Cultures of Exchange
Mercantile Mentalities Between Italy & the World (XII-XVI C.)
Published on 26. May 2026
Book
Hardback
474 pages
978-1-4875-4987-9 (ISBN)
Description
Cultures of Exchange examines the mercantile culture of the Italian peninsula, whose wealth and geographic location made it a focal point of cultural exchange in the Mediterranean. The volume explores the integration of the peninsula into international and global networks, the effect on societal structures and attitudes, and the role in the transfer and reception of knowledge, goods, and peoples.
Susanna Barsella, William Caferro, and Germano Maifreda bring together the work of an array of scholars - literary critics, art historians, numismatists, and historians - using diverse methodologies that provide a genuinely interdisciplinary discussion of a field that is still in its elemental stages. The chapters in the volume deal with interrelated issues from diverse perspectives, questioning whether cultural exchange also involved cultural appropriation, while interrogating the political, economic, social, religious, material, artistic, gendered, and racial aspects of exchange. Essays on cartography offer a strong visual component to the book, and the use of digital humanities adds to the methodological sophistication in assessing primary source materials.
Bringing into conversation the work of a broad range of scholars, Cultures of Exchange is written with accessibility and readability in mind and is a major intervention in the growing field of Mediterranean Studies.
Susanna Barsella, William Caferro, and Germano Maifreda bring together the work of an array of scholars - literary critics, art historians, numismatists, and historians - using diverse methodologies that provide a genuinely interdisciplinary discussion of a field that is still in its elemental stages. The chapters in the volume deal with interrelated issues from diverse perspectives, questioning whether cultural exchange also involved cultural appropriation, while interrogating the political, economic, social, religious, material, artistic, gendered, and racial aspects of exchange. Essays on cartography offer a strong visual component to the book, and the use of digital humanities adds to the methodological sophistication in assessing primary source materials.
Bringing into conversation the work of a broad range of scholars, Cultures of Exchange is written with accessibility and readability in mind and is a major intervention in the growing field of Mediterranean Studies.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Toronto
Canada
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
Illustrations
31 illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 232 mm
Width: 154 mm
Thickness: 38 mm
Weight
794 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-4875-4987-9 (9781487549879)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Susanna Barsella is a professor of Italian at Fordham University.
William P. Caferro is the Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Professor of Humanities and professor of classical and mediterranean studies at Vanderbilt University.
Germano Maifreda is a professor of economic history at the University of Milan.
William P. Caferro is the Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Professor of Humanities and professor of classical and mediterranean studies at Vanderbilt University.
Germano Maifreda is a professor of economic history at the University of Milan.
Content
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Susanna Barsella, William Caferro, and Germano Maifreda
Part I - The Context: A Network of Diversities
Revising a Paradigm: Florence, Capitalism, and International Trade
William Caferro
Florentine Merchants and Texts in Translation (c. 1460-75)
Laura Ingallinella
Coordinating Color across the Medieval Mediterranean: Dyestuffs and their Exchange in an Era of Growth (c.1000-1350)
Stephanie Leitzel
Swallowed by the Leviathan: Transmission and Transformation of Italian Public Banks in the Spanish Empire, XV-XVI cc.
