Beschreibung:

Art de Calimala. Matricola , manuscript sur vélin, Florence, 1235-1404. Ce registre contient le nom des membres et des consuls les plus influents des sept plus importantes guildes de Florence. Il donne aussi une image extraordinairement précise des principales figures de l'histoire ARTE DI CALIMALA. Matricola , in Latin, MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM Florence, 1235-1404 295 x 210mm. 93 leaves: 1 8 , 2 7 (of 8, lacking v), 3 8 , 4 8 , 5 4 , 6 7 (of 8, lacking viii), 7 7 (of 8, lacking ii), 8 8 , 9 8 , 10 6 (probably of 8 and lacking i & x), 11 9 (of 10, x cancelled), 12 10 , 13 3 (of 4, i cancelled), old foliation in arabic numerals lacking folios numbered 13, 44, 46 and 69, written in a succession of cursive hands in a variable layout and number of lines (first folios very slightly wormed and stained, cut in inner margin of ff.2-6 and across text of f.3). Old sheep-backed boards. PROVENANCE: 1. Arte dei Mercatanti di Calimala: this volume is likely to have remained in the guild's archive until its destruction by fire in the 18th century. The guild was named after the street where members' shops were located. 2. Signore Cavaliere Priore Pietro Leopoldo Ricasoli: the manuscript was owned by the Cavaliere when it was consulted by Gio. Felice Berti for his Cronaca Artistica dell'Arte di Calimala CONTENTS: ff.1v-3v, list of consuls, chamberlain and members of the Arte di Calimala in 1235; ff.3v-36v, list of consuls, chamberlain and new members for the years 1236-1324; ff.37-44v, renewal of oath for ten years, subscribed with the names of the members of the guild in December 1237 and January 1239(n.s.) followed by lists of consuls and new members until 16 July 1245; ff.45-45v, consuls and members from 1324-1327; ff.47-62v, renewal of oath subscribed with the names of the members of the guild in July 1328, followed by lists of consuls and new members until 15 November 1353; ff.63-97v, renewal of oath subscribed with the names of the members of the guild in January 1354(n.s.), followed by lists of consuls and new members until 14 May 1404. The Arte dei Mercatanti di Calimala, the most affluent and influential of the seven Great Guilds of Florence, had been established in the 12th century as the guild for merchants and larger businesses. With the formation of separate guilds for bankers, silk merchants, silk workers and wool manufacturers, the nature of the guild had changed; this had not resulted in any loss of importance. After the middle of the 14th century the membership of the Arte di Calimala was made up of international financiers, the importers and exporters of foreign cloth, the shippers of cloth from Flanders and France to the Near East. Although the wool, silk and banking guilds had become the leading business groups in Florence, after the change of government in 1393 the Calimala was the bastion of the ruling party, the optimati , represented by the Strozzi, Uzzano and Albizzi families. Up until the 18th century the archives of the Arte contained the Matricola of the guild that began with the year 1235 and finished in 1495; this was then lost and has been known only through extracts copied in the 17th and 18th centuries: C. Gandi Le corporazioni dell'antica Firenze (Florence, 1928), p.45. The present manuscript is likely to be the first section of the long-missing register; it is written in a succession of hands from the early 13th to the early 15th centuries. The consuls who took office are listed with the date, indiction, month and day of their installation, followed by the names of new members and new companies along with the sum paid for matriculation, the name of the official who took the money, the notary who received it and the notary who completed the registration. The register provides an extraordinary, detailed picture of the economic and social history of Florence. Generation after generation of the leading Florentine families appear; among them are Folco Portinari, father of Dante's Beatrice (1288), Giovanni Villa