State building and archive building: ordering records in the mid 15th century Florentine republic

Abstract

This study is based on a research on the status of the public offices of the Cancelleria pubblica fiorentina in the mid fifteenth century political scene, which was featured by the competition among Italian states. Up until recently, the “Chancery of the Florentine Republic” has been described as a homogeneous organisation. On the contrary, until the end of the fifteenth century at least, it had been made up of several distinct bodies with separate archival deposits. The subject of this study is the documental transformation in the managing of Florentine public affairs occurred from the third to the fifth decade of the fifteenth century. This changing process is related to the rise of the medicean power, with a new Florentine diplomacy leading to the definition of the Lega Italica. The above-mentioned changes cannot only be found in the organisation of the Cancelleria delle lettere, the office charged with the correspondence with foreign states. We will focus our attention on the ufficio delle Riformagioni, which was in charge of the legislative documents. Even in this office, charged with internal affairs of the Florentine Republic, we can see how the institutional organisation and the quality of the people employed as officers were reformed in that particular period. The documentary production of papers and the structure of the archival deposits changed as well, in conjunction with long standing strategies of the new political regime.