ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2433 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2433 ************************************ ************************************************* * * * NOTE: Later research turned up additional * * information relevant to this report. * * See the end of the letter for details. * * * ************************************************* From: "Sara L Friedemann" 5 Jan 2002 Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You wanted to know if would be an appropriate name for a Venetian woman living between 1450 and 1550. Here is the information we have found. We found in Venice in the 14th century. [1,4] However, because we have not found any evidence that it was used in your period, we can't recommend as the best recreation. We are not sure of the origin of the name, and, as a result, can only speculate on pronunciation. It might be a pet name based on the feminine form of some name like or , in which case it was probably pronounced \djeh-REE-tah\, or it might be a pet form of , in which case it was probably pronounced \geh-REE-tah\, where \g\ is pronounced like the in . You said you wanted a byname meaning "of the sea," to reflect the maritime traditions of Venice. We were unable to find any evidence that would be an appropriate way to do this. We did, however, find a few surnames based on "sea" that may appeal to you [1,2,3]: , found in 14th C Venice , found in 13th C Pisa, recorded in Latin , found in Florence, 1282-1532 [6] In conclusion, would be an excellent name for a 14th century Venetian woman, though we did not find any evidence that was used beyond the 14th century. would also be a fine choice. However, we would like to note that by your period, these bynames would no longer be used literally; rather, they were inherited surnames like modern surnames are. A woman named would have the surname because her father had that surname, not because she herself was associated with the sea. We hope that this letter has been useful to you, and that you will not hesitate to write again if any part was unclear or if you have further questions. Research and commentary on this letter were provided by Adelaide de Beaumont, Maridonna Benvenuti, Talan Gwynek, Arval Benicoeur, Ursula Georges, and Juliana de Luna. For the Academy, ~Aryanhwy merch Catmael, 05Jan02 --------------------------------------- References: [1] Arval Benicoeur and Talan Gwynek, "Fourteenth Century Venetian Personal Names" (WWW: J. Mittleman, 1999) http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/arval/venice14/. [2] Salvatori, Enrica, ed., "4300 Citizens of Pisa Swear to Maintain the Alliance with Siena, Pistoia and Poggibonsi" (WWW: Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University) http://library.byu.edu/~rdh/eurodocs/italia/pisani.html. [3] "FLORENTINE RENAISSANCE RESOURCES: Online Tratte of Office Holders 1282-1532" ed. by David Herlihy, R. Burr Litchfield, Anthony Molho, & Roberto Barducci. (WWW: Copyright R. Burr Litchfield and Anthony Molho, 2000.) http://www.stg.brown.edu/projects/tratte/ accessed 18Dec01 [4] McKee, Sally, _Wills from Late Medieval Venetian Crete 1312-1420_, 3 vols. (Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 1998, ISBN 0884022455). p. 338 [5] De Felice, Emidio, _Dizionario dei nomi italiani_ (Arnoldo Mondadori Editore, Milan, 1992). s.n. Geri [6] Reference [3], the source for , did not preserve capitalization or spaces between words that appeared in their original data. This name therefore may have appeared as . - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Addendum, Arval, 10 Mar 2003: Added note [6].