Questo e ellibro che tracta di marcantie et usanze di paesi (Book of Trade and Customs of Countries) 

Giorgio di Lorenzo Chiarini, author

Ludovico Bertini, scribe

Ink on parchment manuscript with blind-tooled and stamped leather binding and two closing straps

17 x 12.5 cm

July 1481 CE, Florence (?), Republic of Florence (present-day Italy)

SCRC 541 Cochran

 

Businessmen in fifteenth-century Florence had to navigate a complex network of trades, customs, exchange rates, and a lack of standardization in units of measure, weight, and currency. In order to parse this tangled web, they consulted books such as the Tracta di marcantie et usanze di paesi. This business manual, written in vernacular Italian, details the trade practices and customs of 195 locations in the Mediterranean world. Remarkably, the name of the author of this text, Giorgio di Lorenzo Chiarini, and the scribe who transcribed it, Ludovico Bertini, are both preserved.  

 

Emma P. Holter 

Digitized manuscript at Temple Digital Collections

Bibliotheca Philadelphiensis repository

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