Monte dei Ventinove

[Cover title:] Capitvlatione Del Monte De Ventinove.

[Naples, after 25 November 1585].

4to (184 x 132 mm.). MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM. [33], [3 blank] leaves. In a single Humanistic cursive hand in brown ink.

CONTEMPORARY NEAPOLITAN GILT MOROCCO (minor worming, corners worn, board edges scuffed, minor stains), outer border of rules and a volute-diamond-dot roll, partly pointillé corner fleurons, central oval surrounded by volutes and small blooms with a crown on top and a caryatid below, GILT-LETTERED TITLE ON BOTH PANELS, gilt spine (front hinge cracked, crown and base chipped), evidence of four silk ties, all edges gilt.

           LIKELY PRODUCED FOR AN ASSOCIATION MEMBER, this manuscript presents the statutes of the Monte delle Ventinove Famiglie, a consortium established in 1585 by twenty- nine Neapolitan patrician families. It sought to protect members’ social privilege by providing rich dowries for their daughters. It operated until 1828.
            Founders paid a deposit of 1,000 ducats, invested over the course of twenty-five years 1586 to 1610), to sponsor the dowries of girls to be wed in 1611. Future investors paid the same amount and likewise waited twenty-five years for the benefits.
            This manuscript details the Monte’s structure for payments, interest, investments, distribution, inheritances, bookkeeping and taxes. The girls were required to select their husbands “for the preservation, dignity and nobility of the families rather than for their own interest” (f. [17]^v, tr.). They received the dowry at eighteen, but male relatives managed it. If a woman remained childless, she had to return half the money. Those who could not marry nor take the veil due to disability or ill health received 300 ducats per year and were required to live in the family home. In very good condition, docketed #76 ga. 4o on the final blank.
¶See Ferradino’s “Processi e documenti contabili di un Monte di famiglia nella Napoli del Settecento. Il ‘Monte delle Ventinove Famiglie’” in Rivista della Corte dei Conti 1 (2021) 439-45 and Fiorelli’s “Charité et honneur. Le financement des dots à Naples au cours de l’ancien régime” in Revista istorica 30 (2019) 31-43 and EDIT16 CNCE 78765 ([1587] edition, the only I could find, no example outside Italy).

Item #06991

Price: $28,000.00