Rare and fascinating doge commission concerning a Muda in Baruthi [Beirut] entrusted to Captain Giovanni Moro and sponsored by Pietro Antonio Morosini de Giusto, Pietro Polani de Giacomo and Battista Boldù de Antonio. The text is made up of 198 chapters, the first 87 in Latin and the following ones in Venetian, with incipit: "It is not except that it will be well established that our galleys are sent to the usual ways and perho. Landara parte che cum el nome de Christo sancto et in good grace they are placed and delegated to the viazo de Barutho galie...". The dating is interesting: the moult takes place just 4 months after the terrible defeat at Agnadello (May 17, 1509) which had led to the almost total loss of the Venetian mainland. In an annus horribilis such as 1509, the Venetians still managed not to distract attention from commercial traffic, their true strength and source of wealth and international prestige. In Venice, the mude were organized by the state and differed from completely private mercantile companies in that they were led by commanders of the Republic, in this case Giovanni Moro, and officially represented their interests in the Levantine markets. The mude took their name from the main regions in which they operated (Muda of Syria, Muda of Egypt, etc.) and the term itself (muda, i.e. mute) was inspired by their periodicity (arrivals and departures took place in certain periods of the year), similar to that of migratory birds. These journeys, born in the thirteenth century, were gradually regularized during the fourteenth century, becoming fashionable in the fifteenth century and ending in the first half of the sixteenth century. After 1372, driven out of Cyprus by the Genoese conquest of Famagusta, the Venetians made Beirut the terminus of the "Cyprian" muda: three to six galleys were sent there every year, while Alexandria received on average only three. Around 1400 Venetian investments in Egypt and Syria reached more than 400,000 dinars for spices alone. The commission describes in detail the economic terms of the muda in question, offering interesting insights into Venetian mercantile economic history. The charters, the deposits of the Patrons, their obligations in the various stages, the obligations of the admirals, etc. are described. A precise regulation to be applied in every possible eventuality, demonstrating how scientifically orderly and organized trade was in Venice. All this until the first decades of the 1500s, when the opening of the new Atlantic routes following the discovery of America moved the center of gravity away from the Mediterranean. An intriguing commercial document that has a POLITICAL VALUE if placed in the historical context: in 1509 Venice risked losing its independence but this did not renounce its modern trades.


Lot declared of notable historical interest by the Archival Superintendence of Lazio