Collection of 7 lists of slaves (Folders 1-6) and 2 reports (Folders 7-8) on slave trade. The lists, 3 written between 1609 and 1611 and 4 undated (ca. 1600), contain detailed information about slaves captured by Italian galleys, including Florentine and other Tuscan ships whose captains were Jacopo Inghirami, Arrigo Arrighi, Giuliano Sirigatti, Girolamo Lenzoni, and Guglielmo Guadagni. These men were often members of the grand-ducal aristocracy or administration: the admirals Guglielmo Guadagni and Arrigo Arrighi were close friends of Cosimo II de' Medici and members of the prestigious military religious order of the Knights of Malta; and the admiral Jacopo Inghirami was a marquis from Volterra. The lists give the name of the captive, the place of origin, a physical description of the individual (hair color, build, age, weight, height, as well as any special remark, such as moles, scars, disability, and whether a female slave was pregnant at the time of capture), their destination and, sometimes, the name of the individual to whom they would be assigned. Most of the slaves mentioned in the documents were Muslims, captured in different areas of the Ottoman Empire (Greece and Turkey in particular, sometimes referred to as Levante) and North Africa, and deported to Italy (to Naples, Messina, Palermo, Florence, and Pisa) and, in certain cases, to Spain and Portugal. The first report, written by captain Giovanni del Corno in 1612, examines the conditions of a complicated trade involving the sale of slaves and bullion, in which the counterparts included the Monte di pietà€ and the Florentine mint. The second report, dated 1643 and unsigned, denounces the inhumane conditions under which a group of Christian slaves were forced to live and work in Tunis.