Sama Mammadova
Baldassare Degli Embriachi, World Maps, and Trade Networks
Joanne Morice
Transgressing Periphery, Dressing Otherness: Locating Geo-Cultural Spaces of
Diversity in the Medieval Mediterranean
Roberta Morosini
Global Exchange, Then and Now: The Digital Discovery of Dati's La Sfera
Laura Morreale
Part II - Cultures of Exchange and their Discontents
Dante and the Merchants: A Portrait of Ambivalence
Teodolinda Barolini
Practical Mathematical Knowledge and Economic Dynamics in the Italian South
Maria Teresa De Luca
Allegorical Economies: Fortune, Reason, and the Cultures of Exchange in Late Medieval France and Italy
Filippo Petricca
Born under Mercury: God's Influence on the Future Perspective of the Medieval Italian Merchant
Nicolo Zennaro
Part III - Money and Wealth
The Importance of Coins: Messer Torello's Story by Master of Charles of Durazzo
Elsa Filosa
Between the Decameron and the Bill of Exchange: New Insights on Medieval Merchants' Notebooks
Stefano Locatelli
For the Salvation of His Soul? The Merchant Marco Carelli and His Fabulous Donation
Martina Saltamacchia
Part IV - The Ethics of Exchange
Tracing Representations of Domestic Slavery in Medieval and Early Modern Italy
Beatrice Arduini
Translating Moral Economy: Vernacular, Scholastic Thought and Mercantile
Culture
Giovanni Ceccarelli
The Treatment of Piracy and Robbery in the Decameron
Alessandro Ceteroni
Part V - Society, and the Politics of Exchange
Dante and Production/Dante and Wealth/Boccaccio and Mercantile Ethics
Susanna Barsella
The Representation of Political Economy in Venetian Chronicles c. 1300-c. 1500
Giorgio Lizzul
Jewish Women's Agency in Premodern Trade: Evidences from an (Infamous) Inquisitorial Trial (Trent, 1475-76)
Germano Maifreda
A Money-changer as Would-be Noble in Medieval Venice
Alan M. Stahl
An Ottoman-Venetian Merchant in the Sultan's Service: Alvise Gritti (c. 1480-1534) and the
Competing Ottoman-Habsburg Universalisms in the Early Sixteenth-Century Mediterranean
Ebru Turan
Introduction
Susanna Barsella, William Caferro, and Germano Maifreda
Part I - The Context: A Network of Diversities
Revising a Paradigm: Florence, Capitalism, and International Trade
William Caferro
Florentine Merchants and Texts in Translation (c. 1460-75)
Laura Ingallinella
Coordinating Color across the Medieval Mediterranean: Dyestuffs and their Exchange in an Era of Growth (c.1000-1350)
Stephanie Leitzel
Swallowed by the Leviathan: Transmission and Transformation of Italian Public Banks in the Spanish Empire, XV-XVI cc.
Sama Mammadova
Baldassare Degli Embriachi, World Maps, and Trade Networks
Joanne Morice
Transgressing Periphery, Dressing Otherness: Locating Geo-Cultural Spaces of
Diversity in the Medieval Mediterranean
Roberta Morosini
Global Exchange, Then and Now: The Digital Discovery of Dati's La Sfera
Laura Morreale
Part II - Cultures of Exchange and their Discontents
Dante and the Merchants: A Portrait of Ambivalence
Teodolinda Barolini
Practical Mathematical Knowledge and Economic Dynamics in the Italian South
Maria Teresa De Luca
Allegorical Economies: Fortune, Reason, and the Cultures of Exchange in Late Medieval France and Italy
Filippo Petricca
Born under Mercury: God's Influence on the Future Perspective of the Medieval Italian Merchant
Nicolo Zennaro
Part III - Money and Wealth
The Importance of Coins: Messer Torello's Story by Master of Charles of Durazzo
Elsa Filosa
Between the Decameron and the Bill of Exchange: New Insights on Medieval Merchants' Notebooks
Stefano Locatelli
For the Salvation of His Soul? The Merchant Marco Carelli and His Fabulous Donation
Martina Saltamacchia
Part IV - The Ethics of Exchange
Tracing Representations of Domestic Slavery in Medieval and Early Modern Italy
Beatrice Arduini
Translating Moral Economy: Vernacular, Scholastic Thought and Mercantile
Culture
Giovanni Ceccarelli
The Treatment of Piracy and Robbery in the Decameron
Alessandro Ceteroni
Part V - Society, and the Politics of Exchange
Dante and Production/Dante and Wealth/Boccaccio and Mercantile Ethics
Susanna Barsella
The Representation of Political Economy in Venetian Chronicles c. 1300-c. 1500
Giorgio Lizzul
Jewish Women's Agency in Premodern Trade: Evidences from an (Infamous) Inquisitorial Trial (Trent, 1475-76)
Germano Maifreda
A Money-changer as Would-be Noble in Medieval Venice
Alan M. Stahl
An Ottoman-Venetian Merchant in the Sultan's Service: Alvise Gritti (c. 1480-1534) and the
Competing Ottoman-Habsburg Universalisms in the Early Sixteenth-Century Mediterranean
Ebru Turan