ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 3052 http://www.s-gabriel.org/3052 ************************************ 17 Jun 2006 From: Ursula Whitcher Greetings from the Academy of S. Gabriel! You wanted to know if an Italian woman living in the 15th or 16th century would have taken her husband's surname upon marriage or retained her family name. Our best data from this time period is from Florence and surrounding cities in Tuscany, though we do have some from other regions. We found a wide variety of naming practices. A woman might use her father's surname, her husband's surname, or both simultaneously. She might also be identified by her husband's full name, or by just his given name. One important influence on surname was the relative importance of the husband's and wife's families. In some cases, where the wife's family was more well-known than the husband's, _he_ would take her name upon marriage. [1,2,3,6] Here are some specific examples of bynames incorporating a husband's name. Many of our fifteenth-century examples of women identified by their husbands' names explicitly describe each woman as a wife or widow. We found the following examples in Florentine records from between 1417 and 1436: [4] Domenica moglie di Neri Domenica wife of Neri Lorenza vedova di Bartolomeo Lorenza widow of Bartolomeo We also found examples from 15th C Palermo of married women identified by the husband's given name without his surname or by the husband's full name: [5] donna Tummia di Noratu vidua Lady Tummia of Noratu, widow Ysmiralda di Armannu vidua Ysmiralda of Armannu, widow Bella di Julianu vidua Bella of Julianu, widow Marina vidua di Gerjoanni Marina widow of Gerjoanni Maria di Stefanu vidua Maria of Stefanu, widow Luchia mugleri di Luchia wife of Bartholomeu Mulinu Bartholomeu Mulinu In fifteenth-century letters from Florence, we found women identified by their husbands' given names, by their husbands' full names, and by just a surname: [7,8] Mona Lucrezia di Piero Mona Lucrezia of Piero Margherita di Pippo Manetti Margherita of Pippo Manetti Lucrezia de' Medici A dance manual from Milan printed in 1602 and 1604 contains the names of several hundred noble and upper class women. Many of the women are identified by a pair of surnames, joined by 'and' or 'is, that is'. (Here we've used the slash \ to represent a grave accent over the letter 'e'.) One of these surnames may be a husband's name. Here are some examples of women with the surname . All of these women are identified by the title . [9] La signora Clara Buscha e Coira La Signora Veronica Tavola, e\ Coira La signora Caterina Coira, e\ Roma La signora Zanobia Coira, e\ Dardanona La signora Innocenza Rainola, e\ Coira La signora Anna Coira, e\ Raverta La signora Leonora Coira, e\ Landriana We hope that this letter has been useful to you and that you won't hesitate to write to us again if any part was unclear or if you have further questions. Research and commentary on this letter was provided by Juliana de Luna, Maridonna Benvenuti, Arval Benicoeur, Gunnvor Silfraharr, Talan Gwynek, and Sara Marino. For the Academy, -Aryanhwy merch Catmael and Ursula Georges 17 June 2006 -- References: [1] Klapisch-Zuber, Christiane, _Women, Family and Ritual in Renaissance Italy_, translated by Lydia G. Cochrane (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1985), p. 307. [2] Spreti, Vittorio, _Enciclopedia storico-nobiliare italiana_ (Milano, 1928-36). [3] "The Lives of Renaissance Women" (WWW: British Columbia Teachers' Federation, 1996) http://www.bctf.bc.ca/lessonaids/online/LA9245.html notes of Artemisia Gentileschi 1593-1652 that "she was the daughter and student of Orazio Gentileschi (1563-1639) whose name she kept rather than taking that of her husband..." [4] _The Years of the Cupola_. Digital archive of the sources of the Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore, 1417-1436, Margaret Haines, ed., Florence, Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore, copyright 2004). http://www.operaduomo.firenze.it/cupola/ENG/IN/IN2list0.HTM (accessed 24Apr05). [5] Di Pasquale, Armando, _Palermo nel 1480. La popolazione del quartiere della Kalsa_, Palermo, 1975. [6] Fucilla, Joseph G., _Our Italian Surnames_ (Evanston, IL: Chandlers' Inc., 1949), p. 19. [7] Lucrezia Tornabuoni _Lettere_, a cura di Patrizia Salvadori, Firenze, Leo S. Olschki, Editore, MCMXCIII. [8] Gregory, Heather, trans. _Selected Letters of Alessandra Strozzi'_, Bilingual edition, Univ. of CA Press, Berkeley, 1997. [9] "Cesare Negri's Le Gratie d'Amore / Nuove Inventioni Di Balli (1602/1604)" (WWW: Gregory Blount of Isenfir). http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/negri/ http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/negri/transcription/0006.clean.html