Network and Migration in Early Renaissance Florence, 1378-1433 ― Friends of Friends in the Kingdom of Hungary

This book explores the co-development of political, social, economic, and artistic networks of Florentines working in the Kingdom of Hungary during the reign of Sigismund of Luxembourg. The social network of these politicians, merchants, artisans, royal officers, dignitaries of the Church, and noblemen is the primary focus of the book. Local Florentines constituted an extended network of "friends"; the existing personal connections among them were defined by common political interests, neighborhood proximity, marriage alliances, kinship ties, patronage, and company partnership. Through analysis of the links between these actors, the book addresses questions of the complexity of social ties in early Renaissance Florence, exploring how multiple types of networks shaped the dynamics of public and private spheres. It also seeks to reach more general conclusions about Florentine migration abroad and to envision ways in which early modern migratory groups were formed.

Katalin Prajda is a historian of Renaissance Italy. She earned her Ph.D. in 2011 from the European University Institute, Florence. She has been a postdoctoral scholar at various research institutes, among others at the Department of Political Science, University of Chicago; Institute for Advanced Study - Central European University; and Institute of History, Research Centre for the Humanities, Hungarian Academy of Sciences. She studies the overlaps of trade, political, kinship, and artistic networks in early Renaissance Florence.