Details

Subjects:

Medici, House of -- Archives.
Medici, House of.
Arte della lana (Guild : Florence, Italy).
Accounting -- Italy -- 16th century.
Accounting.
Italy.

Form/Genre:

Codices.
Accounts.
Credit records.
Ledgers (account books)
Manuscripts, Italian.
Manuscripts, Renaissance.
Archives.

Language:

Italian.

Summary:

Ledger of debtors and creditors of the Medici family for the years 1537-1538. 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 Spedaletto di Santa Maria Novella (p. 6), a Florentine church which also offered medical help to pilgrims and those in need; the Chapitolo and Convento delle monache delle convertite (p. 16), a nunnery for young women, often prostitutes, who converted to Catholicism; Spedale di Santa Maria degli Innocenti (p. 18), a children's orphanage in Florence; the Arte della lana (p. 31), one of the most prestigious guilds of Florence; and the Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore (p. 53). Alphabetical index, with 18 lettered tabs, containing names of individuals and institutions that appear in the ledger, is laid into the manuscript.

Notes:

Ms. codex.
Title supplied by cataloger.
Pagination: Paper, i (parchment) + 238 leaves + i (parchment); versos numbered 1-107, [108], 109-115, [116-238], contemporary pagination in ink, modern pagination in pencil, upper left verso; rectos numbered [i], [i], ii, [iii], iiii-xiii, [xiiii], xv-xviii, [xviiii], xx-xxviii, [xxviiii], xxx-xxxii, [xxxiii], xxxiiii-xxxv, [xxxvi-xxxvii], xxxviii, [xxxviiii], xl-xlii, [xliii], xliiii, [xlv], xlvi-lviii, [lviiii], lx-lxxxiii, [lxxxiiii], lxxxv-lxxxviii, [lxxxviiii], lxxxx-cxi, [cxii], cxiii-cxv, [cxvi-ccxxxvii], contemporary pagination in ink, modern pagination in pencil, upper right recto (leaves after p. 116 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 the amount of the credit or debt in arabic numerals. Usually credits are listed on the left page and debts 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, Fleche, 6299 (Florence, 1518-28).
Binding: Contemporary vellum, no. 133 on spine; the heading Q[uadern]o di chassa ottavo, no. 288, 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. 1539 (latest date of entries, p. 115)
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 219).

Cited as:

UPenn Ms. Codex 1279

OCLC:

288950222