulers and the ruled as it does of the power arising from their wealth or from the efficacy of their political methods. Cosimo inherited his father's interest in finance and in commerce, with rather more of his ability. Certainly the field of his activities was wider, although it is possible that his present fame may be due to the praise of those geniuses whose achievements he made possible. Cosimo's business was not confined to Florence, nor even to Italy. He had correspondents in every large city in Europe, through whom he imported Greek marbles and Indian spices with equal assiduity. Because he followed his father's policy of never working against the interests of the lesser artisans, he too kept his power, "living as ι . Matilda of Tuscany, died 1115. 1. In 1378 one Salvestro de' Medici had allied himself to the minor Arti during the Ciompi riots and had acquired no little wealth from the alliance. However, his power seems to have died with himself, as his descendants are seldom mentioned in the later history of Florence.

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a prince but dressing as a peasant," while the more aristocratic Albizzi and Strozzi spent most of their days in exile. He was banished in 1433, it is true, but ere a year had passed he was urged to return and to assume the management of state affairs; the Florentines had realized in a very short time that his sagacity was as necessary to them as their liberty, and while at times there was opposition to his policies, his power in the city continued. 1 Cosimo died in 1464, and was succeeded by his son, Piero. T h e five years of the latter's supremacy mark a minor recession in Medicean fortunes. Now came dual difficulties. T h e critical condition of the finances both of the state and of the bank could not be entirely concealed, while an outburst of the same restlessness which thirty years before had led to the exile of Cosimo was threatening another upheaval. Y e t despite the evident insecurity of Piero's position, on the day of his death a group of responsible citizens visited the young Lorenzo, his son, and requested him to take over the control of the state. " T o this," he said, " I unwillingly consented, such power not being in accord with m y age, and being as well a matter of much care and danger. I assented only that I might the better preserve m y friends and supporters, since at Florence one may not live without a State. And to this present time [1472] I have succeeded with good fortune, not because of m y prudence, but rather by the mercy of God and through the good deeds of m y ancestors." 2 Although the story of Lorenzo's reign has been told time and again by chronicler and by historian, by partisan and by detractor, it still remains one of the most baffling periods of Florentine history, and Lorenzo himself persists as inscrutable as he is contradictory. T h e many letters which have come down to us show how beset his path was with difficulties and hazards, as he tried to keep peace and maintain a balance of power among the jealous, treacherous rulers of his day. Lorenzo not only had the safety of Florence to consider, but he had likewise to guard the integrity of Italy, then as ever a tempting prey to foreign powers. He succeeded in keeping the selfseeking Lodovico Sforza safe within the confines of Lombardy; 1. Between 1452 and 1460 the Pitti practically ruled Florence, but ere his death Cosimo regained his influence in the government. 2. Ricordi of Lorenzo, given in Roscoe, Life of Lorenzo de' Medici, vol. I, App.

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he won the alliance of the shifty Ferrante of Naples; and, despite the Pazzi conspiracy and the harm done by Pope Sixtus I V to Florentine merchants, he was able later to bind the papal interests securely to those of the Florentines — all of which speaks far more forcibly for his ability than the occasional deviations from such constructive policies argue for his degeneracy. Following the political methods of both his grandfather and his great-grandfather, Lorenzo carefully avoided any outward and visible signs of sovereignty, knowing how quickly they would imperil the substance of his power. B y sagacity or by guile — perhaps by both — he managed to fence about his unrecognized authority with whatever constitutional safeguards were at hand. Like Cosimo, he endeavored to prevent the ascendancy of any one faction; he aimed to exclude from the Florentine domain whosoever should prove dangerous opponents to the Medici or to their government; and he controlled all offices and councils by seeing to it that the list of those eligible for office should contain only the names of his friends; and by shifting the burden of taxation so as to bring pressure on the refractory groups, he managed to prevent disloyalty ripening into conspiracies. Lorenzo re-established the Balìa, a great council representing all classes of people and all districts of the city; he gave to it control of the public debt, of the levying and collecting of taxes, and the selection of all candidates for public office. From this council was chosen the Settanta or Seventy, 1 nominally elected for five years but destined to become eventually a permanent council. T o it and to the committees chosen by it — the Eight and the Twelve — was turned over the control of state affairs, as well as the supervision of financial and of commercial matters. 2 Naturally the next step would have been to establish a permanent executive, and there is much to justify the theory that had he lived another ten years Lorenzo would have made himself gonfaloniere for life. 1. The Settanta supplanted the Baña of Cosimo's day, and while it was permanent, it was far less arbitrary than the older institution, which had the power to punish without a trial any citizen whom it deemed dangerous. It was the permanency to which the Florentines objected, although within a generation they were to make the gonfaloniership a life office. But in 1480 such an innovation was considered the death of liberty, as Alamanno Rinuccini records in his Diary. (Reumont, Lorenzo de' Medici, 11, 190.) T o the fifteenth-century Florentines, liberty was not so much freedom as it was privilege. 2. This meant a lessening of the power of the guilds and the practical abolition of the court of the Mercanzia.

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Despotic as such changes sound, they seem to have worked little hardship on the Florentines, especially as Lorenzo saw to it that the administration was in the hands of intelligent and cultivated men, capable and desirous of promoting the general prosperity. 1 T h e city was for the time being free from party strife and family feuds; free, too, from that devastating sense of insecurity which derives from inefficiency of executive power, or from repeated change of administration. Much as the modern political theorist may condemn the general employment of these methods, it cannot be denied that from the point of view of practical statesmanship Lorenzo was giving Florence a government quite as satisfactory as any she had ever had, and as efficient as that enjoyed by any of her neighbors during the fifteenth century. Guicciardini, who witnessed the events of which he wrote, says that while Florence was certainly not free under Lorenzo, yet there never was a despot more pleasing nor one from whose inclination and natural dispositions such infinite good resulted. T h a t there also resulted divers of those evils which all despotism brings, cannot be denied. B u t these evils were not excessive, and they were kept within as small a compass as the necessities of the situation would permit. 2 In other words, his was the tyranny of a benevolent though dominating personality, an imaginative and constructive intellect and a subtle brain. T h a t Lorenzo recognized the weakness of the expedients he used is indubitable. He realized that in the hands of an incompetent administrator, such as he knew his son and probable successor to be, the fabric of government created by himself and his ancestors would soon fall to ruin. B u t he also realized that it was the only possible system to fit the needs of the time. Whether he hoped to live long enough to give it more stability or whether he hoped some turn of fortune's wheel would relieve him of the necessity of providing for the future, one can only surmise. Certainly he must have known that for him it was a choice between supremacy and banishment, even as it was for his son; known, too, that the Florentines would never have trusted him in the rôle of a private citizen. ι . For the most part these were scholars who owed their rise from humble circumstances to the generous patronage of the Medici. Naturally their loyalty to their benefactors was beyond shadow of suspicion. 2. Storia fiorentina, lib. ix.

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In the administration of fiscal affairs — those of the state as well as his own — Lorenzo was less happy. He cared little for the intricacies of finance, while whatever wealth he personally possessed was invested in land. His agents were not slow to take advantage of this lack of interest on his part, and managed the accounts of the banking-house, no less than those of the state, decidedly to their own advantage. As a result, Lorenzo has been accused not only of wasting his own substance in riotous living, but also of squandering state funds. T h a t he spent lavishly is true, both as a citizen and as capo dello stato. B u t it should be remembered that changing economic and commercial conditions combined to decrease the value of his inheritance throughout his entire career, and while he, as well as Cosimo, had used the public credit to bolster up the bank's instability, a great deal of this entangling of state and private finance was known and accepted. 1 Lorenzo died in 1492, a year fraught with peculiar significance to every country in Europe. In Italy, however, it witnessed the commencement of decay and disaster, not only that which derived from the forward thrust of competing countries, but also that which flowed from internal ineptitude. The discovery of the New World which inaugurated the period of Spanish supremacy seriously crippled, if it did not indeed destroy, Italian trade with the Levant, while the rise of nationalism in France and Spain created conquerors to whose political unity Italy could oppose only the debility resulting from commercial independence and political particularism. Within Italy the election of Alexander V I to the Papacy was the beginning of a series of events which culminated in loss by Rome of spiritual supremacy over western Christendom. Again, and more important still, while the northern lands were yielding to the vigorous and compelling spirit of nation-making, Italy was content to remain a political chaos, satisfied with her achieveI. Both Guicciardini and Machiavelli insist that Lorenzo was guilty of misappropriation of funds. Pazzi, a nephew of Lorenzo, writing in 1522, declared it was only the Pazzi conspiracy which saved the family from bankruptcy in 1478, as their credit was then so very low. The conspiracy, he argued, gained for the Medici new friends and new stability, and made it possible for Lorenzo to use the state's money without rebuke, which thing would not have been permitted earlier in the game. Unfortunately, this whole aspect of the Medici government is and must ever remain simply a matter of conjecture, since the books of firm and of commune were destroyed in 1494 when Piero de' Medici was expelled from the city. Discorso di Alessandro de Pazzi al Cardinale Giulio de' Medici, Anno 1522, in A. S. I., 1, 420.

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ments in art and her widespread commerce, both of which had entered already on a period of decline. It was not a wise choice, as the ensuing centuries of foreign control were to prove, but considering how eminently satisfactory that policy had been since at least the days of Dante, the Italians may be forgiven for having failed to appreciate the inadequacies of political disunion and the changing order beyond the Alps. Lorenzo was succeeded by his eldest son, another Piero, who was just the age the former had been when selected as capo della repubblica — that is, twenty-tone. But Piero had inherited none of his father's abilities and few of his tastes; he had neither the instinct nor the capacity for public affairs, and he lacked utterly the Medici gift of handling men. He was " all Orsini," 1 and forsaking those policies which had preserved the supremacy of his line, he bore himself like a prince of royal blood. He ignored the fact that the Medici were after all but private citizens and held their power by popular consent — a circumstance that neither Cosimo nor Lorenzo had ever forgotten. Guicciardini gives an incident which goes far to explain the hostility he aroused. A t the accession of Alexander VI, soon after Lorenzo's death, Lodovico Sforza of Milan suggested that Florence and Naples, as well as his own state, send a single ambassador to bear congratulations to the new pontiff. Piero turned a disdainful ear to the proposal and dispatched a magnificent cortège to Rome. Perhaps the historian, in his righteous indignation at such shortsightedness, exaggerated the truth somewhat when he dated the fall of the Medici and the ruin of Italy from this act.2 Certain it was that Lodovico was not only angry at the new head of the Florentine state, but, recognizing Piero's vanity and lack of statesmanship, he took a step which he would never have dared even consider had Cosimo or Lorenzo been in power: he suggested to Charles VIII of France that the time was now ripe for him to press the Angevin claim to the crown of Naples.3 Since 1400 every able monarch who had succeeded to the French throne had cast longing eyes at that kingdom of southern Italy, but so long as the Medici governed Florence they ι . His mother was Clarice Orsini of Rome, and he married Alfonsina of the same family. 1. Op. cit., lib. xi. 3. Dating from 1265, when Charles of Anjou, the brother of Louis I X of France, established himself on the throne of Naples.

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had each recognized that the way thither was effectually blocked both by land and by sea. Then, too, in these later years France was profiting far too much by her business connections with the great Florentine firms who had established branch houses in Lyons, in Paris, and in Marseilles to antagonize them willingly. 1 For himself, as for Florence and for all Italy, Lodovico may be truly said to have sowed the wind and reaped the whirlwind. In less than five years his intrigues has cost him his duchy, and had launched a century of conquest which terminated only with the foreign domination of Italy — a domination which lasted almost to our own day. Nor was Piero much more fortunate than Lodovico. Dismayed at the success of the French and roused by the cowardice and ineffectiveness of their leader, the Florentines rose in revolt, declaring the time had come to cast off the rule of a spoiled child and to restore liberty to the commonwealth. 2 Denouncing Piero as a traitor, they drove him from the city, just sixty years after they had recalled Cosimo and made him primo cìptadino.3 While the expulsion of Piero rid the city of a foolhardy and inefficient leader, it did not restore the balance of power on which peninsular peace rested and which Lodovico Sforza had shattered when he called in the French. Now alliances shifted over-night; and no state knew who was friend and who was foe. T h e French army marched to Florence, made what terms they could with the Signoria, and departed southward with all the plunder they could stuff into their purses or load on the backs of sumpter mules. Florence was then left to her own devices, with freedom to experiment as she pleased in her search for a government that would meet all needs and satisfy all factions. For the next forty years she tried one variation after another of the constitution which had served so well the early commune, but which, with the added territories, the new problems, economic and international as well as political, of the later years, now 1. Peruzzi, Storia del commercio e dei banchieri di Firenze, lists the families established in various parts of France. While the Medici had branches in more than one city, that of Lyons was the most important at this time. 2. Guicciardini, op. cit., lib. xi. 3. A. S. I., Ser. II, vol. i v , pt. 2, p. 30; Landucci, Diario, November 9, 1494.

