IV. The Outer Circle of the Network: Friends of Business

Another circle of the Scolaris’ social network in Hungary consisted of those individuals who established more distant links to the centre of the network – Pippo Scolari and his closest male relatives – but had no blood or marriage ties with them. Some of these men were neighbours to the Scolari and others were supporters of the Albizzi faction. But the most important features in their relations to the Scolari were their common business interests. John Padgett and Paul McLean claimed that company partnership may indicate existing friendship ties among individuals in this period.1 As we have already seen, the prevalence of the Medici faction which, according to Dale Kent, was built on networks of patronage, might have been closely related to their well-connectedness in business life.2 Following this argument, it might be safe to say that the Scolaris’ success in the Kingdom of Hungary was also highly dependent upon their business network, which they built in both states. This web of relations in Hungary might have worked in a similar way to the patronage network of the Medici, facilitating the access to various city off ices for their friends’ friends.3 However, not all neighbours, political allies, and company partners necessarily became close friends to the extent that they might have wanted to cooperate with each other on other levels as well. For those who did, friendship most commonly included several other aspects too. Participation in legal matters is most commonly associated with strong friendship ties among Florentine individuals. Thomas Kuehn has widely investigated how neighbours, partners, and kin dealt with various sorts of disputes by means of private arbitrators. Given the importance of such mediation between individuals and their families, arbitrators were commonly chosen from their