the scarsella between the mediterranean and the atlantic in the 1400s

�

1

2

This article aims to rebut the common opinion that communication in medieval Europe was very sluggish and that the delivery of correspondence was extremely delayed and irregular, focusing on the mail service called scarsella between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic in the Late Middle Ages. In daily life, many Italian merchants always complained of slow letter delivery and asked their correspondents to write letters more often. Yet, contrary to their routine complaint, the exchange of information by way of correspondence was very rapid, frequent and regular. Starting in the mid-thirteenth century, the mail service called scarsella began operating between commercial cities in the Mediterranean and major Atlantic market places. The scarsella, “the first public communication system in Europe”, was the most safe, frequent and rapid postal service system in the Later Middle Ages. Solid news networks of scarsella between the commercial ports of the Mediterranean and the Atlantic ports of Bruges or London operated relatively well in the later middle ages, and in that sense exchange of letters and information between the two seas by way of the

* The work was supported by the Ewha Womans University Research Grant of 2014. ** Associate Professor of the Department of History, Ewha Womans University, E-mail:

[email protected].

54 | | Vol. 9, No. 1

scarsella was very efficient. A fast and regular courier service was well established already in late medieval Europe, even though letter writers continued having bitter words to say about delays in the mails in the sixteenth century.

1. Introduction Lorenzo Dolfin, a Venetian merchant of the early fifteenth century, said in a

letter sent to his commercial partner in Bruges: “It seems to take a thousand years for us to receive your news of what has taken place there. Inform us of market conditions. ---- Please, write letters to me more frequently!”(Domerc 1994, 99) Jacomo Dolfin, Lorenzo’s brother doing business in Tana, criticized Lorenzo for the long absence of correspondence, saying in his letter to Lorenzo: “Caro Fradelo, da poas la partida mia da molti ho abude molte letere ed da vui nula ho abuda” (Melis 1972,192). Like them, many medieval Italian merchants always complained of slow letter delivery and asked their correspondents to write letters more often.

Bernard Doumerc has underlined the delay and irregularity of correspondence, taking as an example a letter of 13 November from Bruges which arrived in Venice on 4 May of the following year (Doumerc 1994, 103). It is hard to believe that such a thing was likely to take place, but it really happened. He said that the slowness of maritime communications was evidence that merchants wanted to dominate distance but did not appropriate the methods at their disposal. Many historians also say that distance was an enemy of humankind from Antiquity to the Later Middle Ages or later. Fernand Braudel insisted on the sluggishness of late medieval communication, making a similar remark: “En fait, les hommes du XVIe siècle sont résignés à toutes les lenteurs” (Braudel 1990, vol.2, 12; Marks 2016, 80).

Yet, contrary to routine complaints by medieval Italian merchants, not a few of their letters reveal that often exchange of information by way of

| Nam, Jong Kuk | The scarsella between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic in the 1400s | 55

correspondence was very rapid, frequent and regular. Normally merchants exchanged letters more than once per month and letters arrived from Bruges or London to the main Mediterranean ports such as Genoa, Venice, and Barcelona in around one month. Above all, the scarsella, the original meaning of which was the leather bag in which mail was carried, was the most safe, frequent and rapid postal service system in the Later Middle Ages.1 This scarsella is considered as the first public communication service in Europe.2 Since the mid-thirteeenth century, this kind of regular mail service began operating between Italy and the Champagne fairs and expanded towards other European commercial centers: Scarsella dei Mercanti Fiorentini established by seventeen Florentine companies by the 1340s, Scarsella Genovesi, Compagnia dei Corrieri founded by the Venetian government in the 1300 (Marks 2016, 81). The papacy in Avignon3 regularly used the Florentine mail service provided by this Scarsella dei Mercanti Fiorentini (Rollo-Koster 2015, 164).

Therefore this article will reconsider in particular the inefficiency of correspondence delivery, of which many contemporary merchants complained in their commercial letters, particularly focusing on the postal service of the scarsella between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic in the 1400s. Thus it aims to look more concretely at the exchange of correspondence and information in terms of rhythm, rapidity, regularity, intensity and frequency. In other words, it will investigate how frequently and rapidly correspondence was exchanged between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic, and who carried letters in the Later Middle Ages.

The opening-up of the direct maritime route linking northern Atlantic waters with the Mediterranean in the late thirteenth century had the effect of

1 According to the explanation by Florence Edler, scarsella was the leather bag in which mail was carried between cities and countries by a regular courier service, and by extension meant the organized mail service (Edler 1934, 260).

