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The coalition was embedded into a wider system of personal networks. Individuals who were part of Lorenzo’s personal network, such as his relative Dolfino Dolfin qd. Giacomo (a Con-stantinople resident), continued to assist him in his commerce. Dolfino wrote about commer-cial matters while also providing relevant political news.¹⁰¹ Yet, despite the lack of evidence

99 Giovanni Morosini confirmed the services provided by Lorenzo in his letters, which illustrate their coalitional relationship in addition to the aforementioned recordatio and another document leaving instructions to Lorenzo ahead of one of Giovanni’s journeys to Constantinople (Morosini, Giovanni qd. Marino to Dolfin, Lorenzo qd.

Antonio: Declaration, 20 June 1439. 20.06.1439, ASVe, Procuratori di San Marco, Citra, b. 282, fasc. 1, int. 4, f. [10]: “Chonzosia che mi Zan Morexini de miser Marin […] siando per partir mi de Venexia per andar al viazo de Constantinopoli […]. Io si lassi in rechomandixia per vender certe mie veste et chosse a ser Lorenzo Dolfin quondam miser Antonio…”). According to Giovanni’s letters, Lorenzo sold (processed) textiles on Giovanni’s behalf and managed Giovanni’s account with the Soranzo bank (Morosini, Giovanni qd. Marino to Dolfin, Lorenzo qd. Antonio, 05.10.1438, ASVe, Procuratori di San Marco, Citra, b. 282, fasc. 1, int. 2, f. [29]: “…Per quella de Mafio Conttarini et per la vostra rimagno avixato chome hi avete dato in el bancho di Soranzi ducati 25 per mio nome et dite li son hi ducati dela vesta avete vendato lo resto m’avete servito...”).

100 E.g. reporting the sale of brocades from Damascus, which he postponed in order to increase returns by 8 to 10 percent (Morosini, Giovanni qd. Marino to Dolfin, Lorenzo qd.Antonio, 20.05.1442, ASVe, Procuratori di San Marco, Citra, b. 282, fasc. 1, int. 2, f. [23]: “…Come ve puol eser manifesto da ser Francesco Querini fo de ser Fantin me fo richomandati 3 peze de damaschini […] brochati hi dovesse vender o baratar […] onde li vendi a tenpo del retorno dele gallie de mar mazor per miorarli in 2 mexi piui de quelo poza far a i conttadi da 8 in 10 per cento”); reporting prices of European textiles in Constantinople (see above, Morosini, Giovanni qd. Marino an Dolfin, Lorenzo qd. Antonio, 28.05.1438, ASVe, Procuratori di San Marco, Citra, b. 282, fasc. 1, int. 2, f.

[43]).

101 An example of Dolfino’s description of the situation in the Byzantine empire is in Dolfin, Dolfino qd.

Giacomo to Dolfin, Lorenzo qd. Antonio, 17.06.1442, ASVe, Procuratori di San Marco, Citra, b. 282, fasc. 1,

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for his financial involvement with members of the Dolfin-Morosini coalition, his letters still resemble those of a family representative, maintaining a branch of the family business in a distant location.¹⁰² Dolfino provided information about the Constantinople spice market but did not explicitly report on performed transactions.¹⁰³

Although the letters sent to Lorenzo from Constantinople in the 1440s document Lorenzo’s continuous involvement in long-distance trade, there is no documentation for the following two decades. It is possible that Lorenzo retired from his trading activities during the final two decades of his life.¹⁰⁴

Unlike his uncle Biagio, who died before reaching the age of fifty, Lorenzo Dolfin lived well into his seventies. His life was typical in the context of the fifteenth-century patriciate in that he gained experience in both commerce and the Republican civil service before taking the lead in ambitious long-distance trade ventures. Equally typical was his long-term investment strategy. In terms of its economic development, Venice was primarily characterised by the expansion and further economic exploration of the terraferma in the first half of the fifteenth century. Urban mercantile elites who retreated to the rural parts of Venetia soon created a dis-tinct social class of wealthy landowners with quite differentiated economic interests.¹⁰⁵ Alt-hough Lorenzo Dolfin’s life and career seem to fit this pattern of gradual retreat, he never set-tled permanently outside the city of Venice. Rather, Lorenzo’s temporary settlements in the

int. 2, f. [20]: “Nuove de qui el signor turcho con el disporti fradel de l’imperador he acordato a desfacion de l’imperador e de Constantinopoli sollo per far signor el dispotti che tegno non su gneia facta alla raxon e no che questa de lo luogo non el s’ofreria mai per dubio del turcho. Avixandovi che el predicto dispotti ogni zorno con el favor de turchi chare suxo le partte de qui che he gram dano a sto luocho per esser tucti i passe de Grettia seradi e Turchia et a vostra informattion l’imperador in sti zorni passatti mando suo ambassadori sollene al turcho iqual rettorno senza far nulla. Tegnando sechondo l’opinion mia la cossa antedicte starmo assai ai zonsse che gran dano sera alla marchadantia.”

