¹ English writers have been little interested in the history of insurance. The pioneering work on the subject, Il Contratto di assicurazione nel media evo, was written in 1884 by the Genoese lawyer, Enrico Bensa. It is still the basic work, although more for the documents than for their interpretation. In his later book, Francesco di Marco da Prato, notizie e documenti sulla mercatura italiana del secolo XIV (Milan, 1928)Google Scholar, Bensa gave additional examples of insurance contracts, but there are no new forms. The German professor of law, Goldschmidt, Levin, in his Universalgeschichte des Handelsrechts (Stuttgart, 1891)Google Scholar, made important contributions to the subject by using source material unknown to Bensa, such as the records of a Marseilles notary published by Blancard, Louis, Documents inédits sur le commerce de Marseille au moyen âge, contrats commerciaux du XIII^e siècle (2 vols., Marseilles, 1884–1885).Google Scholar The conclusions of these first writers were challenged by the more critical German scholar, Adolf Schaube, in his three brilliant studies: (1) “Die wahre Beschaffenheit der Versicherung in der Entstehungszeit des Versicherungswesens,” Jahrbücher für Nationalökonomie und Statistik, LX (1893), 40–56, 473–509Google Scholar; (2) “Der Uebergang vom Versicherungsdarlehn zur reinen Versicherung,” ibid., LXI (1893), 481–515; (3) “Der Versicherungsgedanke in den Verträgen des Seeverkehrs vor der Entstehung des Versicherungswesens. Eine Studie zur Vorgeschichte der Seeversicherung,” Zeitschrift für Social- und Wirthschaftsgeschichte, II (1894), 149–223.Google Scholar Although his interpretation of the sources—those previously used and some he presented for the first time—sometimes shows an excess of ingenuity, Schaube is usually clear and convincing. His grasp of all the available material relating to the subject and his masterly analysis make his studies of permanent value. After him, interest in the subject declined. Discussion has flared up anew in recent years with the publication of a series of articles in legal journals by the Italians, Alessandro Lattes, Giuseppe Valeri, Riniero Zeno, and the Frenchmen, André E. Sayous and Jules Vale'ry. In his article “I Primordi dell'assicurazione attraverso il documento del 1329,” Rivista del diritto commerciale, XXVI, Part 1 (1928), 600–41Google Scholar, G. Valeri gives a full bibliography on the early history of marine insurance and summarizes the views of the different writers. Only a few articles and one book (by Zeno) have appeared since Valeri wrote. These will be referred to in the course of this study.

² In addition to the works mentioned in note 1, see Silberschmidt, Wilhelm, “Das Seedarlehen als Ausgangspunkt der Versicherung gegen Prämie,” Veröffentlichungen des Deutschen Vereins für Versicherungs-Wissenschaft, Heft XXXVIII (May 1926), 9–16Google Scholar; Raffaele Cafiero, “Origine delle assicurazioni marittime,” Convegno internazionale di studi storici del diritto marittimo medioevale, Amalfi, 1934, Mostra bibliografica e Convegno internazionale di studi storici del diritto marittimo medioevale, Atti, I (Naples, 1934), 73–79Google Scholar; Checchini, Aldo, “I Precedents e lo sviluppo storico del contratto di assicurazione,” Atti dell'Istituto Nazionale delle Assicurazioni (Rome, 1931), III, 58–68.Google Scholar The only work that attempts to prove the existence of marine insurance in the ancient world is Trennery, C. E., The Origin and Early History of Insurance (“Studies in Economics and Political Science of the London School of Economics,” LXXXVII, London, 1926).Google Scholar Trennery devotes less than half a page to medieval Italy, where marine insurance really developed. He ignores completely the works of Bensa, Goldschmidt, and Schaube on the subject.

³ Raymond de Roover, “The Commercial Revolution of the Thirteenth Century,” a discussion of “Capitalism—Concepts and History” by Gras, N. S. B., Bulletin of the Business Historical Society, XVI, No. 2 (1942), 34–38.Google Scholar

⁴ I use the word “sedentary” in the meaning attached to it by N. S. B. Gras. Some writers do not like this term but they have not been able to suggest a better one. See Gras, N. S. B., Business and Capitalism; An Introduction to Business History (New York: F. S. Crofts and Company, 1939), chap. iii.Google Scholar

⁵ The words “partners” and “correspondents” need no definition, but the word “factors” had a special meaning in the Middle Ages. It was used chiefly for salaried employees who served a merchant as agents abroad.