2 While some scholars have already paid attention to the public communication system in the Middle Ages, the subject of scarsella has been under-studied (Renouard 1937; Sardella 1948; Melis 1983; Doumerc 1994; Burke 2000; McCormick 2001; Spufford 2002; McCusker 2005; Behringer 2006; Pettegree 2014; Marks 2016).

3 The papal court was the greatest source of correspondence in medieval Europe (Renouard 1937, 1).

56 | | Vol. 9, No. 1

increasing not only trade volume but also the exchange of correspondence between the two seas (Doehaerd 1938, 33; Fryde 1974, 293-304). And as travelling merchants gradually began to become sedentary businessmen in the Later Middle Ages, the correspondence became more and more important. A travelling merchant could dispense with letters because he could adapt himself to changing commercial, political, or military situations and make immediate decisions by himself on the spot. Yet without regular correspondence, a resident businessman could not send orders to his factors or partners distant from the metropolis and control his affairs in faraway markets. He could respond to their demands and encourage or criticize them by way of letters. Thus, writing a letter came to be essential for a resident merchant or company of the Later Middle Ages. It was essential for merchants to receive information regularly and rapidly to survive and succeed in business, especially in the changing commercial circumstances of the Later Middle Ages. Leon Battista Alberti, who worked for one of the chief trading companies of Florence in the fifteenth century, wrote: “It befits a merchant to have always ink-stained hands” (Origo 1992, 105-106). Francesco di Marco Datini, an Italian merchant of Prato in the fourteenth century, was of the same opinion and required his agents dispersed in distant foreign markets to send detailed reports as frequently as possible.

Regrettably, not enough commercial letters by Italian merchants survive to let us study the rhythm (periodical circulation), and rapidity of correspondence exchange. However, we are fortunate to have much source material available for the end of the fourteenth century and the beginning of the fifteenth century. That is correspondence left by Francesco di Marco Datini, a merchant of Prato. A mere glimpse at his vast correspondence shows clearly how frequently even the smaller trading companies of the fourteenth century managed to communicate with each other across the whole of Europe, particularly in comparison with the medieval Florentine super companies, such as the companies of Bardi and Perruzzi. In total, Datini left about 140,000 letters, among which 3,124 are those exchanged between the Atlantic ports of Bruges and London on the one hand, and the Mediterranean commercial centers of


Venice, Genoa, Florence, Pisa, Barcelona, Valencia and Majorca on the other.4 It is strange, considering the enormous amount of Datini correspondence, that almost no letters to Venice have remained. However we have a good number of letters in the Archives of Venice and the chronicle of Antonio Morosini, which often mentions correspondence sent from Bruges to Venice at the beginning of the fifteenth century (Dorez 1901). Analysis of letters allows us to learn not only the frequency of correspondence, but also the time taken for letters to reach their receivers, because the dates of expedition and receipt are marked on the letter.

2. Rhythm and rapidity of correspondence exchange F. Melis has already investigated the duration of information diffusion in

the Mediterranean and the Occident in the Later Middle Ages by analyzing several kinds of commercial documents. According to him letters were delivered from London or Bruges to the Mediterranean commercial centers such as Genoa, Venice, Barcelona, Majorca and Valencia in around one month, although sometimes they arrived much later (Melis 1984). For example, it took 92 days for a letter to reach Venice from London, which was three times longer

4 Archivio di Stato di Prato (ASP), Datini ; Nam 2010, 147-148. Letters from Bruges to the Mediterranean (2,830 letters) Place of receipt Barcelona Valencia Majorca Genoa Florence Pisa Iviza

Number of letters 1,408 457 382 259 196 115 7 Letters from the Mediterranean to Bruges (20 letters) Place of receipt Barcelona Majorca Genoa Luca

Number of letters 10 6 3 1

Letters from London to the Mediterranean (274 letters) Place of receipt Florence Genoa Barcelona Pisa Majorca Valencia

Number of letters 161 82 13 10 6 2

58 | | Vol. 9, No. 1

than the average duration. That is an extreme case. In any circumstances it usually took less than two months (Doumerc 1994, 102).

But F. Melis did not pay attention to the regularity of correspondence. How

often did merchants exchange letters between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic in the Later Middle Ages? Let us take two examples of Datini correspondence. The following table is the list of letters between Alberti

5 Table 1 draws on the table made by Federigo Melis (Melis 1984, 195). 6 Table 2 draws on the table made by Federigo Melis (Melis 1984, 197).


