Description
Book SynopsisThe birthplace of Boccaccio, Machiavelli, and the powerful Medici family, Florence was also the first great banking and commercial centre of continental Europe. The city’s middle-class merchants, though lacking the literary virtuosity of its most famous sons, were no less prolific as writers of account books, memoirs, and diaries. Written by ordinary men, these first-hand accounts of commercial life recorded the everyday realities of their businesses, families, and personal lives alongside the high drama of shipwrecks, plagues, and political conspiracies.
Published in Italian in 1986, Vittore Branca’s collection of these accounts established the importance of the genre to the study of Italian society and culture. This new English translation of Merchant Writers includes all the texts from the original Italian edition in their entirety. Moreover, it offers a gripping personal introduction to the mercantile world of medieval and Renaissance Florence.
Trade Review'The content of these ricordanze is so rich and accessible that they not only can provide an introduction to late medieval history to newcomers but they also continually reveal new insights to readers already familiar with these texts.' -- Brian Jeffrey Maxson Sixteenth Century Journal vol 47:04:2016 'The great pleasure of this book is the way the author involves readers in the rich fabric of life in Florence and the activities of the city's merchants in the world beyond its walls.' -- Jeanette M. Fregulia Renaissance Quarterly vol 70: 01:2017
Table of ContentsTranslator's Note Introduction Paolo Da Certaldo - Book of Good Practices Giovanni di Paolo Morelli - Memoirs Bonaccorso Pitti - Memoirs Domenico Lenzi the Grain Merchant - Mirror of Humanity Donato Velluti - Memoirs Goro Dati - Secret Book Francesco Datini - Last Will and Testament Lapo Di Giovanni Niccolo De' Sirigatti - Book of Family Affairs Bernardo Machiavelli - Memoirs Appendix - Cesare De Michelis - A Portrait of Vittore Branca
