"The shop of Micali is an object of curiosity: there is scarcely any commodity it does not furnish". L'emporio Micali tra commercio, curiosità e socievolezza

This essay focuses on the retail trade and shops in Livorno during the eighteenth century. Archival research has uncovered a rich group of inventories that testify to the range and quality of the wares on offer in the shops lining the via Ferdinanda. They also provide remarkable evidence concerning the interior decoration and fittings of these shops, showing that they could vie with those in other Italian cities. By 1777 a new shop became the most fashionable in town; the Negozio del Veneziano, run jointly by Giacinto Micali and his son, emerged as the unchallenged attraction for the nobility and the grand tourists largely due to the fact that this was no mere warehouse but rather a showroom modelled on the example set by his British suppliers: Josiah Wedgwood, Matthew Boulton and John Boydell. From Britain Micali borrowed marketing techniques, concepts of advertising and a subtle understanding of how to create a fashion and manipulate it.