1370-1400 - Not traced
Merchant Bartholomew Bosan was a native of Lucca who had established a business in London by the early 1370s, trading to Bruges which was a common centre for commercial activity by Italian merchants living in London at this time. He imported a variety of items, mostly Flemish and Brabant linen thread together with the luxury fabrics from Lucca such as satins, silk baldachins, Cyprus gold brocades and velvets, as well as raw silks and small amounts of drugs and spices such as wormseed, rhubarb, and pepper.
Such imports, while finding a natural outlet in sales to London mercers, would have guaranteed him an entrée to aristocratic and clerical households. Lucchese fabrics were popular at Edward III’s court, where they were used for wedding garments and as gifts to retiring ambassadors, as well as at funerals and for donations to religious houses. Bosan was granted letters of denisation in 1391. He died in 1400.