⁶ Byrne, Eugene H., Genoese Shipping in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries (Cambridge: The Mediaeval Academy of America, 1930), pp. 12–19Google Scholar; Tucci, Raffaele di, Studi sull'economia genovese del secolo decimosecondo, La nave e i contratti marittimi (Turin, 1933). pp. 24–49Google Scholar; Lane, Frederic C., Venetian Ships and Shipbuilders of the Renaissance (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press, 1934), pp. 115 f.Google Scholar

⁷ On the sea loan, see Goldschmidt, Universalgeschichte, pp. 345–54, and Hoover, Calvin. B., “The Sea Loan in Genoa in the Twelfth Century,” The Quarterly Journal of Economics, XL (1925–1926), 495–529.Google Scholar This article is not entirely reliable. The medieval sea loan should not be confused with the “bottomry loan,” which is, strictly speaking, a loan made by a shipmaster for repairs to his ship in a foreign port. Such a loan is contracted by the master but is repayable by the owners, if the ship reaches its destination.

⁸ Hoover (“The Sea Loan,” pp. 499f., 529, n. 1) questions whether the decree Naviganti had any appreciable effect on the decline of the sea loan, but Riniero Zeno believes that Gregory LX's decretal was responsible for the popularity of the cambium nauticum, which did not fall under the usury prohibition since such a contract could not be classed as a mutuum.— Zeno, Riniero, Storia del diritto marittimo nel Mediterraneo (Catania, 1915), pp. 160 f.Google Scholar This is also the opinion of Adolf Schaube, “Der Versicherungsgedanke in den Verträgen des Seeverkehrs,” op. cit., pp. 176 f.

⁹ As Mr. de Roover has shown, the exchange contract always involved a credit transaction as well as an exchange transaction. Because of the usury prohibition, bills were not discounted, but interest was buried in the rates of exchange. Consequently, the banker's profit, instead of being certain, was uncertain because it was determined by the unpredictable swing of the exchange rates. See Roover, Raymond de, “What Is Dry Exchange? A Contribution to the Study of English Mercantilism,” The Journal of Political Economy, LII (1944), 250–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

¹⁰ Schaube, “Der Uebergang vom Versicherungsdarlehn zur reinen Versicherung,” op. cit., p.483.

¹¹ The Germans use Versicherungsdarlehn; the Italians, prestito a scopo assicurativo.

¹² This point is emphasized by Valéry, Jules, “Les Contrats d'assurance au moyen âge,” Revue générale du droit, de la législation et de la jurisprudence, XXXIX (1915), 472 f.Google Scholar

¹² The case would be different if part of the cargo was sacrificed as a ransom in order to dissuade pirates from attacking and destroying the ship. In such a case there would be general average and the loss would have to be shared by all those concerned in the venture.

¹⁴ Some sea loans of Palermo, dating from 1287 to 1338, contain this clause. Zeno, Riniero, Documenti per la storia del diritto marittimo nei secoli XIII e XIV (Turin, 1936)Google Scholar, documents Nos. 10, 96, 97, 101, 103, 104, and 175. Examples as early as 1248 appear in the records of the Marseilles notary Almaric, first published by Louis Blancard, Documents inédits sur le commerce de Marseille au moyen âge. Valéry (“Les Contrats d'assurance,” p. 477) gives the Latin text with a French translation of one of these Marseilles sea loans.

¹⁵ Zeno, Documenti, p. lxxxvi.

