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Country
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IT
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Name of institution (English)
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Laurentian Library
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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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Piazza San Lorenzo 9, 50123 Florence
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Contact information: phone number
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0039 0552937911
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Contact information: email
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b-mela@beniculturali.it
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Reference number
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Gaddi
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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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Gaddi
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Title (official language of the state)
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Gaddi
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Language of title
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ita
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Creator / accumulator
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The Gaddi family
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Date note
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11th century/16th century
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Language(s)
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ara
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gre
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heb
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ita
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lat
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Extent
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235 volumes
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Type of material
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Textual Material
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Physical condition
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Good
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Scope and content
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The Gaddi fonds comprises manuscript codices of diverse thematics (Religion, Literature, Science, Art, History, Hagiography, Linguistics) gathered by this Florentine family. The collection contains a few Hebrew codices (see codices 111, 131 and 155), including a copy of Isaac Israeli's Yesod olam (The Foundation of the World), handwritten by José Kalomiti, a scribe from Porto (Portugal), in 1496. It is written in Sephardic semicursive script (titles and initial words in square script) and decorated with geometrical motifs. See a detailed description of this manuscript in Moita (2017, vol. 2).
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Archival history
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In 1755, Emperor Francesco I bought the library belonging to the Gaddi family (already catalogued by Giovanni Targioni), which comprised more than 1,000 manuscripts collected during the previous four centuries. It was divided between the Archivio delle Reformagioni, the Laurenziana and the Magliabechiana, although the librarian Angelo Maria Bandini, in office from 1757 to 1803, had suggested giving the whole collection to the newly opened Biblioteca Marucelliana.
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(source: Biblioteca Laurenziana Medicea website)
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Administrative / Biographical history
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The Gaddi was a Florentine family dedicated to commerce and banking that occupied a leading role in the Republic and later Grand Duchy's political and cultural life. Sinibaldo Gaddi (1499-1558) was a member of the Signoria of Florence and later a senator, who continued the family tradition of culture and artistic commissioning. His son Niccolò Gaddi (1537-1591) became a known art collector and advisor to the Medici art collections. In a later generation, Iacopo Gaddi was the author of De scriptoribus non ecclesiasticis, graecis, latinis, italicis (1648-49) and a book collector, responsible for enriching the precious collection of books and manuscripts that various generations of the family had gathered since the 15th century. In 1755, the family's library and artworks were acquired by Grand Duke Francesco I.
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System of arrangement
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The volumes are numbered sequentially.
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Access, restrictions
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Volumes 9, 24, 44, 81, 112 and 115 are normally excluded from direct consultation. Authorization to consult these codices must be submitted by e-mail to the Manuscripts Office (b-mela.manoscritti@beniculturali.it.
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Author of the description
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Carla Vieira, 2021
