People database
People from the Italian peninsula involved in the Atlantic slave trade and slavery, 15th–19th centuries. Search by name or filter by role, place, network and period.
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Monsagrati Juan Isidoro
1770–1784A native of Lucca, in 1770 he was appointed administrator and later factor in Cádiz of the Real Compañía de La Habana, deeply involved in the Cuban slave economy. He was paid 1% on the sales of goods landed from Havana and 1% on purchases destined for the colonies. The accounts he signed include the item «en negros»: 12,161 pesos and 6 reales in the Estado de los Fondos of 1777 and a further 10,295 pesos among the actual holdings in Havana in the accounts of 1782. He handled the fitting out and insurance of the fleet, including the Santa María de Gracia, a paquebote purchased for the «conducción de negros».
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Monsagrati María Justa
1782–1789Eldest daughter of Juan Isidoro Monsagrati and widow of Juan Francisco Xavier Guidoti, she was a founding partner of the company Monsagrati Hijos, Montis y Compañía, established on 25 September 1782. On her father's death she continued to run the Cádiz factory of the Real Compañía de La Habana, deeply involved in the Cuban slave economy.
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Monsagrati María Petronila
1787–1803Second daughter of Juan Isidoro Monsagrati, unmarried and over twenty-five years of age, she entered the company Monsagrati Hijos, Montis y Compañía on the renewal of the contract, in 1787, declaring that she was succeeding her late father. She contributed to the company her own share of the inheritance, while the partners Montis and Roche contributed their personal labour. She remained at the head of the Cádiz factory until the business was closed, on 31 May 1803.
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Montesisto Giuseppe
1765–1772Genoese consul in Cádiz, he invested in the Compañía Gaditana de Negros and thus in the slave trade to the Spanish colonies.
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Montovio Giovanni Battista
1654–1655He financed the voyage of the slave ship Nuestra Señora de Guapelo y Guadalupe, which was owned by Giovanni Battista Piuma Campodonico and was set to transport enslaved people from Luanda to Santo Domingo in the Caribbean.
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Mosti Joseph Antonio
1760–1789 (decade)A Genoese merchant naturalised Spanish, son of Esteban Mosti and with him agent in Cádiz of the Durazzo for maritime loans. In 1773 his house specialised in sea-loan contracts on shipments bound for Havana, Cartagena, Honduras and Buenos Aires. Through him and through Enrile, Giacomo Filippo Durazzo financed the expeditions of the Compañía Gaditana de Negros, Enrile's partner in the slave trade. He also kept Durazzo informed about the progress of the Compañía Gaditana de Negros and acted as intermediary between him and Enrile in the settlement of the balances, when in 1772 participation in the enterprise was ended.
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In August 1494 he transported 65 enslaved people from Tenerife from La Gomera to Valencia on behalf of Alfonso Sanchis, treasurer of the king.
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Treasurer to Her Royal Highness, in Madrid he looked after the financial interests of María Luisa of Bourbon-Parma, Princess of Asturias. On 9 July 1784 he collected on her behalf the dividend on 3 and one-third shares of the Real Compañía de La Habana, deeply involved in the Cuban slave economy: 83 and one-third pesos, equal to 1,268 reales de vellón. The securities came from the estate of Elisabeth Farnese.
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Panesi Fulgencio
1665–1679 (decade)Brother of Giovanni Andrea Panesi, with whom he ran in Cádiz what contemporaries considered the largest trading house in the city in the 1670s. At the beginning of 1665, when a ship of the asiento attempted to smuggle silver into Cádiz, the Panesi brothers paid the price for protecting Domenico Grillo's interests in the cargo. In June 1666 Grillo and Ambrogio Lomellini granted power of attorney to Giovanni Andrea and Fulgencio Panesi and to Giovanni Francesco Garibaldo.
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Panesi Giovanni Andrea
1665–1679 (decade)A merchant of Cádiz, close partner of Domenico Grillo and Ambrogio Lomellini. With his brother Fulgencio he ran what contemporaries considered the largest trading house in the city in the 1670s. At the beginning of 1665, when a ship of the asiento attempted to smuggle silver into Cádiz, the Panesi brothers paid the price for protecting Grillo's interests in the cargo, and Giovanni Andrea ended up in prison.
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Patron Bartolomé
1751–1800 (part of century)He took part in the Atlantic slave trade together with his brother Benito.
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Patron Juan Bautista
1789–1803Captain of a ship that transported enslaved people to Buenos Aires on behalf of the merchant Ramón de Palacios, holder of the asiento for the supply of enslaved people to the Río de la Plata as agent of the English trading house Robert Main of Cádiz.
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Pavarin Luis
1800–1821Born in Turin, in the Kingdom of Sardinia. In his will he declares that he owns six enslaved people (AGN, Perú, Protocolo 30, escribano Ignacio Ayllon Salazar, 1818). Between 1809 and 1818 he is documented in fifteen transactions involving enslaved people.
