«Che maladette siino quest’ano le spezie!». Insights on the medieval spice trade from the Datini archive

The paper aims to highlight the importance of the spice trade within the commercial activities of the famous Prato merchant Francesco Datini, a weight considered by historiography to be insignificant compared to that of other types of goods. Letters, account extracts and account books in his archive confirm that over the years the Datini company system concluded numerous purchases and sales of pepper, ginger, nutmeg and cloves, as well as other products considered spices in the medieval centuries, supplying various apothecaries throughout the Italian peninsula. The Datini papers also offer a great deal of information - descriptive, but also quantitative - on the circulation of spices in the medieval Mediterranean, for instance on their greater or lesser availability and price trends in the main Italian and European emporiums. They make it possible to identify the factors that influenced the supply, demand and price trends of these genres. The wealth of information reported confirms how important it was in the spice trade to gather up-to-date information from across the Mediterranean: events that could potentially influence the price and availability of spices in Levantine markets were immediately reflected in European markets.