ABSTRACT
In 1392, Sabatino Russo, a Jewish merchant from Lecce, formed in Alexandria a joint venture with the Venetian merchant Biagio Dolfin. The purpose of this cooperation was to engage in trade between Alexandria, Apulia and Venice. This venture eventually went awry, and Dolfin tried to dissolve it, unsuccessfully it seems, until his premature death in Cairo in 1420. Sabatino Russo was a merchant originally from Copertino who resided in Lecce. The Jewish communities of both Copertino and Lecce date back to the mid-fourteenth century, when communities of neophytes, i.e. of Jews forcefully converted to Christianity but who later returned to the Judaic faith, settled in these communities, where they were evidently well received and relatively protected. Sabatino and Biagio decided to collaborate and to form a limited liability partnership on 7 May 1392. They probably did this on the basis of shared trading interests but also as an expression of sympathy and friendship as well as complementary mercantile profiles.
