Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 182, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 August 1919 — “Five Shillings and Upward” [ARTICLE]

“Five Shillings and Upward”

Among the many “lots” of tremendous interest disposed of at the recent much-discussed sale of the Medici archives in London, none surely were more interesting than the ledgers, accountbooks and memoranda of various members of the Medici family as bankers and merchants, which were disposed of en bloc. What a field for some twentieth century Carlylean transmuter of the dry-as-dust into vivid story f All the tale of Florentine trade, finance, rates of wages, taxes, prices of land, live stock and produce is there, to say nothing of the revelation made of what the Florentine paid for his things of gold and things of silver, his jewelry and ornaments. Whether or not the sale was a success from the point of view of its promoters does not transpire, but it is a terrible thing, surely, to read of any of the contents of the Medici archives being “knocked down,” as they were, for “ss. and upward.”