The City, the Duke and Their Banker: The Rapondi Family and the Formation of the Burgundian State (1384-1430)

While the emphasis of the book lies on the Rapondis' activities in Bruges, the meeting-place of international trade and finance in the fourteenth and fifteenth century, it also offers new insights into other important episodes of this period, including the Great Western Schism that divided the Papacy, the continuing hostilities between England and France and the internal French conflict between Bourguignons and Armagnacs. In doing so, The Duke, The City and their Banker shows how an Italian merchant family was able to shape the late medieval economic and political history.