Books by Katalin Prajda
in Progress
La storiografia da sempre ha inquadrato l’epoca come una lotta tra i due grandi poteri della zona... more La storiografia da sempre ha inquadrato l’epoca come una lotta tra i due grandi poteri della zona, la Serenissima e la corona ungherese-croata. Sfidando questo quadro interpretativo tradizionale, il libro si porrà al centro del dibattito la lotta tra le varie nazioni mercantili, in primo luogo tra i veneziani e i fiorentini, e in minor modo anche tra questi primi e i genovesi, ragusei, padovani e altri mercanti locali che operarono nell’Adriatico.
Viella, 2023
Up to now, the dominant narrative of Renaissance historiography has concentrated on Western Europ... more Up to now, the dominant narrative of Renaissance historiography has concentrated on Western Europe. Surprisingly, this is even the case in the field of cross-cultural exchanges, which have frequently overlooked the central and eastern parts of the European continent. If they do so, they project a modern division into eastern and western Europe onto the medieval and Renaissance periods. They seem, moreover, focused on analyzing the impact of Western European cultural centres elsewhere rather than on considering cultural exchanges as a process of cross-fertilization between two distinct regions. Similarly, there has been no monograph-length study dedicated to cultural exchanges in Renaissance Italy which would simultaneously consider diplomacy, commerce, migration, and the written and the visual cultures. Therefore, the present book challenges the existing scholarship on both fronts. It aims to address three broad issues: the spread of early Renaissance Italian cultural inventions; the interconnectivity between the Italian Peninsula and the Kingdom of Hungary; and the role of social networks in shaping the Italian Renaissance by forging dialogues with other cultures.
During Sigismund of Luxembourg’s reign, many Florentine citizens were drawn to work in the Kingdo... more During Sigismund of Luxembourg’s reign, many Florentine citizens were drawn to work in the Kingdom of Hungary for various economic and political reasons. Analyzing the social network of these politicians, merchants, artisans, royal officers, dignitaries of the Church, and noblemen is the primary objective of this book. The Florentines’ network in Hungary, discussed in the book, was concentrated at its centre on one catalytic figure: the Florentine-born Pippo Scolari and his most intimate male relatives. I believe that these three men, Pippo, his youngest brother, Matteo, and their cousin, Andrea Scolari, had the most significant influence on Florentines’ migration to the Kingdom of Hungary during the first three decades of the fifteenth century. This concentrated network structure was a result of the centralized political system in the Kingdom of Hungary, dominated by the royal court and its members. Pippo, as baron of the aula regis, obtained a social status, incomparable to those of his Florentine contemporaries, which allowed him to elevate others in his network.
The success of the network can be seen in the various ways in which its members were connected to each other and especially to the centre of the network. Some of these individuals developed weak ties among each other, characterized by a single type relation to one of the key figures of the Scolari family; meanwhile others established strong ties with them by multiple links of kinship, marriage, politics, neighbourhood, and business partnerships. I shall refer to members of this network as ‘friends’, defining in this way the existing personal connections set among them by their common political interests, neighbourhood proximities, marriage alliances, kinship ties, patronages, and company partnerships.
In the literature, there has been much research dedicated to simple historical networks and how they affect various public and private spheres. More rare are those historical case studies, which allow us to trace back the impact of a multiple set of relations. In this book, I shall look both descriptively at patterns of connectivity and causally at the impacts of this complex network on cultural exchanges of various types, among these migration, commerce, diplomacy, and artistic exchange. In the setting of a case study, this book should best be thought of as an attempt to cross the boundaries that divide political, economic, social, and art history so that they simultaneously figure into a single integrated story of Florentine history and development.
in English by Katalin Prajda
Nuova Rivista Storica, 2024
Il commercio interculturale degli esseri umani nel Mediterraneo della prima età
moderna è ormai u... more Il commercio interculturale degli esseri umani nel Mediterraneo della prima età
moderna è ormai uno dei luoghi comuni della storiografia. Data la penuria delle
fonti scritte, il fenomeno della schiavitù è rimasto finora poco studiato nella prima
fase dei conflitti tra il mondo cristiano e quello musulmano. Il periodo collocato tra
la battaglia di Kosovo (1389) e quella di Varna (1444) vide un rapporto assai stretto
tra gli interessi commerciali e quei diplomatici delle nazioni mercantili e delle entità
politiche che operarono nell’Alto Adriatico e nella zona di contatto tra i Cristiani e
gli Ottomani. Questo articolo si propone di ricostruire la tratta che si organizzò tra
l’Italia e i Balcani, focalizzandosi sui rapporti tra schiavi, commercianti e padroni
di fede cristiana. Inoltre, all’analisi degli aspetti politici ed economici della servitù, si
aggiunge, nel saggio, anche quella delle relazioni culturali come motore del fenomeno.
The circulation of cross-cultural slaves in the early modern Mediterranean has
already generated a large body of scholarship. Because of the limited availability of
sources, the phenomenon has remained marginalized for the earliest phase of Ottoman
warfare between the battle of Kosovo (1389) and the battle of Varna (1444).
The fourteenth and fifteenth centuries witnessed the intersection of commercial and
political interests of many polities and trading nations in the Adriatic area as well
as in the Ottoman contact zones. This article argues for the interconnectedness of the
political networks involved in anti-Ottoman warfare and the commercial networks
that mediated slaves from the Ottoman borderlands to Italy. It also places into the
center of the analysis the cultural aspects of the rise of slavery and of Christian-
Christian enslavement in comparison with the interpretations embedded in economic
and political theories.
