Item #2607 “Di Giulio Cesare e Luco Spinoli 1619.”. WALLET BINDING / BUSINESS / SPINOLA FAMILY.
“Di Giulio Cesare e Luco Spinoli 1619.”
“Di Giulio Cesare e Luco Spinoli 1619.”
“Di Giulio Cesare e Luco Spinoli 1619.”
“Di Giulio Cesare e Luco Spinoli 1619.”
“Di Giulio Cesare e Luco Spinoli 1619.”
“Di Giulio Cesare e Luco Spinoli 1619.”
“Di Giulio Cesare e Luco Spinoli 1619.”
17th Century Italian Business Ledger
Preserved in a Contemporary Wallet Binding
[Genoa], 1619.

“Di Giulio Cesare e Luco Spinoli 1619.”.

Folio [25 x 35 cm]. Manuscript, consisting of 119 numbered leaves and (70) blank leaves; (6) loose folded leaves. Contemporary Italian morocco wallet binding with flap, elaborately and densely tooled in blind, two broad morocco strap reinforcements attached over spine by decorative red stitching on upper and lower boards; with original brass-capped string ties for fastening the flap through its two small eyelets. Some minor worming and abrasion, the binding is in superb condition. Vellum title shows minor soiling, and so do extremities of scattered leaves, but generally in an excellent state of preservation.

Early seventeenth-century account ledger of Giulio Cesare and Luco Spinola, two brothers of the Genoese patrician family, recording debts and credits over a period beginning in 1619 and ending in 1631. Information about individual debts is registered at the top of each page, with ample blank space underneath for successive transactions relating to the debt. Other pages are filled with tables recording transactions in a given period of time pertaining to different debtors and creditors. Although the book was evidently begun in 1619, some of the entries record transactions dating back to 1599. The entries are written in a single neat hand which only occasionally turns into a hasty scrawl. Six loose leaves inserted into the pages contain records of transactions from 1599 to 1630.

The brothers were evidently responsible for the finances of their mother, Lamilla, whose name appears frequently, as well as their sisters. One of them, Luiggia, born Livia, was in a convent, while the other, Benedetta, had her dowry managed by her brother until her marriage to her cousin, Paris Salvago. Reflecting the Spinola family’s twin spheres of influence in Genoa and Naples, both places appear in the transactions, with somewhat more mentions of Naples – probably an indication of the focus of Giulio Cesare and Luco’s business interests, and a plausible explanation for why their accounting ledger should be bound in such a splendid and sturdy Italian wallet binding.

Bindings in the shape of wallets or large envelopes were widely utilized for mercantile accounts. In spite of their utilitarian function, they were fabricated from luxurious and highly durable materials, as in the present case morocco. Because they would be see a great deal of use, they were typically made with reinforcements on the lower edge, to minimize damage to what is effectively the spine. The fact that they were also lavishly decorated reflects the prestige accorded financial information in the ideology of merchants as part of the family’s history.

Wallet bindings have been recorded on other Italian Renaissance business ledgers, including a 16th-century example belonging to Lanfredino Lanfredini, a wealthy Florentine banker, exhibited in 2023-2024 at the Morgan Library & Museum. Such bindings, according to curator Diane Wolfthal, “ultimately can be traced back to Islamic envelope-flap examples” (p. 177). Unlike the Lanfredini binding, the present ledger is complete with the original brass-capped string ties that secured the flap by passing through two small eyelets.

* Diane Wolfthal, “Merchants and the Material Culture of Money,” in Diane Wolfthal et al., eds., Medieval Money, Merchants, and Morality (New York: Morgan Library, 2023).

Price: $8,500.00