Abstract

Published here are six letters held in the Datini Archives in Prato and signed by Biagio di Giannello, a merchant from Ancona who held important political positions in his city. Two of the letters are actually written by a different hand, probably that of a collaborator coming from a more internal and southern area of the Marche between Foligno and Camerino. The letters provide insight into the dialects employed and shed light on the linguistic contact within a fondaco of the early fifteenth century and on the documentary practices typical of merchant letters.