Born in Stamford, Connecticut in his late thirties to an American father and an American mother of Chinese descent, Roger Burton Chang graduated from Princeton University, New Jersey. He was affectionately nicknamed by his mother in his early childhood Bobby, a pun on good omens as he used to say.

Bobby sat at his favorite table next to one of the mirrored columns of the Tallulah Cafe on Columbus Avenue, not far from his apartment. A hot and sunny Monday. Table for two, for private or more intimate conversations, but with a good view of the street and with the advantage of having one of the best espressos on the Upper West Side with or without an assortment of cookies, muffins, cakes and assorted sandwiches. Or a good beer.

With the arrival of summer, the young postdoctoral fellow in financial mathematics took the opportunity to take the lightest or twill shirts, T-shirts and jeans from the closet drawers, and among them choose a sporty outfit for the meeting scheduled that afternoon. He chose a light blue T-shirt, beige twill pants and loafers, without forgetting the light touch of Carolina Herrera for men.

He was not exactly a dandy, a 'foddy', as many like to say. Far from it, he felt good about dressing elegantly, and there were reasons for doing so.He used to read the newspapers at home, especially economic and political news. In Tallulah, on the contrary, he liked to read a novel, a book of stories, or occasionally leaf through some of his workbooks, as he called financial mathematics textbooks, and others, which accompanied him in his studies. Graduate Ph.D. at Columbia University.

As part of his postdoc, he would start teaching classes in a few weeks. And during these next few weeks he would dedicate himself more to professional reading and research, especially the phenomenon that came to be called “financial bubbles”, an aspect of economic crises that he would like to delve into.

It was not unusual for him to spend much more than an hour in the bar, being known by all the employees who worked in the house and even by two or three other regulars at the same hours as him. He was calm now and not as tense as he had imagined the night before. The heart beating a little harder was even natural. And he had, as with his choice of clothing, his own good reasons for doing so.

After all, everything was normal for one more of those nocturnal encounters with Sara —the best, by the way— and that, if her life and habits did not change up to that moment, it was due to the simple fact of having met her a few years ago. months. A wonderful and understanding person to share his friendship, his work and his free time.

A person still recent in his life, but who, with his charm and, why not say it too, with that delicate touch of femininity, of premeditated sensuality, managed to surprise her brain, warm her heart and excite sex. of the.

He was gripped by an attraction that he had even felt for other women, but not in this way. The front doorbell sounded the warning. The mirror in front of the table confirmed it. There she was: Sara Judith Meyer, red-haired, five-foot-six, with lively, restless eyes, a few freckles scattered over her shoulders and face, and who, from her brisk, graceful walk to the table, seemed ready for again to take it seriously. Sara wore a light gray demi-season (between two seasons) suit over a delicate white blouse, as if she matched Tallulah's colors.

She wore little makeup, just enough to enhance her youth, her hair tied back with two metal barrettes... and rawhide sandals. Bobby rose gently and kissed her cheek, pulling the chair closer for her to sit on. He suggested espresso with almond biscuits, cantuccini, accompanied by a liqueur made with lemon peels, a Tallulah novelty. Or a vodka with lemon, Serge Gainsbourg, traditional and famous in the house.

— A thousand apologies for the delay, dear, Sara said, still out of breath, but the boss was noticeably nervous and demanded a few more minutes from me to look for a document that must be taken to Washington tomorrow without fail... Everyone is worried about this bank crisis...

The “boss” was Mr. Tall Geithner, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Sara had been working in his office for a little over a year.

"Okay," Bobby replied, indicating the time on the screen of his cell phone... Seven minutes in New York can't properly be considered a delay, especially late afternoon even on summer vacation. ..

- Will it be?! Look, if it wasn't for the delay, I bet you wouldn't have counted the minutes, Sara said with some mischief.

"It's possible, but I really apologize because your boss is a workaholic and he doesn't have half my charm..."

Both of them laughed.

"What's new? Bobby wanted to know."

"Maybe," Sarah replied, removing the pins from her hair and primping herself.

- How about maybe?

"How can I say this with a solemn tone?"

Sara was looking for the right word to give that slight touch of suspense to the possible novelty, making her friend curious.

"Come on... Don't hang around... Will you get a raise?"

"More than that, dear. Sara took Bobby's hands, pressing them gently against hers in a gesture that revealed trust and intimacy so delicious for moments with her greenish-brown eyes:

— Yesterday I began the investigation that you asked me to, Bobby... And I went to the Public Library of rare books where they speak facts of medieval history in the centuries that you have indicated... Books of the oldest...

— How wonderful, Sara... Great... That gives me even more confidence... You have no idea how important all this material will be for my work... If I didn't have to start teaching now in September...

"Shhh..." Sara interrupted. I'm glad you hired me for this,

Bobby, really... And you start giving your classes, what's the problem? It's like that...

Without a doubt, it will be the beginning of a promising career, and I will be the negotiated wife that you need...

— I like your sometimes exaggerated optimism, the way you are... They smiled at each other, happy to enjoy that moment without too many problems. Sara felt an extra warmth through her body and she hid it:

— But... Why do you want to know about books on sects and occultism in the Middle Ages, if your topic is financial mathematics? I didn't understand this relationship very well...

— It is that this period of the Late Middle Ages, in particular, shows a very large amount of information, but also contradictions and different opinions on one or another of the topics that interest me...

"Any one of them in particular?"

— I would say several, as is usual in works of this nature... But to start warming up and also to interest you, my intention is to find and confirm where in Europe the first bank was actually born...

Sara suppressed a laugh.

"In rare occult books?" ...Could you be more specific?

— Religion, Catholicism, as you know, as well as I made people think in medieval Europe... Usury and usurers were condemned among other sins and sinners. it caused persecutions and deaths of people, created legends and superstitions... A topic, therefore, that perhaps even to look for in esoteric books, why not?

— I have my doubts, but… Bobby continued on:

— Sara, the banks, the banking houses as they were called, the usurer, the institutions and practices that for some time were accused by the Church, were treated as institutions and practices of the devil... Many Jews at that time suffered for this ... And Christians too... Although I have no religious or anti-religious leanings, it cannot be denied that banks are financial institutions that have become one of the most lucrative and demonic on the face of the earth... The religion and business have always been mixed for centuries...

— I will tell you about Jacques Le Goff...

—We will not tire of saying that the Middle Ages is a period rich in details and nuances, far from the stereotypes that many attribute to it. It was not, at all, a dark and gloomy phase subject to superstition and autarky. Especially the Late Middle Ages is one of the most interesting periods to study because it will be then when the foundations that will later sustain the Renaissance begin to be built. Nor should we ignore the features that "obscure" this era, whose generalization has overshadowed, however, other elements that little by little are beginning to be put into perspective.

Among the works that help to show more clearly the polyhedral character of the Middle Ages we find the (already classic) work by Jacques Le Goff, Merchants and Bankers of the Middle Ages* in which, based on the examination of a very specific social group, the author describes a much more complex world than we could imagine.

The undisputed protagonist of the book has no face but does have some well-defined characteristics that the French historian himself recognizes in the introduction: «Thus, who we want to present is the negotiators, the mercatores. Businessmen, they have been called, and the expression is excellent, since it shows the breadth and complexity of their interests: commerce, properly speaking, financial operations of all kinds, speculation, real estate and real estate investments. To name them, we have limited ourselves here to evoking the two poles of their activity: commerce and banking. Le Goff then specifies the limitations of his study: centered on Christian Europe; he analyzes not "commerce" as an activity but the people engaged in it.