Details

Subjects:

Medici, House of -- Archives.
Medici, House of.
Cooking, Italian -- History.
Cooking, Italian.
History.
Food habits -- Italy -- Florence -- History -- 18th century.
Accounting -- Italy -- 18th century.
Accounting.
Food habits.
Italy.
Italy -- Florence.

Form/Genre:

Codices.
Accounts.
Ledgers (account books)
Manuscripts, Italian.
Manuscripts, European.
Archives.

Language:

Italian.

Summary:

Ledger of accounts of an unidentified member of the Medici family, written by Francesco Padovani, bursar, referred in the manuscript as the spenditore, for the years 1721-1726. It contains a detailed list of expenses related to food and drink and records the amount of every transaction. All the foods that appear throughout the ledger are typical Tuscan foods and the most frequent are bread and cakes; pasta (including lasagne); meat (roast veal, pork and pigeon, geese, lamb, ham, sausages, giblets, fatty chicken liver, quails, larks); fish (salted or boiled cod, oysters, anchovies, eel, tuna eggs); fruit and vegetables (artichokes, asparagus, cherries, lettuce, mushrooms, peas); cheese (ricotta, parmesan, sheep's cheese); salt and sugar. Expenses related to household management that do not concern food and drink, such as money spent for clothes, shoes and furniture, also appear in the ledger, but not very frequently. In certain cases the names of the counterparts (farmers, butchers, tailors) are also recorded. Expenses appear to be recorded daily, but at the end of each month there is a closing paragraph, written and signed by Francesco Padovani, where he gives the total expenditure for the month and a brief comment.

Notes:

Ms. codex.
Title supplied by cataloger.
Foliation: Paper, i (contemporary paper) + 255 + i (contemporary paper); 1-123, 125-153, 155-257; contemporary foliation in ink, upper left verso.
Layout: Written in 2 columns with vertical bounding lines in lead; the large column on the left with the description of the transaction, and the smaller one on the right with the its amount. Sometimes long lines are used to write a closing statement (usually one for each month).
Script: Written in the hand of Francesco Padovani. .
Watermark: Unidentified watermark containing a fleur-de-lis with very round petals and bottom.
Binding: Contemporary parchment, no. 154 on spine; the heading Quad[erno] di spese, letter A with decorative penwork on upper cover; lower cover wraps around upper cover with leather ties; decorative leatherwork on spine.
Origin: Written in Italy between 1721 (f. 1r) and 1726 (f. 241r).
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. 205 (Ms. Lea 296).

Cited as:

UPenn Ms. Codex 1358

OCLC:

301797912