ABSTRACT
Few western manuals of general commercial practice from the later Middle Ages have survived. They substantially differ one from another in extent, substance and the arrangement of their material. All of them, however, have in common a body of information on commodities, as well as on weights, measures and moneys found in specific cities or countries and their rate of conversion into those of others. Pegolotti's Pratica della mercatura, whose original title is Libro di divisamenti di paesi et di misure di mercantie, belongs to a group of Tuscan manuals. Of similar interest are Venetian works of a somewhat different type. It is significant that Cyprus is mentioned only in three of its entries, in connection with Montpellier, Manfredonia in Southern Italy and Constantinople respectively, yet not with Venice or Acre. Equally precious is the new information bearing on the mints of Acre, Alexandria, Constantinople and the Seldjukid city of Sivas or Sebastia.
