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STATE ARCHIVES OF PRATO RESOURCE SELECTION

ASPO contributed to the project the data derived from the Datini online project and those concerning the Misericordia e Dolce Hospital fund, including the carteggio Marcovaldi and the "signals" regarding the so-called "gettatelli" (foundlings).

The data for the Datini fund required numerous adaptations in particular with regard to the authority records, i.e., the records of the individuals involved in the correspondence as senders, recipients or in other roles. Since we are dealing with more than 5,000 individuals, the revision operations focused on normalizing certain aspects, but cannot be considered complete, it therefore remains a work in progress that the Archives will continue internally and - hopefully - with input from the scientific community.

There are some aspects of the work in particular that should be noted as still open: foreign names are sometimes given in the version found on the text, other times transformed into an italianized version or into the current language of the country of origin; the identification of some subjects is still in progress, it is therefore possible that the same subject appears several times in the database. Identification will also have to be done (from a scientific and therefore computerized point of view) of the subjects mentioned in the lemmatized correspondence with respect to the authority records, so as to link the two datasets more effectively.

The Hospital Fund should also be considered a work in progress, particularly regarding the analysis of documents on abandoned childhood, which is a topic that ASPO intends to continue to explore by proceeding backward from the period so far here analyzed.

Elisa Brunoni
Archival Officer
State Archives of Prato

"PALAZZO PRETORIO" MUSEUM RESOURCE SELECTION - CLARIFICATIONS

In the belief that different institutions can and should dialogue on topics that are extremely connected given that each discipline is not stand-alone, the Museum of Palazzo Pretorio has in this first phase developed together with the Prato State Archives two themes for which there was a cross-reference mutuality. These are the figure of Francesco di Marco Datini for whom the Museum has made available records of works of art related to the iconography and the Hospital of Misericordia e Dolce, from which come many works preserved in the municipal collection. The bibliography published so far has considered as "from the hospital" a large number of works of art found from the second half of the 19th century in the municipal collections: these actually left the hospital premises to be worthily displayed in the Municipal Gallery, which opened in 1858. The research conducted in recent years, including through the review of archival documentation (minutes, inventories, registers of entry/exit...), have been able to clarify some points and, consequently, to subdivide this large nucleus of works generically indicated as coming from the hospital into at least three groups: works commissioned by the hospital and preserved by it since the 14th century; works that came to the hospital through donations or testamentary bequests; works that merely passed through the hospital for a certain period of time and then passed into the art collections of the City of Prato and were exhibited to the public - whose ownership by the hospital is therefore not proven. Thanks to the project, it has been possible to make these first two subdivisions evident, that is, one can search for works commissioned by the hospital and those from the so-called "Martini Gallery," which reached to the hospital institution as part of the legacy of Giovanni Martini.

The records that the Museum of Palazzo Pretorio makes available are those that have been made so far regarding the works of art that, within the museum itinerary, are part of the permanent collection: the work is in fieri and these same subgroups could hopefully grow by considering on the one hand the works placed in the Municipal Palace and, on the other hand, those that are not on public display because they are kept in the deposits of the museum.

Rita Iacopino
Scientific Director
"Palazzo Pretorio" Museum - Prato