Datini, Francesco

(ca. 1335-1410)

   Italian merchant born at Prato near Florence but for many years resident in the papal court at Avignon, where he began his career as an office boy for a Florentine merchant. He founded his own trading and banking company and accumulated great wealth. After his return to Prato in 1382, he had branches and commercial correspondents in several European cities and engaged in commerce that extended from England to the eastern Mediterranean. In these activities, he was typical of successful Italian merchants. What makes him historically unique is that he preserved his business and personal correspondence, account ledgers, and other business documents. These survive and provide unequalled insight into the activities, style of life, and mentality of the Italian merchants who dominated the economic life of early Renaissance Europe. The charitable foundation that he willed to his city for the support of poor children still survives.