Diamante and Altobianco in Bruges, agents of the Datini company, and Luca del Sera in Barcelona, a factor of the Datini company.

According to the list, in the months of February and April 1397 Alberti

Diamante and Altobicanco, agents of the Datini company in Bruges, didn’t write any letters to Luca del Sera, their partner in Barcelona. Yet it is not certain that they didn’t really send letters to their partner in Barcelona in those months, because not all their letters remain in the archives of Prato. In fact, the letter of 7 March 1397 doesn’t exist in the archives of Prato although the letter of 14 March 1397 says that it was written. Similarly, the letter of 28 May 1397 says that they sent the previous letter on 3 May 1397, which doesn’t remain in the

7 The dates in table 3 derive from Datini letters. Archivio di Stato di Prato, fondo di Datini, passim.

60 | | Vol. 9, No. 1

archives of Prato. This fact considered, they may have written letters in the months of February and April 1397.

Another case is the letters from Mannini Luigi and Salvestro in Bruges to Andrea di Bonannino di Ser Berizo in Genoa. They all worked for the Datini company. These factors in Bruges wrote letters every month except November 1396. Certainly Mannini Luigi and Salvestro in Bruges didn’t write a letter to Andrea di Bonannino di ser Berizo in Genoa in November 1397, because they said in the letter of the 2 December 1397 that there was nothing special to tell him about. 8 Usually, medieval Italian merchants began their letters by mentioning those sent in the previous month or this month and those received recently, when they were keeping in regular correspondence with their correspondents.9 Yet in the case of the absence of correspondence for more than one month, they explained the reason or gave an excuse.10

8 ASP, Datini, 753.41 / 1000660. Mannini Alamanno and Antonio and his brothers, agents of the Datini company in London, say in their letter destined to his correspondent in Pisa in 1395:<We didn’t write any letter because there was nothing special to inform you of: Ne di passati no v’abianno scritto per non essere suto di bisgonio.>ASP, Datini, 852.4/418589. <Per lo passato non vi se schritto per non essere achaduto il bisognio.>

9 For example, two agents of the Datini company, Alberti Diamante and Altobianco, say in their letter sent to their correspondents in Barcelona in 1396: <We wrote the last letter to you on the second day of September by the Catalan scarsella and received your letter of the 26 August: L’ultima vi scrivemo adyi di settenbre par la scarsella catalana, di poi n’abian da voi una de dy 26 d’agosto>. ASP, Datini, 852.4/418591.

10 ASP, Datini, 528.3/6365. 11 The dates in table 4 derive from Datini letters. Archivio di Stato di Prato, fondo di Datini, passim.


Analysis of Datini correspondence allows us to draw three important

conclusions. The first is that it took more or less one month for letters to travel from Bruges or London to the Mediterranean ports of Genoa, Venice, Pisa, Florence, Barcelona, Valencia, and Majorca, with a little difference in accordance with the greater or lesser distance. The second conclusion concerning the regularity or frequency of correspondence is that merchants wrote at least more than one letter per month and that the absence of correspondence for two months was very rare. Generally merchants would complain and demand more letters if the absence of letters continued for over one month.12 According to a decree of the Venetian Senate of 1461, the Venetian consuls in Bruges and London also had a duty to deliver at least one

12 ASP, Datini, busta 777.37/313028, 777.37/313029.

62 | | Vol. 9, No. 1

official letter per month to Venice (Doumerc 1994, 106). The third conclusion is that numerous merchants, especially the owners or directors of the company and fathers of the family enterprise, always thought that letter delivery ran slowly. They grumbled tediously over the late arrival of letters due to slow delivery and their long absence. On the contrary, the factors or agents of the company and sons of the family enterprise complained of wasting all their time to read letters sent by their directors or fathers and to write replies, so that they didn’t have time for other business.

3. Regular convoys and major commercial shipping Who carried letters every month, making the voyage between the

Mediterranean and the Atlantic in more or less that length of time? Certainly letters and information were delivered both by land and by sea. Regular convoys and commercial ships carried not only goods but also letters and news. The crew of incoming ships also relayed the current news of the ports where they had anchored. Just after his return to Venice, the captain of the convoy of Flanders had to present the government with a record of his official voyage and news collected on his trip. This document was put together with letters delivered by merchants of Bruges or London to their correspondents in Venice (Doumerc 1994, 106). Other private ships also took a part in delivering letters and information. According to Antonio Morosini’s chronicle three cogs that arrived in Venice on the first of January 1430 informed Venetians of the shipwreck of cogs and galleys on the way to the Atlantic in a storm (Dorez 1901, 340-342).

