The companies’ network in Hungary

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frozen assets so he could definitively settle his business affairs there.³⁶¹ Eight years later, Panciatichi informed the Florentine authorities that in 1435 he had again lost his assets in Hungary through royal confiscation. The assets, according to his estimates, totaled around fl 12.200.³⁶²

Only in the case of the Panciatichi do we have comparative information on cargoes sent to other European centers. Giovanni di Bartolomeo Panciatichi occasionally invested in various European trade hubs of first rank at the same time, apart from having the companies in Buda and in Venice. In 1422, he shipped wares worth up to fl 500 to London while he shipped a cargo to Barberia worth approximately the same value (fl 485) and a rather precious cargo to Valencia worth fl 2.328.

Unfortunately, he gave no details on the goods he sent to be marketed, but he mainly traded with textiles, so presumably these cargoes were also made up of different types of textiles.³⁶³

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Filippo di Simone Capponi, by the king in the 1420s, but Giovanni Panciatichi’s declarations suggest that they were not as protected and well established as the representatives of the other two companies.³⁶⁶ In fact, they were also hit by royal reprisals like most of their fellow countrymen in Hungary between 1427 and 1435.

The Melanesi and Fronte brothers cooperated intensively with Filippo Scolari in Hungary, whereas his name does not figure either in the Panciatichi, or in the Capponi records.³⁶⁷ Since Scolari died without settling his accounts, the Melanesi tried to collect their rather high outstanding assets (fl 7.550 in three accounts) from Scolari’s heirs.³⁶⁸ A side note in the last entry referring to a sum running to fl 7,000 stated that Scolari borrowed the sum for King Sigismund and that it could not be collected from the Scolari heirs as Scolari’s assets were also seized by the same king. The entries in the Carnesecchi tax return confirm this information.³⁶⁹

As there are no separate debtors’ and creditors’ lists for the Panciatichis” Buda company in 1427, no Hungarian business partners (except for the ruler) figure in the tax return handed in to the Florentine authorities. Still, they must have had business relations with local merchants and with members of the lay aristocracy and prominent ecclesiastical dignities, as apparently stated in their 1432 catasto record, but obviously this could be easily hidden from the Florentine authorities. In any case, Filippo di Simone Capponi, their agent in Buda, possessed an outstanding network in the royal court as records kept on him in Hungary clearly show.³⁷⁰

The proportion of Hungarian and Florentine partners/clients and the volume of business can particularly be addressed in the case of the Carnesecchi-Fronte and Melanesi companies. Among the Florentines listed in their declarations one can encounter most of their fellow countrymen working or investing in Buda and in Hungary in the period covered by the records. It is no surprise of course, that the sums involved in Hungarian business by Florentines were decidedly higher than those sums, mostly debts, listed by the names of Hungarian partners.

In fact, comparing the two latter Buda companies, the most striking difference seems to be with respect to the proportion of Hungarian partners/clients with the Florentines. The lists of the Melanesi brothers reveal fewer Hungarians compared to the Carnesecchi-Fronte company. The latter firm lists mainly members of the Hungarian lay aristocracy and prelates among their debtors and creditors, in some cases, with larger sums, usually loans (3-400 fl) by their names.

366 ASF, Catasto 1433. 498. fol. 341v.

367 Filippo di Simone Capponi, ASF Catasto 1427, 65 fol. 479v-481v.

368 ASF, Catasto 1427, 46. fol. 654r.

369 ASF, Catasto 1427, 28. fol. 1010v.

370 MNL OL DL 39287. The last will of Nicholas Perényi, master of the horse (agasonum regalium magister). Capponi was also interested in pawn transactions as the record confirms. Perényi pawned a jewel valued at fl 100 by Capponi.

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The debts and loans of the Melanesis’ Hungarian partners varied in their volume: from small loans up to fl 100-200. The lists unfold a manifold cooperation with some prominent burgers of Buda, among them worth to mention Michael Nadler (144 fl), and Gregorius Gubacsi Ferenci (136 fl) interested in the cattle trade and also the town judge of Pest.³⁷¹ Simone Melanesi acquired Buda citizenship through his marriage to a local burger’s daughter, as one can learn from the entry stating the expense of fl 60 for the yearly burgher tax. His marriage into a local family and his immobile assets in the territory of Buda show his ambition to settle and integrate in the town over the long run. At the same time, they mainly supplied the requirements and carried out various commissions of the guests, diplomats and members of the royal court.³⁷² Some of these foreigners staying at the court of Sigismund can be identified in the catasto lists including the Genoese, Bartolomeo Mosca, legate of the duke of Milan (he owed fl 9 to the Melanesi of Buda).³⁷³ From the reports of the Florentine ambassador to King Sigismund, Rinaldo di Maso ³⁷⁴ degli Albizzi, we learn that he arrived in Tata, where the king was sojourning in May 13, 1426, so his debt was rather recent.³⁷⁵ The debt of fl 32 of the archbishop of Milan, Bartolomeo Della Capra (around 1365 -1433), dated back to four years previously but as it was not yet settled, it was reported in the debtors’ lists as well. The archbishop was a close advisor of both King Sigismund and the duke of Milan, Filippo Maria Visconti (1412-1447). He had been performing diplomatic commissions for the king of the Romans in 1417-1423 during the Council of Constance, in his quality as President of the Archbishops of the Italian nation. After he returned to Milan in 1423, he went on occasionally managing diplomatic tasks for Sigismund.³⁷⁶ Another interesting figure appearing in the lists of the Melanesi is the Infant Peter, the first duke of Coimbra (1392-1449), son of King John I of Portugal,

371 The record includes information on “Michele Nodolaro,” and “Gherghely Francisci” who can be identified securely:

Michael Nadler and Gregorius Ferenci. For both of them see Kubinyi, Budapest története, 50. ; 72-73, Draskóczy,

“Kamarai jövedelem”, 159.

