Philosophy

Non abiate pensiero ch'io mandi nostra mercanthantia i' niuna parte sanza sichurtà: io viglio che noi guadagnàno innanzi meno e viviàno sichuri

Letter published in "Federigo Melis, Origini e sviluppi della assicurazione in Italia (secoli XIV-XVI)" ["Federigo Melis, Origins and development of insurance in Italy (14th to 16th centuries)"], Rome 1975, page 60. It contains the wording of a letter that, on 22 February 1399, Domenico di Cambio wrote to Francesco Datini, a well-known merchant of Prato, Tuscany, reassuring him that he would not send any goods without first insuring them.

Potendosi con al detta nave, & mercancçe in essa cariche entrare in ogni porto, & luoco, & navigare innanzi, & indietro,à destra, & à sinistra à piacimento, & volontà d'esso padrone, il viaggio non mutato. Correndo risico detti assicuratori sopra dette robbe d'ogni caso di mare, di fuoco, digetto in mare, di rappresaglie, ï rubarie d'amici. Renuntiando detti Assicuratori ad ogni privilegio, indulto, prorogationi, leggi statuti, & franchisie, & dç feriati, che in lor favore facessero, e debbano in prima l' Assicuratori pagare al detto M. Giovanni, ï a chi per lui quelli danari per loro Assicurati, & di poi litigare le cause. Et volendo li detti Assicuratori il detto M, Giovanni debba sodare sufficientemente de restituire, à ciascuno quello avessero ricevuto contro il dovere, con interesse de venti per cento, & l'Assecuratori habbino a provare tempo mesi dodeci, di quello volessero dire in contrario, & passato detto tempo, M. Giovanni sia libero, & fuori d'ogni molestia da tutte le predette cose.

Formula of the Anconan policy (1567) as shown in "Tractatus de Assecurationibus" by Benvenuto Stracca, printed in Venice in 1569.

Et per quanto alcune persone poco temendo Dio si sono fatte pagare di alcuna sicurta senza che le robbe mercantie non erano state caricate, o gli navilli o fuste entrate o uscite o gli cambii datti. Per quanto ordinorono che di qua innanzi incorrino in pena le persone che tali atti faranno.

From "Libro del Consolato de' marinari, Ordinatione sopra la sicurta maritima" Venice 1564.
[Seafarers’ Council Book: Rules on maritime security”]

These quotations are selected from the very cream of an enormous range of texts and documents which flourished during the Renaissance, the most thriving age of Italy’s history, with a view to reaffirming Italian knowledge and experience in the practice of insurance, at a time in world history when that concept was still in conflict with ordinary thought. At that time, insurance became a mechanism intended to provide a balance between over-confident adventurous risk taking and too much faith in God. Resorting ever more extensively to insurance, the renaissance merchant demonstrates his great maturity, as he was able to draw from the very logic of insurance itself a rock-solid guarantee against the reduction of his earnings. RIB Group’s ambition is to cultivate Italian brilliance with the same acuity as that of the great Italian insurers of the Renaissance, whose solutions moved with the spirit of an age which opened the way to Modernity and Grace, producing artists such as Piero Della Francesca, Michelangelo, Leonardo, Botticelli and Masaccio. The RIB Group plays a role of primary importance in the development of the "Italian System" channelling various ways of thinking to meet market and client requirements. We invite all those who believe in the power of Italian intelligence and creativity to follow us.