Ser Piero Pacini, Francesco di Dino e la prima edizione del Formularium diversorum contractuum (ca. 1484-1486)

A notarial contract from 1487 drawn up between the Florentine printer Francesco di Dino and the famous editor of predominantly popular texts in the vernacular, ser Piero Pacini, shows that Francesco had printed for Pacini not only two relatively modest editions of the Miracoli della Vergine Maria and De ingenuis moribus of Pier Paolo Vergerio, but also at least 33 copies of a certain edition of formularii. This text can be identified with that of the anonymous Formularium diversorum contractuum. According to other archival sources Francesco agreed to print this book some time before August 1484 when a lengthy series of disputes and litigation between the two men began, at first within their guild (the Arte dei Medici e Speziali), and then in the courts of the Mercanzia and of the Podestà. The underlying reasons for the difficulties which beset this somewhat troubled edition however remain unknown.