ABSTRACT
In the trading emporium of Tana on the Sea of Azov, the Venetian merchant Pietro Stornello wrote out a will by hand in 1392, before departing on a trading venture east to the shores of the Caspian Sea. He handed the will to Antonio de Coradino, chancellor of the Venetian colony in Tana, for formal registration. Stornello died on that trip, and the chancellor himself died before writing up the will in formal terms. Like most collections of estate papers in the Commissarie kept by the procurators of Saint Mark, that of Pietro Stornello contains a parchment account book with a copy of the will of the testator and then the transactions by which the procurators settled the estate. There is a document in a Saint Petersburg collection that adds significantly to knowledge of the life, business history, and death of Pietro Stornello.
