Marston MS 189     Northeastern Italy, in or after 1434
Land and Property Register of the Marquis of Este

1.  ff. 1r-2r Description of house and appurtenances in San Martino
(probably San Martino di Venezze on the border of the provinces of 
Rovigo and Padua, or San Martino di Lupari in the northern part of 
the province of Padua, near Castelfranco) inhabited by the stewards 
("canevari") of the marquis of Este, including a description of the
"new" and the "old" land registers, specifying for each book the 
support, number of leaves, first and final instruments, and binding 
(the "catasto novo" in 300 leaves of which 147 contain documents,
covering 1424-1434; the "catasto vechio" in 312 leaves of which 295
contain documents, covering 1396-1424); also mentioned is a book of
rents of 100 leaves, identified by its secundo folio and by its 
explicit.

2.  f. 2r-v Description of house and appurtenances in Calaone (north 
of Este, in the province of Padua) inhabited by the land-agent 
("castaldo") of the marquis of Este.

3.  ff. 2v-53r for Este and ff. 53r-84v for Montagnana (both towns 
in the province of Padua):  Resume in 1434 of previous land 
contracts contained in full in the new and in the old registers 
(see above, art. 1), or occasionally in notaries' registers, giving 
name(s) of renter(s), the land boundaries, the amount of the rent,
the date due, and the present location of the full document (which
register, with folio number); rents are to be paid in cash or in kind
(wheat, spelt, fruit, chickens, capons, pheasant, thrush, lamb, kid,
salt pork, oil, wine, candles of white wax, spurs, dog collar and 
leash, hawking gloves or the entire hawking furnishings, "uno bello
fornimento da sparavero," f. 71r);  payment dates are usually set 
for the Nativity of the Virgin (8 September), but also for Easter, 
the Annunciation (25 March), St. Peter's feast (29 June), St. 
Michael's feast (29 September), harvest time, or Christmas; the 
method of payment for wheat is often directed to be made specifically 
"to the granary of the marquis in Este."  In the right-hand column, 
the summary of the main text lists revenue alone; in the left column 
are updated notices with names of more recent renters, frequently 
dated 1464, but also as far back as 1444 (f. 71r) or as recent as 
1469 (f. 2v).  Two folios, ff. 37 and 48, are ruled but blank

4.  ff. 84v-86r Resumes of later documents, 1434-1472, added in 
various hands; ff. 86v-88v ruled but blank
	
	Parchment, ff. 88, 309 x 243 (210 x 125) mm.  41 long lines.  
Two pairs of vertical bounding lines on both sides of written space, 
full length.  Ruled in brown ink.
	I-III 10, IV 12, V 6, VI-IX 10.
	Written by multiple scribes in neat mercantesca scripts, 
below top line.
	Binding:  Italy, date uncertain.  Vellum wrapper.  Wound 
sewing on four double supports.  The spine is lined with brown 
leather.  Endbands sewn on tawed skin cores and through spine 
linings.  Pink stain from earlier turn-ins on f. 88v.  Traces of 
one tie.

Written in Northeastern Italy in or after 1434, with summaries of 
some documents dated as late as 1472 at end (art. 4).  Miscellaneous 
titles, s. xviii, on front cover; shelf-marks and notations include: 
"folio [?] x," "No. 26," "R."  Note in upper margin, f. 1r: 
"No 5 E. del 86." In pencil inside back cover:  "282."  Purchased 
from H. P. Kraus in 1958 by Thomas E.. Marston (bookplate).

secundo folio:  de zinar.

Bibliography: Faye and Bond, p. 85, no. 189.

Barbara A. Shailor