Santi Fantoni and Luigi Federighi | Letter to Lorenzo Corsini, [Cádiz], 1590

Santi Fantoni and Luigi Federighi

Clerical letter to Lorenzo Corsini in Florence,

discussing business matters including the "corsali inglesi" (English pirates) and interest rates

in two different hands, integral address panel ("A Lorenzo Corsini, Firenze") with later endorsement ("1590 Calis Fantoni Federighi Gennaro @ 8 de 28 Novembre"), small papered seal, 3 pages, folio, Cádiz, 31 October 1590 and 28 November 1590, creases at folds and stab holes from closure tab, a few small holes from ink corrosion

Santi Fantoni and Luigi Federighi were Florentine merchants operating out of Seville, at a time when Florence was both artistically and commercially prosperous. Fantoni and Federighi were two of the principal Florentine merchants at the time, operating joint shipments from Cádiz and Seville to the New World, until Federighi died in 1612; their descendent Santi Federighi became one of the most powerful merchants in New Spain in the seventeenth century. Their correspondent, Lorenzo Corsini, was a member of another prominent Florentine mercantile family.

At the time of writing, Spanish ports were officially closed to English merchants, though much trade continued illicitly.