How did Florentines choose their friends? What was the practical impact of friendship ties on pub... more How did Florentines choose their friends? What was the practical impact of friendship ties on public and private life in Early Renaissance Florence? How do academic friendships influence our interpretation of the past? Besides these general questions, fundamental to our understanding of human interactions now and then, the lecture also focuses on the specific case of Florentine merchants in the Kingdom of Hungary during the late 14th and early 15th centuries. The study reveals that friendship networks of businessmen dominated politics, economy and artistic patronage in early Renaissance Florence, intersections which were undeniable in the city-republic, but are closely monitored in modern societies.
Annali dell'Istituto storico italo-germanico in Trento Jahrbuch des italienisch-deutschen historischen Instituts in Trient, 2023
The article aims to address the cultural and social profile of Hungarian subjects as
mercenaries... more The article aims to address the cultural and social profile of Hungarian subjects as
mercenaries in Italy, focusing on the period between the late 1370s and early 1380s.
The cultural and social impact of foreign mercenaries in Italy was likely the strongest in this earliest phase of their appearance when complete mercenary troops of
foreign origins were hired by the corresponding polities. Soldiers’ migration from
the Kingdom to various Italian cities followed a migratory pattern exhibited also
by other migrants belonging to a wide spectrum of occupational categories. Unlike
their Western European colleagues, they also showed the same linguistic and ethnic
diversity which characterized the Kingdom. Their mercenary captains kept a close
relation to their king. Louis I commanded them remotely and upon their return
he raised many of them to high secular offices in Hungary. They were also functioning in diplomatic capacities for the king so to shape Italian domestic politics.
Routledge Resources Online – The Renaissance World, 2022
Since its foundation, the Kingdom of Hungary was linked to the Italian Peninsula by
means of dipl... more Since its foundation, the Kingdom of Hungary was linked to the Italian Peninsula by
means of diplomacy. These connections only intensified during the early Renaissance
which encompasses the period between the beginnings of Louis I of Anjou’s reign
(1342) and the Ottoman occupation (1526). Social networks built between the two
territories can be divided into four main categories: diplomatic networks, merchant
networks, migration networks and artistic networks or cultural exchange. These
networks were dependent on each other and influenced to a great extent the spread of
early Renaissance Italian culture. Amicable diplomatic relations represented a key
element in the operation of Italian merchant networks in Hungary. Similarly, in- and
outbound migration patterns were conditioned by these previous two networks.
Consequently, the cooperation of networks of diplomacy, commerce and migration
resulted in the circulation of artists and learned men between the two territories. These
two groups included the humanists Pier Paolo Vergerio, Galeotto Marzio, and the painter
Masolino. Thanks to their mediation, the Kingdom
of Hungary gradually embraced several innovations of the Renaissance Italian culture.
Poetics (forthcoming in special issue on Socio-semantic networks), 2020
We analyze public-policy speeches in the Florentine Consulte e Pratiche, immediately prior to the... more We analyze public-policy speeches in the Florentine Consulte e Pratiche, immediately prior to the Ciompi Revolt, for signs of elite factional conflict, in the context of self-proclaimed unity. We employ three statistical analyses of these speeches in Latin: namely, scatterplots of word frequencies, Wordfish scaling, and regressions on speech-similarities. Plus we employ two qualitative analyses: a case study of the speeches of Lapo da Castiglionchio, leader of the Parte Guelfa faction, and a close examination of the rhetoric of unity in three important sets of meetings.
Our main finding is this: The runup to the Ciompi Revolt was crystalization of “unity of citizens” in the room of the Consulte e Pratiche and, among the same actors, crystallization of “unity of Guelfs” in the room of the Parte Guelfa, with a lack of recognition in the multivocal speeches in the former of the obvious contradiction with actions in the latter. In our opinion, the tragedy of “the valiant failure of republicanism” in Florence was that intense wishful yearning for unity in speech induced, under background conditions of deep social-class contestation about “Who is Florence?,” an intensification in action of the very revolutionary forces that it most desperately wanted to suppress.
Poetics- Special Issue on Socio-Semantic Networks, 2019
The Florentine Consulte e Pratiche is the oldest recorded series of speech-by-speech policy discu... more The Florentine Consulte e Pratiche is the oldest recorded series of speech-by-speech policy discussion by political elites in European history, over one hundred and fifty years in length. This article is the first of an extended two-article sequence on political discussion in the Consulte e Pratiche, during the 1376-1378 period of the War of Eight Saints, which led up to the famous Ciompi Revolt. Our interest is in discovering both the semantic-network (article 1) and the factional-network (article 2) mechanics of this unexpected spillover from foreign-policy conflict into domestic revolt. Our central finding at the semantic level, in this first article, is that the spillover from war to revolution was mediated through the ceremonial and political-economy sides of religion.