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proved hopelessly inadequate. T h e era of the free commune was past, but the Florentines could not adjust themselves to the change; their minds harked back constantly to the "glorious past," instead of reaching forward to a new nationalism such as was being accomplished in the states beyond the Alps. Patriotism was still limited to the contado·, but had there been the essential leadership at that time, Florence need not have waited three and a half centuries to have beheld the miracle of a united Italy. The first experiment, that with priests and paternosters, with Savonarola as the guiding power, lasted for four years and ended in failure. Like all strong natures who feel chosen by God to achieve a mundane task, the Prior of San Marco became more irritable and autocratic as his own power grew, until he resented both advice and criticism from any source whatsoever, while the relentless insistence of his social reforms was increasingly distasteful to the pleasure-loving pagans of Renaissance Florence. Although Lorenzo de' Medici was not a reformer, was not blessed with any high moral standards either for himself or for his government, he had succeeded where Savonarola failed; and this success was by no means due to the power of his wealth or to the prestige of his name. It was due rather to his deeper insight into the character of his countrymen, his truer conception of the social and political forces already at work in the land. T h e Medici party, the anti-French element, the papal sympathizers — each faction grew in proportion as the Friar's power lessened. 1 Signoria followed Signoria, each including fewer Frateschi than the government preceding, and in 1498, soon after the death of Savonarola's one great ally, Charles V I I I , Milan, Venice, and the Papacy began to connive with the Florentines for his downfall. 2 On the 23rd of M a y 1498 the great Friar was burned in the Piazza della Signoria, and Florence was again faced with anarchy and confusion. T o add to her troubles, Cesare Borgia, the son of Alexander V I , was ravaging the frontiers and threatening to restore Piero, until the despairing Signoria bought him off by making him Captain1. As early as September, 1496, Landucci wrote, " H e has so many enemies, poor man." 2. Alexander because of his attacks on the morals of the Curia; Milan and Venice because he had kept Florence out of the league against France.

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General of the Florentine army, and then bled the public treasury for three years to fight his wars.1 From 1498 until 1503 the affairs of the Republic were carried on with a weakness and timidity that boded little good for the public welfare. Every department of the government was hopelessly corrupt, men of ability refused to have any part in public affairs, and the city was shattered and nerveless.2 The sons of Lorenzo were all in exile: Piero was fighting in the French army near Rome, hoping that either his kinsmen the Orsini, or the papal troops, or the Spaniards, or the French, or some as yet unrevealed champion, would assist him to return to Florence; the Cardinal Giovanni was first in Germany, then in Paris, then back in the north of Italy, ever seeking to form new alliances for the restoration of his family; while Giuliano was with relatives, either in Genoa or in Rome as the case might be. But no one wanted them in Florence — not even the Ottimati, once the most loyal supporters of the Medici power. The several factions agreed on one policy only: the necessity of regaining Pisa; on all other questions they were hopelessly at variance. Ever since the days of Dante, Order and Anarchy had striven for supremacy in Florence; now for the first time the latter controlled the state, and she continued to control it until the Republic fell and the Grand Duchy was established, although at times, as in 1502, the tide turned again ever so slightly in favor of Order. That year Piero de' Medici was drowned in the Garigliano, and his adherents no longer threatened to invade the city. Not long afterward Alexander VI died of poison; his son Cesare was checked in his ambitious intrigues and forced to leave Italy for Spain,3 and in the city itself Piero Soderini4 was elected gonfaloniere for life, an innovation previously advocated by both Lorenzo and Savonarola. Soderini was well-meaning, and for ten years he managed to keep a fair degree of law and order on the surface. He followed the general policy adopted by Savonarola: the Medici in exile, the maintenance of the constitution, and the alliance with France, a policy which in his case was dictated by force of cir1. It was during these confused years that Maringhi's letters to the Florentine merchants were written. 2. Guicciardini, op. cit., lib. xvi. 3. Landucci, Diario, January ζ, 1503. 4. The son of Tommaso, who was a friend and counsellor of Lorenzo, and who served four times as gonfaloniere under the Medici régime.

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cumstance, and which, while satisfying none, could not easily be abandoned; but the most that can be said of his administration is that it prevented civil wars and restored Pisa to Florentine control. B u t in 1511 the sack of P r a t o 1 by the Spanish army, one of the disgraceful consequences of the French alliance, caused his downfall, which was followed by the return of the Medici, whose popularity seems to have been renewed as soon as they entered the gates. Piero's young son, Lorenzo, 2 was nominally in control, but he was guided by his uncles, Giuliano and the Cardinal Giovanni, particularly the latter, the ablest of Lorenzo the Magnificent's sons. The Laurentian constitution was re-established with the consent of the people, who, thoroughly tired of Soderini's shifting policies, wished for nothing quite so much as a central power strong enough to maintain order and establish justice. Almost immediately afterward, Giovanni was elected Pope and assumed the tiara as Leo X , in 1513- He was the first pope Florence had ever had, and his election seemed a manifestation of Divine approval on the restoration. 3 Leo was an able dilettante, desirous of power, but eager to avoid the strife that it often brings. A t the time of his accession he was already suffering from the disease which caused his death in 1521, a fact which goes far to explain the contemporary criticism of his making use of everyone around him to avoid fatigue, yet insistent on having his own way and on achieving his own ends.4 Florentines flocked to Rome. After twenty years of depression they were avid for the material favors which were scattered by pontifical hands. Merchants and bankers opened branch offices in the papal city, 5 and the numberless Medici cousins were given positions in the papal court. 6 Leo's pontificate is of rather less historical importance, how1. For an account of the horrors of the sack of Prato see Landucci, Diario, August 29, 1512; A. S. I., ι, 242. 2. He was then in his twentieth year. Later created Duke of Urbino by his uncle, Pope Leo X , he is usually called by this title to distinguish him from his grandfather. 3. Landucci, Diario, March n , 1512 (O. S.). The people had bonfires in every possible corner, even tearing the roofs off houses to provide fuel. A Genoese, observing their frantic joy, shrewdly remarked that by the time Florence had had as many popes as Genoa she would restrain her rejoicing. Only two pontiffs were sufficient to win the Florentines to this point of view. 4. See the Relazioni of the Venetian ambassador, Giorgi, p. 51. 5. Especially those dealing in wines and in silk and damask. MS. 51. 6. See below, pp. 27-33.

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27

ever, than his control of Florentine affairs; through his kinsmen, he kept a firm hand on the government and directed the foreign policy of the Republic. Neither the young Lorenzo nor Giuliano showed any gift for administration; and the latter died soon after the Medicean restoration. 1 Lorenzo, even more corrupt than his father, and, if possible, less able, possessed an undue amount of the Orsini arrogance. 2 The actual administration of the government was in the hands of Giulio de' Medici, who, despite his dubious parentage, showed more of the Medicean traits than did his legitimately born kinsmen. 3 Leo created Giulio Archbishop of Florence, and then entrusted to him the administration of political affairs. Never since the city had been under the rule of the Medici had it been governed with a greater appearance of civil liberty or with more skillful concealment of despotism, 4 and the people were more content than they had been for half a century; for Giulio, like Lorenzo, understood their idiosyncrasies and was careful not to give offense by needless irritation. Leo died in 1521, and after the brief pontificate of Adrian V I , Giulio was elected to the pontifical throne — a choice most disastrous to Florence, to Italy, and to all Christendom. 5 Florence was given over to the rule of two Medici princelets, Alessandro and Ippolito. Both were illegitimate; the former was supposed to be the son of Giulio, although after his elevation the parentage of the mulatto was foisted on Lorenzo, Duke of Urbino, then dead and unable to refute the charge; 6 Ippolito was said to have been the son of Giuliano. Both were minors, and neither had the ability nor the willingness to discharge the task of governing the city. 7 Intrigue followed intrigue, 8 mostly devised by the young intelligentsia, who were led by Machiavelli, an ardent advocate of political liberty. ι . Giuliano died at Fiesole, March 17, 1516. 2. Both grandmother and mother were of that line. 3. Giulio was said to be the son of Lorenzo's brother Giuliano, who was killed in the Pazzi conspiracy. A t any rate he was accepted as such and grew up with Lorenzo's children. 4. Machiavelli, Discorso sopra il riformar lo stato di Firenze fatto ad istanza di Papa Leone X. 5. von Ranke: Geschichte des Päpsthums, vol. 1, sec. 3. 6. His mother was a mulatto slave, and he had the dark skin and facial characteristics of a negro. Gino Capponi, Storia, m , 167. 7. Cardinal Passerini was regent until 1527, when the Medici were expelled. 8. Most of these intrigues were hatched by restless nobles in the Oricellari gardens. Vettori, Sommario, A. S. I., App., vol. 22, p. 349.

28

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MERCHANTS

Y e t never was Florence less ready for self-government than she was in those years when all vestige of self-appointed leadership seems to have vanished. Party spirit, not Medicean despotism, had destroyed patriotism. " I t is well-nigh impossible," wrote the democratic Varchi, " that a state so disorganized and thoroughly corrupt as Florence then was should produce men of parts and character, but if by chance any such should arise they would be hated and persecuted, their natures corrupted by anger, and they would die of grief if indeed they were not murdered." 1 The year 1527 saw the final effort to restore the liberty of Florence. Clement V I I was held prisoner by the Bourbon troops in Castel Sant'Angelo; Ippolito was dead, murdered by Alessandro; and the factions, seeing their one hope lay in unity, chose Nicolo Capponi as gonfaloniere,2 He was sincerely patriotic, and as able an administrator as the city afforded, but, like Savonarola, he lost his popularity by his insistence on reforms. A t the same time, there came a terrible outbreak of plague in Florence which added to the misery. " T h e streets are reeking with filth, shops are closed, work has stopped, courts of justice have vanished, law is powerless, and theft and murder have their way. The squares and markets, once thronged with men and women, are dens of thieves or cemeteries. Only the plague-stricken dare greet each other, and fathers and mothers abandon their babies." 3 Then Charles V and Clement were reconciled, and as a part of their agreement the liberties of Florence were sacrificed. In 1529 the Imperial troops laid siege to the city, which after ten months of heroic resistance capitulated, 4 ostensibly to the Pope but in reality to Charles. T h e last gonfaloniere, Giovanfrancesco de' Nobili, 5 was forced to resign, Alessandro de' Medici was created gonfaloniere for life, and the Republic of Florence quietly passed out of existence. The Emperor established a new government in 1533, in which ι . V a r c h i , Storia, ι, 73. 2. T h e C a p p o n i , the A l b i z z i , and the Medici were perhaps the most famous of Florentine families, and o f the three the Capponi were outstanding in their generous and selfless patriotism. 3. Machiavelli, Descrizione della peste. 4. Michelangelo was commissioned to build the fortifications, which are still standing. A t the same time he was working in San Lorenzo on the statues of the kinsmen o f the " t y r a n t s " whom the citizens were resisting. 5. See below, p. 99.

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the title of Duke of Florence was bestowed on Alessandro. B u t this tyrant was not destined long to enjoy his unrighteous gains. In 1537 he in turn was assassinated by his cousin Lorenzino, 1 and a second Cosimo, the son of a second patriot Giovanni, established a new line, the Grand Dukes of Tuscany. 2 In this magnificent comedy the younger branches of the Medici played lesser rôles, but they were nevertheless quite essential actors. It is difficult to evaluate the full measure of their importance, since unfortunately neither letter-books nor ledgers give more than the most meager details of their political or diplomatic services, or their daily life; and such data as are available have proven both vague and contradictory. 3 So far as can be determined, they were all of them loyal supporters of their kinsmen, in adversity as well as in prosperity. The common origin of all of the clan in the Mugello 4 led them to establish themselves in the same street when they removed to Florence — off the Mercato Vecchio, where they lived for a century or more. About the middle of the Quattrocento, the elder Cosimo built his huge palace over behind the Duomo, 5 and at the same time other members of the family also deserted the tall, dark houses for pleasanter quarters elsewhere. 6 Y e t even so, there was no lessening of common interest; the descendants of Giovenco were frequently among those holding office under Lorenzo, even after his innovations of 1480, and after his death the younger Lorenzo had no more loyal supporter than these distant kinsmen of his. ι . B o t h Lorenzino and Cosimo I were descended from Lorenzo, brother of Cosimo the Elder. 2. Lorenzino declared he was prompted solely by motives of patriotism. His letter to Francesco di Raffaello de' M e d i c i , written shortly after the assassination, is in the Selfridge Collection ( M S . 377). Copies m a y h a v e been made of this, since various authors include it in their documents. H o w e v e r , each printed version which has been discovered bears marked differences to the original. 3. O n e constantly recurring difficulty is that of identification. I t was the sorry custom of the age to refer to a man as Lorenzo di Piero, for example, instead of calling him Lorenzo de' Medici. Raffaello de' Medici and his contemporary, Raffaello Girolami, are each referred to as Raffaello di Francesco, and as their interests were so similar it is often difficult to tell who was meant. 4. See above, p. 14. 5. C a v a l c a n t i , a contemporary historian, said it cost more to build this palace than to build the R o m a n Coliseum. 6. T h e y remained close to the D u o m o , however. E v e n now their coat-of-arms, the cluster of falle or balls, m a y be seen on the façades of m a n y houses in this district, where a century before had stood the tiratoi or drying-sheds of the Arte di Lana.

