Putting a Price on the Throne of Saint Peter: Gambling and Commerce in Sixteenth-Century Italy.
In late August 1530, three Florentine merchants formed a partnership specifically to wager on the outcome of the papal election following the death of Pope Sixtus V. Thanks to the survival of an account book compiled by one of the three, Dinozzo Lippi, their undertaking can be examined in detail. Th...
| Publicado en: | Journal of Modern History Vol. 96; no. 3; pp. 517 - 545 |
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| Formato: | Artículo |
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University of Chicago Press
Sep2024
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=179515655&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: hlh uiTerm: 179515655 longDbName: Humanities International Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 00222801 JMH jtl: Journal of Modern History issn: 00222801 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Sep2024 vid: 96 iid: 3 pid: 415 pub: University of Chicago Press artinfo: ui: 179515655 10.1086/731369 ppf: 517 ppct: 28 formats: tig: atl: Putting a Price on the Throne of Saint Peter: Gambling and Commerce in Sixteenth-Century Italy. aug: au: Baker, Nicholas Scott affil: Macquarie University su: Marine insurance Account books Insurance exchanges Financial risk Foreign exchange sug: subj: Marine insurance Account books Insurance exchanges Financial risk Foreign exchange ab: In late August 1530, three Florentine merchants formed a partnership specifically to wager on the outcome of the papal election following the death of Pope Sixtus V. Thanks to the survival of an account book compiled by one of the three, Dinozzo Lippi, their undertaking can be examined in detail. This article analyzes the account book within the contexts of Lippi's commercial career, the tradition of betting on papal elections, the specific historical circumstances of the September 1590 conclave, and the practices of commercial speculation in Renaissance Italy. I argue that it reveals not only the internal functioning of the papal betting market but also the intellectual habitat for financial risk taking in premodern Europe prior to the development of mathematical probability theory. Lippi's careful accounting of bets demonstrates how merchants made qualitative probabilistic decisions, revealing how an investment made on the identity of the next pope was no less rational nor speculative than an investment made in currency exchange or maritime insurance. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: Y dt: @attributes: year: 2024 holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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