372 There is a long list of foreign persons sojourning at the royal court of Buda from 1412. MNL OL DL 39277.

published in ZsO III/2224. May 1412. “Hie stend nach ain ander di herren, di ze Ofen pey dem hof gebesen sind anno etc. duodecimo“. Among the persons listed one can encounter the king of Bosnia, the king of Poland, King Sigismund, a Turkish prince, a duke of Spalato, Prince Ernst of Austria, Prince Albrecht of Austria, prince Louis of Bryg, the prince of Teschin, two counts of the Orsini, two Hungarian counts, two counts of the Cilli, Count Albrecht of Schwarzenburg, the Burggraf of Magdeburg (from the family Hardegg), etc. high prelates from Hungary, the bishop of Cracow, bishop of Passau, the bishop of Noppeln, the ambassadors of Rome, of England, of France, legates of German lands, and two gentlemen from Padua, etc.

373 ASF, Catasto 1427, 46.Tomo I, fol. 654r.

374 Information based on the online Catasto of 1427. (Last downloaded: May 30, 2013)

375 Commissioni di Rinaldo degli Albizzi per il Comune di Firenze dal 1399-1433. Vol.2. 1424-1426, Documenti di storia italiana. Pubblicato a cura della R. Deputazione sugli studi di storia patria per le provincie di Toscana, dell’Umbria and delle Marche, ed. Cesare Guasti, (Florence, 1869), Volume II. 552-613, 588 (hereafter: Commissioni di Rinaldo degli Albizzi) See also Péter. E. Kovács,“Egy firenzei követjárás Magyarországon,” [A Florentine legate in Hungary] Századok, 144 (2010/6): 1455–1536. Recently Luca di Maso degli Albizzi’s diary has also been published, but it does not provide new information on Hungarian relations, because Luca became ill in Senj and could not fulfill the commission of the Florentine Government. Katalin Prajda, “Egy firenzei követjárás útinaplója,” [The Diary of Luca di Maso degli Albizzi, Florentine Ambassador to King Sigismund in 1427],. in Lymbus. Magyarságtudományi Forrásközlemények, ed. Réka Lengyel (Budapest: MOL, 2012), 7-16.

376 Gisela Beinhoff, Die Italiener am Hof Kaiser Sigismunds, 1410-1437 (Frankfurt am Main-Berlin: Peter Lang, 1995), 118-119.

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and from 1438, regent of Portugal. He was also known as Dom Pedro das Sete Partidas (Peter of the Seven Parts [of the World]), one of the most travelled princes of his time. From 1419 he remained for some years in the service of King Sigismund, fighting against the Hussites and the Turks. As stated in the records, he returned to Hungary around 1427/1428 again.³⁷⁷ He apparently gave an exchange bill worth fl 1.140 to the Melanesi as a payment in Florence to a renowned merchant of Spanish origin staying in the Tuscan city.

The Melanesis’ services to King Sigismund, their rank as royal noble retainers (familiares) clearly signals their close relations with the ruler and imply that they could rely on his support and protection in the kingdom even in the years 1427-1433 which proved to be extremely difficult for the other two Florentine companies in Buda and for the Florentines sojourning in the Hungary in general. Apart from King Sigismund’s and Scolari’s support, the Melanesis’ activity was to a great extent favored by the cooperation and participation of their Florentine kin group. Most of their profit resulted from their trading and credit activities at the royal court of Buda. Tommaso, who was appointed the noble retainer (familiaris) (a man in personal service) of King Sigismund, belonged to the emperor’s and king´s closest and rather international circle of financial advisers, in his final years operating in the central financial administration.³⁷⁸ Melanesi also performed diplomatic tasks and was a member of King Sigismund’s entourage both in Constance and during his “Romfahrt” in 1431-1433, as documented in both the entries of the Catasto and the records preserved about his travels.³⁷⁹

The members of the partnerships working in Hungary mostly ranked among the merchant-bankers of middling wealth in Florence. Although they worked in a less developed region, they continued involving external capital as was general for Florentine partnerships. Their startup and working capital rank them among the average-size partnerships in Florence. The Melanesi brothers’ role can be described as intermediary and their focus on Hungarian business and the lack of investments in other geographical areas proved risky. After repeated renewals of the partnership in Buda, and after a desperate effort to involve new partners in it, they faced bankruptcy in 1429 in Florence.

377 J. Oliveira Martins, The Golden Age of Prince Henry the Navigator (Simon Publications LLC, 2001), 87-90, 123.

378 Kintzinger, Westbindungen, 444; MNL OL, DF, 270238. Oct. 18, 1435.

379 ASF, Catasto 1430, 406. fol.101r. ”you will be informed as he [Tommaso Melanesi -- Arany] says in a letter of his, he will send in the next month of July, on his profit and liabilities which he has in Hungary, which he could not comply[with] so far because he was with the emperor in Constance for about eight months …,” Lukcsics, XV. századi pápák II/ 253 on his commission to request penitence letters in the name of two Hungarian noblemen, Michael and Ladislaus Jakcs de Kusaly. See also Péter. E. Kovács, “Emperor Sigismund’s Coronation in Rome.” in Infima Aetas Pannonica.Studies in Late Medieval Hungarian History,ed. Péter E. Kovács and Kornél Szovák (Budapest, 2009), 7–

162.

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