Hungarian Historical Review, 2017
The article proposes to analyze some general characteristics of Florentine merchants' trade in th... more The article proposes to analyze some general characteristics of Florentine merchants' trade in the Kingdom of Hungary in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries on the basis of written sources housed predominantly by various Italian archives. It opens with a new evaluation of the importance of Florentine merchants in long-distance trade by examining examples of the organizational framework of their enterprises in the town of Buda during the reign of Sigismund of Luxembourg (1387–1437). It also looks at the well-known cases of the families that were engaged in trade in Hungary, beginning with the period of Louis I (1342–82) and ending with the reign of Matthias Corvinus (1458–90). The second subchapter concentrates on the commodities transported by Florentines between the two states by describing their nature and their quantitative and qualitative features mentioned in the documents. Among the commercial goods, the article considers the import and export of metals like gold, silver, and copper, as well as Florentine silk and wool. It also mentions exotic animals and spices transported from extra-European territories. The third part of the article offers a reconstruction of the outreach of the Florentine network operating in Hungary, with particular consideration of its most important markets for raw materials and luxury goods. The fourth subchapter discusses the commercial routes used by Florentines when transporting their goods between the towns of Buda and Florence, emphasizing the importance of Venice as a major trading hub along the route. The conclusion puts the Florentines' trade in Hungary into a broader picture of international trade, and it draws connections between the development of the Florentine silk industry, for which the city became famous, and the marketing of its finished products in Hungary.
The Story of the Fat Woodcarver, written by Antonio di Tuccio Manetti, probably recalls a popular... more The Story of the Fat Woodcarver, written by Antonio di Tuccio Manetti, probably recalls a popular anecdote about a Florentine artisan who was humiliated by his friend, Filippo di ser Brunellesco. The joke played by the architect has been at the forefront of scholarly interest, while the main protagonist has so far received limited attention. This article aims to reconstruct the life of Manetto di Jacopo Amannatini, that is, the Fat Woodcarver, in the context of his social relationships with the other figures in the story. It argues that Manetti's account is grounded in concrete historical facts and therefore provides us with a unique picture of the intersections that existed between artisan and merchant networks in and beyond early Renaissance Florence. Manetto's character may well symbolize those itinerant craftsmen who, by acknowledging their position in their own communities, and thanks to their skills and their courage to migrate to remote places, like the Kingdom of Hungary, managed to improve their social status significantly.
The primary aim of this study is to provide an overview of the various forms of diplomatic repres... more The primary aim of this study is to provide an overview of the various forms of diplomatic representation of the Florentine Republic toward the King of Hungary in the pre-Medici period and to compare the Florentine case, to the extent possible, with other North Italian examples. The paper looks at the language and the frequency of state letters, which the Florentine chancery addressed to the Hungarian monarchs. It also analyzes the regularity and the composition of dispatching diplomatic contingents aimed at reaching the court while in Hungary. Finally, it intends to assess the relative importance of the Florentine community in Hungary, which represented the Republic on a permanent basis.Since the Kingdom of Hungary, indeed, became an important political ally to pre-Medici Florence, an analyses of the diplomatic relations between the two states might shed a new light on some aspects of Florentine diplomatic practices. Therefore, through the example of Hungary, the article also addresses more generalized questions regarding the pre-Medici diplomacy.
Commercial diplomacy today is a means for governments to increase international trade and therefo... more Commercial diplomacy today is a means for governments to increase international trade and therefore support their national economies. They apply political tools in order to promote business between their home and the host countries and to achieve commercial gains thereby. The phenomenon itself is not new, though, its roots might be traced back centuries before our times. Commerce, long distance trade and diplomacy were inseparable in the history of early modern trading nations. Diplomatic negotiations, correspondences and ambassadorships were designed with the view of obtaining or maintaining economic advantages for their merchants in the host states.The discussion that emerges in the following pages regards, therefore, the various sorts of relations between trade and diplomatic interests in early Renaissance Florence. It also discusses how individual and collective economic interests pushed the Florentine government toward a politics of maneuvers. The seemingly remote Kingdom of Hungary and its rulers, Louis I Anjou (1342-1382), his daughter Mary (1382-1395) and Sigismund of Luxemburg (1386-1437), proved to be good allies for such a politics during the period extending between the Black Death (1348) and Cosimo de’Medici’s return to the city (1434).
Craftsmen and Guilds in the Medieval and Early Modern Periods, Eva Jullien / Michel Pauly (ed.) , 2016
The period known as the Albizzi regime, extending between the ciompi revolt (1378) and Cosimo de’... more The period known as the Albizzi regime, extending between the ciompi revolt (1378) and Cosimo de’ Medici’s return to the city (1434), was crucial for making the Florentine gold industry famous. Consequently, a good number of precious metal workers emigrated from Florence to other parts of the Italian peninsula, diffusing their knowledge and Florentine taste.2 Furthermore, the rising cooperation between gold workers and guild manufacturers led to the recognition of Florentine silk decorated with metallic threads outside the walls of the city-state. In spite of its importance, the social history of Florentine gold workers in this period has remained a marginal topic within the specialist literature.8 The present study provides an in-depth analysis of the intersections between the silk and gold industries in the initial phase of their evolution and assesses, from a statistical point of view, the social and financial status of gold workers. It also challenges the traditional vision according to which the Florentine silk industry, at the beginning of its evolution, relied exclusively on goldbeater workshops to produce metallic threads.
