Archivio di Stato di Siena

The State Archive of Siena preserves the documentary history of the city in Palazzo Piccolomini. Its holdings include the painted wooden covers known as Biccherne, where financial administration became a setting for Sienese art.

Why it matters

The archive links written records with the images through which civic institutions represented themselves. The Biccherne belonged to account books: their paintings give material form to the relationship between public finance, political authority and religious devotion.

What to notice

Painted covers associated with the Biccherna treasury and other institutions combine heraldry, inscriptions and narrative scenes. Changes in their imagery extend beyond accounting into the history of Sienese painting. The broader archive includes parchment documents and the records of civic government, religious bodies and other organisations.

Context and history

Grand Duke Leopold II established the State Archive in 1858, and its inauguration followed in 1867. Palazzo Piccolomini provided a setting for the collections. The surviving painted covers span changing political regimes, from the medieval republic into the later history of Siena, rather than recording one unbroken republican administration.