The Earliest Insurance Contract. A New Discovery

Abstract

On a recent research trip to Genoa, Italy the writer learned of the discovery of a marine policy dated February 13, 1343. This antedates by four and a half years the policy of October 23, 1347 which for over a half century has been generally accepted as the oldest recorded true insurance contract. These two contracts although worded fictitiously are significant in that they mark the first known break from the Mutuum Nauticum or marine loan. The marine loans which had been adequate in ancient and early medieval times could not fill the needs of the "sedentary merchants" during the "Commercial Revolution." The fictitious wording was due to the need to cloak these contracts with the formulas and phraseology of Roman Law because insurance contracts per se had no legal existence or standing during this period. The clerical usury law and prohibitions further complicated the work of the notaries and lawyers in devising ways in which insurance transactions (and premium payments) could be carried out and recorded. A document dated October 23, 1347 found in the state archives of Genoa, Italy, has been generally accepted as the oldest recorded contract of insurance. A recent event has changed this. In a recent European trip to follow up previous research and study of medieval historical documents in Genoa, the writer learned that Professor Federigo Melis of the University of Florence in his extensive researches for his forthcoming book on Insurance in Italy 1 has recently discovered the following document which antedates the 1347 contract by four and a