¹⁶ Schaube, “Die wahre Beschaffenheit der Versicherung,” op. cit., pp. 479–81. According to a contract dated 1340, the shipowner, upon safe arrival of the goods, was entitled to repayment of the loan made gratis et amore and to a certain sum pro naulo et securitate (“for freight and insurance”). Schaube believed that the term securitate in this context refers not to “insurance” but to an “assurance” given by the captain that specially good care would be taken of the cargo of grain. But according to the sea laws the captain was already bound to take proper care of the cargo. It seems logical to believe that the word securitate refers to the risk assumed by the shipowner in lending money to the shippers and in making its repayment contingent upon the safe arrival of the ship. Apparently a distinction was made between charges for transportation and charges for the assumption of risk. Cf. Zeno, Documenti, p. lxxxvii.

¹⁷ Ibid., pp. 6–7, viii f.

¹⁸ Ibid., pp.lxxxi f.

¹⁹ This contract of 1317 was an isolated example found by Schaube in the Pisan archives. It is described in his third article, “Der Versicherungsgedanke in den Verträgen des Seeverkehrs vor der Entstehung des Versicherungswesens,” op. cit., pp. 155 f. Before the discovery of this Pisan document, the only known examples of insurance loans made by shipowners were found in some later Sicilian documents published by Lionti, Ferdinando, “Le Società dei Bardi, dei Peruzzi e degli Acciaiuoli in Sicilia,” Archivio storico siciliano, XIV (1889), 189–230.Google Scholar They were discussed by Schaube in the first of his three well-known articles on the origins of marine insurance, “Die wahre Beschaffenheit,” op. cit., pp. 475–79.

²⁰ Zeno, Documenti, Nos. 44, 46, 57, 74, 111, 133, 140, 148, 150, 161, 162, 167, 168, 171, 173, and 183.

²¹ Schaube, “Die wahre Beschaffenheit,” op. dt., pp. 47–55; Lattes, Alessandro, “L'Assicurazione e la voce ‘securare’ in documenti genovesi del 1191 e 1192,” Rivista del diritto commerciale, XXV, Part 1 (1927), 64–73Google Scholar; idem, “Note per la storia del diritto commerciale,” ibid., XXXIII, Part 1 (1935), 185–91; idem, Il Diritto marittimo privato nelle carte liguri dei secoli XII e XIII (Vatican City, 1939), pp. 143–47.Google Scholar

²² Bensa, Il Contralto, p. 55.

²³ Ibid., pp. 55–57; Schaube, “Die wahre Beschaffenheit,” op. cit., pp. 50–55; Checchini, “I Precedenti e lo sviluppo storico del contratto di assicurazione,” op. dt., pp. 71 f.

²⁴ The text of these entries was first published by Bensa, Il Contratto, pp. 183–89.

²⁵ Schaube dissents even from this interpretation (“Die wahre Beschaffenheit,” op. cit., pp. 494–501), but I am inclined to believe that in this instance he is hypercritical.

²⁶ This document was first published by Bensa, Il Contratto, pp. 190 f.

²⁷ dquo;This is the opinion of Giuseppe Valeri, “I Primordi dell'assicurazione attraverso il documento del 1329,” op. cit., pp. 600–41. He dissents from everyone else in believing that the third item refers to reinsurance rather than to some kind of safe-conduct secured through the offices of Grimaldi. Checchini agrees with Valeri concerning the meaning of the second item but with Schaube and others concerning the third item.—”I Precedenti,” op. cit., pp. 73–79.

²⁸ This opinion is represented by Schaube, “Die wahre Beschaffenheit,” op. cit., pp. 40–47, 504–9. Andr—”L'Histoire universelle du droit commercial de Levin Goldschmidt et les méthodes commerdales des pays chrétiens de la Méditerranée aux XII^e et XIII^e siècles,” Annales de droit commercial français, étranger et international, XL (1931), 314–16.Google Scholar

²⁹ Zeno, Documenti, pp. 229–30, No. 190.

³⁰ Ibid., pp. 230–31, No. 191.

³¹ Ibid., pp. 242–43, No. 202 (viagio non mutato absque justo impedimento Dei, marts e gentium).

³² Zeno, Documenti, pp. 233–34, No. 194.

³³ The text of this contract was published by Bensa, Il Contratto, pp. 192–93, Doc. No. III.

³⁴ Published by Bensa, Il Contratto, pp. 196–97, Doc. No. VI. For other examples, see Docs Nos. IV, V.

