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Bartolomeo Marchionni 'homem de grossa fazenda' (ca. 1450-1530): un mercante fiorentino a Lisbona e l'impero portoghese By Bruscoli Francesco Guidi . Florence : Casa editrice Leo S. Olschki , 2014. Pp. xxvi+274. Paperback [euro]32.00, ISBN 978-88-222-6300-1 .
Reviews
The question at the heart of Francesco Guidi Bruscoli's new book is an important and intriguing one: how did the Florentine - and more generally the Italian - economy contribute to, or even direct, the development of Portugal's empire, which, from the late fifteenth century to the middle of the sixteenth, emerged as one of Europe's premier colonial powers? There is an implicit problem that follows: while the adjective 'Portuguese' has a clear meaning in the context of the preceding question (referring to the Portuguese monarchy and its institutions), the adjective 'Florentine' refers to a geographical location and to a set of cultural practices in which Florentine entrepreneurs had excelled for at least two centuries before the creation of the two Iberian overseas empires. Guidi Bruscoli is fully aware of the central question's significance. The problem that arises from it is addressed only indirectly in his book's pages.
The book's subtitle, Un mercante fiorentino a Lisbona e l'impero portoghese ('A Florentine merchant in Lisbon and the Portuguese empire'), points to the imbalance between Guidi Bruscoli's protagonists: on the one hand, a single merchant, Bartolomeo Marchionni, from Florence; on the other, the capital of Portugal's empire. This is an analytical issue that is worth exploring. Indeed, Guidi Bruscoli offers more than a tantalizing hint to explain the great success enjoyed by Marchionni in Portugal. For if this entrepreneur managed to garner the compliment of one contemporary Portuguese, who called him (as per the book's subtitle) an 'homem de grossa fazenda' ('a man of great estate'), it was because of his excellent relations with the Portuguese monarchy. This success, in turn, was based on Marchionni's willingness - indeed, his anxiety - to advance very substantial loans to the Portuguese monarchy. Is there an echo here of a lesson that a Florentine merchant would have learned back at...