3o

FLORENTINE MERCHANTS

When Cosimo was expelled by the Albizzi in 1433, his cousin Averardo de' Medici was sent to Naples for ten years. 1 No mention is made of Giovenco, who was then in business in Florence, but his cousins, the sons of Antonio, were especially exempted from the ban laid on the rest of the family—owing, so Cosimo says, to the high regard which the Captain of War cherished for Bernardo, Antonio's son.2 Bernardo seems to have been quite worthy of such distinction, not only for his bravery in battle, but for his good citizenship as well.3 "This Bernardo was a keen business man," writes Cavalcanti, "always to be seen in his shop where he sold wools, and never in the public places of the city nor in the palace, save when he was summoned." 4 Like Cosimo, Bernardo was a patron of art and of artists; he it was who called Andrea del Castagno to Florence from the Mugello and set him to work on his frescoes.s He was several times a prior, and in 1446 was gonfaloniere of the Republic. Also, Bernardo's elder son, Averardo, who succeeded him in business, held similar offices in the state. He was a loyal adherent of the unfortunate Piero di Lorenzo, and was imprisoned as a traitor to the city for having assisted Alfonsina, wife of Piero, to escape after the latter's expulsion.6 Averardo's son Raffaello spent most of his life in Bruges, in the banking-house of Filippo Gualterrotti, his father-in-law.7 He stood high in the graces of Charles V, and served him as special ambassador on more than one occasion.8 1. See Cosimo's oration in Fabroni, Magni Cosmi Medicei Vita, Ii, 75. 2. The Duke of Urbino then held this office. Bernardo was for a time associated with his cousin, Giovenco di Giuliano de' Medici, as lanaioìi, and later was the head of his own firm of Merchant-employers. MSS. 496, 502, etc. 3. Cambi, op. cit., 1, 334. He was in charge of troops sent to assist Lodovico Sforza against the Venetians, and, with Neri Capponi, put down a revolt of the Count of Poppi, in the Casentina. 4. Cavalcanti, Istorie fiorentine, vol. it, chap. 34, p. 213. He was also referred to as a great friend of the elder Cosimo. 5. Vasari, Vita. 6. Landucci, Diario, September 23, 1495. Here is an example of the confusion of names which no material now available has made clear. Averardo was of the same generation as Giuliano di Giovenco, who died in 1498. He seems to have been head of the firm of Medici and Company from 1444 to 1447 a n d yet to have died in 1515. It seems doubtful, however (though, to be sure, not impossible), that one man's activities should have covered so long a period; but there appears no other Bernardo d'Antonio to serve as father, nor any other Averardo di Bernardo to serve as son. 7. Gualterotti was the last of the Florentines to quit the Netherlands. The branch of the firm established in Bruges was closed about 1520. 8. Cambi, op. cit., πι, 215.

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Bernardo's other grandson, Ottaviano, was a picturesque and not entirely admirable character, who had a flair for keeping himself in the public eye.1 He was born in 1482; in 1506 he was representing Francesco, then head of Medici and Company, Merchant-employers, over in Pera.2 Somewhat later he was stirring up strife in Florence, for which in due course he was exiled.3 He was an ardent supporter of the younger Lorenzo, and seems to have returned to Florence at the time of the restoration of the Medici to power; for a decade or two he was employed by both Leo X and Clement VII, dividing his time between Rome and Florence. It is strange that Clement did not appoint him rather than the two degenerates, Ippolito and Alessandro, to govern Florence after he himself became pope. Nevertheless, Ottaviano was on the Balìa and served as prior during those years. He was in Florence during the siege; he served as gonfaloniere in 1531 ; and after the death of Alessandro de' Medici in 1537 he was secretly offered the lordship of the city, but declined in favor of Cosimo I, to whom he thenceforth devoted himself most assiduously.4 Giovenco di Giuliano, the founder of the firm of Medici and Company, Merchant-employers, is, on the other hand, seldom mentioned by chronicler or historian of the period. Yet he was not unimportant, either in public life or in business. He held the priorship more than once, and also proconsular offices in the Mugello, or in the little villages over towards Pistoia.5 Both he and his son, Giuliano, owned much land in the Mugello, and after 1440 Giovenco apparently spent much of his time there, supervising the conduct of his estates and the marketing of his produce.6 In his day, the firm of Medici and Company, Merchant-employers, and Medici and Company, Bankers (of which the elder Cosimo was then head), were involved in extensive ι . He was the son of Lorenzo di Bernardo, of whom little is known. 2. See below, p. 55. 3. Cambi, op. cit.., m , 318. 4. Ottaviano was the friend and patron of both Andrea del Sarto and Michelangelo; the latter served as godfather to one of his children, and the former painted for him the copy of Raphael's famous painting of Leo X , with two cardinals, which Ottaviano palmed off on the Marquis of Mantua as the original work. However, as Giulio Romano, who had assisted Raphael, was likewise deceived, the Marquis deserves less sympathy than he might otherwise have. 5. MS. 35 of the original collection. He was podestà of Larciano and of other small towns, and held a number of important offices in the Arte di Lana. MS. 500. Selfridge Collection lists the offices he held in Florence. 6. MSS. 494, 497, 503, Selfridge Collection.

FLORENTINE MERCHANTS transactions; 1 after the death of Lorenzo, this intercourse ceased. Giovenco's descendants were important men both in business and in politics; his son, Giuliano, his grandson, Francesco, and Raffaello, son of the latter, each served his turn as magistrate, until the very downfall of the Republic. Francesco was closely associated with Lorenzo the Magnificent, 2 yet by some chance neither he nor his father was exiled with Piero. 3 Perhaps they were never active enough in their partisanship to be considered dangerous to their opponents; it is true that neither held office during Savonarola's supremacy, and Giuliano died about the same time that the Friar was burned at the stake. 4 Under Soderini, who was a business associate of Medici and Company, both Francesco and his son Raffaello were active in public affairs; 5 the former served as Captain and Commissary of Pistoia from 1504 to 1505, as Captain of Cortona in 1507, and held several offices in Florence itself. While there is nothing to indicate that he failed to show a consistent loyalty to Soderini, he was most devoted to the interests of the younger Lorenzo, and when the latter returned to the city Francesco and Raffaello both held many offices under the new régime, serving as priors, as ambassadors, as governors, etc., during the entire period of this second Medicean supremacy. 6 Francesco died of the plague in 1528 at the age of eighty-two; Raffaello lived until 1555. No change of government or of leadership seemed to affect him particularly; he was loyal to Clement V I I and he was a friend of the Emperor Charles V; he acted as agent for the young Lorenzo; he represented ι . M S . 495 contains a receipt signed by Cosimo de' Medici, the only document in the collection bearing his autograph. A study of the ledgers more prolonged than has yet been possible would doubtless throw much light on the business interests of both banker and Merchant-employer. 1. Valori speaks of their being concerned in various building projects. He also says Francesco was erecting a fine new house under Lorenzo's supervision. 3 . Certain authorities have said all Merchant-employers were expelled from Florence by Savonarola, but in M S . 528, a record of Francesco's various transactions in Florence from 1488 to 1497, there is direct evidence that he remained there during those years. 4. Giuliano died January 3 1 , 1498. M S . 548. 5. Piero had many dealings with both Francesco, as the head of the firm of Medici and Company, Merchant-employers, and with Raffaello, then engaged in dyeing. Francesco's letter-book, M S . 5 3 7 (see below, pp. 2 6 4 - 2 7 3 ) , was written during Soderini's rule, as well as a part of Maringhi's letters. 6. Litta, vol. II, tav. xvii. Lorenzo's letters to Francesco are full of affection and confidence; he says again and again that he looks upon him as a father.

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Lorenzino 1 when the latter was in exile, and he held office under Alessandro 2 as well as under Cosimo I. 3 Perhaps to him the service of Florence counted for more than either the form of government or the leadership, and if so, then his was indeed a high type of patriotism. T h e confused period of Raffaello's life is that between 1521 and 1524, the interim between the death of Leo X and the accession of Clement V I I . He was certainly in France, Spain, and Belgium during these years, but of the letters in the Florentine archives which are attributed to him, it is possible that some may have been written by Raffaello di Averardo, who also went to Spain in 1522 as envoy to Charles and in company with Raffaello di Francesco Girolami. Raffaello's elder son, Francesco, was a youth of unusual ability. A boyhood companion of Lorenzino de' Medici, he remained on intimate terms with that rather dissolute youth throughout the latter's erratic career. It was to him that Lorenzino wrote his first hurried account of the assassination of Alessandro, pleading as justification his desire to restore Florentine liberty. 4 A t the time of the siege of Florence, Clement V I I sent Francesco as special ambassador to Louis X I I of France, 5 and the next year employed him on similar missions in Italy. He was one of the early members of the Florentine Academy, and was highly commended by contemporary writers for his erudition. One other member of this line enjoyed the prestige of his restored kinsmen — Guido d'Antonio, a nephew of Francesco, who served as messenger between Pera and Florence at the turn of the century and went to Rome at the time of Leo's coronation. He was rewarded with the Provostship of the Umiliati, which, considering their mutual interest in the manufacture of woolen cloth, was a wise appointment. Other benefices came his way also; he was in charge of Castel Sant'Angelo at Rome under Clement V I I , and in 1528 was made Archbishop of Chieta. Because of his sympathies with the French, however, Charles V kept him a prisoner in Rome and refused to allow him to enter his diocese. 1. was a 2. 3. 4.

He was gonfaloniere in 1531, and served on the Baña of 1532; the next year he member of the Senate created by the Emperor Charles V. MS. 54. MS. 55. MS. 58. In 1538 he was Governor of Arezzo (MS. 56). MS. 375. 5. MSS. 51, 52, 53.

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But there are names other than that of Medici appearing in the journals and letter-books of the Selfridge Collection, names of those who actively supported the Medici régime, and even of those who strove to bring about its downfall. As has been said, both Cosimo and Lorenzo had maintained their power largely by filling public offices with their adherents, and the later members of the family followed their example. When Piero's son, the Duke of Urbino, was placed at the head of the Florentine state, his uncle, Leo X , wrote him urging him to fill all the principal magistracies with his friends and to have continual reports on their behavior. When new selections were made, he must be careful to choose men of little importance so that their gratitude might make for security. He must have a majority on the executive council, especially the Otto di Pratica and the Otto di Balìa, which controlled foreign and internal affairs, respectively. And above all else, the officials of the Monte di Pietà — the public loan bank — were to be entirely under his control, as that institution was the heart of the city. Lesser officers were to be so distributed as to secure new friends among the populace. He suggests, too, that his nephew rely on the services of Ser Nicolo Michelozzi to keep himself informed of the various undercurrents of public opinion, assuring the lad that he may in all things trust to the judgment and discretion of this loyal friend. 1 This Ser Nicolo whom Leo commends so warmly was the son of the great architect, who had followed the elder Cosimo into exile in 1434, and he was also the chief member of the little group of associates to whom Maringhi wrote during the stormy years when the elder Medici were in exile. He was born in 1447, and was trained as a notary, later belonging to the Arte dei Giudici e Notai.1 When he was still a mere boy, 1. The Michelozzi were an important mercantile family, who had amassed a considerable fortune in trade with England, and who, like the Medici, gave many gifts to their city, among others the great altar and the choir in Santo Spirito. Michelozzo Michelozzi, Ser Nicolo's father, built the Medici palace in Via Cavour (opposite his own home); he restored and enlarged the Palazzo Vecchio; built the convent of San Marco, the novitiate of Santa Croce, and the Medici chapel in San Miniato. He also built Cosimo's villa at Cafaggiuola. While he was in Venice with Cosimo, he built the library of San Marco, Cosimo's gift to that city. 2. The guild of notaries and judges was an association of professional men; they were not themselves business men, but they were most necessary to the commercial life of the commune. Membership in this guild was considered a social as well as a professional asset, and matriculation therein was required of all who sought legal appointments. A. S. F. Not. Prot., p. 7, cc. 75, 79, 82, 83; Desjardins, Négociations, ι, 427 f.

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he acted as secretary to Piero di Cosimo, and later served both Lorenzo and his son Piero in the same capacity. 1 He was the friend and companion of those famous humanists, Politian, Ficino, Pico della Mirandola, and the rest, who frequented the Medici Gardens, and was himself a member of the Platonic Academy. He was perhaps the most influential of all in the Medicean Chancery, not only because of his prudence and professional ability, but also because of the elegance of his writing. He served the state for many years and in many ways, at home ahd abroad.2 His zealous support of the younger Piero led to his imprisonment in I494, but he seems to have been released not long after and to have been allowed to hold public office.* He succeeded Machiavelli as director of the Second Chancery in 1511, holding the office for eight years. In 1506, and perhaps earlier, he was associated with Francesco di Giuliano dei Medici in the exportation of woolen cloth to the Levant, 4 but no records now available indicate that he belonged to any of the mercantile guilds. As for the others, they were all of them men of some prominence, and as priors, and as gonfalonieri, they represented the power of industry in the government of Florence long after the Arte had been superseded by the individual business man. According to Villani (f 1348), Florence was founded by the Fiesolans for the purpose of trade; if this be true, — and no theory as to the origin of the city has yet been advanced which seems more probable, — then the history of Florence is also the history of commerce along the valley of the Arno. Certainly from Roman days on she was generally known as a market-place. Through the age of the communes she might easily have lost her economic prestige to her more fortunate rivals, Venice, Genoa, and Amalfi, all sea-ports, had it not been for the fact that she was so fortunately situated where the two meandering highways, one from Pisa to Ancona, and the other from Bologna to Rome, crossed, thus securing for her the overland trade which not even the sea-ports were able to challenge. 1. Del Lungo, Florentia, p. 222; Delia Torre, Storia dell'Accademia Platonica di Firenze (publication of the R. Istituto di Studii Superiori), p. 716. 2. In 1485 he was Ambassador Extraordinary to Milan; in 1489, to Rome; in 1490, to Perugia. See the letters of Lorenzo de' Medici in the Selfridge Collection. 3. Cambi, op. cit., iv, 252. 4. See below, p. 185.

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36

MERCHANTS

Fifteenth-century Florence was still a city of craftsmen, and of merchants organized into guilds or Arti, a fundamental and permanent element of Florentine life. P r o b a b l y neither the exact date of the formation of these guilds nor the order of their establishment will ever be known a c c u r a t e l y ; 1 but certainly b y the twelfth century they were functioning, and, moreover, their members were trading in the markets of northern Europe. 2 B y the statute of 1415 the guilds were listed in order of their respective importance, the seven m a j o r and fourteen minor Arti — which number remained unaltered until the downfall of the Republic. I. Le ι. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. II. Le ι. 2. 3 4 5 6 7 8. 9. 10.