³⁵ See Schaube, “Der Uebergang vom Versicherungsdarlehn,” op. cit., p. 497, and the comments of Valeri, “I Primordi,” op. cit., pp. 629–30.

³⁶ Valeri (“I Primordi,” op. cit., p. 629) credits the Florentines with the invention of insurance, but this is an assertion difficult to prove, since the earliest Florentine insurance policies are later than the Genoese and Palermo insurance contracts in notarial form. Moreover, in the Palermo contracts of premium insurance published by Zeno the insurers are in all four cases Genoese.

³⁷ For examples, see Bensa, Il Contralto, p. 200, Doc. No. VIII (contract of July 12, 1370) and p. 225, Doc. No. XVII (November 16, 1426).

³⁸ W. S. Holdsworth, A History of English Law (London, n.d.), VIII, 277, n. 7.

³⁹ Bensa, Enrico, “Ancora sopra una singolare formola negli atti notarili genovesi nel medio evo,” Rivista del diritto commerciale, XXV, Part 1 (1927), 142–44.Google Scholar

⁴⁰ The text of this decree was first published by Bensa, Il Contratto, pp. 149–51 Statutes, No. 1, and republished by Placido Civiletti, “Origini dell'assicurazione,” Convegno internationale di studi storici del diritto marittimo medioevale, Amalfi, 1934, Mostra bibliografica e Convegno internazionale di studi storici del diritto marittimo medioevale, Atti, I (1934), 127, n. 7.Google Scholar

⁴¹ Schaube believes that the Doge's decree was instrumental in bringing about the shift from the mutuum to the emptio venditio form of contract.—“Uebergang vom Versicherungsdarlehn,” op. cit., p. 494.

⁴² Cafiero, “Origine delle assicurazioni marittime,” op. cit., p. 105.

⁴³ Bensa, Il Contratto, p. 73; Schaube, “Uebergang vom Versicherungsdarlehn,” op. cit., p. 495.

⁴⁴ For examples, see Bensa, Il Contratto, pp. 228–29, Doc. No. XIX (April 10, 1427); pp. 232–33, Doc. No. XXII (January 5, 1428); pp. 234–35, Doc. No. XXIII (November 15, 1430).

⁴⁵ The jurists of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries considered the insurance contract as a contractus innomatus, that is, a special contract not named in Roman law. Zeno, Storia del dirillo marittimo, pp. 169 f.

⁴⁶ This observation applies both to the four Palermo contracts published by Zeno. and the early Genoese contracts published by Bensa.

⁴⁷ See Bensa, Il Contratto, pp. 228, 232–35, 236.

⁴⁸ This policy for insurance on six bales and one fardel of silk veils, shipped from Motrone to Aigues Mortes, was published in Bensa, Il Contratto, pp. 217–20, Doc. No. XIV, and reprinted in Florence Edler [de Roover], Glossary of Mediaeval Terms of Business, Italian Series, 1200–1600 (Cambridge: The Mediaeval Academy of America, 1934), pp. 34–35.Google Scholar Bensa misread the florin sign as that of the scudo, an error I discovered only in 1938, while photographing the original document in the Datini Archives. Throughout the contract “scudi” should read “florins.” Other errors in Bensa's transcription are less serious.

⁴⁹ Prato (Tuscany), Archivio Datini, No. 1159, Assicurazioni marittime.

⁵⁰ Bensa, Francesco di Marco da Prato, is a biography of Datini, a native of Prato (Tuscany), who was one of the most prominent merchant-bankers of his time. The only study in English is Brun, Robert, “A Fourteenth-Century Merchant of Italy: Francesco Datini of Prato,” Journal of Economic and Business History, II (1930), 451–66.Google Scholar

⁵¹ For the text of such a contract, see the references in note 48.

⁵² This clause is found, e.g., in a policy of May 16, 1396, relating to a shipment from Venice to Majorca: “E se lla detta roba non si charichase in sulla detta nave, che gli asichuratori ebino s. 10 a oro per cento [fiorini], si veramentte che lla detta nave facia il detto viaggio.”— Archivio Datini, No. 1159, Assicurazioni marittime. Cf. a similar clause in the Pisan contract of 1384, Bensa, Il Contratto, p. 211.

