V. Social and economic background of the Florentine families
5.2. Family economy at home and abroad
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real estates valued at 1650 florins.590 Most of the householders, however, declared a taxable wealth of less than 1000 florins, which seems to confirm the general economic decline of the lineage in the fifteenth century.591 Another member of the lineage, Andrea di Lorenzo, appears twice in the sources as an envoy to Hungary, in 1396 commissioned by the Florentine Signoria and in 1412 as Pope John XXIII’s legate.592 His son, the young Giovanni di Andrea, later became archbishop of Kalocsa.593 He was bought out by his brothers in 1416 after the death of their father, one of the wealthiest members of his kin, in 1403.594
In contrast to the Buondelmonti kinsmen presented above, the young Corsini brothers were in a poor economic situation in 1429 when they were emancipated, enrolled at the Mercanzia, and sent to Buda as apprentices to the Panciatichi and Melanesi companies by their father, Giovanni di Matteo.595 The Corsini banking house was among the Florentine banks that went bankrupt in 1425 because of their enormous credits to the Florentine state.596 So, like Giovanni di Bartolomeo Panciatichi and Andrea di Tommaso Lamberteschi, Giovanni Corsini had lost most of his wealth in the 1420s.597
According to the fiscal documents, we find Filippo di Simone Capponi and the Attavante family and kin at the other end of the economic scale. The Panciatichis’ kinsman and correspondent in Buda, Filippo di Simone Capponi of the renowned Capponi family, was already working in Hungary in 1412.598 Capponi defined himself in the Catasto as fattore, a salaried business representative.599 He did not declare any public or private investments, which was partly due to his absence from Florence, but also suggests that he did not work independently. His declaration reflects the picture of the impoverished businessman living in a joint household with his brother, who was probably a bachelor. However, this picture is presumably somewhat distorted, because it is quite difficult to imagine that, being so poor, he could still marry the daughter of one of the most prominent Florentine businessmen, Bartolomeo Panciatichi.600 In Hungarian sources Capponi
590 ASF, Catasto 1427, 74. fol. 40r–40v.
591 Bizzocchi, “La dissoluzione di un clan”, 16–17.
592 ASF, Signori, Dieci di Balia, Lettere – Legazioni and Commissarie 2. fol. 17v. Apr. 25, 1396; ZsO III/ 2139, May 15, 1412.
593 István Katona, A kalocsai érseki egyház története [The history of the bishopric of Kalocsa] (Kalocsa, 2001), 228–
232. See on him Chapter 4.6 of the present dissertation and the entry in the prosopoghraphic database.
594 Bizzocchi, “La dissoluzione di un clan”, 21.
595 Petrucci, Ricordanze dei Corsini, 130–131; Herlihy-Klapisch, I toscani, 783; Luigi Passerini, Genealogia e storia della famiglia Corsini, 1858.
596 Molho, Florentine Public Finances, 153.
597 ASF, Catasto 1427, 66. fol. 106.
598 ASF, Signori-Carteggi Missive, I. Cancelleria, 29. fol. 26r, Aug. 13, 1412. On the Capponi family see Francis William Kent, Household and Lineage in Renaissance. The Family Life of the Capponi, Ginori and Rucellai.
(Princeton, 1977). On the Fronte brothers see Teke, “Firenzei kereskedőtársaságok”, 195-197, 211.
599 ASF, Catasto 1427, 17. fol. 479v-481v.
600 Luigi Passerini, Genealogia e storia della famiglia Panciatichi, (Florence, 1858), 76.
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figures as “Fülöp Kapun”, providing large sums on credit to King Sigismund, and obtaining privileges from him in return. It is therefore reasonable to assume that his real financial situation may not have been as bad as his fiscal declaration suggests.601
The Attavanti family, also of distinguished origin, coming from the neighbouring Castelfiorentino, was apparently also impoverished by the 1430s. They declared no taxable wealth, which was confirmed by the officials of the Catasto. Both Leonardo di Domenico Attavante, working in Hungary as collector of the thirtieth, and his brother Cristofano together with their mother were ranked among the miserabili, with no taxable assets at all.602 This again implies the uncertainty of any conclusions based exclusively on information in the Catasto. Leonardo di Domenico stayed in Hungary at least from 1427 until 1439. He was at first an agent of the Carnesecchi–Fronte company of Buda and later officer of the thirtieth in Zagreb, employed by Giovanni di Noffri. He had immovable property in the town of Zagreb and held town offices there.603 In 1439, Leonardo sold his properties and returned to Florence.604
The prominent merchant family of the Manini is also present in the documents of the Catasto of 1427; however, none of the kinsmen working in Hungary in the following decades can be clearly identified in the records. Finally, no fiscal declarations by the members of the “Noffri” family figure in this archival fond. At the present stage of research it is not even possible to identify the family. The only information in the Catasto concerns the father and founder of the Hungarian noble lineage, a certain Nofri di Bardo.605 He was most probably wrongly identified in the earlier Hungarian scholarly literature as member of the Bardi kin based on his patronymic. Contrary to the lack of evidence in Florence, there are abundant sources covering several generations of both families in Hungary, and documenting their integration into the Hungarian nobility.606
601 ZsO VI,/1910, May 14, 1418; No. 2369, Sept. 24, 1418.
602 ASF, Catasto 1427, 76. fol. 382v; [e]redi di Domenico di Bartolo Attavanti , ASF, Catasto 1427, 45. fol. 706r.
603 Teke. “Firenzei kereskedőtársaságok”, 206; Budak, “I fiorentini”, 691.
604 Budak, “I fiorentini”, 691.
605 He figures in one catasto declaration as debtor: Giovanni di Michele di Messer Parente ASF, Catasto, 61. fol. 872v.
606 On the Noffri in Hungary see József Ernyei and József Szerémi, A Majthényiak és a Felvidék: történelmi és genealogiai tanulmány (1912), 676–686. On the Manini, called Kodori see József Kádár, Szolnok-Doboka vármegye monographiája, vols. I–VII (Dés, 1900–1905); on the Manini see A Kolozsmonostori Konvent, jegyzőkönyvei (1289-1556) I-II [The Protocols of the Kolozsmonostor convent], ed. Zsigmond Jakó (Budapest, Magyar Országos Levéltár, 1990), Vol. I./261, 340, 939, 1384, 1471, 1535, 1569–70, 1597, 1686, 1136, 1151, 1178, 1223, 1312, 1597, 1732, 1764, 1776, 1841, 2083, 2167, 2181–2, 2191, 2283–4, 2372, on Pape Manini see A Wass család cegei levéltára [The Archives of the Family Wass in Cege], ed. András W. Kovács and Antal Valentiny (Cluj, 2006), No. 437, 439.
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