Arti Maggiori L'Arte dei Giudici e Notai — Judges and Notaries. L Arte di Calimala — Merchants of Foreign Cloth. LArte di Lana — Wool-manufacturers. L'Arte de' Cambiatori — Bankers and Money-changers. L'Arte di Seta — Silk-manufacturers. L'Arte de' Medici e Speziali — Doctors and Apothecaries. L'Arte de' Pellicciai e Vaiai — Skinners and Furriers. Arti Minori L'Arte de' Beccai — Cattle-dealers and Butchers. L'Arte de' Fabbri — Blacksmiths. LArte de' Calzolai — Shoemakers. L'Arte de' Maestri di Pietre e di Legnami — Master Stonemasons and Wood-carvers. LArte de' Rigattieri e de' Linaiuoli — Retail Dealers and Linen Merchants. LArte de Vinattieri — Wine-merchants. LArte degli Albergatori — Inn-keepers. LArte de' Galigai —• Tanners. LArte degli Oliandoli — Oil-merchants. LArte de' Carreggiai — Saddlers.

ι . Certain authorities trace their origin to the Corpora Opificum et Artificium of Roman days, but that theory is challenged by other equally scholarly writers. Villani, op. cit., h i , 85, says Rome had consuls at the head of her few industries in 901; Ravenna had guilds as early as 990, and Ferrara, as early as 1015. The earliest document attesting to the existence of an arte in Florence is dated 1190. R . Arch, di Stato. Filza Stroz., V, no. 1, f. 25. 2. Doren, Α., Studien aus der Florentiner Wirtschajts geschickte, Band 11, p. 7. Doren relies largely on secondary sources for his material, and some of his interpretations on particular matters are open to criticism. He says, however, that by 1150 the Arte di Calimala was organized, and that by 1178 the Florentine merchants were found at the Fairs of Champagne.

FLORENCE UNDER THE MEDICI 11. 12. 13. 14.

37

UArte de Chiavaiuoli — Locksmiths. L'Arte de' Corazzai — Armorers. L'Arte de' Legnaiuoli — Carpenters. L'Arte de' Fornai — Bakers.

Each one of the guilds was to a large extent self-governing and independent, although, in times of stress, they were quick to form alliances for mutual benefit. While each was empowered to define its own terms of entrance and the conditions of labor for its members, as well as standards of production, there was little marked variation in the organization. Each required every member to be a native Florentine, to furnish sponsors for his character, as well as evidence of freedom from misdemeanor, and to provide both caution-money and an entrance fee. Members of the mercantile guilds were either maestri (full members) or garzoni (apprentices) ; while the craft guilds had an intermediary group, lavoranti (laborers). Each guild had its magistrates, priors, rectors, or consuls; each had its own notaries, its financial officials, and its provvisioni or statutes; and each sponsored some particular church or charity which it endowed with funds and decorated with masterpieces of art. The little group of merchants whose activities form the substance of these letter-books were connected with the Arte di Calimala ¡ the Arte del Cambio, the Arte di Lana, and the Arte di Seta. The Arte di Calimala had to do with the redressing, dyeing, and finishing of woolen cloth, foreign at first and later both domestic and foreign. As early as the reign of Henry II, Florentines were at the English fairs buying cloth to be refinished; by 1182 they were carrying on a brisk trade in that commodity with southern France. As early as the thirteenth century, agencies of the Arte di Calimala were established in Paris, St. Denis, Provins, Lagny, Troyes, Marseilles, Aries, Avignon, Perpignan, and Toulouse. Each of these agencies had its resident agent receiving and executing orders, and each its resident consul, both chosen by the guild. The contribution of the Arte di Calimala to Florentine development and Florentine prestige, directly and indirectly, can hardly be overstated. When these foreign cloths came into Italy they were what the English would call "durable and well made," but they were certainly unpleasing to the eye. Partly because the Florentines still remembered the soft, light, bright-

38

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hued fabrics they had seen in the Holy Land, partly because of that innate sense of beauty which dominated every aspect of their lives, this thick, heavy, dark cloth failed to satisfy them as it had satisfied the northerners. Out of such dissatisfaction had developed the craft of the Calimala, the turning of the rough but well-woven fabrics into a material unrivalled in all the markets of Europe, and one which taught both East and West to look to the city on the Arno for the finest of panni. Closely allied to the Arte di Calimala, since it was born of the need for facilitating trade in foreign wool-cloths, was the Arte del Cambio. Wherever the E a g l e 1 was established in foreign parts, there came likewise the bankers to transfer and adjust obligations between distant debtors and creditors. 2 B y the thirteenth century, Florentine bankers were established in many European cities. In 1199 they were in England, sharing place, however, with the bankers of Siena. 3 Ghibellines though they were, the Sienese had first control of papal finances, and it took some time to establish the superiority of Florentine claims. But because the latter were Guelfs, and so supporters of the Papacy against the Emperor, and also because Florence itself was on the direct highway between Rome and the northern lands, gradually the supremacy of the Florentines was secured. Nor were these shrewd and subtle merchants content with mere exchange transactions. Here, as in the other Arti, they left the imprint of their genius by furnishing the world with a coin of such refined superiority as might command respect in all markets. In 1252 they created the florin of gold, a decisive step in the history of finance, for this coin of established value turned the scale definitely in their favor, and by the time the Papacy was removed to Avignon (1309) the bankers of Florence had established themselves as Campsores Papae.* Naturally admission to the Arte del Cambio was more difficult than to any other. T h e strictest of rules were laid down and rigidly enforced. Candidates had to enter their names on the matriculation roll; they had to undergo a rigorous examination before the consuls of the guild; and they had to pay a matriculation fee which was not only much higher than that ι. 2. 3. 4.

The Eagle was the symbol of the Arte di Calimala·, the Lamb, of the Arte di Lane. The earliest mention of the Arte del Cambio is 1201. Cal. Papal Registers — G. B. (1263). Ehrenberg, Capital and Finance in the Age of the Renaissance, p. 195.

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39

imposed by the other arti, but which was also somewhat exorbitant in view of the capital involved in the individual enterprise. Once admitted to membership, they were allowed a table and chair in the Mercato Nuovo or along the Via di Tavolini. 1 This table was covered with a green cloth on which lay a sheet of fresh parchment for recording the day's business, while each " B a n k , " literally speaking, was a gaily embroidered pouch filled with gold coins, and a bowl of small silver or bronze coins to serve as change. Uncovenanted money dealers were allowed the use of a table in the Mercato under certain conditions, but these were distinguished from those in good and regular standing by the fact that they had neither chair nor green cover to the table.2 There was an annual conference between the consuls of this guild, the financial officials of the other major arti, and the priors of the more important monastic orders to decide on the values of exchange and the rates of loan interest during the coming year, as well as to pass on the qualifications of those allowed to continue their operations in the Mercato. 3 But the importation of wool cloth to be finished by the Arte di Calimala was only the first flowering of the woolen industry in Florence. Extensive production of that cloth within the city itself was to be the second and even greater blooming. Just when the Florentines first engaged in manufacturing wool cloth is as much a matter of conjecture as the origin of the city itself.4 It seems certain, however, that weaving was but a minor industry until the coming of the Umiliati in 1238.5 The Umiliati were a religious brotherhood which originated in Milan early in the eleventh century.6 According to their own traditions, they had learned from the Flemings the art of weaving the close, heavy cloth of Flanders which hitherto the Florentines had been unable to equal and which they had been buying for years in the fairs and market-places of the north, bringing it back to those same fairs and market-places I. In the early days the money changers sat on a bench — banco — set in a convenient place among the merchants, hence the name of the institution, " b a n k . " 1. From this comes the expression cum vela, vel tapeto, vel sine. 3. Among the more important Florentine banking houses were those of the Medici, the Bardi, the Peruzzi, the Frescobaldi, the Strozzi, and the Gualterrotti. 4. In 724 the victors in the Palio of Santa Reparata were given eight braccia of "cheap cardinalesco cloth." Villani, op. cit. 5. Brunetto Latini, Retorica. 6. The Arte di Calimala or of cloth-finishing and the Arte del Cambio or banking and exchange were equally important.

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FLORENTINE MERCHANTS

after the Arte di Calimala had dressed and dyed it and selling it at very high prices to the same merchants from whom they had bought it in its cruder state.1 Not only did the Umiliati teach the Florentines new methods of weaving and an appreciation of varying qualities in raw material, but the brethren themselves set high standards of business application and of organization.2 Probably, too, they knew how to market their products more advantageously than the Florentines had hitherto done. For about a century their influence was definitely constructive; then, economically as well as institutionally, they began to suffer change and relaxation. At the same time the Florentines, now qualified to take over their workshops and dyeing vats, were inclined to resent the importance of the Order in the market-place, and began to take over the control of all industry, whether within the city walls or in the outlying contado. By virtue of these technical advances, Florence was able to build up a cloth-making industry which soon surpassed that of her erstwhile rivals. For raw materials she went to England and to Spain, since the fleeces produced on her worn hillsides were of too poor a quality to suit her needs.3 Agents formerly scattered abroad to buy the heavy northern cloth were now buying bales of wool, while back in the narrow tortuous streets along the banks of the Arno weaver and dyer and dresser worked busily over their panni, weaving, dyeing, and dressing it, that it might be taken by the couriers to market-places first of northern Europe and later of the Orient, where they bought both raw material for the artisans and new luxuries for the merchants back in Florence. ι. For an account of the origin and early history of this Order, see Davidson and Richards, Forerunners of Saint Francis. 2. Zanoni gives the latest and most scholarly account of the Umiliati in central Italy. Tiraboschi's appendices are valuable, but include less relating to the spread of the Order than may be found in Zanoni. In Florence they were given land along the Arno, and a church, Ognissanti. For almost a century they carried on this industry, under the old walls of the city, after which their tiratoi and looms were taken over by laymen and they lost their industrial prestige. The German historians, Doren and Davidsohn, are inclined to discount, or at least to question, the contributions of the Umiliati to Florentine industry. But Dr. Zanoni's researches, so much more thorough on this aspect of the early wool industry than those of either of the German scholars, prove quite conclusively that the coming of the brethren to Florence was an event of great importance to the development of weaving. 3. By 1 3 1 5 over two hundred monasteries in England, France, and Spain were supplying Florence with wool. Pegalotti, Della decima, vol. i n , pp. 263-273.

FLORENCE UNDER THE MEDICI Although the Arte di Calimala continued to import the rough panni francesi? to dress and dye it, and then send it forth, cut and folded, the panni fiorentini produced by the Arte di Lana increased in quantity and in diversity, and was itself exported to all markets from Scotland to Constantinople. The poorest grade of cloth was that woven from the coarse Tuscan fleece and used by friars and peasants for their tunics. From the foreign wool, that grown in Morocco 2 or in Algarves, 3 was woven the finer fabrics — garbo and panno San Martino. These latter, when dyed with the famous oricello dye, were the panni nobili reserved for magisterial robes and ecclesiastical hangings, as well as for the special caps worn by those who had the right of entry into the superior courts of the commune. On festive occasions, the magistrate, garbed in his lucco of scarlet cloth, like the Lord High Chancellor on his historic wool-sack, felt all that consciousness of moral support born of the patriotic patronage of home industries. The lowest orders of workmen were the washers and carders, the proletariat of the Republic. Their small wages kept them ever in debt to the maestro, who could dismiss them at his pleasure, although, as a matter of fact, he seldom exercised this prerogative. The laborers, on the other hand, were unable, individually at least, to " g i v e notice," regardless of the conditions under which they worked. Because of the wooden clogs which they wore as protection against the wet floors in the washing and carding houses, these laborers were known as Ciompi. One of the first labor-strikes on record is their revolt in 1378 under the leadership of Salvestro de' Medici, a revolt against the growing wealth and power of the upper classes. A short but devastating reign of terror marked the uprising. Even the magistracy was threatened for a time. In the end, the demands of the Ciompi were granted: taxes were reduced; debtor laws were rescinded; and the municipal franchise was extended to include the members of the lesser guilds. The results of the outbreak were twofold: the lower classes forced themselves into the government, and the Medici first appeared as supporters of the popular party. 4 I. 1. 3. Spain 4.

A term applied to cloth from both Belgium and France. Maghreb. Garbo or panno dì garbo was so named after this tiny county situated between and Portugal. This Salvestro was of the generation of Giovanni, father of Cosimo. See p. 16.

