Vol. VIII, no. 2 (2004) - Mamluk Studies Review - University of Chicago

42 BENJAMIN ARBEL, VENICE'S TRADE WITH THE MAMLUKS
before ending up in these diaries. This uncertainty is reflected in the inconsistencies
between different reports referring to the same convoy, when available. 16 Except
for a short analysis of overall figures referring to the comprehensive value of
cargos and precious metals shipped eastward, we shall therefore forego quantitative
speculations, contenting ourselves with identifying those products that appear
time and again on these lists, and using the numerical data mainly to get a general
idea of the order of magnitude of the shipments concerned. For the sake of
brevity, this reservation will not be repeated henceforward whenever numbers
taken from these lists are cited.
The two commercial manuals present a different problematic. As for Rimondo's
Tariffa, thanks to Ugo Tucci we may consider it one of the new types of manuals
that appeared in the Venetian commercial milieu at the end of the fifteenth century,
being composed by Venetian factors overseas (in this case by Lorenzo Arimondo
who was active in Alexandria) and intended for practical use by these agents. We
may therefore consider it to authentically reflect the Egyptian market for Venetian
imports during those years. 17 Paxi's book, on the other hand, has been attributed
by Tucci to another category of manuals, which mainly served for training of
young merchants. But Tucci also emphasized that the training of merchants
necessitated up-to-date instruments, 18 and there is no reason to exclude the possibility
that an impressive work like that of Paxi genuinely reflected the movements and
content of Venetian trade in the Levant at the time of its first appearance in print
(1503). In the prologue to his work, Paxi declares that it was the fruit of long and
serious effort and laborious study (grave e longa mia faticha e laborioso studio). 19
In fact, there are several indications that Paxi's book was indeed the consequence
of a genuine effort to provide up-to-date material on the world of international
trade in the period of its original publication. Tucci has noted, for example, the
updating of the measure for oil in Constantinople, 20 and Paxi's careful reference to
the spice kanter [=qint¸a≠r] of Damascus, 21 to which I may add the absence of
Coron and Modon, the important Venetian ports in the southern Peloponnese,
16 See, for example, Appendix A, for Malipiero's and Priuli's reports on the galleys sailing to
Alexandria in summer 1498, and Sanudo's and Priuli's reports on the Alexandria convoy of 1511.
17 For problems related to the use of merchant manuals, with special emphasis on the Venetian
ones, see Ugo Tucci, "Tariffe veneziane e libri toscani di mercatura," Studi veneziani 10 (1968):
65–108, esp. 92–97; idem, "Manuali di mercatura e pratica degli affari nel medioevo," in Fatti e
idee di storia economica nei secoli XII–XX: Studi dedicati a Franco Borlandi (Bologna, 1976),
215–31.
18 Tucci, "Manuali," 220.
19 Paxi, Tariffa, 1v.
20 Tucci, "Manuali," 226.
21 Tucci, "Tariffe veneziane," 107–8.
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