[Copies of Medici correspondence].

Format:

Book

Manuscript

Author/Creator:

Medici, Vincenzo de'.

Language:

Italian

Subjects (All):

Medici, House of--Archives.

Medici, House of.

Accounting--Italy--17th century.

Accounting.

Textile industry--Italy--Early works to 1800.

Textile industry.

Italy.

Genre:

codices (bound manuscripts)

Manuscripts, Italian.

Manuscripts, European.

Archives.

Penn Provenance:

Sold by Bernard M. Rosenthal (New York), 1963.

Physical Description:

208 leaves : paper ; 278 x 407 mm bound to 283 x 432 mm + 5 notes

Place of Publication:

[Florence], 1601-1603.

Language Note:

Italian.

Biography/History:

Florentine nobleman (1554-1612), senator and treasurer for both Cosimo II and Ferdinando I de' Medici. Director of the Medici mint (1609-1612).

Summary:

Collection of copies of miscellaneous letters and accounts originally written by Vincenzo di Carlo de' Medici, for the years 1601-1603. Most of the documents appear to be business letters of various levels of formality (from highly formal to letters written in the first person) addressed to counterparts located in various parts of Italy (including Florence, Lucca, Pisa, Pistoia, Ancona, Bologna, Genoa, Naples, Venice and Piacenza). The letters concern various kinds of banking operations and other transactions between Vincenzo Medici and a large number of counterparts, which include some of the most important aristocratic families of bankers (the Strozzi, the Capponi, the Ticci, the Acciaiuoli, the Doni and the Detti, all Florentine bankers, and the banking firm of the Acciaiuoli-Spinelli, with branches both in Florence and Naples); ambassadors (including the Guadagni, who served as diplomats for the Medici for two centuries); various clergymen (including the archbishop of Florence); and individual businessmen. Vincenzo Medici acted as financial director for the family banks and his correspondence contains information about loans and interest; financial products traded in business 'fairs' (national or international over-the-counter markets, such as the Piacenza fair, mentioned throughout the manuscript, where financial instruments such as forward contracts or bills of exchange were traded); money transfers between various branches of the Medici banks; and negotiations for the purchase or sale of textile products. Five notes, probably original, are also laid in the manuscript.

Notes:

Ms. codex.

Title supplied by cataloger.

Foliation: Paper, 208; [1-208]; modern foliation in pencil, upper right recto.

Script: Written in a cursive script by multiple hands.

Watermark: Unidentified watermark containing a circle and a star (figure inside circle very faint).

Binding: Contemporary vellum, no. 119 on spine; the heading Copie di letter, no. 263 and letter A with decorative penwork on upper cover; lower cover wraps around upper cover with remnants of leather ties; decorative leatherwork on spine.

Origin: Written in Florence between 1601 (f. 1r) and 1603 (f. 122r).

Forms part of: Gondi-Medici Business Records.

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 (3), Library Chronicle 36 (1970), no. 2, p. 102 (Ms. Lea 503).

Cited as:

UPenn Ms. Codex 1468

OCLC:

317870602