Francesco di Marco Datini (c. 1335 – 16 August 1410) was an Italian merchant born in Prato.
He was the only child of Marco di Datino and Monna Vermigilia, who both died as a result of the Black Death in 1348.
After his parents death, he was raised by a woman whom he called his "substitute mother." Their relationship seems to have been a positive one. We see a letter from her signed "your mother in love."[1]
He became an apprentice of a merchant in Florence and when he was fifteen, he joined a group of merchants who were going to Avignon, the city where the Popes had moved at the time.[1] His first business was the arms trade, which was quite profitable in Avignon during the Hundred Years' War.[2] He eventually became a supplier of luxury goods and art for the wealthy cardinals residing there.[1] The works of art these figures bought were some of the first consumed for private, non religious use. Before this time, the church had been the primary patron of the arts. Later on, the papacy and other pious individuals commissioned religious artwork, creating a use for Francesco's merchant skills. He was not interested in the product itself, but whether it was good quality or not, so that it might please his buyers.[1] This individual buying of artwork is a trend that we see going into the renaissance.
When Datini was more than forty years old he returned to Prato briefly and married Margherita, who was 25 years his junior. The correspondence through letter provides us with exchanged letters weekly while Datini was away on business, which provides most of the information available today on his life. In the year 1400 (around the time of 17 June), the two fled from Prato to Bologna in fear of the Black Death, along with Datini's illegitimate daughter.[1] He returned to die a natural death in 1410.[3]
He is buried in the church of San Francesco in Prato. His tomb marble slab was designed by Niccolò di Pietro Gerini.