⁵³ Ibid., pp. 217–18; Edler, Glossary, p. 34.

⁵⁴ Six months for a voyage from Motrone, the seaport of Lucca, to Aigues Mortes (Bensa, Il Contratto, p. 218) but ten months for a voyage from Porto Pisano to Barcelona or from Venice to Valencia (Archivio Datini, No. 1159, Assicurazioni marittime).

⁵⁵ Today, the insurers, having acquired title to the insured goods, would simply sell them and recover what they paid from the proceeds of the sale.

⁵⁶ Large navigation companies today have a special claims department which handles the claims of shippers for shortages. If a bill of lading mentions ten boxes but only nine are unloaded at destination, the carrier is responsible, unless he can prove that the missing box was lost by the perils of the sea. Gerard de Malynes observes in connection with theft on shipboard by members of the crew that “the master of the ship is to answer for that and to make it good so that the assurances are not to be charged with any such losse which is sometimes not observed.”—Lex mercotoria (1st ed.; London, 1622), Part I, chap, xxv, p. 151.Google Scholar

⁵⁷ Malynes, Lex mercatoria, Part I, chap, xxiv, p. 150.

⁵⁸ Bensa, Francesco di Marco da Prato, pp. 397–99.

⁵⁹ Archivio Datini, No. 1159.

⁶⁰ Giovanni da Uzzano, La Pratica delta mercatura, Vol. IV of Pagnini, Giovanni Francesco, Della Decima e di varie altre gravezze imposte dal comune di Firenze, della moneta e della mercatura de' Fiorentini fino al secolo XVI (Lisbon-Lucca, 1765–1766), p. 119Google Scholar: “E per sicurtà di mare da Londra a Pisa sempre è da fiorini 12 in 15 per 100 di valuta, e quando piùe, secondo i pericoli che sentono o di corsali o d'altro.”

⁶¹ Alfieri, Vittorio, La Partita doppia applicata alle scritture delle antiche aziende mercantili veneziane (Turin, 1891), p. 97.Google Scholar

⁶² The author had the privilege of examining the Cambi account books in 1938. At that time, these records were in the possession of Mr. Otto Lange of Florence. Later they became the property of Prince Piero Ginori Conti. The Cambi records include two ledgers of Bernardo Cambi, one for the years 1435–59 and the other for 1470–90. An interesting comparison is that between the rates in Cambi's records and those listed by Malynes in his Lex mercatoria (1622), Part I, chap, xxiv, p. 150.

⁶³ The list given in Table 1 is selective and is far from including all the Cambi entries relating to insurance.

⁶⁴ The Burgundian galleys were two galleys built for the duke of Burgundy and operated by the Medici under the Burgundian flag, that is, the flag of the Low Countries bearing at that time a St. Andrew's cross raguly. The Ferrandine galleys belonged to, and flew the flag of, King Ferrando of Naples.

⁶⁵ Lane, Venetian Ships, p. 25.

⁶⁶ Andrea Barbarigo, a fifteenth-century Venetian merchant, learned to his cost about the dangers of sending wares by cog instead of by galley.—Lane, Frederic C., Andrea Barbarigo, Merchant of Venice, 1418–1449 (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press, 1944), p. 56.Google Scholar

⁶⁷ Ibid., p. 56; Lane, Venetian Ships, p. 25; Schulte, Aloys, Geschichte der grossen Ravensburger Handelsgesellschaft, 1380–1530 (Stuttgart, 1923), II, 65–72.Google Scholar

⁶⁸ Cambi Ledger, 1470–90, fol. 58^r: “Sichurtà deon avere …. E dì 12 d'ottobre fl. 5 s.10 auto dal bancho per sichurtà di fl. 50 sulla nave portoghallese che porta le malvagie in Fiandra, ….”

⁶⁹ Ibid., fol. 66^r. The text specifies “sulle due ghaiee di Borghongna.”

