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1. Introduction Terminology varies in commercial documents and inventories of the early modern period for the trade in carpets. A distinction in manufacture type must be drawn between the Oriental knotted carpet and the European woven carpet (tapestry) [4. 9]; [10. 3 f.]; [1]. The channels of distribution for the two categories were quite different, so that it is sensible also to distinguish two market systems.Heinrich Lang 2. Oriental knotted carpets Visual sources, especially Renaissance paintings, attest to the widespread use of Oriental knotted carpets as fl…

1. Introduction The Levant trade is defined as the trading relations between Central and Western Europe and the Levant (from the Italian  levante, “rising [sun],” i.e. the east) – the regions of the eastern Mediterranean and the Near East (Mediterranean world). Ever since the first edition of Wilhelm Heyd’s Geschichte des Levantehandels (1858), there has been an abundant and uninterrupted tradition of research on the Levant trade [7].From the Roman Imperial period, merchants obtained goods from the Orient and Far East, in particular spices by sea (Persian…

1475-1524. Italy. Florentine patrician, merchant and historian. Like the rest of his family he was not really rich, but he made his career as a follower of the Medici regime. After 1494 he favoured the religious ideas of Girolamo Savonarola, though he remained a critic of the political development during this period. When the Medici returned to Florence in 1512, he had already held some of the important offices, and again profited from the reinstalled Medici regime. His writings, all in Italian, include a journal and a town chronicle.In 1500 he started writing his Ricordi (Memoirs) descr…

1392-1462. Italy. Florentine nobleman, merchant and historian. His political career was limited to representative diplomatic missions and the office of the Capitano della Parte Guelfa in 1450. His family belonged to the richest families in the Santa Croce quarter. His Ricordi Storici (Historical memoirs) written in a simple Tuscan Italian were part of a Priorista (a chronological list of the priors, the members of government). His accounts cover the period from 1282 to the year before his death and concentrate in a rather traditional manner on fore…

1388-1457. Italy. Florentine patrician, merchant and politician. Son of Gino di Neri Capponi. Author of the Commentari (Commentaries). Before he started a unique political career, he was involved in business as a merchant-banker together with his brothers. In the 1420s he held his first important offices: he was sent abroad as military commissioner and diplomat, therefore he had major influence on condottieri and foreign governments. After the return of the Medici in 1434 he became one of the few leading figures of the Medici regime, second only to Cosimo.It was probably in the 145…

1350-1421. Italy. Florentine politician, merchant and writer of Ricordi (Memoirs). Belonging to a distinguished family of merchants he entered the top layer of Florentine politics. Although he held a share in a silk trading company and introduced the craft of the battiloro (a goldsmith for threads into silk cloth) to Florence around 1420, his prominence resulted from his political career after 1391, the period of the optimates' restoration after the Ciompi-tumult. He played a key role in the Florentine conquest of Pisa in 1406.A year before his death he wrote his Ricordi, in volgare. Hi…

15th century. Italy. The so called Priorista (Book of Priors) of Petriboni is in fact the work of two successive authors: Pagolo Petriboni and Matteo Rinaldi. Pagolo di Matteo di Fastello Petriboni (1392/94-1443/45) was a native of Florence. His father was a banker or merchant on a small scale belonging to an old family with varying fortunes. Matteo di Borgo Rinaldi (1410-76) was also a Florentine. Like his father, Rinaldi was matriculated in the Arte della Seta (silk guild) and was himself elected to the Florentine Signoria (Priorate) three times. Although the Priorista bears Petribon…

1384-1465. Italy. Florentine patrician, merchant and historian. He studied with the Byzantine Greek teacher Manuel Chrysoloras and with Roberto de' Rossi, and kept friendly ties with humanists like the famous Niccolò Niccoli and Ermolao Barbaro. Though he was not particularly successful as a merchant, he was one of the richest inhabitants of the quarter of Santa Maria Novella. Politically he held some of the city's most important offices and was a member of the broader circle of the early Medici regime.It was probably during his last twenty years that he compiled his Istoria fiorentina …

[Goro] 1362-1435. Italy. Florentine patrician, merchant, historian. Author of two historical works, Libro segreto and Istoria di Firenze, both in Tuscan Italian. Following his father's métier, Dati became a setaiolo grosso (entrepreneur in the silk business). His economic wellbeing mostly derived from his four wives' dowries. His political career led him to hold various important offices and after 1430 he appeared in the informal meetings of councillors where his ideas evidently spread.The Libro segreto (secret Book), written between 1384 and 1428, is compiled from n…

