Collection ID: 0002 | Metadata type: TEI | TEI XML | Data

Title

Ledger of ambassadorial expenses

Call number

Ms. Codex 1434
(Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania, Rare Book & Manuscript Library)

Alternate identifiers

• bibid: 4454913
• http://hdl.library.upenn.edu/1017/d/medren/4454913

Publisher

The University of Pennsylvania Libraries

Language

Italian

Origin

Date

1669-1670

Place

Italy

Summary

Ledger of expenses of Fabbio Giunigi (later archbishop of Ravenna), Bartolomeo Frangioni and Raffaele Mansi, Florentine ambassadors to the Pope, for the years 1669-1670. It includes very detailed accounts of the expenses the three diplomats incurred during their stay in Rome and their trips to Siena, Lucca, and Florence. Expenses related to food purchased for the sustenance of the ambassadors or for banquets they had for guests included fish (caviar, eel, tuna, tuna eggs, anchovies, sea bass, mullet and herring); meat (beef, birds, various types of sausages, goat, chicken, pigeons and lamb); fresh and dried fruit (watermelon, pears, cherries, lemon, pine nuts, almonds and dry figs); vegetables (spinach, artichokes, asparagus, garlic, onion, chard, capers, olives, fennel, broccoli, peas and squash); spices (cinnamon and pepper); bread and pasta (lasagne, tagliolini, loaves of flavored bread, white bread, and various cakes and sweet breads); cheese (goat's cheese, parmesan cheese, ricotta and sheep's cheese); wine and spirits (red and white wine, fizzy wine, sweet dessert wine) and various other items (sugar, marzipan, fresh eggs, rice and oil). Expenses for shoes and clothes of the ambassadors included tailor-made trousers and furs; velvet and cotton shirts; knee-high leather boots and suede shoes; coats of different lengths; and horse-riding accessories. Gifts the ambassadors gave to people they visited included majolica bowls and pans; fine china bowls, miniature figures and plates; and in a few cases a dog or two. Miscellaneous expenses of the ambassadors included a veterinary doctor's bill to medicate a sick horse; horse feed; horse accessories (brushes, saddles and other); carriage maintenance-related expenses; rent of properties in Rome where the three men stayed; and wages of their servants and helpers (including carriage-men, waiters, carpenters, builders and cleaners).

Notes

• Ms. codex.
   
• Title supplied by cataloger.
   
• Forms part of: Gondi-Medici Business Records.
   

Extent

65 leaves : 344 x 237 mm. bound to 358 x 343 mm

Foliation

Paper, 65; [i-ii], 1-63, contemporary foliation in ink, modern foliation in pencil, upper right recto.

Support

Paper

Binding

Contemporary vellum; the heading Spese fatte li serenissimi Fabbio Guinigi, Bartolomeo Frangioni, Raffaello Mansi, ambasciatori a Roma a Papa Clemente IX on upper cover.

Script

Written in a cursive script.

Provenance

• Sold by Bernard M. Rosenthal, 1961.
   

Subjects topical

• Accounting--Italy--17th century
• Food habits--Italy--History--17th century
• Cookery, Italian--History
• Ambassadors--Italy--17th century

Genres

• Codices
• Accounts
• Credit records
• Ledgers (account books)
• Manuscripts, Italian--17th century
• Manuscripts, European

Licenses

• Text

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  URL

  http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode

• Text

  All referenced images and their content are free of known copyright restrictions and in the public domain. See the Creative Commons Public Domain Mark page for usage details, http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/.

  URL

  http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/