'A brilliant distillation of Italian and European economic history of the late Middle Ages.' Sergio Tognetti, Archivio Storico Italiano.'The book is convincing and substantive: a culmination and a solid basis for research on the florin and medieval monetary history'Andrea Papi, I quaderni del MAES'Stefano Locatelli’s The Florentine Florin is a masterful account of one of the most researched (but still relatively misunderstood) historical processes that marked the passage from the central to the late Middle Ages in Latin Europe—the minting of the gold florin (fiorino) in Florence from the early 1250s and its success as a widely-recognised currency... Locatelli is able to flesh out the elements of the historical context that made Florence an economic powerhouse, something that has long been regarded as nothing short of a mystery; thanks to him, that mystery is far less obscure now.'Lorenzo Tabarrini, Journal of Medieval History'By reviewing and meticulously analysing the available literature, he highlighted the limitations of previously accepted explanations and provided a nuanced and convincing picture of the success of this fundamental currency in the medieval economy.'Philippe Lardin, Le Moyen Âge