From: Histoire ancienne jusqu'a César (copy from 1260) painted in Saint-Jean-d'Acre (Lebanon)

 

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Francesco Balducci Pergolotti; (1340)
Pratica della mercatura (The mercantile practice)  
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The Pratica della Mercatura provides important evidence regarding the Eurasian trade ca. 1340, during the period when the "Golden Horde" (the western part of the Mongol Empire) was at its height. The author, Francesco Balducci Pegolotti, worked for the Florentine merchant firm of Bardi. He had been in Antwerp in 1315, London in 1317, Cyprus from 1324-1327 and again in the 1330s. Presumably his service in the Eastern Mediterranean required that he know the products and prices in the major centers of the Eastern trade.

Taken from: Della decima e di varie altre gravezze imposte dal comune di Firenze, Volume 2 By Giovanni Francesco Pagnini, Francesco Balducci Pegolotti, Giovanni di Antonio da Uzzano

  Vol3p49

Accre

Sold by the cantaro

 (A cantaro of Acre of spices weighed 220.7 kilograms and a cantaro of Acre of cotton, 227.5 kilograms.)

 ….Sugar cane; powder sugar; teeth of elephants; ..

 Vol3p56

Alexandria

Sold by the cantare forfori (25.2kg)

Giengiovo(spice), and lacquer, and inscence, and verzino(spice), and quicksilver, teeth of elephants, Orpiment, (common monoclinic arsenic sulfide mineral) silk worms, sandals, zettoaro(spice), and aloe in any amount…: all this is sold by the cantare forfori (25.2kg)

 Vol3p65

Cyprus, town of Famagosta

Here is sold per rutoli (maybe 2.5kg) and for bifanti (gold coins) teeth of elephants….

 Vol3p113

Majolica (island of Majorca)

Here is sold by the Cantara della Terra (40-50kg)

….and ivory in all amounts; teeth of elephants….

 Vol3p137

Venice

Sold by the union of Foreign-merchants as well as the union of Citizens.

….teeth of elephants….

 Vol4p5

Firenze

Porta Santa Maria

Worked Ivory per pound

Non-worked Ivory per pound

 Vol4p75

Siena

 Worked Ivory per pound

Non-worked Ivory per pound

 Vol4p111

The reasonable running of the merchandise at Alexandria

Teeth of elephants 20 bifanti (gold coins)

Leftovers of the teeth 11 bifanti

 Vol4p191

Gienova

By cientinajo (maybe 45 kg)

….teeth of ivory, and the leftovers of this….

 

Several authors concluded that ivory in Europe came for a big part from Eastern Africa. Added on are some other extracts from manuscripts that support this conclusion.

 

 

Unpublished chronicle of Paolo di Matteo di Piero di Fastello Pietriboni (1422)

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Taken from: http://www.storia.unive.it/_RM/didattica/strumenti/sapori/letture/6let.htm

 

 

Giorgio Gucci: Viaggio si Luoghi Santi (1384)

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Taken from: The oliphant: Islamic objects in historical context By Avinoam Shalem

 

He saw elephant tusks is Cairo who were: not a great thing, because in Venice I saw many, and elsewhere, which were three or four braccia (c. 180 or 240cm)

 

Assises de la Cour aux Bourgeois (1244)

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Taken from: The Latin kingdom of Jerusalem, Volume 2 By Jean Richard

 

(1) Halfon b. Nethanel: (12th century), wealthy businessman in Egypt. Ḥalfon's affairs extended from India and Yemen to Spain. Numerous letters, addressed to him from furthest parts of the Jewish Diaspora, which bear evidence of his generosity and wealth, have been found in the Cairo Genizah.

(2) dirhams: silver coin of the Arab world (3 gr of silver).