«Credo per la grazia di Dio farei bene». Future thinking and knowledge of a risk (in)expert in late medieval Venice Nicolò Zennaro University of Antwerp, Belgium This is a section of Gestione del rischio, insolvenza e bancarotta nel mondo premoderno (secc. XIII-XVIII) / Risk management, insolvency, and bankruptcy in the pre-modern world (13th-18th centuries)(DOI: 10.36253/979-12-215-0963-2) by Angela Orlandi Firenze University Press Florence 2026 https://doi.org/10.36253/979-12-215-0963-2.22

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This paper investigates how a broker used his knowledge to create future expectations on the Venetian market in the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries. To do this, it examines the correspondence of a Florentine broker from the Datini holding company, Talerano di Paolo Mattei, written between 1395 and 1400. This Florentine businessman became a broker because of a debt he owed to Datini, who had released him from prison after he had stolen valuable books from his former employer to sell them himself. This research shows how Talerano perceived the risks that affected the Rialto market and how he used (or did not use) information and knowledge to deal with them.

 Risk society medieval broker future thinking knowledge history of Venice.

It is available online at https://doi.org/10.36253/979-12-215-0963-2.22

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