Littérature scientifique sur le sujet « Datini, Francesco, 1335-1410 »

Il notaio Lapo Mazzei (1350-1412) era un corrispondente del mercante pratese Francesco di Marco Datini (1335 circa-1410). Le lettere di Mazzei scritte a Datini dal 1390 al 1410 e pubblicate da Cesare Guasti (1822-1889) sono una fonte importante perché restituiscono uno spaccato significativo della vita e dei rapporti personali di un mercante e di un notaio vissuti in Toscana alla fine del XIV secolo. Lo scopo di questo lavoro è analizzare l'amicizia tra Mazzei e Datini e altre figure importanti attraverso lo studio delle lettere notarili

The article attempts to reconstruct the mentality of the medieval burgher Francesco Datini (1335-1410) on the materials of his epistolary archive in order to study his inherent reflexive practices in the context of time and life circumstances. The period of Datini’s life (XIV-XV centuries) was marked by a number of cataclysms, among which the Great Plague Pandemic of the middle of the XIV century seems to be the most global phenomenon. People of the “Old World” who survived these shocks felt irreversible social and mental changes. Their habitual way of life seemed to go into an irrevocable past, the established group and individual identity was destroyed. At the same time, a new model of life behavior and identity has not yet taken shape. As a methodological basis for the research undertaken, we chose the methods of emotive history, which allowed us to concentrate research efforts on emotions and value orientations, as well as the theory of liminality, which focuses on studying the states impact of uncertainty on groups of people and individuals. Datini’s correspondence was divided into two parts, official — with his business partners and private — with his foster mother Monna Piera di Pratese Boschetti, his wife Monna Margarita and his closest friend, notary and judge, Ser Lapo di Macei. In business correspondence, Francesco Datini appears to be occupied exclusively with thoughts on income, prone to maxims and evil irony. In private correspondence, the religious motivation of his actions, emotions, doubts, fears and fears are revealed, which were reinforced by the eschatological expectations of the transitional period. These observations made it possible to characterize the reflexive practices of Francesco Datini as liminal. Datini’s reflexive experience turned out to be very multidimensional, reflecting the catastrophic nature of the time he lived through, which prompted him in the last years of his life to turn to charity, long fasts and asceticism.

The article provides an analysis of documents from the Datini archive, the purpose of which is to determine the prospects for studying the ethical views of a business person of the premodern era on their material. During the High and Late Middle Ages in Western Europe, there was a “rise of cities” due to the activities of the most mobile and creative social groups of medieval townspeople — merchants, and later entrepreneurs and financiers. Their occupations and way of life contributed to the development of a different type of behavior, new ethical attitudes. One of these business people was Francesco Datini (1335-1410). The methodological basis of the research was formed by the theory of the ethos of the Polish researcher Maria Ossovskaya, which was perceived by domestic scientists in the post-Soviet period. The analysis made it possible to establish the linguistic identity of 148265 letters from the archive. Most of them were written in Tuscan “volgare”. This confirmed the prevailing point of view in historiography about the formation of commercial and financial companies in the cities of medieval Tuscany mainly on the basis of family ties. There were also found letters in Latin, Catalan, Provencal and other languages. Due to the linguistic diversity of sources and the vast geography of their origin, it seemed the most promising to use the methods of “digital history” in further research, which implies the creation of a prosopographic database of Datini’s correspondents and the construction of a GIS on its basis. The linguistic affiliation of the letters was the main marker of the cultural and national identity of their authors, however, the supranational factor that united these people was their belonging to the ethos of a business man of the premodern era, which is characterized by a combination of irrational religiosity with the emerging rational pragmatics.

Defence date: 4 May 2010
Examining Board: Prof. Anthony Molho (EUI) – Supervisor; Prof. Antonella Romano (EUI); Prof. David Abulafia (University of Cambridge); Prof. Matthieu Arnoux (Université Paris VII et EHESS, Paris).
PDF of thesis uploaded from the Library digital archive of EUI PhD theses
Le rôle d’intermédiaire que jouait le Maghreb dans les relations méditerranéennes, entre l’Orient et l’Europe, et les échanges entre les Maghrébins et les différentes puissances commerciales italiennes et espagnoles, ont ancré de manière importante le Maghreb dans l’histoire méditerranéenne et européenne. En proposant la reconstruction des réseaux et des stratégies marchandes qui permirent à la compagnie Datini, à la fin du XIVe siècle et au début du XVe siècle, de négocier avec le Maghreb, nous tentons d’apporter un nouveau regard sur l’étude des entreprises marchandes médiévales, trop souvent prisonnier d’une lecture classique strictement économique. Nous sommes bien sûr redevables à Armando Sapori, Federigo Melis et aux historiens de cette génération en ce qui concerne l’étude de l’entreprise à cette époque. Nous nous appuyons sur leurs travaux et les citons de nombreuses fois1. Mais l’histoire économique telle que nous pouvons actuellement l’appréhender s’est enrichi considérablement des études sur des sujets de nature plus sociale, anthropologique et intellectuelle des années 1980, permettant une problématisation différente. La recherche présentée s’inscrit dans la continuité des travaux qui la précédèrent mais les directions sont divergentes à la fois sur le sujet d’étude, la méthode de travail, l’espace pris en compte et les sources qui sont utilisées. Quand Federigo Melis traitait de techniques des affaires, il mentionnait les formes de comptabilité, la circulation de l’information, le crédit, l’assurance, les coûts de transports et leur évolution… sans jamais faire référence aux relations, à ces réseaux d’affaires qui permettaient aux compagnies de s’étendre bien au-delà de leur strict champ d’activité. L’application de l’analyse de réseaux aux compagnies marchandes médiévales peut ainsi amplement enrichir celle des sociétés de commerce. Nous entendons réaliser une histoire économique qui ne se coupe pas du social et réintègre pleinement le facteur humain au sein de ses analyses. Nous ne pouvons que constater l’utilité de cet outil permettant de superposer à l’étude des entreprises commerciales celle de l’organisation du monde des affaires sous une forme juridique inexistante, reposant sur des liens informels et sur une confiance réciproque.