By the beginning of the fifteenth century, European commercial centers had already been
filled wi... more By the beginning of the fifteenth century, European commercial centers had already been
filled with trading colonies founded by Florentine merchants. A few of them settled down
for life in their host country, developing economic and social ties with local families. During
Sigismund of Luxemburg’s reign (r. 1387-1437) as King of Hungary only a handful of
these merchants achieved political positions. Undoubtedly the most fortunate among these
Florentine citizens was Filippo di Stefano Scolari, known as Pippo Spano (c. 1369-1426),
who was granted the significant honor of becoming a member of a small inner circle in the
royal court. This article argues that the special status attained by Florentines in Hungarian
politics and economy during the first three decades of the fifteenth century can be attributed
largely to Pippo Spano’s influence. As cultural mediators, Pippo Spano and his family
helped to facilitate relations between their native Florence and their adopted home. This
case study focuses on the Scolari family’s migration to the Hungarian Kingdom in order to
explore on a small scale the possible push-pull factors of migration flow and its impact on
the relationship between the Florentine Republic and the Hungarian Kingdom.
Metropolitan Museum Journal vol.48., 2013
A century ago Joseph Breck, then an assistant curator
at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, propose... more A century ago Joseph Breck, then an assistant curator
at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, proposed that
the two sitters depicted in the Museum’s landmark
portrait by Filippo Lippi could be identified as the Florentine born
Agnola di Bernardo Sapiti and her husband, Lorenzo
di Rinieri Scolari. Breck’s identification was based
on his reading of the coat of arms under the male sitter’s
hands as that of the Scolari family. Remarkably, aside from
Dieter Jansen’s counterproposal in 1987 that the coat of
arms is that of the Ferrero family of Piedmont, the premise
of Breck’s hypothesis has never been put to the test. The
present article aims to do just that, reading details of the picture
in light of emerging archival information about the
Scolari family.
Manetto di Jacopo Ammanatini, Florentine woodcarver (cc.1384/87–cc.1451/52), started to work for ... more Manetto di Jacopo Ammanatini, Florentine woodcarver (cc.1384/87–cc.1451/52), started to work for Pippo Scolari known as lo Spano, in the Kingdom of Hungary, around 1409. Pippo (1368/69-1426) as a baron of the Hungarian crown, was patron of several building projects, among them the construction of a castle in the center of his estates in Ozora. The castle was constructed between c. 1416 and 1426 while Ammanatini was probably living in Ozora and employed as the baron’s architect.
Marriage in Premodern Europe. Italy and Beyond, 2012
In the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries, it was usual for Florentines to make marria... more In the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries, it was usual for Florentines to make marriage alliances within their own social strata, even in their own neighbourhood. While several studies have drawn attention to endogamous marriages ties which existed among Florentine merchant families, little has been said about exogamous marriages bound with outsiders to the Florentine merchant society. There has also been less analysis of the effects of the matrilineal extension of Florentine merchant families on the composition of business networks, which might explain why several of Florentine merchant brothers bound endogamous marriages meanwhile others were seeking to marry woman outside of their social strata or business network. This present work therefore is an attempt to reconstruct the close relationship which existed between exogamous ties that developed between Florentines and subjects of the Hungarian crown and their settlement in the Kingdom of Hungary and similarly to reconstruct the relationship between endogamous marriages patterns among Florentine merchant families and their participation in long distance trade with the Kingdom of Hungary during the reign of Sigismund of Luxemburg (1387-1437). The period with which this essay is concerned, that is, the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries coincides with the late republican times in Florence, dominated by the oligarchic regime and expands from the ciompi revolt until 1434, Cosimo de’ Medici’s return to the city.
Mélanges de l'École française de Rome, Sep 2013
It is not until the beginning of the 15th century that we begin to get detailed information about... more It is not until the beginning of the 15th century that we begin to get detailed information about merchant companies set up by Florentines in the town of Buda. The senior partners of these companies were important actors of Florentine trade and played a significant role in the textile production of their homeland. Their families often maintained economic relations with each other at least for two generations and they worked together through several autonomous family partnerships. Their firms based in Buda were not real competitors, but they operated through each other, using the same merchant network and serving the same circle of costumers. The scope of the present article is to analyze the activity of these merchant companies through various sources housed by the Florentine National Archives and place them in the context of Florentine long distance trade.
Florentine merchants in some parts of Europe had, by the mid-14th century, established corporatio... more Florentine merchants in some parts of Europe had, by the mid-14th century, established corporations, known as nazioni, which aimed at providing a jurisdictional and organizational framework for their activity. The consuls of the nazioni often acted as judges or legal representatives of Florentine merchants, mediating between the merchants and the local society. Besides the consuls, merchants living abroad had the possibility to bring their business cases before the guild consuls as well as the Mercanzia, which operated as the supreme commercial court in Florence, or before local authorities, such as the ruler and the town court judges. The paper analyzes various jurisdictional aspects of Florentine merchants’ trade in Buda during the late 14th and early 15th centuries.
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Books by Katalin Prajda
The success of the network can be seen in the various ways in which its members were connected to each other and especially to the centre of the network. Some of these individuals developed weak ties among each other, characterized by a single type relation to one of the key figures of the Scolari family; meanwhile others established strong ties with them by multiple links of kinship, marriage, politics, neighbourhood, and business partnerships. I shall refer to members of this network as ‘friends’, defining in this way the existing personal connections set among them by their common political interests, neighbourhood proximities, marriage alliances, kinship ties, patronages, and company partnerships.
