The archive contains documents and correspondence administration belonged to the merchant Francesco di Marco Datini (1335-1410), testifying for the most part the vast activity in the industrial field, commercial, banking by various companies which he gave life.
The archive is organized according to the eight main warehouses Datini, which constitute the joints of the archive and the backbone ordering. They follow each other in chronological order of opening, Avignone of the Mallorca, as shown below.
Each warehouse is divided into two major sections: the books produced by several companies that worked on the warehouse and the correspondence received.
The records are sorted in the type series.
The correspondence is instead ordered as follows:
- by place of origin in alphabetical order and, within each place of origin, Senders, in alphabetical order
- for each sender letters are still ordered, where necessary, per recipient in alphabetical order. The recipient is mainly the company Datini the place of destination, but can also be other
- units within each sender / recipient letters follow each other in chronological order according to the common style.
This the basic framework of the Archive
- Avignon: Books of account, 1363-1416 (n. 284 units); Correspondence received from the warehouse of Avignon, 1368-1414 (n. 1506 units)
- Prato: Books of account, 1348-1430 (n. 285 units); Correspondence received from the warehouse of Prato,1367-1427 (n. 10.262 units)
- Pisa: Books of account, 1382-1407 (n. 154 units), Correspondence received from the warehouse Pisa, 1378-1410 (n. 38.502 units)
- Florence: Books of account, 1381-1420 (n. 188 units), Correspondence received from the warehouse of Florence, 1365-1420 (n. 31.655 units)
- Genoa: Books of account, 1384-1409 (n. 46 units); Correspondence received from the warehouse of Genoa, 1373-1409 (n. 15.031 units);
- Barcelona: Books of account, 1363-1411 (n. 65 units); Correspondence received from the warehouse of Barcelona, 1382-1412 (n. 24.354 units).
- Valenza: Books of account, 1393-1412 (n. 51 units); Correspondence received from the warehouse of Valencia, 1386-1419 (n. 11.393 units)
- Majorca: Books of account, 1395-1411 (n. 54 units); Correspondence received from the warehouse of Valencia, 1391-1412 (n. 10.580 units)
The last part of the archive contains the Private Correspondence (letters sent and received by Datini, by his wife Margaret and some of the employees Datini); certain types of so-called specialized Correspondence, always divided by fondaci, Appendix to correspondence (minute and copies of letters; letters to different locations by fondaci); Acts and other documents (including insurance); the execution of the will and some books “strangers”.
A series of miscellaneous documents of an accounting nature, mostly fragmentary, are being schedatura.