V. Social and economic background of the Florentine families
5.5. Reappearance of earlier business strategies
The experience and activity of previous generations presumably had an effect on the strategies of later Florentine businessmen. As shown above, the structure of their assets varied according to the activity of their families.
A case in point is the career of Giovanni di Andrea Buondelmonti. His advance to the most prominent and lucrative ecclesiastical positions of the Kingdom of Hungary, first as abbot of Pécsvárad in 1410, and later as archbishop of Kalocsa in 1425–1435 and 1438–1447 may be partly due to his kinsman, Filippo Scolari’s support. Moreover, the personal relations of his father, Andrea di Lorenzo as envoy to the Hungarian court in 1396 could be an aid for him.625 However, the particular interest of the lineage in revenues from rights of ecclesiastical patronage and their good relations to the Roman Curia may have given Giovanni his first motivation in that direction.
Giovanni had already held ecclesiastical offices as a child in Italy.626 In fact, it was Pope Martin V (1417–1431), who promoted his career in Hungary in 1420 by writing both to the ruler and to Scolari, asking them to support the young Buondelmonti.627 However, neither Scolari’s death in 1426, nor Giovanni’s apparently changeable relationship with King Sigismund – around 1435 he was even imprisoned by Count Friedrich of Cilli, King Sigismund’s brother-in-law – had a long-term effect on Giovanni’s position and ecclesiastical career in Hungary. This also suggests that he had strong papal support on his side.628
One can also find members of the Melanesi lineage who held ecclesiastical offices and enjoyed church revenues already in Prato. Beside Filippo Scolari’s and King Sigismund’s support, this experience may also have played a role in the consecration of Giovanni di Piero Melanesi as bishop of Oradea in 1426.629
Whereas ecclesiastical careers could not be perpetuated through direct descendants, business strategies could more easily be repeated in consecutive generations. The Corsini lineage provides a typical example of sending their offspring to foreign centres as apprentices. Although very laconic about the agreement, Giovanni di Matteo Corsini registered in his Ricordanze the employment of
625ASF, Dieci di Balia, Lettere – Legazioni and Commissarie 2. fol. 17v, April 25, 1396;
626 Lukcsics, XV. századi pápák, I. No. 752; Elemér Mályusz, Egyházi társadalom a középkori Magyarországon [Ecclesiastic Society in Medieval Hungary] (Budapest: Műszaki kiadó, 2007), 222; Engel, Archontology, I./66, 335, 515, II./43; Bizzocchi,“La dissoluzione di un clan”, 22.
627 ZsO/VII/1258, 1259. Jan. 13, 1420.
628Lukcsics, XV. századi pápák, II. No. 473–478.
629Nuti, “Un mercante”, 2; Engel, Archontology, I/ 77.
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both his sons, Matteo and Battista, by two Buda companies. His poor financial situation and lack of sufficient liquid assets did not enable him to arrange a more favourable apprenticeship with a greater and more powerful company or in a more important European commercial centre (piazza), as had been the custom in the family.630 The grandfather Matteo in the mid-fourteenth century spent decades in London and Bruges, thus establishing the wealth of this branch.631 In the following generation, Niccoló, Giovanni’s elder brother was sent to Avignon. Giovanni’s choice of Buda may also have been influenced by the previous experience of a member of the lineage in the Kingdom of Hungary. In 1386, Filippo Corsini was sent on a diplomatic mission to the Hungarian queen, Mary (1382–1395) as ambassador together with Gherardo di Buondelmonti and Vanni Castellani.632 This experience may have influenced the decision of the father, Giovanni, in his rather desperate situation, to send both sons to Hungary as apprentices.
In the case of the Melanesi family the records of the Datini Archives in Prato provide some useful information concerning the previous generation’s business activity.633 In Francesco di Marco Datini’s correspondence altogether forty letters by Piero di Filippo Melanesi (called “Milanesi” in these records) have been preserved from the time between 1393 and 1409. One can also find eight letters from 1398 to 1403 by Filippo di Filippo, the uncle who later actively supported the Buda company of his nephews. The letters shed light on some aspects of Piero’s carrier, who in the early 1380s worked with his brother, Filippo, in Genova as moneylender.634 Filippo had serious difficulties and risked to go to prison for his debts, while Piero left Genova around 1383 and worked in Lucca and Florence as Datini’s business partner and agent. In the 1390s he stayed in Florence and regularly managed the affairs of the Florentine Datini household. According to a letter from 1407, he was planning to launch again banking and trading activity with his sons and brother.635 Finally, around 1408 he left for Montpellier where he established a company for three years as moneylender with one of his sons.636 It seems that the young Melanesi brothers may have had an excellent possibility for apprenticeship at the Datini branches and according to their father’s intention they were to enter long distance trade. He was still alive in 1416 when Simone di Piero already embarked upon his
630Herlihy-Klapisch, I toscani, 782–783.