In the literature, there has been much research dedicated to simple historical networks and how they affect various public and private spheres. More rare are those historical case studies, which allow us to trace back the impact of a multiple set of relations. In this book, I shall look both descriptively at patterns of connectivity and causally at the impacts of this complex network on cultural exchanges of various types, among these migration, commerce, diplomacy, and artistic exchange. In the setting of a case study, this book should best be thought of as an attempt to cross the boundaries that divide political, economic, social, and art history so that they simultaneously figure into a single integrated story of Florentine history and development.
in English by Katalin Prajda
moderna è ormai uno dei luoghi comuni della storiografia. Data la penuria delle
fonti scritte, il fenomeno della schiavitù è rimasto finora poco studiato nella prima
fase dei conflitti tra il mondo cristiano e quello musulmano. Il periodo collocato tra
la battaglia di Kosovo (1389) e quella di Varna (1444) vide un rapporto assai stretto
tra gli interessi commerciali e quei diplomatici delle nazioni mercantili e delle entità
politiche che operarono nell’Alto Adriatico e nella zona di contatto tra i Cristiani e
gli Ottomani. Questo articolo si propone di ricostruire la tratta che si organizzò tra
l’Italia e i Balcani, focalizzandosi sui rapporti tra schiavi, commercianti e padroni
di fede cristiana. Inoltre, all’analisi degli aspetti politici ed economici della servitù, si
aggiunge, nel saggio, anche quella delle relazioni culturali come motore del fenomeno.
The circulation of cross-cultural slaves in the early modern Mediterranean has
already generated a large body of scholarship. Because of the limited availability of
sources, the phenomenon has remained marginalized for the earliest phase of Ottoman
warfare between the battle of Kosovo (1389) and the battle of Varna (1444).
The fourteenth and fifteenth centuries witnessed the intersection of commercial and
political interests of many polities and trading nations in the Adriatic area as well
as in the Ottoman contact zones. This article argues for the interconnectedness of the
political networks involved in anti-Ottoman warfare and the commercial networks
that mediated slaves from the Ottoman borderlands to Italy. It also places into the
center of the analysis the cultural aspects of the rise of slavery and of Christian-
Christian enslavement in comparison with the interpretations embedded in economic
and political theories.
mercenaries in Italy, focusing on the period between the late 1370s and early 1380s.
The cultural and social impact of foreign mercenaries in Italy was likely the strongest in this earliest phase of their appearance when complete mercenary troops of
foreign origins were hired by the corresponding polities. Soldiers’ migration from
the Kingdom to various Italian cities followed a migratory pattern exhibited also
by other migrants belonging to a wide spectrum of occupational categories. Unlike
their Western European colleagues, they also showed the same linguistic and ethnic
diversity which characterized the Kingdom. Their mercenary captains kept a close
relation to their king. Louis I commanded them remotely and upon their return
he raised many of them to high secular offices in Hungary. They were also functioning in diplomatic capacities for the king so to shape Italian domestic politics.
means of diplomacy. These connections only intensified during the early Renaissance
which encompasses the period between the beginnings of Louis I of Anjou’s reign
(1342) and the Ottoman occupation (1526). Social networks built between the two
territories can be divided into four main categories: diplomatic networks, merchant
networks, migration networks and artistic networks or cultural exchange. These
networks were dependent on each other and influenced to a great extent the spread of
early Renaissance Italian culture. Amicable diplomatic relations represented a key
element in the operation of Italian merchant networks in Hungary. Similarly, in- and
outbound migration patterns were conditioned by these previous two networks.
Consequently, the cooperation of networks of diplomacy, commerce and migration
resulted in the circulation of artists and learned men between the two territories. These
two groups included the humanists Pier Paolo Vergerio, Galeotto Marzio, and the painter
Masolino. Thanks to their mediation, the Kingdom
of Hungary gradually embraced several innovations of the Renaissance Italian culture.
Our main finding is this: The runup to the Ciompi Revolt was crystalization of “unity of citizens” in the room of the Consulte e Pratiche and, among the same actors, crystallization of “unity of Guelfs” in the room of the Parte Guelfa, with a lack of recognition in the multivocal speeches in the former of the obvious contradiction with actions in the latter. In our opinion, the tragedy of “the valiant failure of republicanism” in Florence was that intense wishful yearning for unity in speech induced, under background conditions of deep social-class contestation about “Who is Florence?,” an intensification in action of the very revolutionary forces that it most desperately wanted to suppress.
filled with trading colonies founded by Florentine merchants. A few of them settled down
for life in their host country, developing economic and social ties with local families. During
Sigismund of Luxemburg’s reign (r. 1387-1437) as King of Hungary only a handful of
these merchants achieved political positions. Undoubtedly the most fortunate among these
Florentine citizens was Filippo di Stefano Scolari, known as Pippo Spano (c. 1369-1426),
who was granted the significant honor of becoming a member of a small inner circle in the
royal court. This article argues that the special status attained by Florentines in Hungarian
politics and economy during the first three decades of the fifteenth century can be attributed
largely to Pippo Spano’s influence. As cultural mediators, Pippo Spano and his family
helped to facilitate relations between their native Florence and their adopted home. This
case study focuses on the Scolari family’s migration to the Hungarian Kingdom in order to
explore on a small scale the possible push-pull factors of migration flow and its impact on
the relationship between the Florentine Republic and the Hungarian Kingdom.
at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, proposed that
the two sitters depicted in the Museum’s landmark
portrait by Filippo Lippi could be identified as the Florentine born
Agnola di Bernardo Sapiti and her husband, Lorenzo
di Rinieri Scolari. Breck’s identification was based
on his reading of the coat of arms under the male sitter’s
hands as that of the Scolari family. Remarkably, aside from
Dieter Jansen’s counterproposal in 1987 that the coat of
arms is that of the Ferrero family of Piedmont, the premise
of Breck’s hypothesis has never been put to the test. The
present article aims to do just that, reading details of the picture
in light of emerging archival information about the
Scolari family.