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MERCHANTS

The second class of laborers were the spinners, most of whom were women working in their own homes. 1 These were not paid regular wages; they seem to have brought the raw wool and then to have sold the yarn, presumably at an advance. Above these were the weavers, who were paid regular wages, and who were, accordingly, more dependent than the spinners, for they did not own their looms and had little or no control over the conditions of their service. After the Florentines had learned how to weave their own cloth, a new group of artisans appeared: fullers, gualchieri\ washers, lavatori; tenterers, tiratori; menders who darned the flaws, rimendatori·, cardatori, who raised the pile; ajfettatori, who clipped it; and finally the dyers or tintori. Even after the first guilds were established, the laborers had worked with a certain degree of independence. It was not until after the coming of the Umiliati that this freedom was lessened by the precedence given the organization over the laborer. The Frati, with that emphasis on centralization of power which characterizes monasticism, developed a policy of concentration, dividing the industry into a hierarchy of laborers, and this policy was continued by the arti. T h e maestri seemed to hold the theory that the only way of securing and maintaining prosperity was to keep the price of labor down to an irreducible minimum, a theory neither admirable nor intelligent, but which seems, despite its very obvious flaws, not to have prevented the maintenance of the high quality of their production over an unusually long period of time. Cloth was rigidly inspected at every stage of its progress for any defects or blemishes, and heavy and inexorable fines were imposed for every infraction of the standards. 2 Each piece of finished cloth had its ticket on which was stated the fixed price, the quantity, the name of the factory where it was made, and the name of the maestro. In case of transit all panni had to be folded so as not to disturb the nap. As a result of such supervision of production, Florentine cloth set an enviable standard for quality and for accuracy of measurement in all the markets of the civilized world. 3 ι. MS. 492 has many entries of wool delivered by Giovenco de' Medici to such spinners. Occasionally he provided the women with spinning-wheels. 2. Y e t despite these regulations, Maringhi complained often of the very poor quality of the cloth sent him, and also of the shortness of weight. In some cases it was so unsatisfactory that the drapers in Pera refused to keep it. 3. There were three classes of dyers in Florence: those associated with the Arte di

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43

T h e dyeing of woolen fabrics was also controlled by the Arte di Lana. If the Florentines excelled in the manufacture of wool, they were unrivalled as dyers. A city of artists, they felt that the creation of a new color or of a new technique, so difficult always, was important enough to be entered into the official records of the commune. 1 Scattered also through the medicinal formulae of the old pharmacy account-books are many items concerned with the chemical composition of colors, instructions for dyeing leather, writing in gold, removing rust, etc. A fifteenth-century book of colors which has been preserved in the Biblioteca Nazionale of Florence gives rules for testing azzuro germanico, rules for preparing indaco, verde, rame, and porporo.2 T h e dyes used were both native and imported. Guado or woad, used in dyeing common blue cloth, was cultivated in T u s c a n y ; 3 so, too, was rabbia or madder, used for the more common type of red.4 The sale of both of these was restricted to owners of warehouses, while the export of them was absolutely forbidden. 5 Cochineal and Brazil wood were used also for the more common cloths, lapis lazuli was the base for the finer blue dyes, and rubies for rosso.6 But the color favored above all others was that rich purplish red known as scarlatto d'oricello, made from an admixture of oricello and madder. All robes of state and all ecclesiastical hangings were colored with this dye, as well as the special caps worn by those who had right of entry into the superior courts. T h e bits of this scarlatto, wool, Calt mala, those associated with the Arte di Lana, and those associated with the Arte d' Seta. Numerous as were the artisans employed in dyeing, important as was the craft, the dyers were never allowed to form a separate guild, but were always subordinated to the major Arti which they served, and whose consuls exercised a rigorous supervision over both dyers and materials, as well as over the methods employed. The utmost diligence was used in making and applying colors. In the treatment of wool cloth, the exact length of every panno was noted before and after it was dipped, and all losses in weight or in dimension were charged to the dyers, who had some power of recovery by a fixed set-off price against shrinkage. Falsification and adulteration were punishable by severe fines; the cloth was destroyed and the names of the offenders were posted in the guild-hall. ι . The Querci were so skilled in dyeing scarlet cloth that the family was pensioned by the city. 2. MS. Magliai., clxv, cod. 80. 3. Filippi, Statuto dell' Arte di Calimala, lib. V , rubr. 13, 14, 16, p. 163. 4. A better quality of this was found near Rome, and a still better in the Rhone Valley. 5. Statuta Florentiae, rubr. clxxii, 1415. Targioni-Tozzetti, Notizie, p. 135. 6. Pegalotti, op. cit., vol. 11, p. 101.

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silk, and damask, which still exist show as fresh a color and as firm a texture as anything produced since that day. T h e oricello was a lichen discovered in the Orient by a Florentine traveller in 1305, who introduced it into Tuscany, not only making his fortune thereby, but giving his family its name, Rucellai. As manufacturers of fine silks, velvets, and damasks, the Florentines attained as high excellence as they did in their weaving and finishing of wool, equalling, if indeed they did not outrank, both Persians and Egyptians in the beauty of their designs as in the excellence of their coloring. It was a painstaking craft, and their success was the just reward of patience and skill, not a happy accident. T h e raw silk was carefully sorted both as to weight and as to quality; the dyeing was supervised with meticulous care; the colored threads were spread to dry on white cloths in sunless lanes and there carefully matched; while the goldsmiths of the city drew fine threads from precious metals to combine with the silk threads in the gold and silver brocades which Crivelli delighted in painting. 1 The Arte di Seta existed as early as 1193; by the fifteenth century it ranked with the Arte di Lana in importance and in wealth. In 1473 this Arte had no less than eighty-three flourishing botteghe in the city, as well as agencies in Rome, Naples, Catalonia, Turkey, Avignon, London, Lyons, and Antwerp. Until the fall of Constantinople most of the raw silk used was imported from the Levant. During the years when the Italian states were at war with the Sultan, mulberry trees were cultivated in the contado, and cocoons were brought from Lucca and Pistoia as well as from Spain. Near the turn of the century, however, Bajazet II reopened the markets of Brusa to the western merchants, and raw silk was again imported from that region. Benedetto Dei, writing to a Venetian in 1472, gave a glowing description of Florence in prosperity." "Florence is more beautiful and five hundred forty years older than your Venice. W e spring from triply noble blood. W e are one-third Roman, one-third Frankish, and one-third Fiesolan. . . . W e have round about us thirty thousand estates, owned by noblemen and merchants, citizens and craftsI. The goldsmiths were affiliated with the Arte di Seta. 1. Bib. Naz. MS. Magliai., cl. xxv, cod. 60.

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45

men, yielding us yearly bread and meat, wine and oil, vegetables and cheese, hay and wood, to the value of nine hundred thousand ducats in cash, as you Venetians, Genoese, Chians, and Rhodians who come to buy them know well enough. We have two trades greater than any four of yours in Venice put together — the trades of wool and silk. Witness the Roman court and that of the King of Naples, the Marches and Sicily, Constantinople and Pera, Broussa and Adrianople, Salonika and Gallipoli, Chios and Rhodes, where, to your envy and disgust, in all of those places there are Florentine consuls and merchants, churches and houses, banks and offices, and whither go more Florentine wares of all kinds, especially silken stuffs and gold and silver brocades, than from Venice, Genoa, and Lucca put together. Ask your merchants who visit Marseilles, Avignon, and the whole of Provence, Bruges, Antwerp, London, and other cities where there are great banks and royal warehouses, fine dwellings, and stately churches; ask those who should know, as they go to fairs every year, whether they have seen the banks of the Medici, the Pazzi, the Capponi, the Buondelmonti, the Corsini, the Falconieri, the Portinari and the Ghini, 1 and a hundred of others which I will not name, because to do so I should need at least a ream of paper. You say we are bankrupt since Cosimo's death. If we have had losses, it is owing to your dishonesty and the wickedness of your Levantine merchants, who have made us lose thousands of florins; it is the fault of those with well-known names who have filled Constantinople and Pera with failures, whereof our great houses could tell many a tale. But though Cosimo is dead and buried, he did not take his gold florins and the rest of his money and bonds with him into the other world, nor his banks and storehouses, nor his woolen and silken cloths, nor his plate and jewelry; but he left them all to his worthy sons and grandsons, who take pains to keep them and to add to them, to the everlasting vexation of the Venetians and other envious foes whose tongues are more malicious and slanderous than if they were Sienese. . . . Our beautiful Florence contains within the city in this present year two hundred seventy shops belonging to the wool merchants' guild, from whence their wares are sent to Rome and the Marches, Naples and Sicily, Constantinople ι . The bank of the Medici and their partners at Milan.

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and Pera, Adrianople, Broussa and the whole of Turkey. It contains also eighty-three rich and splendid warehouses of the silk merchants' guild, and furnishes gold and silver stuffs, velvet, brocade, damask, taffeta, and satin to Rome, Naples, Catalonia, and the whole of Spain, especially Seville, and to Turkey and Barbary. The principal fairs to which these wares go are those of Genoa, the Marches, Ferrara, Mantua, and the whole of Italy; Lyons, Avignon, Montpelier, Antwerp, and London. The number of banks amounts to thirty-three; the shops of the cabinet-makers, whose business is carving and inlaid work, to eighty-four; and the workshops of the stonecutters and marble workers in the city and its immediate neighborhood, to fifty-four. There are forty-four goldsmiths' and jewelers' shops, thirty gold-beaters, silver wire-drawers, and a wax-figure maker. 1 . . . Go through all the cities of the world, nowhere will you ever be able to find artists in wax equal to those we now have in Florence, and to whom the figures in the Nunziata 3 can bear witness. Another flourishing industry is the making of light and elegant gold and silver wreaths and garlands, which are worn by young maidens of high degree, and which have given their names to the artist family of Ghirlandaio. Sixty-six is the number of the apothecaries' and grocer shops; seventy that of the butchers, besides eight large shops in which are sold fowls of all kinds, as well as game and also the native wine called Trebbiano, from San Giovanni in the upper Arno Valley; it would awaken the dead in its praise." During the first half of the fifteenth century Florence was still at the peak of her industrial and commercial supremacy, but from 1465 on her remarkable intellectual achievements were accompanied by moral decadence and economic decline. Lorenzo de' Medici has been almost universally blamed for the economic downfall, but rather unjustly so. While he was not so astute a financier as either Giovanni or Cosimo, the situation confronting him was exceedingly complicated, and depended to a very great extent on the machinations of the kings of France, Spain, and England, thus presenting problems which neither of his forbears had been called upon to solve. In Cosimo's day, Florence played an exceedingly important rôle on 1. This was at that time a profitable industry, as such images were used in all churches. 2. SS. Annuziata.

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a fairly small stage. In Lorenzo's day, she was not always the chief actor even on the Italian scene; and by the time of his death, when his weak and incompetent descendants came forward, the stage of operations had been enlarged by the discovery of a New World which soon was to furnish gold to the enemies of the Florentines, as it was also to contribute to the final disappearance of her Levantine trade. It is true that Lorenzo's interest was in his estates, rather than in the Medici Bank. Because his agents took advantage of this lack of interest and managed his finances (and incidentally those of the state) so decidedly to their own profit, he has often been accused of wasting the family fortunes and of squandering the funds entrusted to him by the commune. That he spent lavishly is true; that he disliked exceedingly the irksome round of banking and exchange is equally true. But nevertheless it is scarcely fair to burden him with the faithlessness of his agents, nor to hold him responsible for the changing economic and commercial conditions which decreased so appreciably the value of his inheritance. The elder Cosimo had given away far more than Lorenzo spent, but because he gave to the institution rather than to the individual his generosity has been counted a virtue. In his Ricordi Lorenzo says that Giovanni di Averardo left property to the amount of 179,221 fiorini di suggello, that Cosimo left 235,137 fiorini, Piero, 237,988 scudi, and that from 1434 until the end of 1471, that is, from the time of Cosimo's return from exile to shortly after Piero's death, the family gifts, benefices, and donations amounted to 663,755 florins, all of which he (Lorenzo) does not regret, "for though some there are who would consider it better to have part of that money in their own pockets, I consider that the donors, through their gifts, added greatly to the honor of the States, and I am well pleased with the way the money was expended." 1 Nor has Lorenzo ever been given adequate credit by his biographers for encouraging the great merchants to build their own ships in order to trade freely where they pleased. He believed that a large export trade was an index of the prosperity of a state, and therefore, to encourage commercial expansion, he took shares in many concerns engaged in this enterprise. I . R . Arch, di Stato, Firenze.

Med. A v . Princ.

Filza 63.

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He also held that the state control of any industry was a bad thing, since it restricted expansion and encouraged inefficiency. He recognized that in the case of wool and silk industries the need for foreign raw materials was dominant; if the manufacture was an essential industry, the re-exportation was certainly a source of a considerable portion of the wealth of the city. He made Pisa a free port, and by his insistence on "free trade" he enormously extended the commercial activities of his people; he made a commercial treaty with Egypt; he maintained close commercial intercourse with the Turks; he sent consuls to fardistant lands to protect Florentine interests, and to report on the best means of extending them. In common with the long line of merchant-princes who had shaped the foreign policy of the commune, he considered the economic security of the state as the dominant factor in her policy both foreign and domestic. He encouraged friendship with the Marches in order to give the merchants free access to Ancona, ever more important to the Florentines as a port than Venice; Siena must not be antagonized, since she was the bar against intruders from the south; likewise Sarzana and Pietra Santa must be in Florentine hands, since they formed a similar barrier on the north; Pisa must be held at all costs, and must be developed as a port of entry, since the control of that harbor was the very keystone of prosperity and of economic independence. Historians who have accused Florence of having destroyed the liberties of Pisa, and who have hailed Charles VIII of France as the supreme deliverer who threw off the yoke of the oppressor, have forgotten that the period of Florentine control of Pisa is likewise the period of her greatest supremacy; have overlooked the fact that Lorenzo himself refounded her University and spent no little time in residence in the city that he might better understand her needs and her possibilities. By the end of the fifteenth century, however, the "Golden Age" of Florence was rapidly disappearing. Several conditions combined to make this a period of decadence: all her industry was shrinking through foreign competition, through the introduction of new methods, through the development of new and lesser industries, and through a subtle change in the Florentine character. The discovery of the New World turned men's attention from the Levant; the opening of gold and silver mines in South America revolutionized the existing price relation-

