Society: Identities

Florence and Venice in the Renaissance

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What factors influence a person’s

identity and sense of place in society?

How far are they determined by the

state, the law, cultural and social

norms?

Marin Sanudo on Venetian Society (late 15th century):

“There are three orders of inhabitants: the

patricians who govern the city and the

Republic ..., the citizens, and artisans, or the

lower class”

c. 4% of population,

defined by the Serrata

equality or oligarchy?

competition from

below

1506 Libro d’oro

Patricians

5-8% of population

Cittadini originarii

3 generations

resident, no manual

trade

Libro d’argento

de intus (15 years); de

intus et extra (25

years)Tintoretto, Andrea

Frizier, Grand Chancellor of Venice (C16th)

c. 90% of

population

Many foreign born

Belonged to

guilds,

confraternities,

parishes

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Florence

core of elite families

popolo (grasso)

popolo minuto

increasing stratification

9

Gender influence of the Church

reinforced by law

patriarchal structure of

household and state

Joan Kelley: “Women did

not have a Renaissance, at

least, not in the

Renaissance”

Elite Women

preserving lineage

married young

economic

transaction

chastity

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Dianne Owen Hughes: “The conduct of wives

and daughters was not a private matter. Men

supervised it closely precisely because a

woman’s private shame, which might make her

a public woman, could destroy a man’s public

honour.”

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Andrea del Verrocchio, The Death of Francesca Pitti Tornabuoni after Childbirth,

C15th

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1416 Francesco Barbaro: “what is the

use of bringing home great wealth

unless the wife will work at

preserving, maintaining and utilizing

it ... [she should] imitate the leaders

of bees, who supervise, receive and

preserve whatever comes into their

hives, to the end that, unless

necessity dictates otherwise, they

remain in their honeycombs, where

they develop and mature beautifully.”

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Widows

Caught between natal

and marital families

financial power?

testamentary

bequests

informal sottogoverno

Alessandra Strozzi

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State intervention

private affairs =

public importance

problem of rising

dowries

Florentine monte

delle doti 1425

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Nuns

� Forced monacation

� Restrictions or opportunities?

Francesco Guardi, The Convent of San Zaccharia, 1745

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Arcangela Tarabotti (1604-52), author of Paternal Tyranny

Lower Class Women

freer to move, marry,

work

role in the bottega

low-level professions

vulnerability

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The ospedale degli innocenti in Florence

Masculine Identity

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Foreigners

� Expanding population

� Openness to foreigners

� Economic

considerations

� Times of crisis

� 1516 creation of Ghetto

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