One statistic reveals much: in Florence, in 1338, nearly half of the school-age population was attending school, 6 this in an age when there were no schools in most of Europe, and even many kings were illiterate. Similar levels of schooling were sustained in Venice, Genoa, Milan, and other northern Italian commercial cities. Consequently, it is obvious that not only was “the whole business class . . . thoroughly literate and numerate” but so too were most of the artisans and craftsmen.