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ships. Rising food prices and the demand for higher wages were accompanied by falling prices for cloth both in the domestic and in the foreign markets. In the earlier days the guild had been the manifestation of the spirit of the artist; the famed panno was not the work of hirelings, but of artist-craftsmen, who were also statesmen and diplomats. But those days were gone, and with them the passion for perfection, the high standard of the market-place, the honor, loyalty, and patriotism which had once dominated trade. Business was rapidly becoming a mere opportunity for amassing wealth, wealth to be spent on idle pleasures, not devoted to the adornment of the city. The ease and luxury following hard on the heels of enormous profits were bringing a moral decadence which dominated all Florentine life from the early days of the sixteenth century until she fell under the control of the ruthless invader from the north. It was the day foretold by the elder Cosimo, when he grieved that citizenship was becoming a matter of rich raiment, not of honest service.1 Florence, being neither a maritime power nor a crusading state, was a late comer to the Levant, and by the time she had arrived, Venice, Amalfi, Genoa, and Pisa had gathered the ripest fruit. Even had she so desired, she could never have prospered commercially, as they had done a century before; nor, on the other hand, could she have reaped rewards as rich as those which came from her trade with the northern lands where she was able to buy much that was necessary to her chief industry — that of finishing, and later of manufacturing, woolen cloth. Save for raw silk and a few dye-stuffs, all that she purchased in the Orient fell in the category of luxuries rather than of commercial necessities. Villani insists that Florentine trade with the East dates from the third crusade,2 but while there is no way of proving the truth of such a statement, it does seem fairly certain that until the conquest of Pisa in 1409 her trade was indirect rather than direct.3 She found it rather more to her advantage to sell directly to Genoese and Venetian merchants than to ship her goods through these ports. Moreover, Genoa and Pisa, both Ghibelline states, were political as well as economic rivals of the Guelphic Florence. ι . "che due canne di panno cloth will make a citizen)." 2. Storia, lib. iii.

rosato fanno

un uomo dabbene (two yards of scarlet

3. Romanin, iv, 94.

FLORENTINE MERCHANTS

5o

By this conquest of Pisa, Florence was not only given a port and a merchant marine, but she automatically took over certain privileges, both commercial and political, in the various cities of the Levant. Through a combination of circumstances, it happened that within a few years she was established there on equal terms with her great rivals, Genoa and Venice. Unfortunately the rise of the Osmanli Turks came within a half century of her arrival in Constantinople, so that she had little time in which to enjoy her newly acquired trade. The fall of Constantinople in 1452 was followed by three decades of petty wars around and about the eastern shores of the Mediterranean. While her merchants did not withdraw from that region, the conditions were anything but favorable to commercial expansion. Still, despite the unfavorable conditions, very few of the merchants withdrew their agencies. As the State no longer maintained a consulship there, however, they were forced to manage their own affairs and assume whatever risks were involved. In I481 Bajazet II became Sultan. He was far less warlike than his predecessors, and throughout his long reign did whatever he could to further the interests of the western merchants. For some reason, the Florentine Signoria quite neglected to send to Constantinople an ambassador bearing the usual compliments; Bajazet waited two years, and then, receiving no sign of recognition, dispatched his own envoy to Florence requesting a renewal of the treaties granted by his father, Mohammed, to the merchants of that city. 1 Not until 1488 did Lorenzo reply; then he dispatched his cousin and favorite, Andrea de' Medici, to arrange the terms of a commercial treaty with Bajazet. 2 The Florentines were to have a resident consul in whose hands should rest the criminal and civil jurisdiction of all cases involving Florentines, whether in their relations with each other, with the Turks, or with citizens of other lands. A fixed impost of two per cent was levied on all goods bought or sold in the market-place; and but one set of duties was to be imposed on merchandise carried through more than one town. After the death of Lorenzo, in 1492, the general political confusion in Florence resulted in an increased migration to Constantinople, and Geri Risaliti was sent thither in 1499 3 to I. Doc. sulle relaz. tose., p. 235. 3. Ibid.,

p. 242.

2. Ibid.,

p. 238.

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51

renew the concessions granted earlier through the efforts of Andrea de' Medici. B y 1507 some sixty or more Florentine firms had their agents over there, and were doing a business estimated at 600,000 ducats a year. 1 But the prosperity was short-lived. Bajazet died in 15x2, and his son cared more for war than for commercial alliances. T h e new routes westward aided in the diversion of commerce away from the Levant, and by 1520, when Raffaello de' Medici was writing his agents in and about Pera regarding the panni he was hoping to sell over there, his letters reveal that the end of eastern trade was rapidly approaching. T h a t he himself realized the new conditions is shown by his developing the connections with Spanish merchants established as early as 1470 by his grandfather Giuliano de' Medici. 2 There has been little change in Florence during the four centuries which have elapsed since Michelangelo threw down his chisel, leaving the unfinished Pietà to plan the fortifications on San Miniato. New bridges have been erected on the piers of the Trinità and of the Carraia, but the Ponte Vecchio and the fringe of weather-worn houses beyond the Arno are unchanged. The grim old prison — the Stinche — has given way to a theater; near the Arno where once stood the tiratoi of the merchants the new Biblioteca is being erected, and across the river the conventi of the Medici in Via Maggio have entirely disappeared. 3 The gaunt palace of the Pitti, perhaps the most powerful of all those who opposed the power of the Medici, has been completed and houses the kings of Italy when they are in residence in the city, and the Mercato Vecchio, industrial center of the old commune, has been replaced by a hideous modern " s q u a r e " dominated by an equestrian statue of Victor Emmanuel II. Nothing that the new Florence has to offer can compare with the lost loveliness of that old market-place, the most picturesque in all Europe. On one side was the low mouldering colonnade of Vasari; opposite was the proud column surmounted by ι . Report of Jacopo Contarini in Sanuto, Diarii, v u , 19. 2. MSS. 510, 552. 3. One house in that street is still called the Palazzetta Medici, though no one seems to know why.

52

FLORENTINE MERCHANTS

Donatello's Dovitzia; about its base clustered the carts of the hucksters. On all sides of the market were the disreputably shabby but still picturesque palaces, topped by low irregular roofs — roofs of brown tiles stained with clumps of grass and weeds and bedecked with wavering lines of laundry (the gay colors bearing witness to the fastness of Florentine dyes). There, too, were the donkey carts of the peasants; and the tumbledown shops full of bric-a-brac of all degrees — beds, crockery, Roman lamps, and assorted broken-nosed saints. In the unused rooms about the inner cloister of San Marco are collected fragments from the churches, tombs, and portals of this gathering place of the Medici, but the pavings, frescoes, stemmi, and fountain heads, tidy and well-ticketed, suggest nothing of the vivid color and the conglomerate life of that happy "Giardino di Firenze." The palaces of the guilds were hard by the Mercato. So too was the beautiful Or San Michele, which more than any other building of Florence is intimately associated with her commercial prosperity. Erected by the Arte di Seta as a storehouse for the grain of the commune, it became, by virtue of the miraculous painting of the Madonna which it held, a shrine for all artisans and consequently the focal point of Florentine commerce at its highest and best. Later, after a fire had more than once wrought havoc, the workers in silk and precious metals erected a new loggia on the pillars of which each guild set up a shrine. Donatello, Ghiberti, Verrocchio, Gianbologna, and other artists of the Renaissance were busy for years on this "tabernacle of commerce," carving the patron saints of the Arti for the piety of the citizens and for the everlasting enjoyment of all who came after. In the dark little sdruccioli running off from the Mercato in all directions lived the artisans, grouped according to their various crafts. Today we read in the names of these same streets the industrial geography of the old commune. In the Via Calzaioli lived those who wove the fine, light wool used for stockings; the Corso dei Tintori was the road of the dyers; the Via delle Caldai was the street of the cauldrons where wool was washed; the Vicolo dei Guanti was "glove lane"; the plaiters of straw congregated at Canto alla Paglia; the Via al Fuoco was the grimy street of the furnace-makers; while in the

FLORENCE UNDER THE MEDICI

53

Via degli Speziali perfumers and pharmacists sold their fragrant wares. Despite the changes which the new regime has inaugurated as sign and symbol of material progress the spirit of old Florence lingers on vigorous and immutable — in the massive old palaces whose façades still bear rows of iron brads designed to support the wooden crossbars on which the long panni were hung to dry; in the lion which Donatello carved above the portone of the Gianfigliazzi palace; in the brilliant pageantry which Gozzoli painted on the walls of Cosimo's chapel; in the Piazza della Signoria where Savonarola was burned at the stake; in the narrow doorways where women still weave lace such as Raffaello de' Medici bought for his "dona Margherita"; and in the Orti Oricellari where Machiavelli and Filippo Strozzi and the younger Francesco de' Medici discussed philosophy and hatched out their conspiracies against the rulers of the city.

III M A N U S C R I P T 547 LETTERS OF GIOVANNI DI FRANCESCO MARINGHI, WRITTEN FROM PERA TO FLORENCE, 1501-1502 1.

L E T T E R S O F M A Y 4, 1501 INTRODUCTORY NOTE

ROM 1497 until his death some ten years later, Giovanni Maringhi was resident agent in Pera for a number of Florentine firms engaged in the manufacture and sale of woolen cloth. Little of a precise character is known of the business relationship existing between him and the maestri to whom he wrote so regularly. Since he never mentions any salary due him, and since he does allude often to mutual profits arising from the undertakings, it may be assumed that his connection was that of an associate rather than that of an employee. As to the firms themselves, neither the Selfridge Manuscripts nor the published sources available for that period give much information. Only one of the entire group concerned in the enterprises seems to have been of any importance in Florence — Ser Nicolo Michelozzi, formerly Chancellor to Lorenzo dei Medici. If the names of Venturi, or Becchi, or Galilei, are mentioned at all in the contemporary records, it is only in lists of minor magistrates. Maringhi's contacts with the Medici seem to have been slight. There are in this letter-book of 1500-03 only four brief and noncommittal notes, one to Francesco de' Medici and three to his brother Giovanni.1 These are the only letters written to

F

I. Letter to Francesco de' Medici, f. 41 v, January 16, 1500 (O. S.). Letters to Giovanni de' Medici,fit.22 r,v (with no date); f. 22 v, November i6, 1500; f. 41 v, January 16, 1500 (O. S.). In a letter to Giovanni Gazzetti in Brusa, written June 27, 1501, occurs the only other mention of the heads of the firm of Medici and Company found in these pages: "Raffaello de' Medici took for a wife one of the Bonciani — Note this — If you can get me twofinerugs, take them and send them on at once "; and so the letter ends. Raffaello was married earlier that same year.

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55

any of that family which have been preserved in this collection. However, in the inventory of Maringhi's possessions, made some five years later, there is listed a letter-book, the first half of which contained copies of letters to Francesco de' Medici, and the latter half letters to Ser Nicolo.1 There is no date for this manuscript. It probably belonged to that very brief period near the close of Maringhi's life when he was a member of the firm of Medici and Company.2 The Medici themselves were frequently in Pera. Francesco was there in 1471-72; 3 his brother Giovanni was associated with Cresci Donati in Pera or Gallipoli some time before 1503 ; from 1503 on he was a member of the old firm of Medici and Company, and was living in Florence.4 In 1507 a cousin, Ottaviano, was in the Levant, but for how long or for what purpose is not known.5 Later, when Raffaello, son of Francesco, sent cloth over to Pera, he mentioned one Zanobi, brother of Guido, who had charge of certain interests of the firm in the Levant. 6 Maringhi's custom was to write each of the maestri on the days when he dispatched a messenger with cloth for Florence. There was usually one of these letter-days every month or six weeks.7 At the same time he wrote various individuals in Ancona, Brusa, and Adrianople,8 men presumably acting also as agents of these Florentine firms. Often, but not always, there were also letters of instructions to the messengers in charge of the merchandise. When these do occur in the manuscript, they are always duly signed by the bearer himself, who adds a brief statement accepting the terms specified and assuming responsibility for the goods entrusted to his care. On May 4, 1501, Bernardo Risaliti was sent forth with such a letter of instructions — instructions which seem, indeed, to have provided for every contingency that might possibly arise. His ι . Seep. 186. 2. Seep. 240. MS. 4 9 5 , sec. c, f. 1 2 7 ; MS. 5 1 9 . 4. MS. J 4 3 . 5. He assisted in making the inventory of Maringhi's possessions. See p. 185. 6. See p. 2 1 0 . 7. The letter-days for 1501-02 are: May 4, June 16, July 14, August 29, October 29 (held because of the Sultan's embargo until January 17), February 4, April I, and May 4. 8. One notable omission is Gherardo Gianfigliazzi, stationed in Gallipoli, whom he frequently mentions but does not write to. As this letter-book includes letters to Brusa, such an omission cannot be explained by saying that it pertains only to shipments to Florence and the securing of safe passage for them. 3.

