Details

Subjects:

Medici, House of -- Archives.
Medici, House of.
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 accounts of an unidentified member of the Medici family for the years 1544-1545. Often includes the nature of a given credit or debt and its amount, as well as listing the names of the individuals that hold the debt or credit. Among the names that appear throughout the ledger and who act as counterparts in the transactions, the most frequent are Carlo, Agostino, and Francesco de' Medici; Bernardo Ricasoli; Ferdinando and Piero Salviati; Francesco and Mariotto Rucellai; Guglielmo Capponi; Alessandro Antinori; Bartolomeo Gondi; and Bernardo Buonaccorsi. Transactions are sometimes related to payments for produce or rent, as well as small debts and credits. Most of the individuals who appear in the ledger are members of different Florentine aristocratic families who worked for the Medici as diplomats or statesmen, but who also often acted as business counterparts. Notes, dated 1544, contain a list of names of more debtors and the amount they owe.

Notes:

Ms. codex.
Title supplied by cataloger.
Foliation: Paper, 48; [1], 2-39, [40-48], contemporary foliation in ink, modern foliation in pencil, upper right recto (f. 40-48 are blank but ruled).
Layout: Written in 2 columns with vertical bounding lines in lead; the large column on the left with the name of the counterpart and a brief description of the transaction, and the smaller one on the right with the amount of the transaction. Sometimes long lines are also used.
Script: Written in cursive script, perhaps by multiple hands.
Watermark: Similar to Briquet, Echelle 5922 (Siena, 1495-1524), but with shorter, parallel sides.
Binding: Contemporary vellum, no. 164 on spine; the heading Richordi no. 22 on upper cover; lower cover with remnants of leather ties wraps around upper cover; decorative leatherwork on spine.
Origin: Written in Italy between 1544 (f. 1v) and 1545 (f. 39r).
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. 204 (Ms. Lea 285).

Cited as:

UPenn Ms. Codex 1344

OCLC:

300456155