ABSTRACT
The early fourteenth-century Tavole delle possessioni (tables of possessions) formed a constituent part of the Sienese Estimo, or Lira.1 Instituted in the middle of the second decade of the fourteenth century under the auspices of the Government of the Nine, the Lira was in effect a form of poll tax, or rateable evaluation of land and accommodation belonging to anyone who was subject to the authority of the city of Siena.2 The Tavola, or comprehensive record, was compiled from a number of individual reports known as Tavolette. With the help of the initial Tavolette each entry in the Tavole delle possessioni contained details not only of the size and value of property owned (whether building or land), but also of its innate characteristics (house, country house, shack, building plot, field used for agricultural purposes, woodland, vineyard, olive grove, orchard). It was on the basis of these entries that the Lira, or precise calculation of tax due, was formed.
