Surviving Adversity: The Spinelli Family, 1550–1650

• In Event: Family Archives, Families in the Archives I: Florence

Abstract

Florentine merchant bankers, the Spinelli left behind a comprehensive family archive of over 100,000 documents dating from the fourteenth to the eighteenth century. Now housed at Yale’s Beinecke Library, the collection was inventoried in the late eighteenth century and its organization—including sections on litigation and other families--suggests relationships to other archives in civic and public repositories. Though illustrious members of the family flourished a century earlier, my research has focused on the generation born in the late sixteenth century and the question of how the family adapted to the challenging conditions of early modern Italy. The rich documentation affords a detailed picture of economic struggles and successes, challenging family relations, strong personal and social connections, and civic activities. After a low point late in the Cinquecento, one can see in the early Seicento a turning point in the family fortunes as they implemented new economic strategies.

Author

• Susanne F. Roberts, Independent Scholar