It was 1593 when Ferdinando I dei Medici launched the Livornine Constitution and established the free port in Livorno.
The Livornine was addressed to Jews and merchants of any nation who had come to live in Livorno or Pisa. The goal was to increase the population of the city and at the same time attract above all the Jews, skilled traders, offering them refuge from the persecutions of Spain.
Among the most important aspects, Livornine guaranteed freedom of worship (essentially for Jews), religious and political professions, the cancellation of debts and other sentences for at least 25 years. It also established a customs regime for the benefit of goods destined for export and ensured the freedom to exercise any trade. The measure made Livorno in a short time a real multi-ethnic city.
Today the memory of the Livornine remains in the highest honor granted each year by the Municipality to personalities, Italian or foreign, who have particularly distinguished themselves, with their activity, in every field: social, cultural and economic.
The “Liburnina” is represented by a 750 gold or 800 silver medal with a diameter that reproduces a Medici coin, the “mezzo tolero” of 1683 coined for Livorno by Cosimo III
