UvA-DARE (Digital Academic Repository) Trading places : the Netherlandish merchant community in Venice, 1590-1650 van Gelder, M. Publication date 2007 Document Version Final published version Link to publication Citation for published version (APA): van Gelder, M. (2007). Trading places : the Netherlandish merchant community in Venice, 1590-1650. General rights It is not permitted to download or to forward/distribute the text or part of it without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), other than for strictly personal, individual use, unless the work is under an open content license (like Creative Commons). Disclaimer/Complaints regulations If you believe that digital publication of certain material infringes any of your rights or (privacy) interests, please let the Library know, stating your reasons. In case of a legitimate complaint, the Library will make the material inaccessible and/or remove it from the website. Please Ask the Library: https://uba.uva.nl/en/contact, or a letter to: Library of the University of Amsterdam, Secretariat, Singel 425, 1012 WP Amsterdam, The Netherlands. You will be contacted as soon as possible. UvA-DARE is a service provided by the library of the University of Amsterdam (https://dare.uva.nl) Download date:29 Sep 2021 TRADING PLACES: THE NETHERLANDISH MERCHANT COMMUNITY IN VENICE, 1590-1650 Maartje van Gelder Research in Venice, Rome, and Livorno was made possible by grants from the Institute of Culture and History at the University of Amsterdam, a fellowship from the Royal Dutch Institute in Rome, two fellowships from the Marie Curie-programme ‘European Doctorate in the Social History of Europe and the Mediterranean’, and a travel grant from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research. The jacket shows a detail from the frontispiece to Giacomo Franco, Habiti d’huomeni e donne venetiane (Venice 1610) TRADING PLACES: THE NETHERLANDISH MERCHANT COMMUNITY IN VENICE, 1590-1650 ACADEMISCH PROEFSCHRIFT ter verkrijging van de graad van doctor aan de Universiteit van Amsterdam op gezag van de Rector Magnificus prof. dr. D.C. van den Boom ten overstaan van een door het college voor promoties ingestelde commissie, in het openbaar te verdedigen in de Aula der Universiteit op woensdag 31 oktober 2007, te 12.00 uur door Maartje van Gelder geboren te Amsterdam Promotor: prof. dr. L. Noordegraaf Co-promotor: dr. C.M. Lesger Overige leden: prof. dr. H.F.K. van Nierop prof. dr. B.J. Kaplan prof. dr. M. Keblusek prof. dr. M. Prak dr. J.W. Veluwenkamp Faculteit der Geesteswetenschappen CONTENTS List of figures iii List of tables iii List of illustrations iv List of maps iv List of abbreviations v Note on dates, names, and currency vi Introduction - A reversal of fortunes 1 - The decline of Venice and the rise of Amsterdam 7 - Merchant communities 11 - Approach and sources 15 Chapter 1. Venice - Entering the city 20 - The inhabitants of Venice 23 - From Byzantine subjects to independent republic 26 - Venetian commerce 32 - Immigrant traders in Venice: Germans, Ottomans, and Jews 36 Chapter 2. Unlocking the Venetian market: changing trade relations in the 1590s - Trade relations between Venice and the Low Countries before the 1590s 41 - In desperate need of cereals 46 - Importing Baltic grain into Venice 52 Chapter 3. Combining the new with the old: Netherlandish-Venetian trade after the 1590s - The case of Cornelis Jansen 60 - Expanding commercial contacts 65 - Amsterdam-Mediterranean trade in 1646-1647 68 - Continuing overland trade 81 Chapter 4. The community of Netherlandish merchants in Venice - The number of Netherlandish merchants in Venice 89 - The provenance of the Netherlandish merchants 96 - Forging family ties, economic partnerships, and bonds of friendship 99 - Religious differences? 107 Chapter 5. Individual and collective strategies - Becoming Venetian citizens 117 - Petitions and privileges 125 - Banquets and charity 137 - Ambassadors and consuls 142 i Chapter 6. At home in early modern Venice - Finding a home 152 - A wealthy lifestyle 157 - Venetian relations 165 - Entering the Venetian patriciate 175 Conclusion 184 Summary (in Dutch) 189 Bibliography 195 Annex A: Netherlandish merchants in Venice in eight sample years 229 Illustrations 233 ii List of figures 2.1 Annual average grain prices in Venice in lire, 1580-1599 47 3.1 Number of ships involved in Amsterdam-Mediterranean trade, 1625-1658 79 4.1 Figure 4.1 Number of Netherlandish merchants in Venice in eight sample years in the period 1580-1650 90 List of tables 3.1 Value of Amsterdam trade per Mediterranean port in percentages, May 1646 - May 1647 72 3.2 Import and export of goods between Amsterdam and Venice in percentages, May 1646 - May 1647 73 iii List of illustrations 0.1 The Helman family monument in Santa Maria Formosa 233 1.1 Entrance to the Venetian lagoon 234 2.1 Adriatic Sea 235 2.2 “Giochi navali di fiaminghi et altre genti settentrionali” 236 4.1 Portraits of Martin Hureau and Margareta de Groote 237 5.1 Ambassador