102 Lane, Andrea Barbarigo, p. 120; for branching, see Rubin, Jared: "Bills of Exchange, Financial Networks, and Quasi-Impersonal Exchange in Western Europe and the Middle East", in: Christ, G., Morche, F.-J., Zaugg, R., Kaiser, W., Beihammer, A., Burkhardt, S. (eds.), Union in Separation: Diasporic Groups and Identities in the Eastern Mediterranean, 1100-1800, Rome: Viella, 2015, pp. 545-554.

103 Letter Dolfin, Dolfino qd. Giacomo to Dolfin, Lorenzo qd. Antonio, 13.03.1443, ASVe, Procuratori di San Marco, Citra, b. 282, fasc. 1, int. 2, f. [16].

104 The last Romania letter was written by Dolfino Dolfin in December 1448 (Dolfin, Dolfino qd. Giacomo to Dolfin, Lorenzo qd. Antonio, 08.12.1448, ASVe, Procuratori di San Marco, Citra, b. 282, fasc. 1, int. 2, f. [7]).

105 Lanaro, Paola: "Flexibilité et diversification comme réponse au risque: les investissements du patriciat vénitien et de la « Terraferma » aux débuts de l’époque moderne", in: Working Paper, Department of Economics, Ca' Foscari University of Venice 22 (2008).

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terraferma and his eventual investments in terraferma real estate should rather be seen as el-ements of an archetypical patrician career that comprised consecutive stages as diaspora mer-chant, the pursuit of a cursus honorum in the civil service, and the pursuit of long-distance trade from Venice through a network of resident agents and a family-based commercial coali-tion. In this respect, Lorenzo’s life resembles those of other patrician contemporaries, such as Andrea Barbarigo and Biagio Dolfin.¹⁰⁶

Lorenzo Dolfin’s personal network served both social and economic purposes. The (extend-ed) patrician family was a pool of support and mutual obligations, which served a variety of purposes well beyond commercial cooperation. This is particularly visible in the way state of-fices were distributed within patrician networks and executed with the backing of the family environment.¹⁰⁷ A great many of Lorenzo Dolfin’s relatives served in official capacity in the terraferma and the Venetian overseas territories. When ascending to state service, Venetian patricians could usually count on the support of their kin in conducting their office and for the parallel pursuit of commercial affairs. As camerario of Vicenza, Lorenzo heavily relied on his affinal family in Venice, where his father-in-law Marino Morosini took care of his business interests. In return, Lorenzo supported his relatives who held official positions. The letter by which Nicolò Dolfin qd. Benedetto informed his cousin Lorenzo about his appointment as podestà of Sacile is particularly insightful in this respect.¹⁰⁸ Nicolò wrote to Lorenzo (then still residing in Vicenza) to request ornaments, flags, and trumpets that Biagio Dolfin had used during his service as consul.¹⁰⁹

Yet, the commercial dimension remained the most crucial aspect of Lorenzo’s personal net-work during his senior years. Apart from Lorenzo’s own temporary residencies in the ter-raferma, an account book provides a glimpse into his investment strategies as a senior. This

106 Christ: Trading Conflicts; Lane: Andrea Barbarigo.

107 O'Connell, Monique: Men of Empire: Power and Negotiation in Venice’s Maritime State, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009, pp. 57-74.

108 Letter Dolfin, Nicolò qd. Benedetto to Dolfin, Lorenzo qd. Antonio, 011.1426, ASVe, Procuratori di San Marco, Citra, b. 282, fasc. 3, f. [45].

109 Ibid.: “Ve prego orna e bandiere da tronbeta el stendardo elqual fo de vostro barba. E se alguna arma de testa ve atrovese se quelo ve piari conse<g>narme e inprestarme azio che quando a vui le bexognase avanti el mio […] me oferò de mandarvele. E de questo me respondar pluy presto che vuy par azio che posando fornirme per lo mezo vostro e posar andar al dito rezimento. Et in caxo che no me pose fornir dele sovrascritte chose [o verde perte dequale avexamente] perché diqua [e me ne] forniria al mio [ch'io po dar] avanti la mia partida.”

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quaderno of 1467 is at the same time the last preserved CLD document.¹¹⁰ The (single-entry) account book, signed by Lorenzo Dolfin himself, lists the returns from Lorenzo’s real estate property. Unfortunately, only the (ripped-off) cover page is preserved with merely two items listed on the back.¹¹¹