Il fisco in una statualità divisa: Impero, principi e ceti in area trentino-tirolese nella prima età moderna. Marcello Bonazza
the organization of their silk firm, the channels through which they secured raw materials for their silk manufactory, the markets in which they placed their products, and the complex (if, one must confess, insufficiently studied) mechanisms through which demand for these products was generated and sustained. Throughout, Tognetti is able to present his argument clearly and efficiently, drawing on often impressive quantities of empirical data, which are organized in tables and in a series of appendices that are useful in clarifying his points. This little book is endowed with considerable strengths. It is also plagued by some not minor problems. Most crucial is the absence of a conclusion of sorts that might set Tognetti's findings into some sort of larger perspective. The book ends in the midst of a technical discussion on an issue dealing with the price of a shipment of Calabrian silk to Florence in 1460. Even if this chapter were an article, a journal editor would have demanded a more forceful and clear conclusion. Equally, the publisher would have done Tognetti a favor by insisting that this book be properly rounded out. There are other problems: Tognetti rests his case as regards his approach to the subject with an appeal to the method of case studies. This is fine so long as an effort is made to cast the individual studies against the backdrop of a larger canvas. Here, one is struck by Tognetti's reluctance to venture into morecomprehensive analyses of the Florentine economy, even if one must admit that his discussion of broad theoretical issues about the operations of premodern economies helps to present his case studies in broader perspective. There is also a recurrent refrain regarding the marvels and strengths of Florentine capitalism, even if, by now, one should have learned to temper such triumphalist rhetoric. Finally, although Tognetti makes much of the Mediterranean arena in which the Florentine silk industry is alleged to have developed, a study of his book's tables and appendices rather shows that the Florentine silk industry did not rely much at all on Mediterranean markets. Rather it was places to the north, in France and elsewhere, that provided the stimulus necessary for the development of the Florentine silk industry. These shortcomings notwithstanding, this monograph makes a useful and important contribution to our understanding of the fifteenthand early-sixteenthcentury Florentine economy. One now wishes that Tognetti would use his considerable knowledge of the sources and historiographic problems to tackle broader, more complex, and ambitious issues regarding the course of Florence's economy in the late-medieval and early modern centuries. ANTHONY MOLHO The European University Institute