IMC 2011: Sessions

Session 1018: Wealth and Trade in the Mediterranean and beyond

Moderator/Chair:	Francesco Dall'Aglio, Istituto Italiano per gli Studi Storici, Napoli
Paper 1018-a	'Rich in gold and cloths': Constructing a Brand Image for Medieval Amalfi? (Language: English) Patricia E. Skinner, Independent Scholar, Southsea Index terms: Economics - Urban, Historiography - Medieval
Abstract	Paper -a: Medieval Amalfi in the 10th and 11th centuries was considered by contemporaries as the home of wealthy merchants and a super-rich marketplace for luxury goods. Like its better-known counterpart in Mediterranean trade, Venice, its merchants are known to have settled throughout the eastern Mediterranean littoral. My paper argues that this Amalfitan 'diaspora' was largely responsible for constructing a glamorous image of medieval Amalfi that exaggerated the reality of their home city, contributing to their own wealth and success abroad, and that the image later became a literary topos which survived long after Amalfi's heyday as a commercial centre came to an end.