Libraries -- History; Library architecture -- History; Library fittings and supplies -- History
The full name of this carpenter is known, from his receipts, to have been
Francesco de Gyovane di Boxi da Milano. He received in all 300 ducats
instead of the 130 mentioned in the first agreement, and when the last
payment was made to him, 7 June, 1476, the following explanatory note is
given:
Moreover I have paid to the same [Francis the carpenter]
30 ducats for what remains due on 25 desks for the
Library: for the longer ones, which are 10 in number,
there were paid, as entered above, 130 ducats; for the
rest there were paid 170 ducats, making a total of 300
ducats, and so he has been paid in full for all the
desks, this 7th day of June, 1476[383].
In 1477 the furniture for the next room, the _Bibliotheca secreta_ or
Inner Library, was begun. The work was entrusted to a Florentine, called
in the Accounts merely _Magister Joanninus faber lignarius de Florentia_,
but identified by M. Fabre with Giovannino dei Dolci, one of the builders
of the Sistine chapel. The most important entry referring to him is the
following:
Master Giovannino, carpenter of Florence, had from me
Platyna, librarian of His Holiness our Master, for
making the desks in the inner library, for the great
press, and the settle, in the said room--all of which
were estimated by Master Francis of Milan at one hundred
and eighty ducats--he had, as aforesaid, sixty-five
ducats and sixty groats on the 7th May, 1477[384].
The last payment on this account was made 18 March, 1478, on which day he
also received eight ducats for three frames "to contain the names of the
books," and for some repairs to old desks[385]. These frames were painted
by one of Melozzo da Forli's workmen[386]. In February, 1481, 12
book-chests were supplied[387].
The desks for the fourth room or _Bibliotheca pontificia_ were ordered in
1480-81. The workmen employed were Giovannino and his brother Marco.
Master Giovannino of Florence and Master Marco his
brother, a carpenter, received XXV ducats in part
payment for the desks which are being made in the
library now added by His Holiness our Master, 18 July,
1480[388].
These workmen received 100 ducats up to 7 April, 1481, but the account was
not then settled. Up to this period the bookcases had cost the large sum
of 580 ducats or, if the value of the ducat be taken at six shillings and
sixpence, L188 10_s._ of our money.
The purchase of chains began in January 1476[389]. It is worth notice that
so simple an article as a chain for a book could not be bought in Rome,
but had to be sent for from Milan; where, by the way, the dues exacted by
the government made the purchase irksome and costly. The total number of
chains bought was 1728, and the total cost 102 ducats, or rather more than
L33. The rings were found to be too small, and were altered in Rome.
Nothing is said about the place from which the rods came (_ferramenta
quibus catenae innituntur_).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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