Franklin

[Ledger of Medici debtors and creditors].

Format/Description:
Manuscript
144 leaves : paper ; 334 x 231 mm bound to 342 x 231 mm + 1 note
Production:
[Italy], [1543?]
Status/Location:
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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 1532-1543. 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 Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore (p. 3); the Spedale e Spedalino di Santa Maria Novella (p. 17), a Florentine church which also offered medical help to pilgrims and those in need; and the Arte della lana (p. 20), one of the most important guilds of Florence.
Notes:
Ms. codex.
Title supplied by cataloger.
Foliation: Paper, i (parchment) + 144 leaves + i (parchment); versos numbered 1-84, [85-144], contemporary foliation in ink, modern foliation in pencil, upper left verso; rectos numbered [i], i-lxxxiiii, [lxxxv-cxxxxiii], upper right recto (leaves after p. 84 are blank but ruled). Each opening has a matched arabic numeral on the left and a roman numeral on the right. A 17th-century note, containing names of creditors and debtors from 1455 to 1650, is laid into the manuscript.
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. 142 on spine; the heading Q[uadern]o di cassa diciottesimo, no. 285, on upper cover; lower cover with remnants of leather ties wraps around upper cover with leather strap; decorative leatherwork on spine.
Origin: Written in Italy, ca. 1543 (latest date of entries, p. 84).
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. 193 (Ms. Lea 225).
Cited as:
UPenn Ms. Codex 1284
OCLC:
289250262