Florentine historiography, which focuses on the practical resolution of exceptional cases, contrasts with legal historiography based on systemic analysis disconnected from the concrete resolution of conflicts. To challenge this false impression of familiarity, we offer here an initial summary of the serial analysis of bankruptcy proceedings before the Florentine Mercanzia court from 1329 to 1350. To do this, we first demonstrate the banality of the bankruptcy procedure, which was formalised at the beginning of the century in the institution's statutes. Afterward, we conduct a serial and longitudinal analysis of the trials to identify developments, using two lists and HTR's identification of occurrences of bankruptcy in 95 court records. Eventually, cross-referencing the data also allows us to sketch out a geography and sociology of the operators who went bankrupt.
Laboratory of Western Medievalists of Paris, France - ORCID: 0000-0001-5976-2286
Chapter Title
Pour une approche globale des faillites florentines: premiers éléments d’analyse sérielle des procès devant le tribunal de la Mercanzia (1329-1350)
Authors
Cédric Quertier
Language
French
DOI
10.36253/979-12-215-0963-2.28
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