Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
The Cantelowe Accounts: Multilingual Merchant Records from Tuscany, 1450-1451

The Cantelowe Accounts: Multilingual Merchant Records from Tuscany, 1450-1451

Tiddeman, Megan

Hardcover

Series: Records of Social and Economic History, Book 64

EconomicsMedieval & Renaissance HistoryGeneral World History

ISBN10: 0197266851
ISBN13: 9780197266854
Publisher: British Academy
Published: Nov 3 2022
Pages: 204
Weight: 1.00
Height: 1.00 Width: 6.30 Depth: 8.90
Language: English

The Cantelowe Accounts appear to offer the earliest evidence of an English merchant using Italian as a second language. They were written by John Balmayn, an unknown Londoner, who travelled to Tuscany to oversee the sale of a valuable wool shipment in 1450-51 on behalf of his master - the Mercer, Sir William Cantelowe. The author uses an intriguing mix of four languages, combining Middle English, Latin and Anglo-French with the administrative Tuscan that he has learnt working alongside Florentine partners, such as the Salviati company. Two other striking features of the text are the extensive use of Arabic numerals, unparalleled in fifteenth-century English accounting, and the unusually detailed descriptions of merchant marks that were used to identify the woolsacks. Overall, the accounts are unique amongst multilingual medieval sources and will interest economic historians and historical linguists alike.

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