The success of the network can be seen in the various ways in which its members were connected to each other and especially to the centre of the network. Some of these individuals developed weak ties among each other, characterized by a single type relation to one of the key figures of the Scolari family; meanwhile others established strong ties with them by multiple links of kinship, marriage, politics, neighbourhood, and business partnerships. I shall refer to members of this network as ‘friends’, defining in this way the existing personal connections set among them by their common political interests, neighbourhood proximities, marriage alliances, kinship ties, patronages, and company partnerships.
In the literature, there has been much research dedicated to simple historical networks and how they affect various public and private spheres. More rare are those historical case studies, which allow us to trace back the impact of a multiple set of relations. In this book, I shall look both descriptively at patterns of connectivity and causally at the impacts of this complex network on cultural exchanges of various types, among these migration, commerce, diplomacy, and artistic exchange. In the setting of a case study, this book should best be thought of as an attempt to cross the boundaries that divide political, economic, social, and art history so that they simultaneously figure into a single integrated story of Florentine history and development.
moderna è ormai uno dei luoghi comuni della storiografia. Data la penuria delle
fonti scritte, il fenomeno della schiavitù è rimasto finora poco studiato nella prima
fase dei conflitti tra il mondo cristiano e quello musulmano. Il periodo collocato tra
la battaglia di Kosovo (1389) e quella di Varna (1444) vide un rapporto assai stretto
tra gli interessi commerciali e quei diplomatici delle nazioni mercantili e delle entità
politiche che operarono nell’Alto Adriatico e nella zona di contatto tra i Cristiani e
gli Ottomani. Questo articolo si propone di ricostruire la tratta che si organizzò tra
l’Italia e i Balcani, focalizzandosi sui rapporti tra schiavi, commercianti e padroni
di fede cristiana. Inoltre, all’analisi degli aspetti politici ed economici della servitù, si
aggiunge, nel saggio, anche quella delle relazioni culturali come motore del fenomeno.
The circulation of cross-cultural slaves in the early modern Mediterranean has
already generated a large body of scholarship. Because of the limited availability of
sources, the phenomenon has remained marginalized for the earliest phase of Ottoman
warfare between the battle of Kosovo (1389) and the battle of Varna (1444).
The fourteenth and fifteenth centuries witnessed the intersection of commercial and
political interests of many polities and trading nations in the Adriatic area as well
as in the Ottoman contact zones. This article argues for the interconnectedness of the
political networks involved in anti-Ottoman warfare and the commercial networks
that mediated slaves from the Ottoman borderlands to Italy. It also places into the
center of the analysis the cultural aspects of the rise of slavery and of Christian-
Christian enslavement in comparison with the interpretations embedded in economic
and political theories.
mercenaries in Italy, focusing on the period between the late 1370s and early 1380s.
The cultural and social impact of foreign mercenaries in Italy was likely the strongest in this earliest phase of their appearance when complete mercenary troops of
foreign origins were hired by the corresponding polities. Soldiers’ migration from
the Kingdom to various Italian cities followed a migratory pattern exhibited also
by other migrants belonging to a wide spectrum of occupational categories. Unlike
their Western European colleagues, they also showed the same linguistic and ethnic
diversity which characterized the Kingdom. Their mercenary captains kept a close
relation to their king. Louis I commanded them remotely and upon their return
he raised many of them to high secular offices in Hungary. They were also functioning in diplomatic capacities for the king so to shape Italian domestic politics.
means of diplomacy. These connections only intensified during the early Renaissance
which encompasses the period between the beginnings of Louis I of Anjou’s reign
(1342) and the Ottoman occupation (1526). Social networks built between the two
territories can be divided into four main categories: diplomatic networks, merchant
networks, migration networks and artistic networks or cultural exchange. These
networks were dependent on each other and influenced to a great extent the spread of
early Renaissance Italian culture. Amicable diplomatic relations represented a key
element in the operation of Italian merchant networks in Hungary. Similarly, in- and
outbound migration patterns were conditioned by these previous two networks.
Consequently, the cooperation of networks of diplomacy, commerce and migration
resulted in the circulation of artists and learned men between the two territories. These
two groups included the humanists Pier Paolo Vergerio, Galeotto Marzio, and the painter
Masolino. Thanks to their mediation, the Kingdom
of Hungary gradually embraced several innovations of the Renaissance Italian culture.