Yet in comparison with the analysis of letters, it is too difficult to find out how frequently ships made a voyage between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic, and how many ships participated in that journey. The reason is mainly that most records of ships voyaging between the ports of the Mediterranean and those of the Atlantic in the Later Middle Ages don’t survive. But several commercial guide books, Venetian government documents, and commercial letters still exist to show the rhythm, sailing schedule and rapidity of ships voyaging between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic.


It was Genoese carracks and the Venetian convoy of galleys of Flanders that played the most important role in linking the Mediterranean and the Atlantic in the Later Middle Ages (Bradley 1994, 64). These ships generally followed a well-defined pattern of seasonal movement. Or their arrival and departure in London and Bruges were concentrated in certain seasons. This kind of sailing schedule corresponded to three fairs that took place in Bruges in March, June and December. Summer was the busiest season, when ships most frequently moved into and out of the port of Bruges (Borlandi 1936, 168).13La pratica di mercatura datiniana testifies to this fact, mentioning that cogs and galleys of Genoa which departed from their port for Flanders in March or April arrived in Bruges in June or July. Those ships would depart from Bruges in August to make a return voyage to Genoa. They came back to Genoa in November or December. It took about one year for Genoese ships to make one round voyage between Genoa and Bruges.

The Venetian convoy of galleys of Flanders, which had been established between the 1310s and 1320s, had almost the same sailing schedule as Genoese ships (Stöckly 1995, 155). Galleys of Flanders left Venice in March or April and normally arrived in Bruges in July or August, a season for spices. After having stayed from 45 to 50 days, they were supposed to be back before the end of the year (Lane 1966, 110). They returned to Venice at the beginning of winter, that is, November and December. In general, it took about 8 months for the convoy of Flanders to complete one round trip. Sometimes the state of Venice promulgated decrees that the convoy of Flanders galleys should depart from Venice ahead of schedule to prevent them from returning to Venice too late.

13 <A Bbruggia è una fiera di marzo che vi gitta gran charo e al giungnio e al dicenbre per ispaccamento di navi.>

64 | | Vol. 9, No. 1

–

December was also a month when trade was brisk, although it was less

busy than June or July. According to a commercial guidebook, Genoese lignum, a type of ship smaller than the carracks, left Genoa in July and came to the port of Bruges in winter. Having departed from the Levantine ports,

14 This table draws on my previous article (Nam 2010, 162).


especially Chios, with a great amount of alum, Genoese carracks also arrived at the ports of Bruges and Southampton in winter.15

Datini correspondence also shows that official convoys and major commercial ships such as the Venetian galleys of Flanders, Genoese cogs or carracks of the enormous size of that time, moved into the ports of Bruges and London predominantly in those months or seasons previously mentioned.

From the analysis of several types of sources, we find another pattern of commercial ships voyaging between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic. Official convoys or big ships could make only one annual passage between the two waters. It took about 8 months even for the Venetian official convoy of Flanders galleys, the most regular and rapid of the major maritime lines linking the Mediterranean with the Atlantic, to complete one round trip. Sometimes it took as long as a year. Most private commercial shipping sailed more slowly than the Venetian galleys. The former had a more flexible sailing schedule than the latter, which had to observe many regulations. Therefore it took a longer time for private ships to make one round voyage between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic. According to the chronicle of Antonio Morosini, the Venetian cogs of 1200 botti, well equipped with 130 seamen, departed from Venice for Flanders and returned safely to Venice, importing many goods from several countries on 24 August 1431. It took as long as 23 months for it to complete one round trip between Venice and Flanders (Doerz 1901, 356-368).

Ships of the three principal ports of Catalonia, Barcelona, Majorca and Valencia, sailed regularly between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic in the Later Middle Ages. In 1389, the increasing number of pirates on the maritime route to Flanders caused merchants of Barcelona and Majorca to ask the King of Aragon to entrust this maritime transport to armed galleys. The king permitted four galleys per year to be sent (Carrère 1967, 570-571). Yet, it is difficult to know in precise detail the sailing schedule of Catalonia ships, even though they made a regular voyage linking the Western Mediterranean with the Atlantic. However, several Datini letters provide us with clues for the sailing schedule of Catalonia ships. A letter composed on 29 March 1396 by Doni

15 ASP, Datini, busta 664.22/308924.

66 | | Vol. 9, No. 1

Matteo, agent of the Datini company in Bruges, says that Catalonia galleys were anchoring in Bruges in March.16 It suggests that those galleys probably arrived in Bruges in the winter season from December to February. In winter Barcelona ships also sailed for the Atlantic. Thanks to numerous letters received by land and sea, Venetians on 31 January 1431 knew that 40 Spanish ships had been wrecked on the way to Flanders (Dorez 1901, 340-343). It was probably in December or January that those ships departed from the Western Mediterranean for the Atlantic.

