This paper investigates how a broker used his knowledge to create future expectations on the Venetian market in the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries. To do this, it examines the correspondence of a Florentine broker from the Datini holding company, Talerano di Paolo Mattei, written between 1395 and 1400. This Florentine businessman became a broker because of a debt he owed to Datini, who had released him from prison after he had stolen valuable books from his former employer to sell them himself. This research shows how Talerano perceived the risks that affected the Rialto market and how he used (or did not use) information and knowledge to deal with them.
University of Antwerp, Belgium - ORCID: 0000-0002-9228-9512
Chapter Title
«Credo per la grazia di Dio farei bene». Future thinking and knowledge of a risk (in)expert in late medieval Venice
Authors
Nicolò Zennaro
Language
English
DOI
10.36253/979-12-215-0963-2.22
Peer Reviewed
Publication Year
2026
Copyright Information
© 2026 Author(s)
Content License
Metadata License
Book Title
Gestione del rischio, insolvenza e bancarotta nel mondo premoderno (secc. XIII-XVIII) / Risk management, insolvency, and bankruptcy in the pre-modern world (13th-18th centuries)
Editors
Angela Orlandi
Peer Reviewed
Number of Pages
568
Publication Year
2026
Copyright Information
© 2026 Author(s)
Content License
Metadata License
Publisher Name
Firenze University Press
DOI
10.36253/979-12-215-0963-2
ISBN Print
979-12-215-0962-5
eISBN (pdf)
979-12-215-0963-2
eISBN (xml)
979-12-215-0964-9
Series Title
Datini Studies in Economic History
Series ISSN
2975-1241
Series E-ISSN
2975-1195