The Merchant of Prato: Francesco di Marco Datini, 1335-1410

This intimate biography of Francesco di Marco Datini offers fascinating insights into the methods of medieval trade and vibrancy of Italian life in 14th-century Tuscany. “For God and Profit” is how the medieval merchant Francesco di Marco Datini headed a notebook in which he kept track of his business dealings, and these were certainly his guiding lights. Born in the 1330s in the Tuscan town of Prato, Datini set out at the age of 15 for Avignon, where over the course of the next 35 years he made a fortune trading in arms, armor, artworks, wool, saffron, leather, silk, and much more. Returning home, he expanded his operations, setting up offices all across the Mediterranean, which he oversaw through an unceasing flow of correspondence. When he died, Datini asked that all his papers be preserved in his house. In 1870 they were found—a little worm-eaten and mouse-nibbled but largely intact—in a sack under the stairs. They are one of the great records not only of medieval life but of the emergence of the modern commercial world. Drawing on this rich archive, Iris Origo offers a wonderfully vivid account of Datini’s public and private worlds. The Merchant of Prato is a masterpiece of modern narrative history. Read more