⁷⁰ The captured galley carried Hans Memling's “Last Judgment,” a famous painting in the Marienkirche in Danzig. See my article, “A Prize of War: A Painting of Fifteenth Century Merchants,” Bulletin of the Business Historical Society, XIX, No. 1 (February 1945), 3–12.Google Scholar

⁷¹ Cambi Ledger, 1470–90, fol. 66^r: “E dì 10 di luglio fl. 6 da' Medici per sichurtà di fl. 100 larghi sulla ghalea di Borghongna d'Antona a Pisa, portò Francesco Tedaldi, c 67.… fl. 6.” Note that the entry uses the singular: “la ghalea.”

⁷² Cambi Ledger, 1435–59.

⁷³ Alfieri, La Partita doppia, pp. 96 f.

⁷⁴ Lane, Andrea Barbarigo, p. 116.

⁷⁵ Bensa, Francesco di Marco da Prato, pp. 183 f. In 1401, a Venetian merchant wrote to Datini with reference to the galleys: “… e niuno pensiero faremo di farvici assicurare” (“and we have no thought of insuring ourselves”).—Ibid., p. 184, n. 1.

⁷⁶ Grunzweig, Armand, Correspondence de la filiale de Bruges des Medici, Part I (Brussels, 1931), pp. 60 f.Google Scholar

⁷⁷ This contract is published by Piattoli, Livio, “L'Assicurazione contro i danni dei transporti terrestri nel medio evo,” Rivista del diritto commerciale, XXXII, Part 1 (1934), 422–38.Google Scholar

⁷⁸ Bensa, Il Contratto, p. 221, Doc. No. XV.

⁷⁹ Cambi Ledger, 1437–59, fol. 56^r: “E dì 16 di gennaio [1454] fl. cinque per valuta di £1 di grossi che i nostri di Brugia me metterono in chonto, per sichurtà di £40 di grossi fatta per me a Bonora Oliviera da Lilla a Ginevra per terra a 2½ per cento, c. 107 … fl. 5.”

⁸⁰ Ibid., fols.56^r, 112^v–113^r.

⁸¹ Since there were no mortality tables, there was no way of computing probabilities. In Genoa masters sometimes insured pregnant slaves; and husbands insured pregnant wives. Bensa, Il Contratto, pp. 228, 237, Docs. XIX, XXV, dated 1427 and 1467. Insurance of pregnant slaves was also common in Barcelona. Premiums were often paid by the person responsible for the pregnancy. Smith, Robert Sydney, “Life Insurance in Fifteenth-Century Barcelona,” The Journal of Economic History, I (1941), 57–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

⁸² The wager was usually that the ruler would die within six months. Cambi received premiums varying from 3 to 8 per cent.

⁸³ Pope Nicholas V died on March 24, 1455. The new pope, Calixtus III, was elected on April 8. The entry in Cambi's account book is dated April 1. The bet was that the pope would be elected the same day. As he was not, Cambi kept the 6 per cent premium.

⁸⁴ Goris, J. A., Etude sur les colonies marchandes méridionales à Anvers (Louvain, 1925), pp. 385–92,425–28.Google Scholar Cf. Ehrenberg, Richard, Das Zeitalter der Fugger (Jena, 1922), II, 19–21.Google Scholar

⁸⁵ Malynes, Lex mercatoria, Part I, chap, xxxvii, pp. 197–99.

⁸⁶ In medieval policies, this clause was called habeat vel non and meant that insurers promised to pay in case of accident whether the insured suffered a loss or not. Bensa, Il Contratto, p. 66.

⁸⁷ In Genoa, wagers were forbidden by statute in 1467, 1475, and 1494.—Ibid., pp. 125–27. The Barcelona statutes, as early as the fifteenth century, forbade insurance on the life of princes or of the pope. In the Low Countries, an ordinance of January 20, 1571, was issued against life insurance. Wagers had already been forbidden in 1544.

⁸⁸ Archivio Datini, No. 853, Fondaco di Barcellona, Carteggio da Bruggia. Letter dated March 13,1400: “Sono bene avisato delle bargie presse e qui anche n'è la novella, e pare abiano portato via la roba da ungni uomo … car se io vivessi mille anni, mai più farò sichurtà a persona.” The premium was 12 per cent for the voyage from Bruges to Barcelona.

