« Les correspondances Datini : un apport à l’étude des réseaux marchands toscans vers 1400 », in Les échanges en Méditerranée médiévale. Marqueurs, réseaux, circulations, contacts, ed. by E. Malamut, M. Ouerfelli, Aix-en-Provence, Presses universitaires de Provence, 2012, p. 155-199

Mélanges de l'Ecole française de Rome - Moyen Age, 2017

Pisa followed a different evolution from other towns integrated into the Florentine State: after 1406 prominent families resorted mostly to exile instead of settling into the new capital. The study of interactions between Florentine and Pisan traders during the previous generation might contribute to explain this attitude, and private correspondences from the Archivio Datini shed an interesting light on their practices, but also on the context and meaning of binational contacts, which vary from collaboration to competition and from mutual frequentation to avoidance. Whereas examples of binational companies are known between Pisans and Florentines in Avignon, where the complementarity of legal statuses, relational and material assets could profit to both parties, the numerous Florentines settled close to the mouth of the Arno appear to have mostly lived within their community, for their professional activity as well as during their free time. However, the socio-professional and political diversity of this community should also be considered to understand the cases of local assimilation that appear to have occasionally happened.

The article deals with the documents issued by the Mamluk chancery on the occasion of the first Florentine embassy to Cairo, in 1422. After identifying two main stages characterizing the Mamluk conduct of relations with Christian powers (before and after the fall of Acre, in 1291), the author examines the specific case of the establishment of diplomatic contacts with the Republic of Florence, at the beginning of the 15th century. Examining the nature of a set of chancery sources kept in Florence and their references to other documents that have not survived, the article reconstructs the documentary network adopted by the government of Cairo to grant commercial rights to the Florentine merchants. This system was based on a first letter sent to the foreign authorities, granting and summarizing commercial rights. The stipulations were then listed in detail in decrees drafted for the representatives of the sultan’s authority in the provinces of the sultanate. Official copies of these documents were then issued and sent to the European governments, with the aim of certifying the sultan’s decisions. The comparison of such a procedure with the diplomatic strategies employed with other powers sheds light on an effective system by which the Mamluks maintained peaceful relations with Christian states until the end of their sultanate. In fact, each mission led to the issuance of a network of documents that, from a diplomatic point of view, represented the authentication of the sultan’s decisions.

Entreprises et histoire, 2012

Forerunners of travelers and commercial agents among the Tuscan businessmen of the late 14th to early 16th centuries Contractual agreements regulating activities similar to those of the traveling salesman or the business agent can be found in the account books and correspondence of Tuscan merchants of the late Middle Ages. For example, in the last years of the 14th century, Tuccio di Gennaio, who was employed by the Datini’s partnership of Valencia, acted in a way rather similar to that of a traveling salesman in the Spanish area of Maestrazgo: with full discretion to bargain, he bought wool while visiting the shepherds of that region. He received a fixed wage plus a commission and an expenses allowance, including accommodation and meals. In the early 16th century, the Florentine merchant Bernardo dei Bardi, when traveling between Florence and Constantinople, acted very similarly to a salesman: he was not employed by his patrons, from whom he only got a commission based on the completed transactions. Unlike most sales representatives of today, he worked for several clients, having a certain degree of discretion in fixing the price of the goods entrusted to him to be sold along his journey and in the cities of the Bosphorus. Resumé Dans la comptabilité et dans les correspondances des marchands toscans du bas Moyen Âge, on peut identifier un certain nombre d’accords contractuels qui réglaient des activités semblables à celles du commis voyageur ou du représentant de commerce. Au cours des dernières années du XIVe siècle, Tuccio di Gennaio, selon des modalités assez proches de celles d’un commis voyageur d’aujourd’hui, traitait des affaires dans l’aire espagnole du Maestrazgo pour le compte de la Compagnie Datini de Valence. Il avait tout pouvoir de tractation pour des achats de laine qui l’amenaient à se rendre chez les bergers de la région. Il percevait un salaire plus une provision ainsi que le remboursement de ses frais, y compris le logement et la nourriture. Dans les premières années du XVIe siècle, le marchand florentin Bernardo dei Bardi, lors de ses voyages entre Florence et Constantinople, pratiquait une activité qui rappelait de près celle d’un agent de commerce: il ne dépendait pas de ses commissionnaires qui lui versaient une provision sur les opérations conclues. Mais, à la différence de l’agent actuel, il servait davantage de clients et pouvait, dans une certaine mesure, décider du prix des biens qui lui étaient confiés pour être vendus tout au long du voyage et dans les villes du Bosphore.