The last Mediterranean city that established a regular sea route between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic was Florence. After having obtained the port of Pisa, the Florentine government inaugurated the convoy of galleys in 1421, modeling the Venetian case, the safest and most rapid means of maritime transport in the Later Middle Ages. The Florentine convoy of galleys started their service to Flanders and England in 1425. Its sailing schedule was relatively flexible, unlike that of the Venetian convoy of Flanders that had to observe the strict regulations imposed by the government. The Florentine convoy of galleys left the port of Pisa for the Atlantic on 6 May 1425 and arrived in Bruges or London in summer. After staying there for several months, it returned on 25 February 1426, while the convoy of galleys of 1428 sailed for the Atlantic on 15 November (Mallett 1967, 153-155). Anyway, it also entered the ports of Bruges and London in summer or winter like the ships of Genoa, Venice and Catalonia. Also like ships of Genoa, Venice, and Barcelona, the Florentine convoy could make only one annual passage between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic.

4. Scarsella Then who delivered letters every month between the Mediterranean and the

Atlantic, as a number of Mediterranean ships into Bruges or London made only one round voyage per year between these two seas? Most letters don’t mention

16 ASP, Datini, 852.9/114466.


how letters were delivered. However, merchants identified carriers in their letters explicitly, although rarely. The answer is scarsella, corrieri, fante, espresso, and meso (Dorez 1901, 356-368; Melis 1984, 186-193).17Among them the scarsella represented the most safe, frequent and rapid postal service system in the Later Middle Ages (Melis 1984, 186-193).

What is the scarsella? It originally meant the ‘leather bag’ in which mail was carried. Its meaning was extended to mean an organized mail service. Yet there are some more questions to ask about the scarsella. For example, does it mean a messenger or a ship specialized in carrying letters? Did it employ land or sea routes? In the first place, the scarsella cannot have been commercial ships or convoys. Above all, the rhythm, frequency and rapidity of the scarsella never correspond with those of sailing ships. The scarsella made a trip from the Mediterranean ports to Bruges or London in around one month, while ships completed a one way voyage from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic in three months.18 Of course, ships could make a voyage as fast as the scarsella, if they sailed directly. In 1392, Venetian convoys of galleys arrived in Majorca from Bruges in 8 days, and a Catalonian ship made a direct voyage from Bruges to Valencia in 14 days. In 1463 a Venetian commercial ship completed the voyage from Bruges to Barcelona in two weeks. Yet these cases were so rare that word spread that “it was a great marvel” (Melis 1984, 197).

Secondly, the scarsella generally employed land routes. In fact, a maritime route had advantages in comparison with a land one. The former was much cheaper and could transport more goods than the latter. Yet a maritime route had disadvantages as a route for letters. The first function of commercial ships

17 Pancrazio Giustiniani, a Venetian merchant resident in Bruges, made a remark in a letter sent to his father, Marco Giustianiani: Father, I wrote a letter to you on the 4th of this month by the scarsella, and informed you of all that had happened until now in France. Miser, io ve scrisy ady IIII de questo per la scarsela, de che fin quell ziorno ve avixie quanto iera seguido di faty fe Franza.>. He used to employ scarsella to address his letters to his father in Venice. Florentine merchants also used the postal service of scarsella. ASP, Datini, busta, 852.4/418591. By 1430 Borromeo de Florence received many letters about the military situation of France from Bruges, carried by the scarsella.

18 I dealt with this problem in my previous article (Nam 2010).

68 | | Vol. 9, No. 1

was to carry merchandise, the loading and unloading of which took considerable time. And ships also should make anchor in several ports on the route. Moreover, the number of big ships available for the maritime route to the Atlantic was very limited, even for the great maritime republics with innumerable ships. On the contrary, a land route was convenient for carrying letters although it was not as good for the massive transport of merchandise as a maritime route.

In summary the scarsella meant that postmen delivered mailbags largely by land. Since the 1250s major commercial cities and merchants of Italy, and private companies began establishing their own mail service called scarsella. It was between Italy and the Champagne fairs that this mail service began operating first. (Melis 1984, 188-189; Marks 2016, 81). The Venetian government committed the postal service between Venice and Flanders to Albanians who could make a rapid voyage between Venice and Bruges. Bergamo postmen were entrusted with official scarsella between Venice and Valencia by the Venetian republic (Doumerc 1994, 105). Later the Venetian government established its own postal system called Compagnia dei Corrieri (Marks 2016, 18).