Our main finding is this: The runup to the Ciompi Revolt was crystalization of “unity of citizens” in the room of the Consulte e Pratiche and, among the same actors, crystallization of “unity of Guelfs” in the room of the Parte Guelfa, with a lack of recognition in the multivocal speeches in the former of the obvious contradiction with actions in the latter. In our opinion, the tragedy of “the valiant failure of republicanism” in Florence was that intense wishful yearning for unity in speech induced, under background conditions of deep social-class contestation about “Who is Florence?,” an intensification in action of the very revolutionary forces that it most desperately wanted to suppress.
filled with trading colonies founded by Florentine merchants. A few of them settled down
for life in their host country, developing economic and social ties with local families. During
Sigismund of Luxemburg’s reign (r. 1387-1437) as King of Hungary only a handful of
these merchants achieved political positions. Undoubtedly the most fortunate among these
Florentine citizens was Filippo di Stefano Scolari, known as Pippo Spano (c. 1369-1426),
who was granted the significant honor of becoming a member of a small inner circle in the
royal court. This article argues that the special status attained by Florentines in Hungarian
politics and economy during the first three decades of the fifteenth century can be attributed
largely to Pippo Spano’s influence. As cultural mediators, Pippo Spano and his family
helped to facilitate relations between their native Florence and their adopted home. This
case study focuses on the Scolari family’s migration to the Hungarian Kingdom in order to
explore on a small scale the possible push-pull factors of migration flow and its impact on
the relationship between the Florentine Republic and the Hungarian Kingdom.
at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, proposed that
the two sitters depicted in the Museum’s landmark
portrait by Filippo Lippi could be identified as the Florentine born
Agnola di Bernardo Sapiti and her husband, Lorenzo
di Rinieri Scolari. Breck’s identification was based
on his reading of the coat of arms under the male sitter’s
hands as that of the Scolari family. Remarkably, aside from
Dieter Jansen’s counterproposal in 1987 that the coat of
arms is that of the Ferrero family of Piedmont, the premise
of Breck’s hypothesis has never been put to the test. The
present article aims to do just that, reading details of the picture
in light of emerging archival information about the
Scolari family.
Errata
p. 5. nel novembre del 1403
p. 6, 29, 34, 122. la liberazione di Sigismondo viene citata solo da P. Bracciolini
p.15. nomi delle località appartenenti al Regno d’Ungheria, che vengono citati nel testo
p. 35, 49, 51, il sospetto di spionaggio coltivato da Sigismondo è solo un’ipotesi
p. 39. il contratto di matrimonio viene firmato da Pippo
p. 50. Con la scomparsa di Andrea Scolari, avvenuta il 18 gennaio
p.51. n.155. “Firenzei kereskedők” invece di „Firenzei üzletemberek”
p. 54. non si fidava molto dei fratelli
p. 57. La moglie Tommasa morì qualche anno dopo il matrimonio e la loro figlia venne accolta dalla zia materna, Piera di Catellino Infangati, moglie di Matteo. (cancellare)
p .68. a partire dal 1399
p. 79. Giovanni Tosinghi
p.121. Sei anni più tardi nel 1399
p.124. n. 462. ZSO.III.2650 (09/09/1412)
p.144. ricevette nel 1399.
p.160. castel d’Osola
p.161 aquistò alcuni terreni dai Gherardini
p. 183. Dote di 3000 fiorini d’oro
The advancement of the Ottomans naturally frightened merchant networks operating in the Adriatic and in the Ottoman border zones. Thus, they were ready to support the corresponding authorities in the anti-Ottoman campaigns which saw the involvement of many Florentines, and Ragusan businessmen as financiers and military captains. It was in their interest to keep their trade networks in the region, which included salt, precious metals, and slaves, and many other items of high commercial value. By the first decade of the fifteenth century, the Florentine Pippo Scolari had become the chief anti-Ottoman captain. Florentines dominance in Hungarian warfare lasted only until 1426, when Scolari died. Following 1426, Ragusan business networks, led by Matko Talovac and his brothers, started replacing the Florentine ones in financing Sigismund’s wars. Another reason was that the Ottomans’ expansion had a clear effect on the redistribution of Italian economic spheres in the region. Because of the amicable relations between Lorenzo de’ Medici and the Porta, Florentines had no more interest in being directly involved in the crusades. Similarly, when in 1442 Ragusa placed itself under the Ottoman protectorate, which gave them an excellent opportunity to expand their trade networks, they likely withdraw their financing from the crown. These were the times, when starting with Eugene IV, popes developed into leaders of the crusades, wherein they invested a considerable amount of money, deriving from the revenues of the Apostolic Chamber and mediated to the Kingdom by the Medici Bank. Besides these issues, the paper aims to analyze the hitherto unknown activity of the Florentine intelligence in the royal court and in territories controlled by the royal army.
and foresaw their arrest and the seizure of their goods in the entire Christendom. Following
its publication, the Florentine government decided to dispatch an embassy to Louis I.
Thanks to the mediation of Florentine and Paduan business networks, Florentines were
granted collective privileges in the Kingdom. This came with the right to elect their own
consul, a businessman of Paduan origins, named Giovanni di Piero Saraceno. His brother,Jacopo was among the first Italians entering the royal administration in Louis I’s service.
The financial and military support of Francesco I da Carrara in the conquest of Zara,
coinciding with Jacopo’s activity in the royal administration, explains how this Paduan
family emerged in Hungary. The article proposes to reconstruct the main dynamics of the
diplomatic and commercial triangle formed between Padua, Florence and the Kingdom of
Hungary on the basis of unpublished Florentine archival material. It does so by analyzing
bilateral loans as instruments of contemporary diplomacy, the role played by Paduan and
Florentine businessmen as diplomatic mediators and the institution of a joint commercial
consulate which included, among others, Florentine and Paduan merchants.
