INTRODUCTORY NOTICES

The original of the curious work from which the extracts in the following pages are derived, was first published as an appendix to an anonymous book called “A Treatise on the Decima and the various other burdens imposed, on the community of Florence; also on the currency and commerce of the Florentines up to the Sixteenth Century. (In four vols., 4to.) Lisbon and Lucca, 176-66.” (Della Decima, etc.). The imprint is fictitious, as the work was really published at Florence, and the author was Gian Francesco Pagnini del Ventura of Volterra.

The work of Pegolotti occupies the whole of the third volume. It was taken by Pagnini from a MS., apparently unique, in the Riccardian Library at Florence, called by the author (Libro di Divisamenti di Paesi, etc.) “The Book of the Descriptions of Countries,” etc., though Pagnini gave it the more descriptive title of Pratica della Mercatura. Baldelli Boni, writing some forty years ago, says that the manuscript could no longer be found in the Riccardiana. However it is to be found there now and I have examined it. It is a handsome paper folio, purporting to have been transcribed by the hand of Filippo di Nicolaio di Frescobaldi at Florence in the year 1471, and bears the No. 2441 in the collection.