The city of Bruges occupied a particularly remarkable position in the networks of the scarsella linking the Mediterranean with the Atlantic. According to the Datini correspondence in the 1400s it was the most important center of news and information in Northern Europe in the Later Middle Ages.19 Most parts of the scarsella from the Mediterranean commercial centers such as Barcelona, Valencia, Majorca, Genoa, Pisa, Florence, Venice, and Milan made stops in Bruges to distribute letters to other far more northern places. Bruges also represented a starting point of the correspondence destined for the Mediterranean ports such as Genoa, Venice and Barcelona by land. A letter from London was initially carried by sea to Bruges, and then delivered from there to Mediterranean ports such as Genoa, Venice and Barcelona by land. The postal service from Bruges went to Milan, from which it diverged to Venice or Genoa. A letter from Barcelona was sent to Bruges through the route of

19 ASP, Datini.


Avignon-Lyon-Paris or Avignon-Lyon- Champagne region (Melis 1984, 186-189).

The most representative scarsella companies linking the city of Bruges and the Mediterranean commercial centers in the Later Middle Ages were scarsella catalane (between Bruges and Barcelona), scarsella fiorentine (between Florence or Pisa and Bruges or Paris)20, scarsella lucchese (between Lucca or Pisa and Bruges), scarselle genovesi (between Genoa and Bruges) (Melis 1984, 189). Sometimes companies in Genoa could employ their own couriers if they needed to send their letters faster than the average speed of the scarsella genovese amounting to 50 km per day (Marks 2016, 81). There was one mail service in Milan called scarsella dei Lombardi, which operated between Milan and Barcelona and was used frequently by Tuscan merchants including Datini. Most of these mail services went through Milan and then took different itineraries to their final destinations. Tommaso di ser Giovanni, who was responsible for the Milanese branch of the Datini Company, wrote in his letter that “le scarselle da Lucca là passano per qui e cosi per Parigi” (Melis 1984, 189).

The use of scarsella to exchange correspondence between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic by Italian merchants in the Later Middle Ages became frequent, which is attested by commercial documents, including the Datini documents. His agents or partners made frequent use of scarsella to expedite their letters and often mentioned how correspondence was transported. For example, Doni Matteo said in a letter of 1 January 1396 addressed from Bruges to Luca del Sera, agent of the Datini company in Barcelona, that “L’ultima vi scrivemo fin a di 22 del presente per la scharsella (We wrote the last letter on the 22th day of this month by the scarsella.)”21. In 1396, Alberti Diamante also used the mail service of scarsella when he wrote one letter from

20 In 1357, scarsella dei Mercanti fiorentini was established by seventeen firms to exchange correspondence between Florence and Avignon by way of Genoa. Thanks to this weekly courier service more news and information could be spread, allowing more rational calculation and activating commercial activities (Nicholas 2014, 25).

21 ASP, Datini, busta 852.9/114464.

70 | | Vol. 9, No. 1

Bruges to Carocci Cristofano di Bartolo, agent of the Datini company in Majorca.22 Mannini Luigi, another agent of the Datini company in Bruges, wrote letters every month and sent them by way of scarsella to Mediterranean cities such as Pisa, Barcelona, Majorca, Genoa, etc.23 In particular, the Datini company made frequent use of the scarsella catalane to send letters from Bruges to Barcelona or Majorca. They commissioned the delivery of letters from Bruges to Pisa to the scarsella lucchese.24

And the Datini company very frequently used the mail service of several firms of scarsella to exchange correspondence between close Italian cities.25 The Datini company not only used the mail service provided by other scarsella companies but also had its own scarsella. An agent of the company sent a letter from Avignon to Genoa in 1386, informing his partner of the news that “partira di qui quest nostra scarsella a di ij di magio per andare a Gienova (Our scarsella will depart here on the 2 may to go to Genoa).” (Edler 1934, 260-261).