1381-ca 1451. Italy. Florentine patrician and historian descended of a minor branch of an élite family. After holding several offices, he was imprisoned during the 1420s (till 1439), because the Cavalcantis were not willing (or not able) to pay the taxes raised for the anti-Viscontean wars. In prison he wrote his Istorie fiorentine, and his Seconde istorie, written after his release, continues this in a different form. Cavalcanti's last years were dedicated to the Trattato politico-morale, in which he sums up what he has learnt from his own experiences comparing them w…

1437-1516. Italy. Florentine apothecary, writer of a diary. Born to a modest family, he was able thanks to a considerable dowry to buy a bottega di spezeria (a shop for medicines, herbs, and spices) in 1466. From 1450 to 1516 he wrote a diary that was continued by an anonymous till 1542, in volgare (Italian). Becoming more detailed in the early 1470s his Diario (Diary) is a unique source covering the late years of Lorenzo il Magnifico, the DominicanSavonarola's rule in Florence (Landucci witnessed his execution), the French descent into Italy, and the Repub…

1421-97. Italy. Florentine patrician, merchant and historian. Through marriage to Caterina, daughter of the famous Alessandra Macinghi Strozzi, he gained close ties with one of the leading Florentine families; but as this alliance placed him in opposition to the Medici regime, his political career was limited. After the death of Piero de' Medici in 1469 he began to write his Ricordi storici (Historical Memoirs), but he stopped at the latest in 1478, again for political reasons. His chronologically organized work is written in Italian and covers the short …

1449-1518. Italy. Florentine patrician and historian, author of a town chronicle. Son of Marco Parenti and Caterina degli Strozzi, daughter of the famous Alessandra. Thanks to his father's good connections, he studied with the great humanist scholars Marsilio Ficino and Demetrius Chalcondylas. In 1482 he became a member of the Signoria.In 1476 he started writing contemporarily his Storia Fiorentina (History of Florence) in a volgare (Italian) of a high standard. However he interrupted his work in 1478 and continued only in 1492 when Florentine history was in…

01. Einleitung 1.1. Strukturmerkmale und ForschungsproblemeDie Spezialisierung ethnischer und religiöser Minderheiten auf bestimmte Handels-Zweige, in denen sie eine starke, mitunter dominante Stellung erlangen (engl. trade diaspora: »K«., bzw. middlemen minority: »Zwischenhändlerminderheit«), ist ein Phänomen, das sich vom MA bis in die Gegenwart beobachten lässt. So hatten jüd. Kaufleute im kontinentaleurop. und mediterranen Handel bereits im hohen MA eine wichtige Stellung inne; jüd. K. gelten häufig als archetypische K. In der Nz. umfass…

1. Allgemein Als L. werden die Handelsbeziehungen Mittel- und Westeuropas mit der Levante (von ital. levante, »aufgehend«, d. h. Osten) – den Regionen des östl. Mittelmeerraumes und des Nahen Ostens – bezeichnet (Mediterrane Welt). Seit der ersten Auflage von Wilhelm Heyds Geschichte des L. (1858) hat sich eine reichhaltige und ungebrochen aktuelle Forschungstradition zum L. entwickelt [7].Seit der antiken röm. Kaiserzeit bezogen Kaufleute aus Ost und Fernost v. a. Gewürze auf dem Seeweg (Pers. Golf, Rotes Meer) sowie wertvolle Handelsgüter über die Seidenstraße (Karawanenha…

1. Allgemein In überlieferten Handelsakten und Inventaren der Nz. variieren Bezeichnungen für den Handel mit T., bei denen nach der Herstellungsart oriental. Knüpf-T. von europ. Wirk-T. zu trennen sind [4. 9]; [10. 3 f.]; [1]. Die Vertriebswege beider Güter waren grundsätzlich verschieden, sodass man sinnvoll auch zwei Marktsysteme unterscheiden kann.Heinrich Lang2. Orientalische KnüpfteppicheVisuelle Quellen, insbes. Gemälde der Renaissance, zeigen den weit verbreiteten Gebrauch von oriental. Knüpf-T. als Fuß- oder Bodenbelag, als Überwurf über…

01. Allgemein 1.1. Definition»Eine Weltwirtschaft«, so Fernand Braudel, »weist im Zentrum ihres Geschäfts- und Versorgungsnetzes stets einen städt. Pol auf, eine Stadt, in der Informationen, Waren, Kapitalien, Kredite, Menschen, Aufträge und Geschäftsbriefe zusammenströmen und von der sie wieder ausgehen; eine Stadt, in der vielfach unermeßlich reiche Großkaufleute den Ton angeben« [1. 24]. In dieser vielzitierten Definition bringt der franz. Wirtschaftshistoriker prägnant zum Ausdruck, dass Weltwirtschaften (= Ww.) durch hierarchisch strukturierte, großräumige Han…