This illustration (from a late fourteenth century manuscript of de Septem Vitis) shows Genoese bankers at work. The Genoese developed very sophisticated banking practices, including interest-bearing deposit accounts.



Another illustration from the same manuscript, showing Genoese bankers performing transactions and checking accounts.





In addition to producing successful bankers, the Genoese dominated many of the main shipping and trading routes in the Mediterranean (including the slave trade), and Genoa was well-known and respected as a seafaring power. In this late fifteenth century Italian (?) illustration, merchant ships enter and depart from Genoa's harbors.





This detail from a fifteenth century manuscript illustration shows the Genoese besieging a town (in Tunisia, 1390). Note the ships arriving in the background. The illustration comes from Jean Froissart's Chronicles (Bib. Nat. Fr. FR 2646, fol. 79).