Lot 11

Three manuscripts concerning Salt Tax and the collection of dues, in Latin, on vellum

Estimate

3,000 - 5,000 GBP

bidding is closed

Description

3 manuscripts, (a) copy of concessions made to Caesare Negrolo of Milan concerning the Salt Tax, 49 folios, 228mm. by 170mm., complete, collation: i-ii^{8, iii^{4, iv-vi^{8, vii^{5 (i a singleton), paper flyleaves, written space 178mm. by 122mm., 28 lines in black ink in an accomplished cursive hand, each of four sections beginning with a large calligraphic initial in black ink, vellum in excellent condition, original binding of limp vellum with title in main scribe's hand on front cover, Milan, c. 1580; (b) a similar manuscript of 18 folios, and including copies of other grants also granted by Antonio de Guzman and pertaining to Caesare Negrolo (perhaps in the same hand as item a), with a red wax seal and notarys' witnesses on fol. 17v authorising a document of 1579, calligraphic initial on fol. 1r, early blind-stamped leather binding over thin pasteboards with organic roll-stamps framing a central cabouchon; (c) another similar 13 folio copy of a grant issued by Philip II of Spain in 1559, paper binding, wanting back cover}}}}

Catalogue Note

Caesare Negrolo was a member of the influential Milanese family of bankers, financiers, merchants, and arms-manufacturers, and seems at various times in the mid- to late sixteenth century to have had an active role in all these areas of commerce and business. He was in France in 1569-74 in a business association with his uncle Domenico Negrolo, and the present document dates from immediately after his return to Milan, but before his bankruptcy in 1585.

These manuscripts contain copies of grants of concessions made to Negrolo regarding the Salt Law by Antonio de Guzman y Zúñiga, the count of Ayamonte, governor of Milan from 1573 onwards and the senior regional representative of Philip II of Spain (1527-98), the heir of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, who inherited territory in Spain, Italy (specifically Naples and Milan), the Netherlands and the New World on the death of his father. With the addition of the scribbled page of notes on the last flyleaf of item a and the wax seal on fol.17v of item b, it seems quite probable that these are Negrolo's own copies. Salt was an important and expensive commodity in the medieval and early modern world, and the sale of it and its transportation was frequently taxed (see lot 9, item j for an example of a fourteenth-century grant by Charles V of France about merchants engaged in the illicit transport of this commodity). The first document of item (a) here (dated 10 July 1579; fol. 1r-16r) records Negrolo's offer to manage, on behalf of the administration, the exaction of this tax for a percentage of the proceeds, and Antonio de Guzman y Zúñiga's acceptance of this. The others (5 November, 1579: fols. 16v-18v; 23 February 1580: fols. 21r-44r; and another undated: fols. 45r-9r) ratify and acknowledge Negrolo's rights to collect this tax. This is followed by a page of scribbled notes on the flyleaf, which record details of payments of this tax and the percentages handed over to the state, and show that the manuscripts here were practical and portable documents, probably kept close by Negrolo as proof of his authority to collect a lucrative and often unpopular tax.