INTRODUCTION

The codex A 'codex' is a manuscript volume, rather than a scroll., a portion of which is published here, bears the title: Orders of the Catasto 1427 ¹). It contains 137 parchment leaves (written on both the front and back) measuring 37 x 26 cm. The volume is bound in leather.

The first 80 leaves contain documents from the years 1427–1431, all written by the same hand; the rest of the volume, written by several people, concerns the years 1457–1498.

The pages that follow deal only with the first 80 leaves, which are divided into two parts:

1st. Proclamations of the catasto orders made by the appropriate councils,

2nd. Proclamations of the orders made by the first officials of the catasto,

as divided by a very detailed index.

The documents in the first part, which concern the year 1427 (Florentine style original: "st. fiorentino". In the Florentine calendar, the new year began on March 25th, the Feast of the Annunciation, rather than January 1st.), are reproduced in full original: "in extenso"; from the second part, we provide only a few fragments.

As for the age of the manuscript, it has not been possible for us to indicate the precise date; in any case, it falls between 1431 and 1457. According to the Reverend Doctor Luigi Pagliai, the most gracious archivist of the State Archives of Florence, the year of compilation is closer to '31 than to '57.

This manuscript (which we designate as B) is partly a copy and partly a translation of another codex, titled: Ledger of Reformations The "Riformagioni" were the records of legislative acts and administrative decisions made by the government of the Florentine Republic. of 1427 and of the other subsequent catasti ²) (which we designate as A), which contains orders

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¹) State Archives of Florence (Archivio di Stato di Firenze). Catasto no. 2.
²) Ibid. Catasto no. 1.