This book is a result of years of research in Italian archives and libraries during which period I incurred innumerable debts to many scholars. My greatest debt of gratitude is owed to David Herlihy, who first introduced me to the field of medieval economic history and has since lent his support to all my endeavors. I also wish to thank: Egidio Rossini, with whom I have collaborated on other works, for his encouragement and advice and for his willingness to share his extensive knowledge of Italian archival collections; Frederic C. Lane, whose knowledge and expertise saved me from naive errors in my chapter on the Mediterranean cotton trade; and Domenico Sella, whose incisive questions helped me to focus on broad trends in the transformation of the Lombard cotton industry in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. In addition to substantive suggestions on content, Norman J. G. Pounds kindly offered to draw the scale map of Mediterranean cotton cultivation and, in the process, greatly improved my original raft.

In attempting to trace the connections between the Islamic and Italian cotton industries, I benefited from the exchange of ideas and information with Andrew Watson who shares my interest in the expansion of cotton cultivation in the Islamic world. Kemal Karpat and Halil Inalcik helped me to gain some insight into trends in cotton production and manufacturing in the Ottoman empire.