Jerome Frescobaldi
[2] Jerome Frescobaldi was involved in the wool trade with Tommaso Portinari and his sons,[3] and marketed spices obtained by Portuguese traders.
[6] Frescobaldi and his business partners in Bruges, the Gualterotti family, sponsored the voyage of Giovanni da Empoli from Lisbon to the Malabar Coast of India in 1503 and 1504, intending that he would be their agent in Calicut for the spice trade.
[9] Records survive of his transactions on behalf of the Company of Bruges (Compagni di Bruggia) concerning the wool trade and the Portinari family from 1475 onwards.
[12][13] Frescobaldi was one of a chain of bankers who held a jewel mortgaged from the Burgundian Habsburg court known as il Riccho Fiordalisio di Borgogna – the rich lily or blue bottle of Burgundy.
[17] Frescobaldi worked for James IV of Scotland and Margaret Tudor, and his name appears frequently in the published exchequer records and the manuscript household account.
Frescobaldi arranged credit for Scottish clergy travelling in Europe, and was the factor for the foreign debts of Archbishop of St Andrews.
Merchamestoun bought silverware and chairs of estate in 1503 for the king's marriage to Margaret Tudor, and Frescobaldi was involved with William Elphinstone, Bishop of Aberdeen, in financing these purchases.
[28] From 1505 to 1507 Jerome Frescobaldi organised a series of purchases for James IV from a sum of Flemish money, spent in Flanders, probably in Bruges.
The historian Michelle Beer argues that this gown was made for Margaret's "churching" after her first pregnancy, a ceremony which marked her return to full participation in court life.
In 1516 Leonardo Frescobaldi was given an annuity or pension by Henry VIII as a vendor of cloth of gold and silver, and he was made an usher of the king's chamber.
[43] Cardinal Wolsey raised loans to pay for the armour and artillery purchases of Henry VIII from the Frescobaldi and Cavalcanti banks.
[44] Jerome's son Francesco Frescobaldi is said to offered hospitality and employment to Thomas Cromwell in Florence around the year 1504, according to Matteo Bandello.
[45][46] Pope Julius II wanted to enforce a monopoly on the alum trade to increase his revenues, and in 1506 Frescobaldi's business in Bruges was among those listed as a "pernicious contagion to the souls of the faithful".
The Frescobaldi and Gualterotti family partnership were importing Turkish alum to England and to Flanders for Philip the Handsome, resulting in a reduction in prices.
[55] In 1510 James IV wrote to the King of France, Louis XII, in Frescobaldi's favour, because rumours against him were circulating in the Papal court.
In 1530 the painter Ambrosius Benson and a Spanish apothecary called Arigon were appointed to look after the affairs of his daughter Johanna or Jennette Frescobaldi.
[73] He was a sculptor in alabaster from the Duchy of Lorraine who worked for Margaret of Austria in Brussels and carved the story of Susannah and the Elders on a fireplace in the administration building of the "Liberty of Bruges" or Brugse Vrije, following the designs of Lancelot Blondeel.
