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

Title

Notebook of Medici accounts

Call number

Ms. Codex 1366
(3420 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104-6206., University of Pennsylvania, Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts)

Alternate identifiers

• bibid: 9944450113503681
• http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/301948469
• http://hdl.library.upenn.edu/1017/d/medren/4445011

Publisher

University of Pennsylvania

Language

Italian

Origin

Date

1538-1541

Place

Italy

Summary

Notebook of accounts of Luigi de' Medici, son of Bivigliano de' Medici, who takes over his father's estate after his death in 1538. The manuscript contains a wide range of records of transactions both in cash and in kind, some of them with short commentaries. Transactions concern farm management (of many of the farms of the estate of Bivigliano de' Medici), including the purchase of cattle, swine, sheep, feed, trees, and sowing tools; household management, including the pay of servants, farmers and employees, the purchase of food and drink for private consumption, and of furniture and house accessories; settlement of debts and credits with either business counterparts or family members; and sale of produce and farm products (including oil and wine). There is also a small number of records of the yearly production of oil, wine and, sometimes, wheat. Scattered throughout the manuscript there are more narrative passages where the work of an employee is praised (or criticized), the state of a farm is described, or a situation that led to a debt or a credit is recorded. Sometimes these passages are written in the first person, but the use of the third person is not uncommon. Alphabetical index, with 18 lettered tabs, containing names of individuals that appear in the ledger, is sewn inside the upper cover of the manuscript.

Notes

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

Watermark

Similar to Briquet, Ancre 489 (Florence, 1519).

Extent

192 leaves : 167 x 113 mm. bound to 170 x 115 mm

Foliation

Paper, 192; rectos numbered [1], 2-192, contemporary numeration in ink, modern numeration in pencil, upper right verso; versos numbered 1-27, [28-192], contemporary numeration in ink, modern numeration in pencil, upper left recto. The versos of f. 1-27 have the same number as on the recto, upper left verso.

Support

Paper

Binding

Contemporary vellum, no. 9 on spine; the heading Giornale and letter B on upper cover; lower cover wraps around upper cover with remnants of leather ties; decorative leatherwork on spine.

Script

Written in a cursive script, perhaps by multiple hands.

Provenance

• Sold by Bernard M. Rosenthal, 1961.
   

Subjects topical

• Accounting--Italy--16th century
• Farm life--Italy--History
• Farm management--Italy

Genres

• Codices
• Accounts
• Credit records
• Ledgers (account books)
• Manuscripts, Italian--16th century
• Manuscripts, Renaissance

Keywords

• 16th century
• 17th century
• Italian
• Italy
• Accounts
• Financial records
• Paper
• History

Licenses

• Text

  These images and the content of Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts Ms. Codex 1366: Notebook of Medici accounts 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

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• Text

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  URL

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