631Petrucci, Ricordanze dei Corsini, XII–XIV.
632ASF, Signori-Carteggi Missive, I. Cancelleria, 20. fol. 102r, Aug. 10, 1386.
633See the digitized on-line version of the Datini Archives: http://datini.archiviodistato.prato.it/www/query.html. Last accessed: May 15. 2009.
634ASPo, Fondo Datini, no. 1116.131, doc. 1402499, letter by Piero and Filippo di Filippo Milanesi to Francesco di Marco Datini. Genova, Nov. 20, 1382. – Milan; ASPo, Fondo Datini, n. 183.24, doc. 317264, letter by Piero and Filippo di Filippo Milanesi to Francesco di Marco Datini. Genova, Nov. 24, 1382 – Avignon, Dec. 3, 1382.
635ASPo, Fondo Datini, n. 692.46, doc. 700754, a letter by Piero di Filippo Milanesi to Francesco di Marco Datini Pisa, Jan. 4, 1405 – Florence, Jan. 6, 1405.
636ASPo, Datini, 903.16, doc. 314886, letter by Piero di Filippo Milanesi to Francesco di Marco Datini and company, Montpellier, Jan. 4, 1409 – Barcelona, Jan. 10, 1409.
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Buda activity.637 A brother of theirs, mentioned in one of the fath.,mer’s last letters to a manager of the Datini branch in Barcelona, launched a trading activity in the Levant in 1408, marketing goods in commenda contracts.638
Two of the examined families had business experience in Venice. Leonardo and Cristofano Attavanti’s father, Domenico di Bartolo is present in the records of the Datini Archives with four letters. The letters reveal, besides his constant financial problems, that he had an agent named Giovanni di Bartolomeo di messer Giovanni in Venice managing some business for him. This suggests some experience about the geographical area where his sons tried to set up their professional activity after his death.639 Although they were in a really poor economic situation, the family had a prominent social standing in Florence. Domenico di Bartolo Attavanti was elected by lot among the Priors (members of the Signoria) for May–June 1416.640 Andrea di Tommaso Lamberteschi also established a company in Venice between 1407 and 1410 and worked with the Datini companies and branches in Barcelona, Mallorca and Valencia, as the surviving 49 letters among the Datini records confirm.641 The Manini family had exiled branches established in Udine already in the early fourteenth century, and later also in Venice.642
637 The father was one of the witnesses of his marriage in 1416, see Nuti, “Un mercante”, 1-5.
638ASPo, Fondo Datini, n. 903.15, doc. 314887, a letter by Piero di Filippo Milanesi to Cristofano di Bartolo Carocci, Montpellier, 21 May 1408 – Barcelona, May 28, 1408.
639 ASPo, Fondo Datini, n. 1116.289, doc. 131950, a letter by Domenico di Bartolo Attavanti to Giovanni di Bartolomeo di messer Giovanni, Florence, Sept. 29, 1397 – Venice.
640Croniche di Giovanni di Iacopo e di Lionardo di Lorenzo Morelli, pubblicate e di annotazioni e di antichi munimenti accresciute, ed illustrate da Frate Ildefonso di San Luigi Carmelitao Scalzo della Provincia di Toscana Accademico Fiorentino (Florence, 1785) (hereafter: Croniche di Giovanni di Iacopo Morelli), 34.
641 See the hit list to queries Piero di Filippo Milanesi and Piero e Filippo Milanesi online http://datini.archiviodistato.prato.it/www/query.html.
642 Michele Zacchigna, Lavoro sottoposto e commerci in una communitá friulana: Udine fra crisi e sviluppo (secoli XIV-XV) (Triest: EUT, 2001), 171-172.
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