Guasparre di Matteo Landini inscribed the first entry in his book of "Richordanze" on 1 May 1516. This was a crucial moment in the career of this young Florentine "tessitore di brocati" (weaver of patterned silk fabrics, especially precious cloths of gold and silver). Guasparre had just left the workshop of his father Matteo d'Andrea di Pietro Landini, himself a well established manufacturer of luxury textiles, and rented his own premises in the Mercato Nuovo, in the heart of Florence's bustling commercial center. Guasparre made regular entries in this journal for over forty years, with the last registered on 26 October 1575 by his sons and heirs Matteo, Pierfrancesco and Filippo.

Guasparre di Matteo Landini's "Richordanze" (Commercio e famiglia 102 in the Archivio di Stato di Firenze) is a classic expression of Tuscan renaissance culture as well as a unique record of the Florentine textile industry during its most glamorous period. In format, it is both an account book and a personal diary, chronicling the day-to-day commercial activity of Guaspare's busy workshop and the colorful events of his private life.

True to renaissance custom, Guasparre di Matteo Landini's personal, professional and family interests were closely linked. Indeed, after only seven months as an independent producer, he returned to his father's shop in the neighborhood of San Jacopo Sopr'Arno in November of 1516 and eventually assumed its management after Matteo's death in 1531. In his "Richordanze" Guasparre itemizes expenses for materials and labor, notes the acquisition of looms and other major equipment and specifies his contractual arrangements with apprentices and other workers. He also describes his pilgrimage to Loreto in 1518 (his first and probably only experience of sea travel), his difficulty in managing his sister Margherita's dowry (culminating in the elderly Matteo's brief imprisonment) and his daily purchases of food, clothing and household furnishings (including an elegant inlaid hexagonal table, created by the wood-worker Giovanni di Borgo San Jacopo).

Most intriguing of all, we have Guasparre's detailed descriptions of the luxurious fabrics created in his shop. These are often specific enough to allow comparison with surviving examples of period work. For instance, in 1516 we learn about "una tela paghonaza alexandrina… per tessere un brochatello sanza oro di più cholori"; in 1517, "una tela biancha in una gricca arriciata cho'l fondo d'oro tirato a tre ori per lacco riccho di 30 chorsi per ottavo"; in 1517, "un domasco brochato ariciato tane in una grica cho'l fondo d'oro tirato"; and in 1523, "telette chon opera piane di più ragioni, cioè telette con raso, telette con letto e sanza letto di trama gialla."

Guasparre di Matteo Landini's "Richordanze" read like "Who's Who" of the sixteenth-century Florentine textile industry. He worked largely for the merchants Paolo Tolomei and Francesco Rucellai, traveled to Loreto with Rafaello Rinuccini and rented his workshop from Adovardo Acciaiuoli. His journal - - recently transcribed by Dr. Rita Maria Comanducci of the Medici Archive Project, will occupy an important place in the literature of the Tuscan Renaissance.