Cornelis van der Mijle received by Doge Leonardo Donà, 1609 238 6.1 Portrait of Lucas van Uffel with ships sailing off a Mediterranean coast 239 6.2 Portrait of Daniel Nijs 240 List of maps 1.1 Venetian parishes per sestiere 241 1.2 The Venetian Stato da Mar around 1500 242 1.3 The Venetian Stato da Terra around 1500 243 2.1 Overland routes connecting Venice with Northern Europe 244 iv List of abbreviations AC Avogaria di Comun APV Archivio del Patriarcato di Venezia ASL Archivio di Stato di Livorno ASV Archivio di Stato di Venezia CSPV Calendar of state papers and manuscripts, relating to English affairs existing in the archives and collections of Venice, and in other libraries of Northern Italy CD Consiglio dei Dieci Correr Biblioteca Civica del Museo Correr CRD Collegio, Risposte di dentro DLH Directie van de Levantse Handel GAA Gemeentearchief Amsterdam GF Giudici del Forestier GP Giudici di Petizion Marciana Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana NA Notarile, Atti NA The Hague Nationaal Archief The Hague NotArch Notarieel Archief Amsterdam NT Notarile, Testamenti PB Provveditori alle Biave RGP Rijks Geschiedkundige Publicatiën SAA Stadsarchief Antwerpen SBG Senato, Banco Giro SDB Senato, Deliberazioni, Biave SM Senato Mar ST Senato Terra UBA Universiteitsbibliotheek Amsterdam VSM Cinque Savi alla Mercanzia b. busta c. carta f. filza fasc. fascicolo fol. folio m.v. more veneto n.p. not paginated r. registro v Note on dates, names, and currency * The Venetian calendar began the year on 1 March. Dates in the text have been converted to the Roman calendar, but dates in the notes have been left in the Venetian style to facilitate locating the documents in the Venetian archives. To avoid confusion, any dates between 1 January and 1 March in the Venetian style are followed by the abbreviation m.v., or more veneto. Venetian notaries usually adhered to the Roman calendar. * The names of the Netherlanders in Venice were spelled in many different ways: first names were usually translated to Italian (‘Jan’ becoming ‘Giovanni’) or to the Venetian dialect (‘Jan’ becoming ‘Zuane’). Last names were sometimes translated, Italianized, or adapted beyond recognition. For instance, the Antwerp merchant Nicolaas Peeters was known in Venice as Nicolò Perez. In general I have chosen to give the Italian version of the first name and the variant of the last name most commonly used in Venetian documents. * 1 Venetian ducat of account = circa 2 guilders vi Introduction A reversal of fortunes One late afternoon in October 1649, at the end of his three-week stay in Venice, Arnout Hellemans Hooft finally found the marble funeral monument of his great-uncles Guglielmo and Antonio Helman in the church of Santa Maria Formosa. The Netherlandish1 merchants Guglielmo and Antonio, originally from Antwerp, had been operating the Helman family firm in Venice. Like many wealthy native Venetians, the great-uncles of Hellemans Hooft had made provisions during their lifetimes for the construction of a conspicuous memorial which, after their deaths, would express their identity and the identity of their family; the resulting imposing monument enveloped an entire side entrance of Santa Maria Formosa (Ill. 0.1). Hellemans Hooft diligently copied their epitaphs into his travel journal, where they stand out among the many impersonal inscriptions on public monuments he collected during his Grand Tour.2 Antonio Helman had died in 1582, and the last part of the inscription in his remembrance succinctly recalls his status as an immigrant: “Grown up among my compatriots, the Netherlanders. Dying in this city of Venice, I lie buried in this grave”. His brother Guglielmo’s epitaph is slightly more melancholic, but also juxtaposes his Netherlandish origin to his residence in Venice: “I was Gulielmus Helmanus: Flanders 1 The words ‘Netherlands’ and ‘Low Countries’ in this thesis refer to the territory of the seventeen provinces under Habsburg rule, roughly corresponding to the current kingdoms of Belgium, Luxemburg, and the Netherlands. During the revolt against Habsburg Spain (1568-1648) the provinces became separated, with the seven northern provinces developing into a new state, the Republic of the United Provinces or Dutch Republic. The ten southern provinces remained under Habsburg dominion and are known as the Southern or Spanish Netherlands. The term ‘Netherlandish’ will be used to refer to persons originally from the Low Countries before they were divided during the Dutch Revolt. In doing so, I employ the same umbrella term as in early modern Italy, where in general anyone from the Low Countries was a fiammingo, regardless of whether they came from the province of Flanders or not. This practice originated in the Middle Ages, when contacts between Italy and the Low Countries centred on Flanders, De Groof, “Natie en nationaliteit”, 90 and Van Kessel, Van Fiandra naar Olanda. For a more detailed discussion of the Netherlandish merchants’ provenance, see below, Chapter 4, 96-99.