Details

Subjects:

Gondi family.
Gondi, Caterina.
Accounting -- Italy -- 18th century.
Cooking, Italian -- History.
Cooking, Italian.
History.
Food habits -- Italy -- Florence -- History -- 18th century.
Food habits.
Accounting.
Italy -- Florence.
Italy.

Form/Genre:

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

Language:

Italian.

Summary:

Ledger of miscellaneous accounts of Caterina Gondi (whose name appears throughout the ledger as Caterina nella Quiete o del Castello, these being two of the Gondi farms and country residences) for the years 1711-1713, probably written by the bursar or spenditore Francesco Padovani. The first part of the ledger 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 (including cantucci and a milk cake); pasta; meat (roast veal, pork and pigeon, geese, lamb, sausages, fried or fatty liver in various dishes, tongue, and larks); fish (salted or boiled cod, anchovies, sturgeon eggs, trout, mullet, and sole); fruit and vegetables (artichokes, asparagus, cherries, lettuce, porcini and prataioli mushrooms, peas, pink apples, chickpeas, pears, and figs); cheese (ricotta, parmesan, and sheep's cheese, both aged and fresh); salt, wine, eggs and sugar. Sometimes the dish for which the ingredient is purchased is also mentioned (for example, chickpeas to prepare a legume soup). The second part of the ledger contains more detailed, itemized accounts for the aforementioned expenses, and such records include the names of the counterparts, which were mostly farmers, bakers and butchers from whom produce and bread were purchased; for such accounts, copies of receipts of payments are also present. Accounts for expenses related to clothes, shoes and furniture also appear in the ledger, but not very frequently.

Contents:

1. f.1v-123r: [Spese di vitto]
2. f.128r-198v: [Spese diverse e ricevute]

Notes:

Ms. codex.
Title supplied by cataloger.
Foliation: Paper, i (paper) + 207 + i (paper); [1], 2-207, contemporary foliation in ink, modern foliation in pencil, upper right recto (f.199-207 are blank).
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 its amount.
Script: Written in a cursive script, by multiple hands, including that of Francesco Padovani.
Watermark: Similar to Briquet, Agneau pascal 48 (Florence, 1498), but with the initials A P underneath; unidentified watermark containing an empty coat of arms, geometric decorations and the initials A B underneath; and unidentified watermak containing two small circles and two short converging lines.
Binding: Contemporary parchment; no. 63 in ink and no. 64 on a label on spine.
Origin: Written in Florence between 1711 (f. 1r) and 1713 (f. 95v).
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. 10 (Ms. Lea 523).

Cited as:

UPenn Ms. Codex 1512

OCLC:

320530946