Details

Subjects:

Detti, Giovanbattista.
Accounting -- Italy -- 16th century.
Textile industry -- Italy -- Early works to 1800.
Textile industry.
Accounting.
Italy.

Form/Genre:

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

Language:

Italian.

Summary:

Ledger of accounts of Giovanbattista Detti for the years 1557-1558. The ledger presents different sections for revenues and liabilities of the Detti businesses. The first section, that of the revenues, often includes the names of the counterparts who contributed to the revenues of Giovanbattista, the most important being Jacopo Marzopini and Federigo de Ricci (who were perhaps business partners), both for the frequency with which they appear and for the amount of the transactions. Other counterparts include Filippo Salviati and Lorenzo Carducci. The ledger contains records of transactions related to money lending and to the sale or purchase of textile products, in equal measure. According to the present manuscript, Giovanbattista Detti, who was primarily a wool and textile merchant, loaned fairly large sums of money to his various counterparts, probably indicating an involvement in the banking field. He also sold wool to various Florentine merchants, predominantly to the Salviati. Most of the expenses recorded in the second part of the ledger concern the payment of salaries to workers and employees, often only identified by their first name. However, expenses for the purchase of manufacturing supplies for textile products are also common.

Contents:

1. f.1r-7v: [Entrata del libro]
2. f.40v: [Entrata del quaderno]
2. f.61r-128r: [Uscita del quaderno]

Notes:

Ms. codex.
Title supplied by cataloger.
Foliation: Paper, 190; [1], 2-7, [8-39], 40-41, [42-60], 61-126, [127-190], contemporary foliation in ink, modern foliation in pencil, upper right recto (f.8-39, 41-60 and 127-190 are blank).
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 a cursive script, perhaps by multiple hands.
Decoration: Detti signet in ink (f.1r).
Watermark: Similar to Briquet, Aigle 83 (Florence, 1484), but with a rounder, less detailed body and a much rounder tail.
Binding: Modern cloth.
Origin: Written in Italy between 1557 (f. 2r) and 1558 (f. 5v).
Forms part of: Gondi-Medici Business Records.

Penn Provenance:

Sold by Bernard M. Rosenthal, 1963.

Cited in:

Described in Zacour, Norman P. and Hirsch, Rudolf. Catalogue of Manuscripts in the Libraries of the University of Pennsylvania to 1800: Supplement A (4), Library Chronicle 37 (1971), no. 1, p. 16 (Ms. Lea 535).

Cited as:

UPenn Ms. Codex 1492

OCLC:

319536376