Details

Subjects:

Medici, House of -- Archives.
Medici, House of.
Accounting -- Italy -- 16th century.
Accounting.
Italy.

Form/Genre:

codices (bound manuscripts)
accounts.
credit records.
ledgers (account books)
Manuscripts, Italian -- 16th century.
Manuscripts, Renaissance.
Archives.

Language:

Italian.

Summary:

Ledger of debtors and creditors of the Medici family for the years 1535-1537. Often includes the nature of a given credit or debt and its amount, as well as listing the names of the individuals or institutions that hold the debt or credit, the most important being the Spedale e Spedalino di Santa Maria Novella (p. 12), a Florentine church which also offered pilgrims and those in need medical help, the Capitolo del convento delle monache delle convertite (p. 62), a nunnery for young women, often prostitutes, who converted to Catholicism, and the Opera i operai di Santa Maria del Fiore (p. 62 and 105).

Notes:

Ms. codex.
Title supplied by cataloger.
Pagination: Paper, i (parchment) + 176 leaves + i (parchment); versos numbered 1-95, [96], 97-107, [108-176]; contemporary pagination in ink, modern pagination in pencil, upper left verso; rectos numbered [i], i-cvii, [cviii-clxv], contemporary pagination in ink, modern pagination in pencil, upper right recto (leaves after p. 107 are blank but ruled). Each opening has a matched arabic numeral on the left and a roman numeral on the right.
Layout: Written in 2 columns with vertical bounding lines in lead; the large column on the left with the debtor or creditor and a brief description of the credit or debt, and the smaller one on the right with amount of the debt or credit in arabic numerals. Usually credits are listed on the left page and debts are listed on the right page of an opening, with the same individuals or institutions appearing as debtors or creditors on facing pages.
Script: Written in a cursive script.
Watermark: Similar to Briquet, Ancre 491 (Florence, 1522), but with larger arms and flukes.
Binding: Contemporary vellum, no. 131 on spine; the heading Q[uadern]o di chassa settimo, no. 289, on upper cover, lower cover wraps around upper cover with leather strap, metal buckle on upper cover; decorative leatherwork on spine.
Origin: Written in Italy, ca. 1537 (latest date of entries, p. 107).
Forms part of: Gondi-Medici Business Records.

Penn Provenance:

Sold by Bernard M. Rosenthal, 1961.

Cited in:

Described in Zacour, Norman P. and Hirsch, Rudolf. Catalogue of Manuscripts in the Libraries of the University of Pennsylvania to 1800 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1965), p. 192 (Ms. Lea 217).

Cited as:

Medici Family, Ledger of Debtors and Creditors (Oversize Ms. Codex 1277). Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, University of Pennsylvania.

OCLC:

288640602