The aim of this article is to clarify the development of social network analysis in historical research over the past thirty years. It also analyses the major concepts and trends of social network research in medieval and Renaissance studies and considers the future of the study of social networks in the field. This paper investigates ontological questions, such as the efficacy and applicability of the method to a diverse array of historical big data, through the analysis of four digital humanities projects as case studies.
There is no record of Andrea Scolari (†1426) prior to 1407, when he was nominated for Bishop of Zágráb (Zagreb, Croatia). After a short period of time, in 1409, he had already been appointed to Bishop of Várad (Oradea, Romania), thanks to his cousin, Pippo di Stefano Scolari, called lo Spano (1368/69-1426). The vescovo di Varadino as he was mentioned by his fellow-citizens, surrounded himself with a small court, composed mainly by Florentine clergymen, jurists, doctors, merchants and a number of servants of Bolognese origins. Even though sources do not refer to the function of the court, they shed light on the activity of its members. Among them the Florentine-born provost, Currado di Piero Cardini and the bishop set up a business company specialized in import-export trade of luxury goods and precious metals. Besides Florence and Hungary they had also business interests in Arezzo, in Venice and in the papal court in Rome. While their business partners and agents in Florence were important local bankers, in Transylvania the royal officers of Florentine origins also became important members of their business network. This network and its actors contributed to a great extent to the circulation of Florentine luxury goods – such as textiles and probably also examples of decorative metalwork – in early-15th-century Transylvania and in the Kingdom of Hungary in general.
Written testimonials, housed by the Florentine, Hungarian and Vatican Archives, show three distinct patterns in the ways in which the three Scolari expressed their desire of supporting religious institutions as well as of exercising mercy. Among them, Matteo seem to have been consciously donating only to Florentine religious institutions, meanwhile Pippo supported rather those located in the Kingdom of Hungary. Andrea’s case is best thought of as a combination of the two models. Pippo’s attitude in religious practices shows conformity with similar tendencies of the ruling elite in Hungary, meanwhile Matteo’s case exemplifies the role prestigious merchants played in the patronage of religious institutions in Florence.
As members of the ruling elite, they developed close ties, both in their home and in their host lands, to the most important religious orders, monasteries, convents and churches. We find among the institutions patronized by the Scolari: the predecessor of the San Salvatore Al Monte Convent and Church, the Santa Maria degli Angeli Monastery, the Cathedral of Fehérvár (Székesfehérvár) and the Cathderal of Várad. They also founded monasteries and chapels at both places and contributed significantly to the growing popularity of the Observant friars.
Thanks to Pippo’s influence, three Scolari relatives and two of their trusted men occupied church offices in the Kingdom of Hungary between the 1410s and the 1430s. These examples well illustrate that members of the family expressed their religiosity in conformity with local costumes both in Florence and in Hungary; as manifestation of wealth and social status and as means of gaining further political influence and obtaining indulgence.
of the pioneer businessmen who started to produce silk textiles decorated with metallic threads in Florence. Furthermore the Scolari commissioned several precious metal objects by leading Florentine goldsmiths, which also exemplifies the role, members of the family played as mediators between Florence and the Kingdom of Hungary.
A Kettős portré kutatásában a napjainkig tartó legfontosabb megállapításokat Joseph Breck 1913-as tanulmányában olvashatjuk. Ebben a szerző nemcsak elsőként attribuálta az alkotást a firenzei fra Filippo Lippi festőnek, hanem a képen szereplő heraldikai jelvényt is azonosította a firenzei Scolari család címerével. A 19. századi genealógus, Luigi Passerini által összeállított Scolari- Buondelmonte családfát alapul véve Breck feltételezte, hogy a Kettős portrén szereplő alakok Lorenzo di Rinieri Scolarival és feleségével, Agnola di Bernardo Sapitivel azonosíthatók. Ezt azzal támasztotta alá, hogy a portré technikai jellemzői és a női alak ruházata az 1430–40-es évekre datálja az alkotást. A portré a kutató feltételezése szerint a rajta ábrázolt házaspár esküvőjére készült. Passerini szerint ebből a korszakból csupán egyetlen házasság ismert a Scolari családban, amely Lorenzo di Rinieri Scolari és Agnola di Bernardo Sapiti között köttetett 1436-ben. Ez alapján a művészetörténeti kutatás egészen napjainkig az ő nevükhöz köti a Kettős portrén megjelenő női és férfi alakokat. Breck ugyanakkor arra is kitért röviden tanulmányában, hogy feltevése erősen spekulatív jeleggű és mindaddig nem tekinthető elfogadhatónak, amíg a történeti kutatás nem tisztázza a Scolari család a korszakra vonatkoztatható történetét. A Scolarik firenzei történetének kutatása Passerini óta nem került a kutatók érdeklődésének homlokterébe. Ennek okán a jelen tanulmányban a család történetét felvázolva arra teszek kísérletet, hogy alternatívákat kínáljak Breck hipotézisére vonatkozóan és javaslatokat tegyek a kutatás lehetséges új irányaira. Éppen a téma újszerűsége és a terjedelmi korlátok miatt nem vállalkozom a kép komplex művészettörténeti-történeti elemzésére, csupán a firenzei levéltári forrásokra támaszkodva szeretnék reflektálni a stíluskritikai megfigyelések eddigi megállapításaira.