It was not necessary for Venetian merchants to find traveling merchants to carry their letters because they could employ a regular postal service. To exchange letters between Venice and Bruges or London, they made use of cursores Flandriae, Venetian scarsella. The decree of the 18 March 1461 by the Venetian Senate evidently attests the existence of the semi-public mail service. According to this decree, it had been a very long time since the Venetian consuls in Bruges and London would expedite one scarsella every month to Venice with their merchants. Yet it was not the consuls but Venetian merchants of Bruges and London that had to pay collectively the charge of this postal service. Specifically, two thirds of the expense of the scarsella was charged on Venetian merchants in Bruges, one third on Venetian merchants in

22 “L’ultima vi mando adi 23 di dicembre per la scarsella catalana (I send the last letter on the 23 December by the Catalan scarsella) .” ASP, Datini, busta 1059.18.

23 ASP, Datini, busta, 442.29/403153. <A di XXVI di settembre vi schrivemo l’ultima, il avemo mandamo per chotesta scharsella.----- Avuta e risposto di poi abiamo vosta lettera de di 22 del passato.>

24 ASP, Datini, busta 852.9/114464, busta 855.3 / 118351, busta 442.29/403153. 25 <Quon quest eve mandiamo 1 lettera da qualle prechove che la mandate a Guliermo Tancio per la

scarsella ho per altro meliore che vaga bene.> (Frangioni 1994, 483).


London. Thanks to this payment, the Venetian consuls in Bruges and London also took advantage of this postal service to make a report to the government every month. In total, two official scarsella arrived in Venice every month, one from Bruges and the other from London.26 The Venetian scarsella had a reputation of rapidity. It could make a voyage from Venice to Bruges or a return journey in only 15 days (Dorez 1901, 304-305).

5. Conclusion In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, many Italian merchants always

complained of slow letter delivery and asked their correspondents to write letters more often. Similarly Fernand Braudel remarks that letter writers continued having bitter words to say about delays in the mails in the sixteenth century. To underline this sluggishness of the mail service, he cites instead examples of exceptions to this general rule, as follows: “If a letter arrives quickly, its recipient is astonished. ‘To come from as far as Valencia to Granada’, writes the humanist Antonio de Guevara to a friend, ‘your letter must have had swift carriers for it was sent on the Saturday and arrived here on the Monday’. A letter from the constable of Castile reached him at Valladolid, again in record time.-----These are the exceptions which as always prove the rule” (Braudel 1990, vol.2, 10)27.

Yet, the very swift postal service called scarsella was well established in the late fourteenth century between Mediterranean and Atlantic. Thanks to this ‘public’ mail system, contrary to the continuous routine complaints of medieval

26 Archivio di Stato di Venezia, Senato Mar, reg. 7, f. 3r ; Nam 2010, 169. <Solebant superionibus temporibus consules nostri Bruzee et Londoniarum singulo mense expedire unam scarsellam cum huius mercatorum nostrum huc deferendis ut per advisationes que hinc inde dabantur mercatores negotiis suis debite providere possent. Et ob id habebantur due scharslle quarum expensa pro duobus terciis solvebatur per mercatores Bruces et pro uno tercio per mercatore Londoniarum.>

27 This English translation counts on the English translation of the book by Sian Reynolds in 1973.

72 | | Vol. 9, No. 1

Italian merchants, the exchange of information by way of correspondence was very rapid, frequent and regular. Normally merchants exchanged letters more than once per month and letters arrived from Bruges or London to the main Mediterranean ports such as Genoa, Venice, and Barcelona in around one month. It was much more rapid and regular than commercial ships making one round trip between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic per year. Solid news networks between the Mediterranean commercial ports and the Atlantic ports of Bruges or London operated relatively well in the Later Middle Ages, and in that sense exchange of letter and information by way of the scarsella between the two seas was very efficient.

As Federigo Melis suggests, the private mail service, particularly scarsella, underwent a great development from the late fourteenth century onwards in terms of consistence, rapidity, and regularity (Melis 1984, 186). Therefore we can conclude that the development of a regular mail service was momentous in the late fourteenth century, particularly compared to the slow and irregular circulation of other parts of daily life. The mail service provided by scarsella was the fastest and most regular at that time, in spite of merchants’ repeated complaints about the slow delivery of correspondence.


References

<Manuscripts> Archivio di Stato di Prato, Datini, busta 442.29 ____________________, Datini, busta 528.3 ____________________, Datini, busta 664.22 ____________________, Datini, busta 753.41 ____________________, Datini, busta 777.37 ____________________, Datini, busta 852.4 ____________________, Datini, busta 852.9 Archivio di Stato di Venezia, Senato Mar, reg. 7. <Secondary sources> Behringer, Wolfgang. 2006. “Communication revolutions: a historiographical

concept”. German History 24: 333-374. Borlandi, Franco. 1936. El libro di mercantantie et usanze di paesi. Torino: S.

