The Merchant of Prato: Francesco Di Marco Datini, 1335-1410 | 
 enlarge | Author: Iris Origo
Creator: Barbara Tuchman
Publisher: David R Godine
Category: Book
List Price: $18.95
Buy New: $9.75
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Avg. Customer Rating:  3 reviews
Sales Rank: 535153
Media: Paperback
Edition: Nonpareil Books, #41
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 415
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.3
Dimensions (in): 8.8 x 6.5 x 1.2
ISBN: 0879235969
Dewey Decimal Number: 380.10924
EAN: 9780879235963
ASIN: 0879235969
Publication Date: March 1, 2002
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Condition: Brand new. Never read. Ships fast.
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Product Description
Datini, a fourteenth-century Florentine merchant-banker, provides us with one of the great success stories of the Middle Ages. A dealer in wool, sacred pictures, spices, and iron, he established an import/export house with branches in Pisa, Genoa, Barcelona and Majorca. He also left behind, in wooden crates, the entire archive of his business - over 150,000 letters, some 500 ledgers and accounts books, and a mass of personal and business documents that Iris Origo tracked down, translated, and, through patient selection and perfect understanding, made accessible to the modern reader in this award-winning and singular biography.
In her fine introduction, Barbara Tuchman asks, "Why is this book one of the great books of historical writing of the twentieth century?" She answers, "[Origo's] success in resurrecting not only a personality whom we can recognize but also his times, his town, his marriage, his household, his country home, his friends and associates, makes for a work of extraordinary interest with that quality to grip and take hold of a reader that makes a book everlasting." And as for Datini himself, the epicenter of this remarkable historical recreation, she writes, "the story of his achievement is something more signifcant than the mere record of the enrichment of a single man. In the extent and variety of his ventures, in his powers of organization, in his international outlook, in his swift adaptability to a society in turmoil, as in his own ambition, shrewdness, tenacity, anxiety, and greed, he is the forerunner of the businessman of today."
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| Customer Reviews:
A historical study at its finest July 14, 2008
This is probably the most famous book of Iris Origo, who at the same time offers to the world the most extensive study of Francesco di Marco Datini, a Tuscan merchant of the pre-renaissance. The book is directly based on thousands of letters and contracts that were found in the 1870's and that allow this unique insight into the life and the work of a merchant, but also a private person of his time (1335-1410).
The book is divided into two parts. The first part discusses the merchant; the second part discusses the head of the private household. Since the source used is extremely large (500 account books, 300 associate contracts, insurances, transport documents, etc., but above all more than 140000 letters, of which 11000 are private correspondence). With such a source, and the research efforts that went into this book, we thus get a very detail insight, which is a delight to read. Not only, does the author discuss the career of a true self-made man, but also does she explain, in the first part, how international trade, at the eve of the commercial revolution that preceded Datini's life-time, was organised. In the second part we learn about his marriage, his life in the 14th Century, and of course his excesses.
The style is easy and straight-forward. The author goes into great detail, almost a flauberian style, to explain everything that the reader might want to. Five stars are awarded for this truly excellent piece of work!
The Merchant of Prato: Francesco Di Marco Datini June 1, 2008
Superbly researched and written, this is a book of history taken from the detailed dairies of a successful merchant in 14th century Prato, Italy. Any one interested in daily life in this period will appreciate this book.
A historical study at its finest. September 18, 2006
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
This is probably the most famous book of Iris Origo, who at the same time offers to the world the most extensive study of Francesco di Marco Datini, a Tuscan merchant of the pre-renaissance. The book is directly based on thousands of letters and contracts that were found in the 1870's and that allow this unique insight into the life and the work of a merchant, but also a private person of his time (1335-1410).
The book is divided into two parts. The first part discusses the merchant; the second part discusses the head of the private household. Since the source used is extremely large (500 account books, 300 associate contracts, insurances, transport documents, etc., but above all more than 140000 letters, of which 11000 are private correspondence). With such a source, and the research efforts that went into this book, we thus get a very detail insight, which is a delight to read. Not only, does the author discuss the career of a true self-made man, but also does she explain, in the first part, how international trade, at the eve of the commercial revolution that preceded Datini's life-time, was organised. In the second part we learn about his marriage, his life in the 14th Century, and of course his excesses.
The style is easy and straight-forward. The author goes into great detail, almost a flauberian style, to explain everything that the reader might want to. Five stars are awarded for this truly excellent piece of work!
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