Masters and Servants negli atti notarili toscani di fine Seicento

Initiation into the professions of the sea required a long apprenticeship. In England, the training of young sailors was ensured by paternalistic relationships that linked the apprentice, the servant, to an experienced, usually specialised sailor: the captain, the pilot, the boatswain, the surgeon, etc. The master was a sort of vice-father, taking on the task of looking after the young man and passing on the skill to him, while the young man was expected to obey him. It often happened that the relationship between the two was adversarial, and upon landing the conflict required the intervention of the public authorities to be settled. The study examines a number of examples taken from judicial and notarial documentation that highlight the profound incomprehension of the Tuscan authorities towards this form of pseudo-parental relationship.