People database

Origin

Firenze

Place of activity

Seville, Santo Domingo

Born in Florence in 1513, like Soderini he was forced to leave the city because of his father's republican ideas. His father was executed and the family's large patrimony was confiscated. In 1532, he moved to Seville. In 1539, he sailed for Santo Domingo aboard the Concepción. After a few weeks, the ship put in at Cape Verde to purchase enslaved people to be transported to the Antilles. A total of 250 people were embarked (Cei bought 40 of them) at a price of 36 ducats each. During the voyage, 12 people died of smallpox. Prior to departure, he entered into a two-year accomandita with Luigi Ricasoli, a fellow Florentine based in Seville. Under this agreement, Ricasoli would supply Cei with goods to sell. Cei began selling his merchandise, but Ricasoli's death interrupted the shipments from Spain. After concluding his business with the Ricasoli heirs, he embarked on a caravel bound for Venezuela and Cabo de la Vela. In the nearby pearl-fishing area, he purchased three indigenous people to work as fishermen, who earned him 400 ducats in about ten months. In September 1542, he returned to Santo Domingo, where he resumed living with Giovanni Soderini and Mauro Fantoni. Over the next few years, he participated in various colonisation expeditions in Venezuela and the New Kingdom of Granada, reaching as far as Bogotá. In 1553, he returned to Seville, where he resumed and expanded his commercial activities to include Italy, Germany, and France. He returned to Florence in 1560, where he held several public offices, and he died there in 1579.

Origin

Seville

Place of activity

Santo Domingo

He was born in Seville, probably in 1512, to Iacopo from Florence and Antonia Gonçales from Portugal. His father had arrived in Andalusia in 1506 and entered the city's lucrative trade in collaboration with other Florentine merchants, becoming the go-to contact for many Tuscan traders active in Seville. In 1532, Iacopo sent his eldest son, Bernardo, to Florence, while Mauro continued to trade with the Americas. A few years later, to reduce the risk of seizures and confiscations, and to take advantage of opportunities in the New World, Iacopo decided to send Mauro to Santo Domingo. This seems to have been prompted by the heirs of Luigi Ricasoli wanting to send a representative to the island to conclude business begun with Galeotto Cei. Fantoni arrived in Santo Domingo between 1541 and 1542, probably spending the rest of his life in the Caribbean. In June 1543, he married Maria Giustiniani, who was from Genoa. He joined the company of Luigi da Lampugnano, Giovan Antonio Piccolomini, and Scipione Pecci to fish for pearls on the island of Cubagua. The company purchased the galleon San Andrés, commanded by Juan Sodo, and Fantoni sent four enslaved men to the Caribbean to work in the enterprise through him. Fantoni sent two of them — Alonso, aged twenty-four, and Juan Marcos, aged twenty — while Pecci assigned a black man named Francisco, aged about twenty-five, to the company. Juan Sodo chose Pedro, who was also twenty-five years old. The contract stipulated that the four men should receive a monthly wage of 1,000 maravedís, as well as food and drink.

Origin

Firenze

Place of activity

Seville

In December 1526 Luigi Ricasoli and Giovanni Orsucci form Lucca, after declaring that they had resided in Spain for more than fifteen years, obtained from the sovereign the right to send goods accompanied by enslaved people to the West Indies.

Origin

Firenze

Place of activity

Santo Domingo

He was born in Florence on 27 July 1511. Following the beheading of his father, a republican, and the sequestration of the family's property, he was forced to leave the city. He moved to Seville, and from there to Santo Domingo around 1536. By 1543, he owned La Magdalena, a sugar mill located southwest of Santo Domingo. During this period, he met Alonso Hernández de Las Varas, a wealthy sugar entrepreneur whose family had been established in Hispaniola for many years. Shortly afterwards, he married Alonso's eldest daughter, Isabel, thereby entering the island's sugar oligarchy. Through this marriage, he became co-owner of the Santa Bárbara sugar mill near Azua la Vieja. Towards the end of his life, it is estimated that he owned around 200 enslaved people, with 53 registered at La Magdalena in 1556, 138 at Santa Bárbara in 1557, and nine in his domestic service. Despite having attained an excellent position, he diversified his business by trading with Cuba. In 1552, he organised an enterprise with the German Melchor Grubel to mine gold in the Colombian Andes.