Lombard Families in the late medieval Valencia: The Prato

Abstract

In the buoyant Valencia of the VX century Italians were the biggest and most dynamic foreign community. Amongst them stood out the Lombards, behind the Ligures and Tuscans. Our objective is to analyze Prato’s family trajectory, native from Mombaruzzo, during their stay in the Valencia of the second half of the XV century, who was amongst the most actives families in the Lombarda colony. The documentation allows us to recover their economic activities, but also aspects of their daily life like material and religious culture. The bulk of their sales in Valencia and Castilla was the glasto (pastel grass), where they acquired wool, that they exported to Italy. Their stay was always temporal and their level of integration in Valencian society scarce.