While the content of Cristofano Bronzini’s manuscript treatise Della Dignità e Nobiltà delle Donne, or On the Dignity and Nobility of Women, provides a wealth of insight for the study of women in the early modern era, the manuscript pages themselves reveal much about the provenance of Bronzini’s work and its history in the city of Florence.
The opening pages of the manuscript’s first volume (Vol. 1513) contain two timbri di proprietà, or ownership stamps, that provide information about the text’s provenance. The first is an oval with the text BIBLIOTECA NAZIONALE CENTRALE FIRENZE (BNCF) on the banners and outer border, and MSS in the center. The BNCF received the designation “Nazionale Centrale” from the Italian government– at that time a constitutional monarchy under the House of Savoy. The crown on this stamp can be found in other timbri used by the BNCF from c.1861-1940 and likely refers to the Savoy family crest.
The second stamp, also oval, features a cross standing on a mound of smaller half-ovals at its center. This symbol, which refers to the Theatine Order, is encircled by the text “FLOREN. BIBLIOTECH. S. MICHEL. C.R.,” indicating the order’s Florentine location: the Chiesa dei Santi Michele e Gaetano, on Via de’ Tornabuoni in Florence. The Theatines, established in 1524, were formally known as Chierici Regolari Teatine (hence the C.R. in the stamp). The Medici family patronized Santi Michele e Gaetano throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. It is uncertain when Bronzini’s manuscript entered the convent’s library; however, it is notable that Bronzini served as the master of ceremonies for the church’s most illustrious patron, Cardinal Carlo de’Medici, who was known for his patronage of the court singer and composer Francesca Caccini (about whom Bronzini writes extensively in his treatise).
Other labels inside the manuscript likewise reflect its provenance. For example, an inner cover of a rebound volume (Vol. 1514) shows a label that designates the manuscript as part of the holdings acquired by the BNCF from the Magliabechiana collection, a collection of approximately 30,000 manuscripts bequeathed to the city of Florence by the 17th-century Italian scholar Antonio Magliabechi.
Additionally, a stamp and a note on another inside cover refer to “Ciabani Gino Legatore di Libri,” a professional Florentine bookbinder responsible for the early-twentieth-century rebinding of Bronzini’s work. The written text in the center of the page dates the binding of this volume (Vol. 1513) to “3 FEBBRAIO 1917.” It is likely that the two timbri di proprietà were added during this rebinding.