300 edoardo demo
the international success of Veneto fabrics during the course of the 15th
century was not exhausted in the century to follow, even if the capacity of
urban wool producers in the terraferma to compete internationally would
meet with ever greater difficulties. one of the most interesting results of
studies on urban wool production in the early modern period, in fact, is
to have demonstrated, contrary to what had long been thought, that pro-
duction in cities did not go into crisis at the end of the 15th century. or
better, while for treviso the available sources indicate radically worsened
conditions by the last decades of the 15th century and in Brescia produc-
tion was almost completely abandoned by the mid-16th century, such was
not the case in Verona, Vicenza, padua and, above all, Bergamo.20
In the first three cities, after the disastrous production levels of the early
16th century, caused mainly by military conflict (the war of the League
of cambrai), wool producers demonstrated a discrete capacity to recover
lost ground. In any case, the available documentation would seem to
underline that in the said cities, wool production continued to be almost
completely devoted to making the above-mentioned traditional “heavy”
fabrics. In the 1550s and 1560s, these were still sold in respectable quanti-
ties, not only on the Venetian market but also at the fairs of Bolzano, in
Genoa, rome, naples, puglia, calabria, and sicily. this does not change
the fact that, as underlined by several documents that would merit a more
in-depth analysis, there were those in Verona and Vicenza who tried to
“lighten” the cloth, adapting some products to new market demands con-
nected to the increasingly important diffusion of lighter fabrics of Flemish
origin. In any case, these look to have been only the sporadic attempts
of individual producers, and for this reason they do not seem to have
enjoyed much success. Importantly, they were unable to avoid the appar-
ently sudden collapse in production that struck textile manufactures in
Verona, Vicenza, and padua in the last 30 to 40 years of the 16th century. It
still proves difficult to identify the various causes of this nearly irreversible
crisis. a convergence of multiple factors was likely at work, not the least of
which must have been the competition not only from northern european
textiles and nearby wool producers in Mantua but also from wool man-
ufacturing in Venice itself (in addition to a progressive decline in local
sheep-raising and the increasing temptation of moving to silk production,
20 panciera, L’arte matrice, pp. 13–38; demo, L’“anima della città,” pp. 175–193; Walter
panciera, “Qualità e costi di produzione nei lanifici veneti (secoli XVI–XVIII),” in Fontana
and Gayot, eds., Wool: Products and markets, pp. 419–46; Vianello, Seta fine e panni grossi,
pp. 53–56.