The Florentine “compagnia de' presti”

Abstract

As economic and cultural capital of Italian Jewry, Florence in the fifteenth century had become a point of reference for the res publica hebreorum, a kind of virtual State whose contours were first outlined by Michele Luzzati. In the Florentine context, and within the framework of the system of condotte established by the government, in the middle of the century, the most influential Jewish bankers in town had set up their own society to control the credit market. The existence of this organisation sheds new light on the actual relations between the power and the Jews at the beginning of the Early Modern Era.

Keywords

• florence
• jews
• credit
• economy
• society