ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2503 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2503 ************************************ 3 Mar 2002 From: (Josh Mittleman) Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked whether is an appropriate name for a Florentine woman around 1400. This letter is a brief answer to your question. As you noted, both given names were recorded in early 15th century Florence [1] and the surname in 14th century Venice [2]. The only question, therefore, is whether the combination is appropriate. Double given names were sometimes used in Renaissance Italy, but we believe they were still rare in 1400. We recommend you choose one or the other. was pronouned \DAY-@\ and was \DOO-tchee-ah\. The final \ah\ is short in duration. Although we do not have an example of the surname in period Florence, we think it is quite reasonable: There is a city of that name in northwestern Tuscany [3]. The name was pronounced \cah-RAH-rah\, where the final \ah\ is again short in duration. However, in your period we would not expect to see a place name used as a surname without some modification. Instead of on its own, we recommend "from Carrara" or "the Carraran". A woman of your period would most often have been identified as her father's daughter. For example, Dea the daughter of Duccio da Carrara would typically have been identified as . was a reasonably common masculine name in Florence in your period [4]. has a similar meaning. We hope this brief letter has been useful. Please write us again if you have any questions. I was assisted in researching and writing this letter by Raquel Buenaventura, Aryanhwy merch Catmael, Maridonna Benvenuti, and Talan Gwynek. For the Academy, Arval Benicoeur 3 Mar 2002 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References [1] Arval Benicoeur, "Feminine Given Names from the Online Catasto of Florence of 1427" (WWW: J. Mittleman, 1998). http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/arval/catasto [2] Arval Benicoeur and Talan Gwynek, "Fourteenth Century Venetian Personal Names" (WWW: J. Mittleman, 1999). http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/arval/venice14/ [3] De Felice, Emidio, _Dizionario dei cognomi italiani_ (Arnoldo Mondadori Editore, 1978), s.n. Carrara. [4] Ferrante laVolpe, _Men's names from Florence, 1427_ (WWW: Self-published, 1996; J. Mittleman, 1999). http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/ferrante/catasto