Details
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: 18, 27 (of 8, lacking v), 38, 48, 54, 67 (of 8, lacking viii), 77 (of 8, lacking ii), 88, 98, 106 (probably of 8 and lacking i & x), 119 (of 10, x cancelled), 1210, 133 (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 Villani, the chronicler of Florence (1319 & 1323), Niccolò Acciaiuoli (1354) and Palla Strozzi, one of the richest, most scholarly citizens and a great patron and collector (1401).
In addition to their business and political functions the Great Guilds of Florence had various charitable and civic duties, including responsibility for the maintenance and adornment of the city's public buildings. The consuls and members of the Calimala were the most important group of patrons in Florence and the most important building for which they were responsible was the Baptistery. It held a special place in the consciousness of Florentines for it was believed to have been a temple of Mars built by the Romans to celebrate victory at Fiesole. As such it was seen as the city's only Roman monument, a valued testament to Florence's ancient and illustrious past. The Calimala, whose patron saint was John the Baptist, undertook not only the maintenance of the Baptistery but also the completion of the decoration. It was during the period covered by the present register that three of the great artistic projects were instituted; the mosaics of the dome, Andrea Pisano's bronze doors of 1329-1336 and what are now the North doors. The consuls of the guild opened a competition for these new doors in the winter of 1400/1401. According to the account given by Lorenzo Ghiberti in his Commentaries, the final choice between the trial bronze reliefs of The Sacrifice of Isaac that he and Filippo Brunelleschi had cast was made by the consuls, the Operai (the guild's committee in charge of the Baptistery) and the entire membership of the Calimala. The men who figure in the last pages of the present manuscript were the final arbiters in the contest with which so many histories of Renaissance art traditionally begin.
Florence, 1235-1404
295 x 210mm. 93 leaves: 18, 27 (of 8, lacking v), 38, 48, 54, 67 (of 8, lacking viii), 77 (of 8, lacking ii), 88, 98, 106 (probably of 8 and lacking i & x), 119 (of 10, x cancelled), 1210, 133 (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 Villani, the chronicler of Florence (1319 & 1323), Niccolò Acciaiuoli (1354) and Palla Strozzi, one of the richest, most scholarly citizens and a great patron and collector (1401).
In addition to their business and political functions the Great Guilds of Florence had various charitable and civic duties, including responsibility for the maintenance and adornment of the city's public buildings. The consuls and members of the Calimala were the most important group of patrons in Florence and the most important building for which they were responsible was the Baptistery. It held a special place in the consciousness of Florentines for it was believed to have been a temple of Mars built by the Romans to celebrate victory at Fiesole. As such it was seen as the city's only Roman monument, a valued testament to Florence's ancient and illustrious past. The Calimala, whose patron saint was John the Baptist, undertook not only the maintenance of the Baptistery but also the completion of the decoration. It was during the period covered by the present register that three of the great artistic projects were instituted; the mosaics of the dome, Andrea Pisano's bronze doors of 1329-1336 and what are now the North doors. The consuls of the guild opened a competition for these new doors in the winter of 1400/1401. According to the account given by Lorenzo Ghiberti in his Commentaries, the final choice between the trial bronze reliefs of The Sacrifice of Isaac that he and Filippo Brunelleschi had cast was made by the consuls, the Operai (the guild's committee in charge of the Baptistery) and the entire membership of the Calimala. The men who figure in the last pages of the present manuscript were the final arbiters in the contest with which so many histories of Renaissance art traditionally begin.