Dare et habere : il mondo di un mercante milanese del quattrocento

Despite a progressively greater rigidity in the social hierarchy, the last centuries of the Middle Ages continued to witness the economic and social rise of individuals belonging to the "middle class". These hominis novi, without resorting to family claims, and often rejecting the associative model of the guilds, succeeded in achieving fortune and self-respect through commerce, enterprise, the exploitation of the land, local and parochial solidarity and the administration of charity. Emblematic of such ascent to fortune is the figure of a businessman of rural origin, Donato Ferrario da Pantigliate, who in 1429 founded in Milan a devotional and charitable institution, the Scuola della Divinità. It is the social, economic and spiritual life of this merchant which is reconstructed in this book, inserting it within the urban context of Milan during the first half of the fifteenth century.