⁸⁹ Piattoli, Livio, “Le leggi fiorentine sull'assicurazione nel medioevo,” Archivio storico italiano, Series 7, Vol. XVIII (1932), p. 207, n. 1Google Scholar: “I' òe fatte bene mille sichurtà; e dove tochai da fior. 150 giungnendo salvo in gharigha ed altri, e ora sulla nave Panzana òe perduti fior. 300 chon Domenicho di Chanbio. Non voglo piue di queste derate, chè non ò ventura. Altra volta ne feci guadagnare fior. 100 in mille volte, poi ne perdei a un trato [fior.] 200 cho Nicholò da Uzano e chon Benichasa Alamanni, e stete parechi anni none feci piue, poi.pure me si rimesi.”

⁹⁰ Malynes, Lex mercatoria, Part I, chap, xxv, pp. 150–51; Postlethwayt, Malachy, “Assurance,” The Universal Dictionary of Trade and Commerce (2d ed.; London, 1757), I, 135–36.Google Scholar The text of the Florentine insurance policy will be found in Bensa, Il Contratto, pp. 217–20, and in my Glossary, pp. 34–35. Cf. note 51. Goldschmidt (Universalgeschichte, p. 375, n. 122) gives a long list of published insurance policies. One may also compare the Florentine policy with the Spanish policy published by Goris, Etude sur les colonies marchandes, pp. 633–35.

⁹¹ The Antwerp Municipal Archives have a collection of hundreds of printed insurance policies of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.—Catalogue de l'Exposition de l'histoire économique d'Anvers (Antwerp, 1930), pp. 7 f.Google Scholar

⁹² Trennery (Origin and Early History of Insurance, pp. 264 ff.), discusses the Bruges court decisions at considerable length but he assumes that Flanders played a greater role in the development of marine insurance than the country really did. He fails to notice that the insurers were Italians in almost every case. There were only one or two exceptions.

⁹³ Severen, L. Gilliodts-van, Cartulaire de l'Estaple (Bruges, 1904), II, 181–82Google Scholar, No. 1123, May 19, 1469, Jeronème Vento vs. Jean Baptiste de Laignello.

⁹⁴ Ibid., pp. 74–75, No. 993, January 24,1458 (n.s.), Pierre Noël vs. Pierre de Rabata. The defendant was the partner of Bernardo Cambi who, as has been pointed out, underwrote many an insurance policy.

⁹⁶ Ibid., pp. 62–63, No. 982, March 7,1457 (n.s.).

⁹⁶ Gilliodts-van Severen, Cartulaire, II, 90–91, No. 1013, April 14, 1459, Marco Gentile vs. Pol and Francesco Justiniani; ibid., pp. 92–94, Marco Gentile vs. Michel Arnolfini, Charles Lommelin, and Angelo Tany.

⁹⁷ Ibid., p. 43, No. 967, August 4, 1456, Zegherin Saren vs. Gregoire Lommelin.

⁹⁸ Ibid., pp. 203–4, No. 1154, July 18, 1470, Jeronème Vento vs. Pierre de Perandre and Rolland van der Vlamincpoorte. The latter, judging by the name, was evidently a Fleming.

⁹⁹ On Genoese legislation, see Bensa, Il Contratto, pp. 82–90. On Venetian statutes, see Sacerdoti, Adolfi, “L'Assicurazione a Venezia,” Atti del R. Istituto veneto, LVI (1897–1898), 1082–98.Google Scholar On Florentine laws, there are the studies by Bonolis, Guido, “Contributo alla storia delle assicurazioni,” Archivio storico italiano, Series 5, Vol. XXII (1898), pp. 312–21Google Scholar, and by Piattoli, “Le Leggi fiorentine,” op. cit., pp. 205–57.

¹⁰⁰ Bensa, Il Contratto, pp. 91–109.

¹⁰¹ Barbour, Violet, “Marine Risks and Insurance in the Seventeenth Century,” Journal of Economic and Business History, I (1929), 572, 595 f.Google Scholar

¹⁰² Holdsworth, History of English Law, VIII, 293.