Chapter 2 focuses on the contribution of the merchant-bankers of Florence to the creation and early spread of the florin. It challenges the traditional view that the florin was simply the result of a request made by the Florentine mercantile class, as narrated by Giovanni Villani in his fourteenth-century chronicle. Instead, it argues that the role of the mercantile elite was more complex and instrumental: rather than merely requesting the florin, merchants facilitated its creation through their familiarity with gold and its supply and their know-how and capacity to run the Florentine mint and strike innovative coins, control actual monetary production of Florence, administer government monetary policy, provide a network for the early circulation of the florin, and decide on the iconography of the coin. By analysing scattered records documenting the activities of the Florentine merchant-bankers in Italy, Europe, and the Mediterranean kept at the State Archives of Venice, Genoa, Florence and the Archivio Diocesano of Lucca, the chapter offers a comprehensive understanding of the dynamics that allowed the florin to emerge as the final product of the commercial, financial, and political activities and, importantly, the identity of the Florentine mercantile class, who also acted as the new ruling elite at the time of the Primo Popolo.
Chapter 4 examines the diffusion of the florin within the financial system of the papal Curia. Drawing on surviving registers of papal letters, the chapter opens by analysing the relationship between the popes and the Florentine merchant-bankers, which grew significantly in importance, though remained non-exclusive, in the second half of the thirteenth century. It was only under the pontificate of Boniface VIII (1294–1303) that the florin would emerge as a ‘unique selling proposition’, enabling the Florentines to gain dominance over papal finances. However, the analysis of previously overlooked registers in the Collectoriae series of the Archivio Apostolico Vaticano, detailing the collection of Pope Gregory X’s sexennial tithe in southern Italy from 1274 to 1278, shows that the florin was already the predominant currency collected by papal officials, accounting for one-third of the tithe’s total value, despite the lack of a papal mandate or legal obligation to pay in florins. In light of these findings, the chapter further explores papal expenditure of tithe money, emphasising the mutual benefits for both the papacy and the florin. The papacy facilitated the widespread adoption of the florin by using it to fund its political projects. In turn, the florin empowered the popes to project their power and assert their authority beyond their immediate domains.
The beginning of Part II of the book, this chapter follows a course between St Paul’s monastery in Jarrow and the author’s home in the suburban village of Cleadon. The significance of the Venerable Bede is threaded throughout the chapter as Bede’s life and legacy are set against modern and contemporary Jarrow. The author contemplates the 1936 Jarrow Crusade as he then follows the course of the River Don, a tributary of the Tyne. The chapter includes a stop in Boldon Colliery, where the author’s great-grandfather Nick worked, further exploring afterimages of industry and class.
Crossing on to the south banks of the River Wear and into Sunderland proper, this chapter explores the old heart of the city around Hendon and the docks. The author is shown around by photographer Andy Martin, whose images of decaying industrial infrastructure and the relics of shipbuilding are beautifully captured in long-exposure photographs. The author visits 1719 Holy Trinity Church and learns about the changing demography of the city, with new ethnicities and religions diversifying the population. A tour to Hendon beach is followed by a return to Martin’s studio, where the author has ‘tintype’ headshots taken, allowing for a rumination on the combinations of art and science that constitute the region.
With the author walking from Blyth to North Shields, this chapter concludes Part I of the book. In the first section of the chapter, the author is joined by fellow poets Kris Johnson and John Challis as they explore their joint vocations. The travelogue aspect of the journey finds new resonance in a more urban-coastal environment around Whitley Bay, where a brick offered by the sea to Johnson and Challis stands in for a metaphor for their nascent love. In the second section of this chapter, the author is shown around Tynemouth and North Shields by the musician Aaron Duff, with topics such as regeneration, the fishing industry and local pride being discussed.
The Introduction situates the book within the context of the return to gold in western Europe during the ‘Commercial Revolution’ while exploring the nature, purposes, and social life of money in the Middle Ages. It begins by reviewing existing interpretations of the origins of the florin, highlighting how prior literature has primarily focused on long-distance trade and its needs, neglecting non-commercial contexts, the broader consequences of the florin’s diffusion, and the contributions of the people and institutions that adopted the coin. The key analytical concepts guiding the investigation are then presented. Money was never merely an instrument of the market to facilitate transactions or an abstract unit of account determined solely by the state. Instead, it has always been a social construct with values and meanings shaped by its users within their social networks. In this regard, the investigation combines ‘metallist’ and ‘chartalist’ approaches to money and employs the methods of economic sociology to fully appreciate the florin’s historical significance. Key questions guiding the analysis include: Who used the florin? For what purposes was it employed? Were there specific markets for its circulation? What advantages did it confer? Finally, the Introduction outlines the archaeological and documentary sources underpinning the study, details the methodology, and discusses the research’s limitations, concluding with an overview of the book’s chapters.
The Introduction outlines the purpose of the pilgrimage, its historical precedent and the rationale for the route that readers will be taken along and key way-markers they will encounter. Set partially in Durham Cathedral and exploring the symbolism of the cult of Saint Cuthbert, the Introduction foreshadows the conclusion to the book, suggesting the notion of the cyclical nature of pilgrimage. The medieval context of the monks’ procession from Lindisfarne to Durham Cathedral is explored, as are the contemporary resonances in initiatives such as the Northern Saints Trails. The chapter uses other totemic items such as a mug to frame wider concepts such as regional identity and belonging.
The chapter is set in Chester-le-Street and explores what the author terms ‘Cuthbert of the ether’. The author is joined by medievalist Carl Kears and they undertake a peregrination around the town. The chapter seeks to situate the contemporary ‘echoes’ of Saint Cuthbert in the town in which his body spent a century before being interred at Durham. A visit to St Mary’s & St Cuthbert’s Church provides an encounter with a facsimile of the Lindisfarne Gospels, setting up a digression on the idea of duplications and ghost images. The author considers a Gospels-inspired mural on a wall on the outskirts of the town and further riffs on the poetry of the area.
Chapter 1 examines the period preceding the introduction of the florin or its ‘pre-history’, adopting a ‘macro to micro’ approach. It opens with an analysis of the broader economic and monetary conditions of Europe and the Mediterranean, then narrows its focus to Florence and its economic and political contexts between the late twelfth and mid-thirteenth centuries. The chapter shows that the minting of the florin was a strategic response to the decline of existing gold coins rather than a revolutionary act. Various factors prompted Genoa, Florence, and possibly Lucca to mint gold in the 1250s, including the growing demand for stable currency in long-distance trade, the diminishing intrinsic value of gold coins in circulation, and differing supply and demand dynamics for gold and silver in Western Europe and the Muslim World. In Florence, the florin emerged during a period of exceptional urban and manufacturing growth and political renewal following the death of Emperor Frederick II Hohenstaufen in 1250. This context created a unique opportunity for the introduction of the new currency. The florin furthered the economic interests and political purposes of the Primo Popolo, the new mercantile city-government. From its first minting, it was both a financial innovation and a political instrument, circumventing imperial privilege – the exclusive right to mint full-value gold currency – and redefining civic authority as quasi-imperial power. The story of the florin was essentially also a political one, highlighting Florentine autonomy, sovereignty, and the rise of a new social class to power.
The Prologue is a scene-setter in which the inciting incident – the author receiving the Davy lamp once owned by his great-grandfather Nick as a family heirloom – tees-up the wider geographic, historic and socio-cultural context. Figured around the notion of first-footing, this short chapter introduces key motifs and themes, including the important threading notions of light versus dark and the figurative importance of baton passing.