The Museum

Casa Datini represents the most famous example of a medieval mercantile palazzo; it is located near Prato Town Hall and for this reason was destined by its owner to perform a specific public role, which it undertook with great ostentation and expense in 1409 and 1410, when it twice hosted the king of Naples, Luigi II d’Angiò.

Besides immense financial resources, Francesco Datini invested in his family palazzo great symbolic and emotional projections, transforming an entire block – bounded by the present-day Via Rinaldesca, Via Ser Lapo Mazzei, Vicolo del Ceppo and Vicolo del Porcellatico - into a public mark of his own personality which, as he himself wrote in a letter, he hoped would last “mille anni”.

In 2009 the rooms on the ground floor of the Palazzo were converted into a museum, dedicated to the history of the owner, his house and his charitable institute, the “Ceppo dei poveri di Prato”, to which the merchant left all his possessions.

In the frescoed ground floor rooms, one can admire not only the splendid living area, and the decorative works of art, but also trace the personality of Datini, his relationship with his wife Margherita, his business activities, the history of the building of the palazzo and that of the Ceppi where, since 1410, they have had their headquarters.

Through the rich iconography in the rooms, in both Italian and English, the selection of original letters, paintings and frescoes on the walls, visitors have a closer insight into the life and business activities of the merchant who set out from Prato for Florence and Pisa, arriving in Genoa and later Avignon, ending up in Spain.