Lattes & C. Bradley, Helen. 1994. “The Datini factors in London, 1380-1410”. In Trade,

devotion, and governance: papers in later medieval history, edited by Dorothy J. Clayton, R. G. Davies and Peter McNiven, 55-79. New Hampshire: Alan Sutton.

Braudel, Fernand. 1990. La Méditerranée et le monde méditerranéen à l’époque de Philippe II. 9th edition. 2 vols. Paris: Armand Colin.

Burke, Peter. 2000. “Early modern Venice as a center of information and communication”. In Venice reconsidered. Martin, John and Romano, Dennis, eds. 389-419. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University.

Carrère, Claude. 1967. Barcelone centre économique à l’époque des difficulties 1380-1462. Paris: La Haye, Mouton et Cie.

Doehaerd, Renée. 1938. “Les galères génoises dans la Manche et la mer du Nord à la fin du XIIIe et au début du XIVe siècle”. Bulletin de l'Institut historique belge de Rome 19: 5-76.

74 | | Vol. 9, No. 1

Domerc, Bernard. 1994. “Par Dieu écrivez plus souvent! La lettre d’affaires à Venise à la fin du Moyen Age”. In La circulation des nouvelles au Moyen Age, Congrès des médiévistes de l’enseignement supérieur, ed. 99-109. Paris: Publications de la Sorbonne.

Dorez, Léon, ed. 1901. Chronique d’Antonio Morosini: extraits relatifs à l’histoire de France. Paris: Librairie Renouard.

Edler, Florence. 1934. Glossary of medieval terms of business. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Mediaeval Academy of America.

Frangioni, Luciana. 1994. Milano fine trecento. Il carteggio Milanese dell’Archivio Datini di Prato. Florence: Opuslibri.

Fryde, Edmund Boleslav. 1983. “Italian maritime trade with Medieval England (c. 1270-c.1530)”. Fryde, Edmund Boleslav. Studies in medieval trade and finance. XIV: 291-337.

Lane, Frederic Chopin. 1966. “Rhythm and Rapidity of Turnover in Venetian Trade of the Fifteenth Century”. Venice and History: the collected papers of Frederic C. Lane, 109-127. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.

Mallett, Michael E. 1967. The Florentine galleys in the fifteenth century. Oxford: Oxford Clarendon Press.

Marks, Steven. G. 2016. The information nexus: global capitalism from the Renaissance to the present. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

McCormick, Michael. 2001. Origins of the European economy: communications and commerce, AD 300-900. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

McCusker, John J. 2005. “The demise of distance: the business press and the origins of the information revolution in the early modern Atlantic world”. American Historical Review 110, 2: 295-321.

Melis, Federigo. 1972. Documenti per la storia economica dei secoli XIII-XVI. Firenze: Olschki.

Melis, Federigo. 1983. “Intensità e regolarità nella diffusione dell'informazione economica generale nel Mediterraneo e in Occidente alla fine del Medioevo", in I trasporti e le comunicazioni nel Medioevo. edited by Luciana Frangioni. 179-223. Florence: Le Monnier.

Nam, Jong Kuk. 2008. “Venice’s maritime networks in the Later Middle Ages”. Journal of Western Medieval History 21: 179-206 (in Korean).


Nam, Jong Kuk. 2010. “Maritime networks between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic in the Later Middle Ages”. The Western History of Review 107: 143-172 (in Korean).

Nicholas, David. 2014. The Later Medieval City 1300-1500. London and New York: Routledge.

Renouard, Yves. 1937. “Les Papes d’Avignon expédiaient leur courier”. Revue Historique 180: 1-29.

Rollo-Koster, Joëlle. 2015. Avignon and its papacy, 1309-1417: popes, institutions, and society. Lanham, Boulder, New York, London: Rowman & Littlefield.

Sardella, Pierre. 1948. Nouvelles et speculations à Venise au début du XVIe siècle. Paris: A. Colin.

Spufford, Peter. 2002. Power and profit: the merchant in medieval Europe. London: Thames and Hudson.

Origo, Iris. 1992. The merchant of Prato: daily life in a medieval Italian city. London: Penguin Books.

Stöckly, Doris. 1995. Le sytème de l’Incanto des galèes du marché à Venise (fin XIIe – milieu XVe siècle). Leiden: Brill Academic Publishers.

Date for submitting article: 2016.06.02 Date for final review: 2016.06.10

Date for confirming publication: 2016.06.10

the scarsella between the mediterranean and the atlantic in the 1400s

Documents