56

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first stop was to be Adrianople, where Alessandro degli Albizzi was to turn over to him eight fardelli (bales) and one fagotto (smaller bale) of silk, some rhubarb, and a fardello of miscellaneous articles, as well as to pay him 5,900 aspri for his expenses.1 Apparently Albizzi was closely associated with Galilei and Company, probably in their pay. On the other hand, though some of this consignment was for that firm, not all of it was. Moreover, the fact that he was both advancing money and consigning silk on the account of the Venturi and of Ser Nicolo as well as on that of Galilei and Company indicates that he may have been an " agent-general " acting for a group of Florentine firms. A t all events, his status is not clear. From Adrianople, Risaliti was to go by horseback across the country to Raugia. This hinterland was then wild and uncivilized; and before Risaliti reached the seacoast, he was robbed of one fardello of his silk. Arriving at Raugia, he was to make his headquarters with the Florentine consul, Jacopo di Giuliano, whose duty it was to see that the lad was given safe passage to Ancona. There Nicolo Lippi was to receive him and to send him on to Florence by way of the excellent post-road across the Marches. The entire journey was to take approximately six weeks.2 A t each stopping-place he was to deliver letters to the various agents, in accordance with his instructions. In Florence, aside from distributing the letters to the various firms and individuals, Risaliti was to deliver three fardelli of silk to Piero Venturi and Company; one fardello to Piero's father, Neri; and three fardelli to Galilei and Company. The remaining fardello of silk, as well as the fagotto, was for Neri, Galilei, and Ser Nicolo "acting together." 3 The box of rhubarb was for Galilei and Company, while the miscellaneous fardello was to be divided among several: a rug for Giovanni Becchi; white camlets for Ser Nicolo; and a piece of silk, evidently for Risaliti himself. This was a typical shipment both as to quan1. A Turkish coin worth about a fiftieth of a gold ducat. 2. It is not stated in Maringhi's letters just when Bernardo reached Florence. He was at Nuovo Bazzaro June 7, about four weeks after he had left Pera. See p. 112. 3. This was the fardello which was stolen en route. From Maringhi's later letters it is evident that he shared with Ser Nicolo the loss of the latter's third. Whether this was an individual and isolated transaction, or whether it indicates that these four were united in some such association as that entered into later by Francesco and Giovanni de' Medici with Ser Nicolo and Maringhi, is one of the many unanswered questions that have arisen here.

MANUSCRIPT 547

57 tity of merchandise and as to the kinds of commodities. At times fish-roe or woolen clippings were included; again, a bit of linen from Alexandria would go to Ser Nicolo; but a complete translation of every list contained in the manuscript volume would add little, if any, additional information. Maringhi wrote Jacopo di Giuliano, Florentine consul in Raugia, telling him of the merchandise and asking him to start Risaliti on to Florence as soon as possible. His main concern, however, is not this shipment of silk. Rather it is an error made by Jacopo regarding a letter of exchange which was to pay the duties levied on panni (lengths of woolen cloth) brought over recently by Lionardo Venturi—panni which he says quite definitely were from the shop of Venturi and Company. Jacopo had sent this money on to Cresci Donati and Giovanni dei Medici, despite the fact that, according to Maringhi, Jacopo was under orders to send the balance, after paying the duties, on to himself. The question arises as to why such an error should have been made, if Donati and Medici were the agents for the firm of Medici and Company, and Maringhi represented Venturi and Company from whose shop the cloth was sent, and if there were no connection between the two firms or their respective agents. It was not the mistake of a carrier, as Maringhi wrote constantly to Jacopo asking him to settle the matter and to arrange the account. The following February he made his last appeal, and it was not at all friendly. After that time the matter was not mentioned again in his letters. To Nicolo Lippi in Ancona, Maringhi also wrote regarding a letter of exchange. Lippi had sent Maringhi money by some Sienese engaged in the carrying trade between Pera and Ancona. At the same time, Maringhi had sent money to Alexandria by one Sansone on which he hoped to realize substantial profit through a variation in exchange rates. Again in this letter, Risaliti and his silk are of secondary importance. The contents of the letters to the five Florentines are quite characteristic of Maringhi's usual correspondence with them. They contain much detail as to the quality and price of the silk which he has been able to secure for them, and as to the general state of the market in Brusa, the center of the silk trade. He tells them each of the arrival of Lionardo Venturi as if each firm had special interest in this messenger. Lionardo brought with him one hundred panni from the Venturi looms, which Maringhi

58

FLORENTINE

MERCHANTS

tells Neri Venturi is of very poor quality. 1 Maringhi promises to sell it as best he can and to buy for each firm as much silk as he can secure, although the price might be expected to advance before a new shipment arrived in Brusa. Since the Venturi and Galilei have no funds to their accounts in Pera, he charges each of them one hundred aspri interest on each fardello. It is significant that such a charge is never levied against Ser Nicolo. Other panni have arrived. Those from Galilei and Company are quite satisfactory and he would like further shipments, but he gives his specifications regarding such shipments to Piero Venturi and Becchi as well as to Galilei. Neri sent over fortysix pieces of calisse which did not turn out well. Becchi sent wide purple panni\ these are saleable only to the Sultan, who buys them once a year to serve as door hangings. Both Becchi and Galilei are urged to ship as much calisse and panni San Martini2 (especially the narrow) as they can possibly secure. The panni perpigniani * would sell profitably were it not for the high duties levied at Raugia. Maringhi reminds them that other merchandise is on order in Brusa: camlets, rhubarb, manna, carpets, cotton, furs, and scamonea (a certain drug), all of which he promises to send in due time. He takes up with Ser Nicolo the possibility of securing cloth from other Florentine firms for sale in the Levant, among them the Filicaia and Acciaiuoli. He also requests Ser Nicolo to secure for him a letter from the Sultan such as was given to Galilei and Company and which he insists is necessary if he is to continue in business there in Pera. 4 In the letters of Piero Venturi, to Galilei and to Becchi, he speaks of having sent off a sum of ducats to be exchanged in Alexandria; 5 in the first letter he says that sum is on Piero's account; in the letter to Becchi he says the same sum is on ac1. He attributes this fact to one Piero Lippi, and urges them to discharge him; it is not easy to decide just what the latter's standing is, as the phrases are at variance one with the other. 2. The earliest botteghe of the Medici were in the Convento San Martino in Via Maggio. It is a temptation to consider this cloth as the product of their looms, despite the fact that other writers call panni San Martini English cloths. 3. Cloth from Perpignan, capital of Roussillon, between France and Spain. 4. This letter may have been a permission from the Sultan granted only to high officials or heads of firms. In any case it is not easy to understand why it became so suddenly necessary. As has been said, Maringhi had been in Pera at least four years. There is no record that Bajazet II had changed his policy toward foreign merchants at this time. 5. Lionardo brought this over.

MANUSCRIPT 547

59

count of the bottega; while in the letter to Galilei he says the identical amount of money was compensation for " t h e goods sent you." Doubtless the merchants themselves understood these brief statements, but as for us, we shall probably never know how much was actually committed to the project or projects, or on whose account. 1 All prices quoted by Maringhi, whether for panni sold, or for silk purchased, or for any other commodity whatsoever which he discusses, are in terms of aspri. Never is the bezant nor the perper mentioned, not even in his letters to the other agents in the Levant. The aspro was a silver coin worth less than half a soldo, the rate, of course, varying somewhat in foreign exchange dealings according to the particular conditions of the moment. 2 All money sent out of Pera, whether to Florence, or to Ancona and Alexandria, is quoted in ducats. 3 However, in the accountbooks and the articles of association in Florence, the florin is the unit of value. 4 Raw silk was shipped to Florence in bales or fardelli and half bales or fagotti, though it arrived in the markets of Brusa in some or lots. 5 T h e fardello averaged slightly under 250 pounds measured by the " p o u n d " of Brusa, and a little over that amount in the slightly lighter Florentine unit of the same name. 6 In each case, however, the pound consisted of 12 ounces. Woven silk was sent in tavole or tanbelluche, the weight in pounds being in both cases left entirely to the investigator's imagination. T h e prices for both raw silk and camlets are quoted by the pound in Maringhi's letters to his maestri. Woolen cloth was shipped from Florence in bales 7 {balle), each bale including several panni — according to Maringhi's nomenclature. In the Florentine markets such cloth was al1. Probably there were one hundred ducats for Galilei, and one hundred for Becchi and Piero Venturi. 2. There were 20 soldi and consequently over 40 aspri to a florin; in fact, exchange was usually on the basis of 50 to 53 aspri per ducat or florin. 3. Maringhi quotes both Venetian gold ducats and Hungarian gold ducats. For the relation between these see p. 151 n. 4. Twelve denari equalling 1 soldo·, 20 soldi equalling 1 florin. The lira was money of account, and was not coined until the reign of Cosimo I. In some of the later articles of association the amounts invested are stated in lire estimated in gold florins. See p. 246. 5. In these letters some is translated " lots." 6. For example, 238 pounds "weight of Brusa" equalled 258 pounds "weight of Florence." 7. Maringhi never used the term torsello, common in Florence.

FLORENTINE MERCHANTS

6o

ways sold by the canna, and in the inventory of Maringhi's estate it was estimated in braccia, but to Maringhi all wool cloth came in panni? Although Pegalotti, speaking of Levantine trade, says that a panno must contain 12 canne (about that same number of yards), the panni in the above-mentioned inventory range from 14 to 1 1 2 braccia (10 to 77 yards).2 The pico which Maringhi mentions so often is a smaller unit of length. According to Pegalotti, it was somewhat less than 9 inches,5 but Maringhi's letters give no indication as to how, if at all, it had changed by 1500. When cloth is quoted by the pico in this letter-book, there is almost invariably the statement that it is in 2, 3, or 4 cuts {tagli). Calis se, on the other hand, was sold by the pezzo, but we do not know how long a pezzo was. In short, nothing in Maringhi's estimates, nothing in the account-books in so far as these have been studied up to now, throws any light whatever on the relation between a panno, a pico, and a taglio, nor on the dimensions of a pezzo. MS.

547

ff. 67 r, 67 ν G I O V A N N I M A R I N G H I IN P E R A INSTRUCTIONS TO BERNARDO

RISALITI

I, Giovanni di Francesco Maringhi 4 in Pera,5 hereby record the commissions for us, which you, Bernardo d'Antonio Risaliti, must undertake on [the occasion of this] your approaching departure for Italy by way of Raugia and the Marches.6 May God accompany you through all and guard you from evil. First: you are given in charge a letter [to deliver] to Alessandro degli Albizzi in Adrianople, which states that he is to consign to you eight fardelli and one fagotto of seta leggiand a box of rhubarb, and another fagotto with many things within, as is listed below; the signs and numbers also as below. On your arrival you will plan for all accommodations except for the use of the stables over there. Then you must keep account of all expenses until 1. 2. 3. 4. to be 5. 6. 7.

The canna equalled 34.455 inches, and the braccio 22.97 inches. Pegalotti, Della decima, m , 20. Ibid. Data regarding all individuals and places mentioned in the following letters are found in the biographical and geographical indices. The strangers' quarter of Constantinople. I.e., via Ancona. A raw silk of rather low quality.

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232

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parish of San Michele Visdomino of Florence, of another part, together have made and [do] confirm 1 a Company to engage in traffic 2 in fine cloth 3 under the Arte di Lana in the Convento of San Martino 4 according to the following terms. 5 2. In the first place, the name of this Company shall be 6 Bernardo and Tomaso d'Agnolo Corbinelli and Company and all of the books shall be entitled with this sign [sign drawn here]. 3. And it is agreed that the said shop and firm 7 shall open for business in the name of God and of good fortune 8 on the M o n d a y 9 of next June in the year 1427 and that the said [Company] shall endure 1 0 for four years, that is, until the Monday of June, 1431 ; and that no member shall withdraw from the firm without the agreement of all the members. 4. And it is agreed that the aforesaid Bernardo d'Agnolo promises to put in and keep in 1 1 the said traffic and firm for himself and for his minor brothers, 4000 florins in gold; and he undertakes to make good whatever discrepancies 12 occur when one member withdraws, and whatever they fail to pay before the shop begins to operate, and he is to furnish ready money for the operating of the shop without asking any other provision or salary. 5. And it is agreed that Giovenco d'Antonio promises to put and keep in the said traffic and Company 750 gold florins and that he must also bear his share of the deficiency if any of the firm withdraw 1 3 or if there is any other lack before the firm opens for business, either in ready money or in merchandise, and that he furnishes the amount he has promised in cash, without asking any provision or salary. 6. And it is agreed that the above-mentioned Giovenco di Giuliano must put and keep in the said traffic and firm ι. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13.

Riferma. 2. ρ er fare una bottegha. In the Via Maggio, across the Arno. conquestj P a t t j e M o d j scrittj apie. sititolj. detta bottegha e compagnia. dj Buona Ventura. The " M o n d a y of June" is St. Barnabas' day, June 11. durj e durare debj. dj mettere efermj tenere. manchamento. Ritrara.

3. dj panj finj.

MANUSCRIPT 495

7.

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233

525 gold florins, and that he must likewise bear his share of any lack which occurs before the business commences, either in cash or in merchandise, and that he shall be responsible for all goods and all cash he has pledged, without other recompense or salary. And it is agreed that the above-said Giovenco d'Antonio must keep the books 1 of the said firm as they are kept at this time; and he must balance these month by month; and he may have a young b o y 2 to help him at his own expense; and that he pledges himself to do all that is possible or may be possible for the advancement of the interests of the firm without other provision or salary. And it is agreed that the abovesaid Giovenco di Giuliano shall give himself to the labor of the shop as soon as the firm commences operations, and that he is to assist in the weaving-room, 3 and at the dyeing with woad, and at the Arte Maggiore, 4 in any way that the good of the firm demands, and that he shall do whatever else seems necessary without any other salary. And it is agreed that once every year or [oftener] at their pleasure the accounts of the Company shall be balanced, and whatever God gives them of gain or loss — which latter God forbid — shall be apportioned on this basis : that is, with the total that must always constitute the stock of the Company rated at 5275 gold florins, Bernardo's share shall be rated on the basis of 3 1 2 5 [florins]; Giovenco di Giuliano's on the basis of 1250 florins; and Giovenco d'Antonio's, on the basis of 900 [florins]. And it is agreed that no one of the said firm shall put nor hold in the said traffic or firm any money aside from this agreement thus made; and that they shall not take away the profit unless they have supplied the deficit; 5 and that they are to withdraw profit only in accordance with what they have invested, or with respect to what they may have added to rectify a deficit, at the rate of 10 florins the hundred [10 per cent] on what they have [actually] put in. deba tenere libri Ghrande e altre scrittura. giovane. uficcio delle telaie. T h e office of the Guild. A deficit arising from failure to pay in the capital. See Articles 4 to 6.

