Details

Subjects:

Gondi family.
Gondi, Giuliano.
Accounting -- Italy -- 17th century.
Farm life -- Italy -- History.
Farm management.
Farm life.
History.
Accounting.
Italy -- Rural conditions.
Italy.
Rural conditions.
Farm management -- Italy.

Form/Genre:

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

Language:

Italian.

Summary:

Ledger of accounts of Giuliano Gondi for the years 1608-1622. It contains accounts related to the farms of Ancisa, Palazzetto, Del Colle and Della Torre, all located outside Florence. The first part of the ledger contains a detailed list of expenses for 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 roe); fruit and vegetables (artichokes, asparagus, cherries, lettuce, mushrooms, peas); cheese (ricotta, parmesan, sheep's cheese); salt, pepper, saffron and sugar. Also, a rare and almost extinct type of bean, called cicerchie appeared to be a staple of the diet of those who lived on Giuliano Gondi's farms. 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 where the total expenditure for the month is given. The second part of the ledger contains other forms of accounts, mostly related to farm production (wine, oil, grains, feed) organized by farm. In certain cases, short commentaries follow the accounts.

Contents:

1. f.1v-71v: [Household expenses]
2. f.72r-128r: [Miscellaneous accounts]

Notes:

Ms. codex.
Title supplied by cataloger.
Foliation: Paper, 128; [1-128], modern foliation in pencil, upper left verso, irregular contemporary foliation and pagination in ink, upper outer corners.
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 a cursive script, perhaps by multiple hands.
Watermark: Similar to Briquet, Agneau pascal 48 (Florence, 1498).
Binding: Contemporary vellum, no. 278 on spine; the heading Libro di spese di casa e altre, letter A with decorative penwork on upper cover; lower cover wraps around upper cover with leather ties.
Origin: Written in Italy between 1608 (f. 1v) and 1622 (f. 121v).
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. 210 (Ms. Lea 325).

Cited as:

UPenn Ms. Codex 1397.

OCLC:

308645241

Access Restriction:

Access to this item is subject to staff review.