The Law of the Florentine Catasto of 1427

May 1427, only the prolific writer Canestrini ¹) has seen and, in part, published some documents in his history of Florentine finances. Later, the commendable Berti ²) brought to light several pages concerning the formative period of the Catasto The Florentine tax census system established in 1427.. This specific point is the only one that has been sufficiently studied ³), and exclusively to determine whether the Medici The powerful banking and political family of Florence. were in favor of introducing the Catasto or not; this demonstrates the lack of interest that older historians had in social history ⁴).

In recent years, new works have been undertaken regarding the Catasto, but the overwhelming abundance of material has not allowed for satisfactory results.

In reality, the study of the Catasto cannot be the undertaking of a single person; even researching specific aspects would require a division of labor:

Only when the cumbersome mass of related documents is known and studied from every angle and viewpoint will a more complete understanding of the era be possible—especially compared to the one provided by writers who have all relied equally on Canestrini, either by citing him ⁵) or by plagiarizing him ⁶).

¹) Giuseppe Canestrini, Science and the Art of the State original: "La scienza e l'arte di Stato" (Florence, 1862) throughout.

²) P. Berti, New documents regarding the Florentine Catasto original: "Nuovi documenti intorno al Catasto fiorentino" (Historical Journal of the Tuscan Archives original: "Giornale storico degli archivi toscani"), vol. IV, pp. 32 ff.).

³) Pasquale Villari, in the Italian Historical Archive original: "Archivio storico italiano" (Series V, vol. I, pp. 185-197): see also by the same author N. Machiavelli and his Times original: "e i suoi tempi" (2nd ed., Milan, 1895), vol. I, p. 47.

⁴) To be more thorough, we also cite some "declarations" by certain Florentine artists that can be seen in Giovanni Gaye: Unpublished Correspondence of Florentine Artists original: "Carteggio inedito d'artisti fiorentini" (Florence, 1840) vol. I, pp. 103-123.

⁵) Gino Capponi, History of the Republic of Florence original: "Storia della repubblica di Firenze" (2nd ed., Florence, 1876) vol. II, pp. 178 ff. F. T. Perrens, History of Florence original: "Histoire de Florence", (2nd ed., Paris, n. d.) vol. VI, pp. 316 ff. Alfred von Reumont, Lorenzo de' Medici (2nd ed. Leipzig, 1883) vol. I, pp. 27 ff.

⁶) Léon Say, Democratic Solutions to the Tax Question original: "Les solutions démocratiques de la question des impôts" (Paris, 1886) vol. I, chapters III and IV.