Moving the 600-Year Corsini Archive
Corsini is a prominent Florentine family. Over the centuries, it had enjoyed having both financial and religious influence. Among the members of the family were merchants, bankers, cardinals. Even a Pope and a saint. That alone could have made the story of the Corsini Archive interesting.
Archive of the Corsini family holds documents from 1362 to around 1960. The journal that started the archive was written by Matteo Corsini — a woolen cloth merchant. It was he, who has bought the property at San Casciano (near Florence) where Villa Le Corti was built later — the current place of accommodation of the archive.
Archive holds thousands of documents written by the members of the Corsini family. Financial ledgers, business correspondence, personal diaries. It reflects historical changes both in datum and in media: from the old writing materials of the 15th century to ultra-thin correspondence paper of the 19th century.
For more than half a millennia Corsini continues to be a prosperous family. And decision to move the archive from its original location was in some part a business decision. Duccio Corsini and his wife Clotilde have moved to the Villa in 1992, and they were renovating and rejuvenating it since that moment. Moving the documents had to bring more visitors here — the papers constantly attract scholars to the archive.
And here is a short documentary that follows the moving of the archive:
More info: Villa Le Corti Via San Piero di Sotto, 1 50026 San Casciano Val di Pesa (FI) Tel.
+39 055 82 93 01
[email protected]
Read More
- One of Florence’s Oldest Families and Its 600-Year Archive — New York Times
- Centuries of Corsini family history finds a home at new archive at their Villa Le Corti estate — Italy Europe 24
- A Look Inside Florence’s Strangest Archive — Atlas Obscura
Photos courtesy of the Corsini family
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