This book derives from a PhD thesis written at the European University Institute, under the supervision of Luca Molà and Regina Grafe. I am grateful to both, as well as to all the other scholars who have provided me with suggestions and mentoring over these years: first of all the other members of the discussion panel, Cátia Antunes and Luca Lo Basso, as well as Franco Angiolini, Arturo Pacini, Carlo Taviani, Nunziatella Alessandrini, and more recently Massimo Zaccaria and Damien Tricoire. I am also thankful to the organizers and participants of the network “Atlantic Italies: Economic and Cultural Entaglements”, directed by Roberto Zaugg and Silvia Marzagalli, where I could present my research. I wish moreover to thank the personnel of the different archives and libraries I visited, especially Francesca Imperiale, Giustina Olgiati, and Maddalena Giordano in Genoa, and Francesco Martelli and Silvio Balloni in Florence.
This work has also benefitted from the support of the Brill editorial team, including the series editor George Bryan Souza, Alessandra Giliberto, Melissa Allieri, and two anonymous editors.
At the European University Institute, I was lucky enough to study with some people who shared a common interest in Italian Early Modern merchants, and sometimes dealt with very similar topics: their views and criticisms have strongly shaped my work, and I am profoundly grateful to Maarten Draper, Christophe Schellekens, and Alejandro García-Montón. Other friends and colleagues who have supported me along the way, and whom I wish to thank here, include Kirsten Kamphuis, Gennadii Iakovlev, Aina Palarea-Marimón, Emilie Fiorucci, Gloria Moorman, Fausto Fioriti, Martina Panizzutt, Luca Calzetta, Simon Dagenais, Lorenzo Tabarrini, Alessandro Capone, Giacomo Canepa, and Miriam Franchina.
Of course, the deepest debts are those to friends and family back home. The PhD thesis was dedicated to my sister, Martina: the present book is for her and Leo.