ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2550 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2550 ************************************ 09 Jul 2002 From: SARA LIANA FRIEDEMANN Greetings from the Academy of S. Gabriel! You wanted to know if or would be an appropriate name for a 15th century Florentine woman. If a patronymic would be more appropriate, you indicated interest in the name . You also asked about the arms "Argent, two axes crossed in saltire sable, on a chief azure, three mullets of six points Or." Both and are fine names; they are found in Florence in 1427. [1] Although we believe that the custom of using two given names was still rare in 15th century Italy, we believe it was done occasionally. So we believe either or would be more typical, but that could also have been used. and are descriptive bynames meaning "beautiful"; both are found frequently throughout Italy. [2] By your period, this could either be used as a literal descriptive, or as an inherited family name. The other byname you asked about, , is not quite correct. The Italian name for Florence is . Latin forms of the name preserved the original spelling, but not Italian forms. Similarly, is Latin rather than Italian. A woman from Florence might have been identified as or, more often, "the Florentine [woman]". [2,4] In the earlier part of your period when surnames were used literally, we would expect to find this byname outside Florence, not in the city itself: Bynames were used to distinguish people, and calling a person "the Florentine" in Florence isn't a useful distinguishing characteristic. However, a Florentine who moved to the suburbs or to another city would very likely have been identified that way. By the end of your period, surnames were usually inherited; and an originally-literal byname like might have become fixed as an inherited family name, often in the simpler, gender-neutral, form . You are right that a woman of your period would most often have been identified as her father's daughter. was a fairly popular name in Florence during your period; it would be a fine choice for your father's name. [3,4]. The patronym formed from this name would be . The form would not have been a literal patronym, but rather an inherited family name, much like vs. discussed above. [5] Either formation would be appropriate. While all of the surnames that you've chosen are appropriate, it is not likely that a woman of your period would have used more than one of them at any given time. In formal circumstances, a patronymic or locative surname would be most appropriate; it would only be in informal circumstances where she'd be known by a descriptive like . We find evidence of a number of the elements in your arms in Tuscan armory: charges crossed in saltire, charged chiefs, and mullets of either 6 or 8 points. We haven't found any evidence for axes in Italian armory, but we did find hammers crossed in saltire in the arms of Sergardi in 1479. [3] We recommend that you consider dropping one of the tinctures, either by making the chief and the axes the same color, or the mullets and the field the same color; we have found it rare for Italian armory to combine so many different colors. 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 Maridonna Benvenuti, Raquel Buenaventura, Juliana la Caminante de Navarra, Arval Benicoeur, Talan Gwynek, Ursula Georges, and Adelaide de Beaumont. For the Academy, ~Aryanhwy merch Catmael, 09Jul02 --------------------------------------- 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] De Felice, Emidio, _Dizionario dei cognomi italiani_ (Arnoldo Mondadori Editore, 1978). s.nn. Belli, Firenze, Orlando [3] Borgia, L., et. al., eds., _Le Biccherne : tavole dipinte delle magistrature senesi (secoli XIII-XVIII)_ (Roma : Ministero per i beni culturali e ambientali, 1984). [4] Herlihy, David, R. Burr Litchfield, and Anthony Molho, "Florentine Renaissance Resources: Online Tratte of Office Holders 1282-1532" (WWW: Brown University, Providence, RI, 2000) http://www.stg.brown.edu/projects/tratte/. [5] Ferrante laVolpe, _Men's names from Florence, 1427_ (WWW: Self- published, 1996; J. Mittleman, 1999) http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/ferrante/catasto