ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 3342 http://www.s-gabriel.org/3342 ************************************ 19 Sep 2007 From: Aine Steele Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked for our opinion of or as a 16th century Florentine name. Here is what we found. We do not have much information on 16th century Florentine names. However, we are able to theorize that the name was popular enough to survive beyond the 15th century. is a diminutive of the name . This diminutive appears 30 times in a 15th century Florentine catasto [1], and in another 15th century Florentine document, it has three instances [2]. What information we do have for 16th century Florentine names lists four instances of ; while does not appear specifically, we find its masculine counterpart, , dated to 1588 [3]. Therefore, it is not implausible that was used as a feminine name in 16th century Florence. Concerning the name , we only find a single instance in the 15th century [1] and three in the 16th century [3]. we find eight times in 16th century Florentine documents [3, 4]. These are both fine names for your desired region and period. As we wrote to you previously [5], and as you are already aware, is the surname of the father of Margherita, the mistress of the Renaissance painter and architect Raphael Sanzio. Margherita's father was from Siena, in Tuscany, so this gives us evidence for in the early 16th century [6]. Tuscany is also the region which houses Florence, so it is not impossible that the name existed there as well as in Siena. To summarize, either the name or appears to be a fine name for a 16th century Florentine woman. I hope this letter has been useful. Please write us again if any part of it has been unclear or if you have other questions. I was assisted in researching and writing this letter by Aryanhwy merch Catmael, Maridonna Benvenuti and Juliana de Luna. For the Academy, Aine Steele 19 September 2007 ----------------------------------------------------- References [1] Arval Benicoeur, "Feminine Given Names from the Online Catasto of Florence of 1427" (WWW: Academy of Saint Gabriel, 1998). http://www.s- gabriel.org/names/arval/catasto/ [2] Haines, Margaret, ed. _Gli Anni della Cupola. Archivio digitale delle fonti dell'Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore, 1417-1436_ (WWW: Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore, 2004) http://www.operaduomo.firenze.it/cupola [3] The Medici Archive Project (WWW: The Medici Archive Project, 2005) http://www.medici.org [4] Carol Bresnahan Menning. "Charity and State in Late renaissance Italy. The Monte di Pieta of Florence". Cornell University Press, 1993, ISBN 0801427738. Tables 4, 6. [5] Academy of St. Gabriel Report #3328 (WWW: Academy of St. Gabriel, 2007). http://www.s-gabriel.org/3328 [6] "Raphael" (WWW: Wikipedia.org, 20 August 2007) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raphael