Banking Law in Italian Legal Consulting between the Fourteenth and the Fifteenth Centuries.

This article examines the development of banking law in northern and central Italy during the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries, highlighting how legal scholars and law professors created a systematic legal framework to address complex banking activities and disputes. It details the emergence of key legal institutions such as the contract of money deposit, bills of exchange as a payment system, and a legal regime permitting capital gains despite prevailing usury prohibitions. The article also discusses the role of public authorities in licensing and supervising banking operations, the legal status of bankers' accounting records, and protections for depositors in cases of bankruptcy. Overall, it argues that Italian legal thought of this period was instrumental in shaping a coherent banking legal system grounded in Roman law traditions, which influenced the evolution of modern banking.