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In 1673 Grillo asked the Council of the Indies to appoint him agent of the asiento in Peru; he probably never crossed the Atlantic. In the 1660s he had worked in Madrid as an agent of Giovanni Battista Lomellini.
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Pinelli Francesco
1480–1493A Genoese merchant, he lived in Valencia from 1470 to 1491. His family had moved to the Iberian Peninsula as early as 1435, chiefly as exporters of wool to Genoa. In 1480, together with the Spanish merchant Diego de Soria, he won the contract as collector and depositary of the papal tithe for the Castilian conquest of the Canaries. There followed a small but steady flow of Pinelli's employees in Seville who sold enslaved people from the Canaries. Between 1489 and 1491 the two, together with Sánchez, lent the sovereign 25 million maravedís for the conquest of the Kingdom of Granada. They also acted as intermediaries in the sale of enslaved people from Málaga and the Canaries. In 1493 Pinelli and other Genoese resident in Andalusia granted Columbus a large loan, in exchange for the subcontract to supply all the goods needed for the second voyage.
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Poleo Bartolomé
1790–1815Vecino of Lima, born in Savona, in the Republic of Genoa («vecino de Lima, natural de Savona, en la República de Génova»). Between 1790 and 1815 he is documented in 33 transactions involving enslaved people.
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Porrata Giovanni Battista
1661–1670A Genoese merchant active in Cádiz, between 1661 and 1670 he was a trading partner of the asiento and took part in the expeditions of its ships to the Caribbean. He belonged to the same Cádiz group as Giovanni Rolato, the brothers Giovanni Battista and Pantaleo Grasso, Pietro Del Forno, Giovanni Battista Priaruggia and Alberto Bieluto.
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Priaruggia Giovanni Battista
1660–1679 (decade)A Genoese merchant active in Cádiz, in the 1660s and 1670s he took part as a partner in the expeditions of the asiento ships to the Caribbean, together with Giovanni Battista Porrata, Giovanni Rolato, the Grasso brothers, Pietro Del Forno and Alberto Bieluto.
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Ratto Manuel
1685–1689A Genoese merchant, partner of Balthasar Coymans in Cádiz in the firm «Coymans en Ratto», recorded in the archive index as «Conio e Ratto». Between 1685 and 1689 he directly managed the financial operations, remittances and shipping freights on behalf of the asiento company, holder of the monopoly of the slave trade in the Spanish colonies.
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Rezzonico Aurelio
1666A merchant originally from Como and partner in Venice of Pietro Cernezzi, in 1666 he contributed to the loan of 9,180 ducats sent to Amsterdam to pay for a cargo of enslaved people for the asiento. The operation passed through the house of Giovanni Battista Benzi and Giovanni Gabriele Voet and combined Venetian capital with payments to the suppliers of the Dutch market.
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Rolato Giovanni
1661–1663A Genoese merchant and partner of the asiento in Cádiz between 1661 and 1662, he was investigated for smuggling in the Indies. He belonged to the same trading network as Giovanni Battista Porrata and the other Cádiz partners who took part in the slave-trading expeditions in the Caribbean, including the Grasso brothers, Pietro Del Forno, Giovanni Battista Priaruggia and Alberto Bieluto.
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Rondinelli Piero
1485–1520A Florentine merchant, he was called by Donato Nicolini to direct in Seville the trading company that had belonged to Giannotto Berardi and that, on the latter's death, had passed to Amerigo Vespucci. He traded in enslaved people on behalf of Marchionni and Cesare Barzi. Besides the slave trade, he dealt in Canary sugar, English woollen cloth, Italian silk fabrics and many other products.
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Rossi Juan Bautista
1784A trustee and business agent, in Madrid he collected the income from the Real Compañía de La Habana, deeply involved in the Cuban slave economy, due to the Infante Fernando, Duke of Parma: 3 and one-third shares, which came from the estate of Elisabeth Farnese. The dividend, 83 and one-third pesos, equal to 1,268 reales de vellón, was collected on 30 July 1784.
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Rovellasca Giovanni Battista
1583–1599From 1583 to 1589 he held the contract for the trade in enslaved people from the island of São Tomé to the Antilles. Between 1595 and 1599 he purchased a licence to import 230 enslaved people into Cartagena de Indias.
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Saluzzi Giacomo
1632–1636Through his representative, Antonio Balbi, he claimed the dividends from a shipment of enslaved Africans undertaken with Antonio del Campo and Benavidez. He also claimed 84,500 ducats for cargo shipped to the Indies in 1632. It seems he also benefited from licences granted by Philip IV's court in the 1630s, linking him directly to those granted to Nicola Salvago.