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The merchant of Prato's wife : Margherita Datini and her world, 1360-1423 / Ann Crabb.
LIBRA DG737.28.D39 C72 2015
Available from offsite location
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Crabb, Ann, 1940- author.
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- Datini, Margherita.
- Datini, Margherita--Marriage.
- Datini, Margherita--Correspondence.
- Datini, Francesco, 1335-1410.
- Datini, Francesco.
- Women--Italy--Florence--Biography.
- Women.
- Wives--Italy--Florence--Biography.
- Wives.
- Letter writing.
- History.
- Marriage.
- Florence (Italy)--History--To 1421.
- Florence (Italy).
- Letter writing--Italy--Florence--History--To 1500.
- Florence (Italy)--Social life and customs.
- Florence (Italy)--Biography.
- Manners and customs.
- Italy--Florence.
- Genre:
- Biographies.
- History.
- Records and correspondence.
- Correspondence.
- Personal correspondence.
- Physical Description:
- 275 pages ; 24 cm
- Place of Publication:
- Ann Arbor [Michigan] : The University of Michigan Press, [2015]
- Summary:
- "Although the fourteenth-century Italian merchant Francesco Datini has received attention from business historians, there has previously been no full study of his wife, Margherita Datini. Drawing on a sizable trove of Margherita's correspondence held in the Archivio di Stato di Prato, including hundreds of letters she exchanged with Francesco, Ann Crabb investigates the social and economic importance of women's roles as wives and mothers, early modern European views on honor, and the practice of letter writing in Margherita's world. Margherita's often colorful comments demonstrate her attitudes toward her rather unhappy marriage and her inability to have children, along with other aspects of her life. Her letters reveal the pride she felt in carrying out her many responsibilities as a wife and, later, a widow: in scribal letter writing, in business, in household management, and in farming. Crabb emphasizes that the role of a wife was a recognized social position, beyond her individual relations with her husband, and provided opportunities beyond what restrictive laws or restrictive views of female honor would suggest. Further, Crabb considers Margherita's successful efforts, on her own initiative and in her late thirties, to learn to read and write at a literate level. This book will be of interest to both scholars and general readers of women's history. In addition, historians of early modern Italy and, more generally, of early modern Europe will find this book valuable"-- Provided by publisher.
- Contents:
- Chapter 1 Avignon, 1374-82 6
- Chapter 2 Back in Italy, 1383-86 18
- Chapter 3 Coping with Illegitimacy 36
- Chapter 4 Setting for a Domestic Partnership, 1394-98 49
- Chapter 5 Prato, 1389-98: Household, Farming, Building 62
- Chapter 6 Dictating Letters and Accounts, Collecting Loans 77
- Chapter 7 The Family in Prato 89
- Chapter 8 Contacts and Friends 103
- Chapter 9 Political Maneuvers 119
- Chapter 10 From Partial Literacy to Full Literacy 135
- Chapter 11 Margherita and Her Relatives 150
- Chapter 12 Margherita and Francesco, 1400-1410 167
- Chapter 13 The Widow, 1410-23 183.
- Notes:
- Includes bibliographical references and index.
- ISBN:
- 9780472119493
- 0472119494
- OCLC:
- 900242803
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