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Country
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IT
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Name of institution (English)
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State Archives of Florence
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Language of name of institution
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ita
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Contact information: postal address
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Viale Giovine Italia 6, 50122 Florence
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Contact information: phone number
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0039 055263201
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Contact information: email
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asfi@archiviodistato.firenze.it
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Reference number
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Libri di Commercio e di Famiglia
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Type of reference number
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Archival reference number
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Title (English)
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Trade and Family Books
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Title (official language of the state)
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Libri di Commercio e di Famiglia
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Language of title
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ita
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Creator / accumulator
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Archivio di Stato di Firenze
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Date note
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15th century/18th century
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Language(s)
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ita
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spa
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Extent
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5,537 storage units
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Type of material
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Textual Material
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Scope and content
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The Libri di Commercio e di Famiglia fonds is composed of documents resulting from economic activities in Florence and other Tuscan cities dating from the second half of the 14th century to the second half of the 19th century. There is a preponderance of 17th- and 18th-century records. It includes trade records, accounting books kept by diverse professional categories, registers from manufacturing and financial activities, family papers, etc. By providing a comprehensive view on the bourgeois classes of Tuscany, this fonds is also rich in information regarding some Sephardic merchants. It is the case of the 32 books with records from the Ergas and Silvera company (1930 to 1961, dating 1703-1745), containing letters (copies and originals), accounting books, inventories and ledgers of this firm managed by Isaac Ergas and David Silvera and headquartered in Aleppo and Livorno. These books were accurately analysed by Francesca Trivellato in her work The Familiarity of Strangers and other studies mentioned above. It is also possible to find in these records evidence regarding other Sephardic merchants with whom the Ergas and Silvera firm kept businesses. An example is the Londoner merchant Benjamin Mendes da Costa (1953 and 1957). The fonds also contains records regarding other merchants probably of Sephardic origins, such as Abram Saraiba (4658 and 4659, dating 1704-1723) or Abram and Salomon Eminenter (1929, dating 1680-1716).
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Archival history
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The documents of this fonds derive from various provenances and were gathered by their thematic unit: material related to economic activity. In 2012, under the direction of Vanna Arrighi, Stefano Calonaci and Veronica Vestri, the fonds was reorganised and catalogued. Items were arranged alphabetically by record owner(s), such as institutions, families and individuals. Indexes of names and places were also produced and are currently available on the archive's website.
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Administrative / Biographical history
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On February 20, 1852, Grand Duke Leopold II of Tuscany established a Direzione centrale degli archivi di Stato (Central Directorate of State Archives) in Florence and appointed Francesco Bonaini to direct this office, as well as a commission to propose a method to arrange the collections and favour their access to the public. Months later, on September 30, the Archivio centrale dello Stato was established, originally incorporating the Diplomatico, Riformagioni, Mediceo, Regie Rendite, Regio Diritto, Decime granducali, Monte Comune and Demanio fonds, as well as the archives of extinct religious corporations.
The first director, Francesco Bonaini, wished to emphasise the historical character of the archives. This intention was reflected in the archive's arrangement: the collections of the Republican era were followed by those of the Mediceo and the Lorenese periods.
After the unification of Italy, the State Archives received the documentation no longer used by the current administration. Then, the Archivio di Stato di Firenze also incorporated papers from the peripheral offices of the state, such as the civil register (containing birth, marriage and death certificates of all the communities of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany from 1808 to 1865) or the archives of the Prefettura and judicial offices. Other relevant incorporations were the "modern" notary archive, the 19th century Tuscan land registry as well as numerous private archives.
These new entries created a problem of lack of space. In the 1950s, the change of facilities was already an urgency. Yet, a flood on November 4, 1966, which damaged part of the collection, precipitated the need to find a new location for the archive. Then, a new building, designed under the direction of architect Italo Gamberini, was constructed in Piazza Beccaria and officially inaugurated on February 4, 1989.
At present, the Archivio di Stato di Firenze holds more than 600 fonds, for a total of over 75,000 linear metres of documents since the 8th century.
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(source: Archivio di Stato di Firenze webpage)
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System of arrangement
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Records are arranged alphabetically by creator
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Author of the description
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Carla Vieira, 2021
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Bibliography
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Trivellato, Francesca. 2000. “From Livorno to Goa and Back: Merchant Networks and the Coral-Diamond Trade in the Early-Eighteenth Century.” Portuguese Studies 16: 193–217.
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Trivellato, Francesca. 2002. “Jews of Leghorn, Italians of Lisbon, and Hindus of Goa: Merchant Networks and Cross-Cultural Trade in Early Modern Period.” In Commercial Networks in the Early Modern World, Diogo Ramada Curto and Anthony Molho, 59–89. Florence: European University Institute.
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Trivellato, Francesca. 2004. “The Port Jews of Livorno and Their Global Networks of Trade in the Early Modern Period.” Jewish Culture and History 7 (1–2): 31–48. https://doi.org/10.1080/1462169X.2004.10512008.
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Trivellato, Francesca. 2009. The Familiarity of Strangers: The Sephardic Diaspora, Livorno, and Cross-Cultural Trade in the Early Modern Period. New Haven London: Yale University Press.