234

FLORENTINE

MERCHANTS

i l . And it is agreed that each one of them may withdraw his earnings whenever he wishes, provided an agreement or balance is first made. 11. And it is agreed that all expenses incurred for stipends and all other expenses necessary to the firm are to be paid out of a common fund. 1 13. And it is agreed that the above-said Giovenco d'Antonio and Giovenco di Giuliano, shall not accept nor hold any office outside of Florence, nor any service in any way without consent of the above-said Bernardo Corbinelli and his younger brothers. 14. And it is agreed that the above-said Giovenco d'Antonio and Giovenco di Giuliano shall not engage in any other traffic or merchandise during the said time they are in the firm without the consent of the above-said Bernardo Corbinelli and his younger brothers. 15. And it is agreed that no one of the said firm may obligate the said firm by any writing in any book; 2 and that no one of the said firm shall make any credit to any person except for necessities of the firm and that all such must be entered on their accounts by whomsoever made it. 16. And it is agreed that no one shall extend 3 credit to any person beyond the city, contado, and district of Florence 4 without the word and permission 5 noted in writing 6 of the above-said Bernardo d'Agnolo and his younger brothers or someone named by them, and that in case such credit is given, it is not to be maintained to the damage of the said firm or traffic. 17. And it is agreed that at the termination of the Company, on or before or after [such event], if there is to be a dissolution, the above-said Giovenco di Giuliano shall stay to the end, 7 to secure and sell all cloth made by the said Company, and to see that all cloth and all carded wool is returned to the shop. 18. And it is agreed that members of the Company may not and must not put money in the firm not duly entered in the 1. 2. 3. 4. j. 6.

delchomune dj detta chompagna. per Iscritura insunalchuno libro. possa fare. Within the city walls, in the suburbs or in the territory of Florence. parola e licienza. notata per iscritura. 7. Istare a chompiere.

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235

accounts. Giovenco d'Antonio shall have the power to draw money for his expenses or cloth for his garments as seems needful to him, up to florins a month — which amounts to 40 florins a year. And in a similar way the above-said Giovenco -di Giuliano may draw a like sum and Bernardo Corbinelli and his brothers have the same privilege, before any sums due them by this contract are made. 19. And it is agreed that on quitting the firm each must pay all that he owes the Company and shop, save the amount of the said firm,1 and also that the above-said Bernardo d'Agnolo and his brothers must draw 875 gold florins or what is due them, over and above what belongs to the above-said Giovenco d'Antonio and Giovenco di Giuliano, before their persons [the two Medici] are free; and then each one may draw his share of what remains of the stock in what means and manner and at what time he desires, that is oîpanni or of accounts payable or what other assets 2 the Company possesses; and these are to be shared as they shall then decide, and in proportion to their investment. And this merchandise shall be valued by two common friends, at cash prices — and whosoever wishes to carry away his share of such panni or other merchandise must first provide sufficient sureties 3 that whatever is lacking 4 will be restored within six months from the date of the dissolution of the firm, and whatever remains of surplus shall likewise be distributed.5 20. And it is agreed that when the firm is dissolved,6 the seals7 of the said Company and all books and all writings shall remain in the possession of the above-said Bernardo d'Agnolo Corbinelli and his brothers and that the said Giovenco d'Antonio and Giovenco di Giuliano may have free access to the said writings whenever it is necessary. 21. And it is agreed that when the term for which the Company is established shall come to an end, they shall each of the said firm indicate to one and to the other, six months prior to that date, if they do not wish to remain in the firm ι . salvo la quantità de ditti chompagni. Less what he has invested. 2. chosa. 3 . mallevadore. 4. A f t e r the final settlement in case the stock has been overvalued or new debts appear. 5. This paragraph is so illegible that a full translation has not been possible. 6. venissj afinire. 7 . Ilsegniale.

FLORENTINE MERCHANTS with the same agreement, time, and terms herein contained. 1 1 . And all of the above-said terms are promised by the abovesaid Bernardo d'Agnolo for himself and for his younger brothers who engage themselves to observe these terms in all good faith and without violation of the laws of good custom of the Mercanzia under pain of 500 gold florins, the which shall be paid to those who observe this contract recorded here. And the above-said Bernardo on this page obligates himself to renounce all benefits in favor of his younger brothers, if he fail to observe the above conditions. M S . 495 Sec. AB, ff. 8, 9, 10 A R T I C L E OF ASSOCIATION INVOLVING GIOVENCO DI G I U L I A N O M E D I C I , GIOVENCO D'ANTONIO DE' M E D I C I , AND BERNARDO

DE*

D'AN-

TONIO DE' M E D I C I , A L L OF F L O R E N C E

June ι, 1434 •f In the name of God, Amen, the first day of June, 1434. Be it known to whomsoever shall see or read the present contract 1 made the year and month mentioned above, that it is declared in the name of God and of profit,2 that Bernardo d'Antonio de' Medici on the one part, and Giovenco d'Antonio de' Medici on another part, and Giovenco di Giuliano [de' Medici] on the other part, all three Florentine citizens and merchants, have made this present new Company under the Arte di Lana, in the Convento of San Martino, with this pact and condition and agreement that thus they make a partnership.3 That is: In the first place, they are agreed that the capital 4 of the said Company shall be, and must be, 4000 gold florins, and that this shall be contributed in cash within twelve months from now in this wise: the said Bernardo d'Antonio [shall put therein] 2200 florins; the said Giovenco d'Antonio [shall put therein] 1500 florins; and the above-said Giovenco di Giuliano shall put therein 300 for the said term of one year, as stated above, so that in all the sum [shall be] 4000 gold florins. Each one shall put in the above-said amount for the time mentioned, I. iscritta. 2. edighuadangnia. 3. mezodria; mezzadria, mezzeria, a term usually applied to farming on shares. 4. chelcorpo.

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237

and whosoever shall fail to put in the stated sum within one year for the use of the said Company shall be obliged to make good to the said Company [with interest at] ten per cent of his account at the beginning of the year, 1 according to what he has lacked. And the said Giovenco di Giuliano promises his person 2 and assistance and service and usefulness to the said Company and traffic under the Arte di Lana, and [he promises] to go to the looms and to other places generally at other times, always in whatever place is necessary, without other provision or salary. And the said Bernardo and Giovenco d'Antonio are not held to any such service in the said shop more than they give voluntarily 3 during the said time. And if it pleases Giovenco d'Antonio to withdraw himself [from the firm] for any reason during the said time, that such absence is possible, providing that it appears to Bernardo d'Antonio and to Giovenco di Giuliano that it is possible; and that such salary [as he may receive] shall be paid into the said shop and Company. And they are agreed that the said shop and traffic under the Arte di Lana shall be conducted in the Convento of San Martino in Florence and that the name of this Company shall be Bernardo d'Antonio de' Medici and Company with this sign that appears here on the side.4 This Company is agreed that they commence and are bound to commence on the ist day of June, 1434, and are to continue for the next three years and that this contract terminates the ist day of June, 1437, and at that time the said sign shall remain with the said Bernardo d'Antonio. And they are agreed that the profit which our Lord God concedes through His mercy and grace will be divided in this manner: that is, that Bernardo d'Antonio shall draw on the basis of 1800 florins and Giovenco d'Antonio shall draw on the basis of 1300 florins, and Giovenco di Giuliano shall draw on the basis of 900 florins; and similarly during this time if any damage occurs, which God forbid, [each shall contribute on this basis]; and also each may draw out [his share] of their [joint] profits at any time, and at each withdrawal there shall be a balancing of accounts. 1. 2. 3. 4.

chapo dano (each year?). lasua ρ er sona. più sipiace Loro. A sign or trade-mark appears on the edge of the sheet.

238

FLORENTINE MERCHANTS

And they are agreed that Giovenco di Giuliano de' Medici may draw for his needs 4 florins the month, and similarly Bernardo d'Antonio may draw, and similarly Giovenco d'Antonio may draw, as their necessities demand, such money without paying any costs; and that whoever draws more, must restore the lack at 10 per cent the florin at the beginning of the year. 1 And they are agreed that the said Giovenco di Giuliano may not carry on or have carried on any other business or service to another traffic outside of this firm under any [condition] on the pain of paying 200 florins in gold, and if he does so engage, he must pay the said sum to the said Bernardo d'Antonio and Giovenco d'Antonio who may force him if he breaks this agreement. And furthermore, if he engages in any outside enterprise, whether he pays this fine2 or not, the said Bernardo d'Antonio and Giovenco d'Antonio may claim whatever profits or salary he has made, and he shall be responsible for whatever damages [may be incurred in this other business]. And they are agreed that the said Bernardo and Giovenco d'Antonio may manufacture or engage in other traffic of any sort in Florence or out of Florence. And they are agreed that if any of the said Company shall hold in that Company any amount of money above the original capital, they may receive for it 8 florins the hundred as interest, but that this money may not be put into the Company without consent of all members thereof. And it [the interest] is to be paid from the time when it is deposited as if on interest with a third person, and such money may be withdrawn whenever its owner wishes, providing the others agree. And they are agreed that the said Giovenco di Giuliano shall not engage any credits outside the business 3 without the express permission of the said Bernardo and Giovenco d'Antonio or at least one or the other of them; and that in case he so does, the fact shall be entered against his account for the day; and the said Giovenco shall not be permitted to extend credit or make any guarantees for the said Company for a sum exceeding 20 florins without permission of both of the senior partners, 4 and that any violation of the above shall incur a fine of 100 florins for each offense. i. chapo dano (each year?). 3. I.e., run up debts. 4. di due magiori conpagni.

2. pena.

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239

And they are agreed that when the termination of this Company shall draw near, and if any one of the partners does not wish to continue or reconfirm the traffic, in such case the one or the other must speak; and if he gives six months' notice, the firm shall be discontinued. The said Giovenco di Giuliano shall be obligated to stay in the shop until all the panni and samples have been restored to the stock of the said shop.1 And within two months Bernardo and Giovenco must have cancelled all debts so that within such time they shall be free of all obligations; and the stock shall be divided among them in this proportion: To Bernardo, 1800 florins in gold; to Giovenco d'Antonio, 1300 florins in gold; to Giovenco di Giuliano, 900 florins in gold. And the merchandise shall be divided among them, each receiving according to his share. And whosoever of the partners has taken goods on good security, must pay in money for what is outstanding. And similarly, if through the given time it should please our Lord God to call to Himself any one of the said Company (which may God in His mercy forbid), the said Company shall be terminated and the division of the property shall follow the above-mentioned terms.2 And they are agreed that all of the aforesaid terms, acts, and capitulations, as set forth in this article, shall be fully observed in all ways and by all and on their good faith as merchants without any other expression of faith; and the said Bernardo and Giovenco d'Antonio and Giovenco di Giuliano subscribe with their hands to observe all these terms now and in the future, grateful for all benefits which have come to them, and submitting to every ordinance set forth by the city of Florence, and especially those governing the Mercanzia. And they are agreed that the said Bernardo d'Antonio shall be willing and desirous of placing at the service of the association, and of the accounts of the firm,3 that is of the ledger,4 Giovanni di Bernardo Bencini; and to him he shall give a salary which seems appropriate for that service which he shall make for the community5 of the said Company; and this salary shall be paid during the existence of the said Company while the said ι . chondettj nelle mostra di detta botegha; literally, " t o the show-room of the said shop." 2. forma. 3 . delle scritture e delchonto della chassa. 4. delibro magiore. 5. chomune.

240

FLORENTINE MERCHANTS

youth performs his service; and if the said youth is lacking [in his service] (which God forbid), then in that case Bernardo may put in his place whomsoever he wishes, paying him on the above terms. I, the above-said Bernardo d'Antonio de' Medici, am satisfied and obligate myself to what is written in this above article, and do pledge that I will observe the terms faithfully. With my own hand, I set forth this subscription. I, the above-said Giovenco di Giuliano de' Medici, am content, and obligate myself to obey the above stated article, and as pledge that I will observe its terms faithfully, I subscribe with my own hand this year, month, and day mentioned above.1 M S . 495 Sec. A B , ff. 68, 69 A R T I C L E OF A S S O C I A T I O N I N V O L V I N G F R A N C E S C O DI G I U L I A N O M E D I C I , G I O V A N N I DI G I U L I A N O D E ' M E D I C I , S E R N I C O L O o z z i OF F L O R E N C E , A N D G I O V A N N I M A R I N G H I I N P E R A

DE'

MICHEL-

1

October 1 , 1 5 0 6

•f In the name of God, the first day of October, 1506// Be it manifest to whomsoever may see this present document, that in the name of the omnipotent God and to his praise and glory, Francesco di Giuliano di Giovenco de' Medici of one part, and Giovanni, his carnal brother, of another part, and Ser Nicolo di Michelozzo Michelozzi, both in his own name and own account, and in the name and on the account of, and as procurator for, Giovanni di Francesco Maringhi, now resident in Pera (as was set forth in the public and authentic instrument by the hand of Ser Lucantonio Alfani, Florentine notary, under the date of February 22, 1504), of another part, have created and do form a company or traffic under the Arte di Lana in woolen-cloth,3 with the pacts, conventions, and capitulations here set forth. In prima·, that the stock 4 of the said Company shall be, and ι . There are only two attestations to this document. 2. T w o copies of this article are included in M S . 495. The script of the first seems to correspond to the signature of Giovanni di Giuliano de' Medici; the second is in the handwriting of Ser Nicolo Michelozzi. 3. gharbo. 4. ilcorpo.

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