A Rental Roll, in Latin, manuscript on vellum [central Italy, possibly Orvieto, 13th century].

An Umbrian Rental Roll
A Rental Roll, in Latin, manuscript on vellum [central Italy, possibly Orvieto, 13th century].
A fascinating and valuable insight into the texture of the 13th-century economic life of a locality in central Italy (possibly Orvieto) and the professions and status of a number of its inhabitants.

c.1180 x 150mm. The roll made up of two membranes stitched together and folded twice into a booklet, c.150 entries written in a formal 13th-century hand, with punched hole at side of each entry and remnants of thread in some holes, near-contemporary additions by various hands (stained and creased, some fading to text, a few edges gnawed).

Provenance:
(1) Although there is apparently no explicit beneficiary identified in this rental roll, 7 districts are mentioned: ‘De regione S[an]cti Christophori’, ‘De regione S[an]cti Andree’, ‘De regione S[an]cti Salvatoris’, ‘De regione S[an]cti Angeli’, ‘De regione S[an]cti Se[cun]di?’, and ‘De regione S[an]cti Laurentii’. These correspond to a number of ‘rioni’ in and around Orvieto (for example S. Angelo and S. Lorenzo are in the district of Serancia in Orvieto). Names of individual tenants are listed beneath each district, or ‘regio’, and sometimes shared tenancies are listed too. Several of the tenants’ surnames indicate the trades or crafts that they practised, for example ‘Magister Iacobus medicus’ (doctor), ‘Bernardinus monachus’ (monk), ‘Petrus Bernardii molendinarii’ (miller), ‘Ventura fornarius’ (baker), ‘Michael pettinarius’ (comb-maker), ‘Andreas calcinarius’ (the lime-burner), ‘Silvester barlectarius’ (the barrel-maker). Some of the names provide further confirmation of a geographical localisation in Umbria: there are mentions of Acquasparta, Giano dell’Umbria, Viterbo, Castello and Perugia.

(2) Colker MS 440; acquired in 1991 from Quaritch (Bookhands of the Middle Ages V, no 102, illustrated). Mentioned in a letter from Colker to Richard Linenthal, dated 'Die Sancti Patricii', so 17 March: ‘After our week of spring vacation I found your most kind gift, Rentale (no. 7) [...] My partners in no. 7 join me in gratitude: Bernardinus the monk, Peter the miller, Ventura the baker, William son of a priest, Peter son of Bull's Eye (ocli Bovis), and Bernard the fat. I have now met them all.’

This roll provides the rental income, likely for a monastic institution, possibly in or around Orvieto. It would have been produced as a routine part of the institution’s record-keeping, and lists names of tenants and sums of money and rents owed.

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