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The Cotton Industry of Northern Italy in the Late Middle Ages: 1150–1450

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 May 2010

Maureen Fennell Mazzaoui
Maureen Fennell Mazzaoui
Affiliation:
Indiana University
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Extract

In studies of the late medieval economy, the dominant position of the textile industry has long been recognized. Since the opening decades of this century however, scholarly attention has been directed almost exclusively toward the luxury industries of silk and fine woolens, which involved a complex financial and commercial structure geared to the satisfaction of the needs and desires of a wealthy and select clientele. Relatively neglected is that branch of the textile industry devoted to the production of low-priced cotton cloth for popular consumption. This neglect is all the more surprising in view of a rich if somewhat dispersed documentation attesting to the importance of this industry in numerous towns of Northern Italy. The large-scale production of cotton cloth posed problems of financing and organization not unlike those of silk and wool and gave rise to similar entrepreneurial forms. At the same time a study of the organization of cotton manufacture provides a number of unique insights into aspects of economic organization in Northern Italy. In the period covered by this paper, the cotton manufacturing centers of this area formed a single production zone characterized by a high degree of economic interdependence and a marked tendency toward the standardization of products.

Type
Papers Presented at the Thirty-first Annual Meeting of the Economic History Association
Information
The Journal of Economic History , Volume 32 , Issue 1 , March 1972 , pp. 262 - 286
Copyright
Copyright © The Economic History Association 1972

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References

1 There is at present no monograph on this subject. For a general treatment see Borlandi, Franco “Futainiers et Futaines dan L'Italie du Moyen Age,” Hommage a Lucien Fèebvre (Paris, 1953), vol. II, pp. 133–140Google Scholar and Wescher, H. “Cotton and Cotton Trade in the Middle Ages,” Ciba Review, VI (1947–1949), 2321–2360.Google Scholar For Milan see Cantùu, CesareScorsa di un Lombardo negli Archivi di Venezia (Milan, Venice 1856), pp.149–151Google Scholar; Motta, Emilio “Per la Storia dell'Arte dei Fustagni nel secolo XV,” Archivio Storico Lombardo, series II, vol. VII, anno XVII (1890), 140– 45Google Scholar; Barelli, G. “Documenti Inediti sull'Arte dei Fustagneri a Milano,” Archivio Storico Lombardo, series III, vol. XVII, anno XXIX (1902), 221–23Google Scholar; Barbieri, GiboOrigini del Capitalismo Lombardo (Milan: Giuffre, 1961), pp. 47–107.Google Scholar For Cremona see Miglioli, GuidoLe Corporazioni Cremonesi d'Arte e Mestiere nella Legislazione Statutaria del Medio Evo (Verona, Padova: Drucker, 1904).Google Scholar The statutes of the cotton guild of Bologna have been published by Gaudenzi, Augusto, Statuti delle Società del Popolo di Bologna in Fonti per la Storia d'Italia (Rome, 1889–1896), vol. II, pp. 397Google Scholar ff. The guild in Padua has been studied by Cessi, RobertoLe Corporazioni dei Mercanti di Panni e della Lana in Padova fino a tutto il secolo XIV in Memorie del R. Istituto Veneto di Scienze Lettere ed Arti, vol. XXVIII, n.2 (1908), pp. 15Google Scholar, 32–33, 397 ff. For Venice see Montocolo, GiovanniI Capitolari delle Arti Veneziane in Fonti per la Storia d'Italia, (Rome, 1905), vol. II, pt. II, pp. 535–581Google Scholar and vol. III, pp. 271–289, 325–367. For cotton manufacture in Verona see Simeoni, LuigiGli Antichi Statuti delle Arti Veronesi in Monumenti della R. Deputazione Veneta di Storia Patria (Venice, 1914), pp. 120–169Google Scholar, and more recently Maureen Fennell Mazzaoui, “L'Organizzazione delle Industrie Tessili nei Secoli XIII e XIV: I Cotonieri Veronesi,” Studi Storici Veronesi Luigi Simeoni vol. XVIII-XIX, (1968– 1969), pp. 97–151.Google Scholar

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14 In addition to the sources cited in fn. 1, see Borlandi, “Futainiers …,” pp. 135–136; Schulte, Mittelalt. Handels, p. 140; Wescher, “Cotton and Cotton Trade …,” pp. 2329–2331.

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28 These measurements concerned primarily the so called panno stricto. See Mazzaoui, “Cotonieri Veronesi,” pp. 146–47.

29 Pegolotti, La Practica …, p. 180.

30 Mazzaoui, “Cotonieri Veronesi,” p. 142. Cf. also Simeoni, Statuti, pp. 130, 131, 170–83; Pancotti, VincenzoI Paratici Vicentini e I Loro Statuti (Piacenza: Biblioteca Storica Piacentina. 1925–1930), pp. 323–26Google Scholar; Monticolo, I Capitolari …, II, pt. 2, pp. 548–51, 557, 568; Gaudenzi, Statuti …, II, p. 405.

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36 On the labor of religious houses see Cessi, La Corporazione … p. 15.

37 Monticolo, I Capitolari … III, p. 355 ff.

38 Simeoni, Gli Antichi Statuti …, pp. 120–169; Monticolo, I Capitolari … II, pt. 2, pp. 535–81; III, pp. 3–4, 271–289, 325–367; Motta, “Per La Storia …,” p. 142; Barelli, Origini del Capitalismo …, pp. 221–23; Cessi, La Corporazione … pp. 175–79. For Cremona see the “Statuta vetera consulum artis pignolatorum et panni lini Cremonae,” mss. della Biblioteca Governativa di Cremona, Aa 3–67, f. 15 r. At Cremona in the fourteenth century the beaters of cotton were organized in a separate guild, Miglioli, pp. 85–88.

39 For a discussion of these institutions see Gualazzini, Ugo, “Rapporti fra Capitale e Lavoro nelle Industrie Tessili Lombarde del Medio Evo,” Memorie dell' Instituto Giuridico della R. Università di Torino, series II, XX (1932), pp. 34 ff, 70 ff.Google Scholar On the Casa dei Mercanti in Verona, see Mazzaoui, “Cotonieri Veronesi,” pp. 103 ff.

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53 A.S.V. Casa dei Mercanti II, f. 145 v–152 r.

54 Pancotti, III, p. 325; Gaddi, p. 619.

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56 Heers, Gênes, p. 229.